Being in Virtual Reality and Its Influence on Brain Health—An Overview of Benefits, Limitations and Prospects

Abstract

Background: Dynamic technological development and its enormous impact on modern societies are posing new challenges for 21st-century neuroscience. A special place is occupied by technologies based on virtual reality (VR). VR tools have already played a significant role in both basic and clinical neuroscience due to their high accuracy, sensitivity and specificity and, above all, high ecological value. Objective: Being in a digital world affects the functioning of the body as a whole and its individual systems. The data obtained so far, both from experimental and modeling studies, as well as (clinical) observations, indicate their great and promising potential, but apart from the benefits, there are also losses and negative consequences for users. Methods: This review was conducted according to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework across electronic databases (such as Web of Science Core Collection; PubMed; and Scopus, Taylor & Francis Online and Wiley Online Library) to identify beneficial effects and applications, as well as adverse impacts, especially on brain health in human neuroscience. Results: More than half of these articles were published within the last five years and represent state-of-the-art approaches and results (e.g., 54.7% in Web of Sciences and 63.4% in PubMed), with review papers accounting for approximately 16%. The results show that in addition to proposed novel devices and systems, various methods or procedures for testing, validation and standardization are presented (about 1% of articles). Also included are virtual developers and experts, (bio)(neuro)informatics specialists, neuroscientists and medical professionals. Conclusions: VR environments allow for expanding the field of research on perception and cognitive and motor imagery, both in healthy and patient populations. In this context, research on neuroplasticity phenomena, including mirror neuron networks and the effects of applied virtual (mirror) tasks and training, is of interest in virtual prevention and neurogeriatrics, especially in neurotherapy and neurorehabilitation in basic/clinical and digital neuroscience.

A machine learning approach to evaluate the impact of virtual balance/cognitive training on fall risk in older women

“…Our research combines conventional training with a virtual environment, thus leveraging the advantages of each for the greater benefit of program participants (e.g., increasing the appeal, engagement, and direct impact of the participant on the training through an interactive game format). Since we use novel VEs in our research, it is worth noting that sometimes users in virtual worlds may experience adverse symptoms due to cybersickness ( Lima Rebêlo et al, 2021 ; Sokołowska, 2023 , 2024 ; Kourtesis et al, 2024 ). Cybersickness is accompanied by a mix of unfavorable symptoms such as headache, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, oculomotor, and postural disturbances ( Kourtesis et al, 2023 ; Venkatakrishnan et al, 2023 ).…”

“…However, being in virtual environments (VEs) can be associated with adverse symptoms of cybersickness ( Séba et al, 2023 ; Kourtesis et al, 2024 ). This is more often experienced by immersive VE participants, and very rarely by non-immersive VR users ( Venkatakrishnan et al, 2023 ; Sokołowska, 2024 ). Despite these (a) unfavorable effects ( Drazich et al, 2023 ; Dopsaj et al, 2024 ), but also (b) the lack of standardization of virtual tools/environments ( Kourtesis et al, 2021 ; Porffy et al, 2022 ; Kim et al, 2023 ; Holmqvist et al, 2024 ), (c) researching to prepare recommendations for the use of VR in specific patient populations ( Juras et al, 2019 ; Brassel et al, 2021 ; Liu et al, 2022 ; Rodríguez-Almagro et al, 2024 ), (d) discussing emerging user data protection/privacy issues and ethical dilemmas ( Segkouli et al, 2023 ; Goldstein et al, 2024 ; Rudschies and Schneider, 2024 ), researchers and clinicians/physiotherapists highlight the enormous potential of innovative technologies ( Jonson et al, 2021 ; Bateni et al, 2024 ; Moulaei et al, 2024 ).…”