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Vection in virtual reality modulates vestibular‐evoked myogenic potentials
Author(s) -
Gallagher Maria,
Dowsett Ross,
Ferrè Elisa Raffaella
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/ejn.14499
Subject(s) - vestibular system , virtual reality , audiology , motion sickness , vestibular evoked myogenic potential , psychology , saccule , sensory system , multisensory integration , sensation , neuroscience , physical medicine and rehabilitation , medicine , computer science , artificial intelligence , psychiatry
Abstract The popularity of virtual reality ( VR ) has increased rapidly in recent years. While significant technological advancements are apparent, a troublesome problem with VR is that between 20% and 80% of users will experience unpleasant side effects such as nausea, disorientation, blurred vision and headaches—a malady known as Cybersickness. Cybersickness may be caused by a conflict between sensory signals for self‐motion: while vision signals that the user is moving in a certain direction with certain acceleration, the vestibular organs provide no corroborating information. To resolve the sensory conflict, vestibular cues may be down‐weighted leading to an alteration of how the brain interprets actual vestibular information. This may account for the frequently reported after‐effects of VR exposure. Here, we investigated whether exposure to vection in VR modulates vestibular processing. We measured vestibular‐evoked myogenic potentials ( VEMP s) during brief immersion in a vection‐inducing VR environment presented via head‐mounted display. We found changes in VEMP asymmetry ratio, with a substantial increase in VEMP amplitude recorded on the left sternocleidomastoid muscle following just one minute of exposure to vection in VR . Our results suggest that exposure to vection in VR modulates vestibular processing, which may explain common after‐effects of VR .