Stodt Benjamin, Neudek Daniel, Martin Rainer, Wascher Edmund, Getzmann Stephan
Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at the TU Dortmund (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany.
Institute of Communication Acoustics, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Eur J Neurosci. 2025 May;61(10):e70141. doi: 10.1111/ejn.70141.
Although virtual environments are increasingly used in research, their ecological validity in simulating real-life scenarios, for example, to investigate cognitive changes in aging populations, remains relatively unexplored. This study aims to evaluate the validity of a virtual environment for investigating auditory spatial change detection in younger and older adults. This evaluation was performed by comparing behavioral and neurophysiological responses between real and virtual environments. Participants completed an auditory change detection task, identifying sound source position changes relative to a reference position. In the real environment, sounds were presented through physical loudspeakers in a reverberant room. In the virtual environment, stimuli were delivered through headphones, accompanied by a head-mounted display showing a visual replica of the room. Participants showed higher accuracy for azimuth than for distance changes, regardless of age or environment, emphasizing humans' larger sensitivity to lateralized sounds. Event-related potentials were mostly consistent across environments, with significantly higher N1 and P2 amplitudes in older compared with younger adults. Mismatch negativity was reduced in older adults, and both reduced and delayed in the virtual environment. The P3b showed larger amplitudes and shorter latencies for azimuth changes, reflecting greater salience of directional cues, whereas responses in the virtual environment were slightly diminished, especially among older adults. Bayesian analyses validated the observed effects. Results support virtual environments as reliable tools for exploring spatial perception and underlying neural and behavioral processes in realistic contexts. Furthermore, differences in the processing of spatial changes in azimuth and distance, as well as age-related effects, could be highlighted.
尽管虚拟环境在研究中的应用越来越广泛，但其在模拟现实生活场景方面的生态效度，例如用于研究老年人群的认知变化，仍相对未被充分探索。本研究旨在评估一个虚拟环境用于调查年轻人和老年人听觉空间变化检测的效度。该评估通过比较真实环境和虚拟环境中的行为及神经生理反应来进行。参与者完成了一项听觉变化检测任务，即识别声源相对于参考位置的变化。在真实环境中，声音通过混响室内的物理扬声器呈现。在虚拟环境中，刺激通过耳机传递，并伴有头戴式显示器展示房间的视觉复制品。无论年龄或环境如何，参与者在方位变化上的准确率高于距离变化，这强调了人类对侧向声音的更大敏感性。事件相关电位在不同环境中大多一致，老年人的N1和P2波幅显著高于年轻人。老年人的失配负波减少，在虚拟环境中既减少又延迟。P3b对方位变化显示出更大的波幅和更短的潜伏期，反映出方向线索的更高显著性，而虚拟环境中的反应略有减弱，尤其是在老年人中。贝叶斯分析验证了观察到的效应。结果支持虚拟环境作为在现实情境中探索空间感知以及潜在神经和行为过程的可靠工具。此外，还可以突出方位和距离空间变化处理的差异以及与年龄相关的效应。
