Measuring Task-Related Brain Activity With Event-Related Potentials in Dynamic Task Scenario With Immersive Virtual...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Virtual Reality Research

Background:

• Event-related potentials (ERPs) aid understanding of cognition during goal-directed activities.
• Extracting ERPs from real-world events in immersive virtual reality (VR) is gaining traction.
• Few studies have elicited ERPs from task-related events in dynamic VR settings or examined their neural sources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the feasibility of extracting ERPs from task-related events in a 360-degree immersive VR environment.
• To examine the neural source of ERPs and their correlation with behavioral performance.
• To evaluate the potential of ERPs for assessing cognitive and behavioral performance in simulated environments.

Main Methods:

• Recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from 16 participants playing a first-person shooter game in VR.
• Successfully extracted error-related negativity (ERN) and correct-response-related negativity (CRN) from shooting-related events.
• Analyzed the source of ERN and its correlation with individual shooting performance.

Main Results:

• ERN and CRN were successfully elicited from shooting-related events in VR.
• ERN amplitudes showed a significant correlation with participants' individual shooting performance.
• The primary source of the ERN was identified as the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

Conclusions:

• This study demonstrates the successful extraction of ERPs from dynamic events within an immersive VR environment.
• The findings highlight the potential of using ERN and its source localization in the rostral ACC to evaluate cognitive and behavioral performance in simulated settings.
• Results contribute to advancing the use of VR and EEG for cognitive assessment.