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Similar Sensorimotor Activations with and without Virtual Limbs During Action Execution and Observation in
Cristián Modroño1,2,3,4, Sergi Bermúdez-Badia5,6, M S Cameirão7,8
1Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. cmodrono@ull.edu.es.
Brain Topography
|May 27, 2026
Summary
Virtual reality (VR) rehabilitation may not require complex virtual limbs. Simpler virtual effectors, like dots, activate similar brain areas as virtual hands during tasks, suggesting flexibility in VR system design.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Rehabilitation Technology
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Virtual reality (VR) rehabilitation often uses virtual limbs to represent actions.
- Previous studies suggest simpler virtual objects can also engage action-related brain networks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the visual presence of a virtual limb affects brain activity during action execution and observation in VR.
- To compare brain responses to virtual hands versus simpler virtual effectors (dots) in a neurorehabilitation task.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
- Twenty-four healthy participants performed a cancellation task under four conditions: dot execution, hand execution, dot observation, and hand observation.
Main Results:
- Similar frontoparietal and sensorimotor brain activations were observed for both virtual hand and dot conditions.
- No significant differences in brain activation were found when directly comparing hand versus dot conditions.
Conclusions:
- The visual presence of a virtual limb does not significantly alter frontoparietal/sensorimotor activations in the tested visuomotor conditions.
- Findings support the use of more flexible virtual effectors in VR rehabilitation system design.
