Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2024 Oct 30;19(10):e0307683. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307683. eCollection 2024.
This study compared the effect of high and low levels of virtual reality (VR) immersion during moderate and high intensity cycling-exercise in younger (18-35 years), middle-aged (36-50 years), and older (51-69 years) adults. Thirty participants (5 female and 5 males per age group) completed moderate (steady state: 15 minutes at 60-75% maximum heart rate (MHR)) and high (sprint: 10 x 30 second sprints at 75-85% MHR) intensity cycling in four conditions: VR using a head-mounted display (High HMD), room-projector (Low Room), screen-projector (Low Screen) and No VR. Exercise performance measures (cadence, distance, power output) were recorded. Following each VR condition, exercise enjoyment (PACES) and exercise engagement (Flow State Scale) were measured. Results showed that exercise intensity had a significant effect of age on; heart rate (steady state and sprint), cadence (sprint) and distance (sprint) (p's <0.05). A significant effect of condition was observed during the sprint exercise for heart rate (p < 0.05). No other significant condition effects were observed for exercise performance. Significant effects of condition were identified for exercise engagement relating to sense of control (p < 0.01) and loss of self-consciousness (p < 0.05) with the highest values occurring in the Low Screen condition for all age groups, while transformation of time was significantly different (p < 0.05) for the middle-aged adults (highest during High VR and Low Screen). These results indicate that irrespective of age, participants found themselves in control and immersed more during the Low Screen VR condition than the other VR and No VR conditions. The findings indicate that VR immersion impacts exercise performance and exercise engagement in different age-groups and therefore should be considered when using VR to promote exercise behaviour.
本研究比较了在中高强度骑行运动中，虚拟现实（VR）沉浸度高低对年轻（18-35 岁）、中年（36-50 岁）和老年（51-69 岁）成年人的影响。30 名参与者（每个年龄组 5 名男性和 5 名女性）完成了中度（稳态：在 60-75%最大心率（MHR）下持续 15 分钟）和高强度（冲刺：在 75-85%MHR 下进行 10 次 30 秒冲刺）的骑行运动，分别处于四种条件下：使用头戴式显示器的 VR（高 HMD）、房间投影仪（低房间）、屏幕投影仪（低屏幕）和无 VR。记录运动表现测量（踏频、距离、功率输出）。在每个 VR 条件之后，测量运动享受（PACES）和运动投入（流畅状态量表）。结果表明，运动强度对年龄有显著影响，包括心率（稳态和冲刺）、踏频（冲刺）和距离（冲刺）（p 值<0.05）。在冲刺运动中，心率的条件效应显著（p<0.05）。对于运动表现，没有观察到其他显著的条件效应。在与控制感（p<0.01）和自我意识丧失（p<0.05）相关的运动投入方面，观察到了条件的显著影响，所有年龄组的最低值出现在低屏幕条件下，而时间转换在中年成年人中显著不同（p<0.05）（在高 VR 和低屏幕下最高）。这些结果表明，无论年龄大小，参与者在低屏幕 VR 条件下都感到自己处于控制之中，并且比其他 VR 和无 VR 条件更具沉浸感。研究结果表明，VR 沉浸度会对不同年龄组的运动表现和运动投入产生影响，因此在使用 VR 促进运动行为时应考虑这一点。
