scholarly journals The role of vision and proprioception in self-motion encoding: An immersive virtual reality study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rena Bayramova ◽  
Irene Valori ◽  
Phoebe E. McKenna-Plumley ◽  
Claudio Zandonella Callegher ◽  
Teresa Farroni
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Proprioceptive Information ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Starting Position ◽  
Body Location ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Multisensory Input

AbstractPast research on the advantages of multisensory input for remembering spatial information has mainly focused on memory for objects or surrounding environments. Less is known about the role of cue combination in memory for own body location in space. In a previous study, we investigated participants’ accuracy in reproducing a rotation angle in a self-rotation task. Here, we focus on the memory aspect of the task. Participants had to rotate themselves back to a specified starting position in three different sensory conditions: a blind condition, a condition with disrupted proprioception, and a condition where both vision and proprioception were reliably available. To investigate the difference between encoding and storage phases of remembering proprioceptive information, rotation amplitude and recall delay were manipulated. The task was completed in a real testing room and in immersive virtual reality (IVR) simulations of the same environment. We found that proprioceptive accuracy is lower when vision is not available and that performance is generally less accurate in IVR. In reality conditions, the degree of rotation affected accuracy only in the blind condition, whereas in IVR, it caused more errors in both the blind condition and to a lesser degree when proprioception was disrupted. These results indicate an improvement in encoding own body location when vision and proprioception are optimally integrated. No reliable effect of delay was found.

scholarly journals The “embreathment” illusion highlights the role of breathing in corporeal awareness

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 420-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Monti ◽  
Giuseppina Porciello ◽  
Gaetano Tieri ◽  
Salvatore M. Aglioti
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
Body Location ◽  
Specific Position ◽  
Embodied Agent ◽  
Corporeal Awareness ◽  
Virtual Body

Recent theories posit that physiological signals contribute to corporeal awareness, the basic feeling that one has a body (body ownership) that acts according to one’s will (body agency) and occupies a specific position (body location). Combining physiological recordings with immersive virtual reality, we found that an ecological mapping of real respiratory patterns onto a virtual body illusorily changes corporeal awareness. This new way of inducing a respiratory bodily illusion, called “embreathment,” revealed that breathing is almost as important as visual appearance for inducing body ownership and more important than any other cue for body agency. These effects were moderated by individual levels of interoception, as assessed through a standard heartbeat-counting task and a new “pneumoception” task. By showing that respiratory, visual, and spatial signals exert a specific and weighted influence on the fundamental feeling that one is an embodied agent, we pave the way for a comprehensive hierarchical model of corporeal awareness. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our body is the only object we sense from the inside; however, it is unclear how much inner physiology contributes to the global sensation of having a body and controlling it. We combine respiration recordings with immersive virtual reality and find that making a virtual body breathe like the real body gives an illusory sense of ownership and agency over the avatar, elucidating the role of a key physiological process like breathing in corporeal awareness.

scholarly journals Attentional Skills in Soccer: Evaluating the Involvement of Attention in Executing a Goalkeeping Task in Virtual Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 9341
Author(s):  
Andria Shimi ◽  
Vanessa Tsestou ◽  
Marios Hadjiaros ◽  
Kleanthis Neokleous ◽  
Marios Avraamides
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Attention Network Test ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Physical Abilities

Physical abilities are essential to goalkeepers in soccer but the involved cognitive abilities for these players have only recently become the focus of extensive research. In this study, we investigated the role of different aspects of attention in a basic goalkeeping task in soccer. One hundred participants assumed the role of a goalkeeper in immersive virtual reality (VR) and carried out a task that entailed blocking balls shot towards their goal. In addition, they carried out two computerized tasks each assessing different attentional abilities: the Attention Network Test provided scores for three well-established networks of attention, namely the alerting, the orienting, and the executive control. The Whack-a-Mole task evaluated inhibitory control, by measuring performance in a classic Go/No-Go task and tapping on response inhibition. A regression analysis revealed that all three attention network scores contributed to performance in the VR goalkeeping task. Furthermore, performance in the Whack-a-Mole task correlated significantly with performance in the VR goalkeeping task. Overall, findings confirm that cognitive skills relating to attention play a critical role in the efficient execution of soccer-specific tasks. These findings have important implications for the training of cognitive skills in sports.

scholarly journals The Influence of Immersive Virtual Reality Systems on Online Social Application

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 5058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuohao Yan ◽  
Zhihan Lv
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
External Input ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Simulation Functions ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Social Applications ◽  
Body Expression

This study presents a face-to-face simulation of social interaction based on scene roaming, real-time voice capture, and action capture. This paper aimed to compare the difference between social and traditional plane social communication, analyzing its advantages and shortcomings. In particular, we designed an experiment to study the performance of face-to-face simulation based on virtual reality technology, observing the adaptability of the user to the system and the accuracy of body language recognition. We developed an immersive virtual reality social application (IVRSA), which has a basic social function. As an experimental platform, IVRSA uses Unity3D as its engine, and HTC VIVE as an external input/output device, with voice communication, immersive virtual tour, and head and hand movement simulation functions. We recruited 30 volunteers for the test. The test consisted of two parts. The first part was to provide a news topic for volunteers to freely communicate in IVRSA and WeChat. After communication, we used questionnaires to obtain feedback results of the test and compared the two social applications. In the second part, some volunteers were given a list of actions, which they were asked to describe to the rest of volunteers in the form of body expression, letting them guess the action they were performing. After the end of test, the accuracy rate and the time used were analyzed. Results showed that user’s intention expression efficiency was very high in the immersive virtual reality social system. Body tracking devices with more tracking points can provide better body expression effect.

A critical analysis of the functional parameters of the quiet eye using immersive virtual reality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Harris ◽  
Mark Wilson ◽  
Samuel James Vine
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Planning And Control ◽  
Quiet Eye ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Gaze Anchoring ◽  
And Control ◽  
Eye Location

Directing ocular fixations towards a target assists the planning and control of visually-guided actions. In far aiming tasks, the quiet eye, an instance of pre-movement gaze anchoring, has been extensively studied as a key performance variable. However, theories of quiet eye are yet to establish the exact functional role of the location and duration of the fixation. The present work used immersive virtual reality to manipulate key parameters of the quiet eye – location (experiment 1) and duration (experiment 2) – to test competing theoretical predictions about their importance. Across two pre-registered experiments, novice participants (n=127) completed a series of golf putts while their eye movements, putting accuracy, and putting kinematics were recorded. In experiment 1, participants’ pre-movement fixation was cued to locations on the ball, near the ball, and far from the ball. In experiment 2, long and short quiet eye durations were induced using auditory tones as cues to movement phases. Linear mixed effects models indicated that manipulations of location and duration had little effect on performance or movement kinematics. The findings suggest that, for novices, the spatial and temporal parameters of the final fixation may not be critical for movement pre-programming and may instead reflect attentional control or movement inhibition functions.

scholarly journals Shimi et al_GKVR1

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andria Shimi ◽  
Vanessa Tsestou ◽  
Marios Hatziaros ◽  
Kleanthis Neokleous ◽  
Marios N Avraamides
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Attention Network Test ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Physical Abilities

Soccer is one of the most popular sports and goalkeepers are central to a team’s winning. Physical abilities are essential to goalkeepers but the involved cognitive abilities for these players are understudied and not well understood. In this study, we investigated the role of different aspects of attention in a goalkeeping task in soccer. Participants assumed the role of a goalkeeper in immersive Virtual Reality and carried out a task that entailed blocking balls shot towards their goal. In addition, they carried out two computerized tasks each assessing different attentional abilities: the Attention Network Test provided scores for three well-established networks of attention, namely the alerting, the orienting, and the executive control. The Whack-a-Mole task evaluated inhibitory control, by measuring performance in a classic Go/No-Go task and tapping on response inhibition. Results revealed that all three attention network scores predicted performance in the VR goalkeeping task. Furthermore, performance in the Whack-a-Mole task correlated significantly with performance in the VR goalkeeping task. Overall, findings confirm that cognitive skills relating to attention play a critical role in the efficient execution of soccer-specific tasks. These findings have important implications for the training of cognitive skills in sports.

scholarly journals The Digital Heart-Lung Unit: Applications of Exponential Technology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir H Sadeghi ◽  
Joris F W Ooms ◽  
Nicolas M Van Mieghem ◽  
Edris A F Mahtab ◽  
Ad J J C Bogers
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Clinical Workflow ◽  
Clinical Role ◽  
Training And Education ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
And Training

Abstract Exponential technologies such as virtual reality (VR), computational modeling, and additive manufacturing have emerged in the field of cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery. An increasing number of publications that evaluate the clinical role of these technologies are becoming available. Moreover, there is an increase in the number of hospitals and departments that have implemented digital and exponential solutions in clinical workflow. In our center, we have adopted various exponential technologies in order to improve clinical pre-procedural workflow, patient care, and training and education. In order to provide our view and approach on the implementation of these technologies, in this article, we provide an overview of the currently applied modalities including immersive virtual reality, 3D computational modeling, VR-based simulations, and additive manufacturing (3D printing). Moreover, we present the potential of these applications in cardiovascular and cardiothoracic medicine, and additionally, we will provide key facilitators, challenges, and recommendations to adopting these technologies in clinical practice.

scholarly journals Registered report: Can reinstating location improve mnemonic fidelity of visual mental representations? (In-Principle-Acceptance)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Martarelli ◽  
Rebecca Ovalle-Fresa ◽  
Dejan Popic ◽  
Laura K. Globig ◽  
Nicolas Rothen
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Basic Feature ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Color Information ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
The Impact

Despite a wealth of research showing a link between spatial information and visual memory, no work has yet directly assessed the impact of location manipulations on mnemonic fidelity of visual features in memory. In a virtual reality environment, we want to investigate how manipulation of location at recall (i.e., corresponding vs. non-corresponding to the location where the object was previously encoded) will affect mnemonic fidelity of color information in memory. Based on the conceptualization of spatial information as a basic feature to support the generation of detailed visual mental representations, we predict that the reinstatement of location during recall will improve mnemonic fidelity. These findings will aid our understanding of the particular role of spatial information in visual memory.

scholarly journals Factors That Influence Virtual Tourism Holistic Image: The Moderating Role of Sense of Presence

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 467
Author(s):  
Ling-Long Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Tourism Marketing ◽  
Foreign Travel ◽  
Sense Of Presence ◽  
Virtual Tourism ◽  
Moderating Role

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically restricted domestic and foreign travel; thus, virtual tourism has become a new option for traveling. As regards virtual tourism, the present study seeks to investigate the effect of tourist involvement on the three components of holistic image, namely cognitive, affective, and conative images; the influence of cognitive, affective, and conative images on the construction of the holistic image; and the moderating effect of sense of presence on the relationships between cognitive, affective, and conative images on the holistic image. Prospective tourists were chosen as research subjects in the present study on non-immersive virtual reality (VR) tourism, or virtual tourism. Participants first watched the 360° VR tour video of AirPano. Afterward, they filled out an online questionnaire, of which 386 valid samples were collected for analyses. Results show that tourist involvement considerably affects cognitive, affective, and conative images, which significantly influence the holistic image. Furthermore, a sense of presence was found to positively moderate the relationships between (1) cognitive and holistic, (2) affective and holistic, and (3) conative and holistic images. These results may allow tourism marketing organizations to better understand how to strengthen the holistic image in the context of virtual tourism.

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