Frequency-Dependent Reduction of Cybersickness in Virtual Reality by Transcranial Oscillatory Stimulation of the Vestibular Cortex

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) applications are pervasive of everyday life, as in working, medical, and entertainment scenarios. There is yet no solution to cybersickness (CS), a disabling vestibular syndrome with nausea, dizziness, and general discomfort that most of VR users undergo, which results from an integration mismatch among visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular information. In a double-blind, controlled trial, we propose an innovative treatment for CS, consisting of online oscillatory imperceptible neuromodulation with transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at 10 Hz, biophysically modelled to reach the vestibular cortex bilaterally. tACS significantly reduced CS nausea in 37 healthy subjects during a VR rollercoaster experience. The effect was frequency-dependent and placebo-insensitive. Subjective benefits were paralleled by galvanic skin response modulation in 25 subjects, addressing neurovegetative activity. Besides confirming the role of transcranially delivered oscillations in physiologically tuning the vestibular system function (and dysfunction), results open a new way to facilitate the use of VR in different scenarios and possibly to help treating also other vestibular dysfunctions.

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

“…The researchers concluded that while various models for detecting cybersickness have been developed, there is no model to predict early adverse events in VEs. Future, more accurate and effective ML approaches will undoubtedly be inspired by current knowledge of how the brain works, as well as the new brain/organism models/approaches being developed and linking them to these bio-digital frontiers ( Benelli et al, 2023 ; Daşdemir, 2023 ; Yang et al, 2023 ). These and similar studies ( Chang et al, 2023 ; Souchet et al, 2023 ) indicate, as does our research, that we are still at the beginning of understanding the potentially beneficial and detrimental effects of digital worlds on their users, especially older adults ( Drazich et al, 2023 ; Séba et al, 2023 ).…”

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

“…Benelli et al 2023 [54] Researchers emphasize that there is not yet an effective solution to the problem of cybersickness (CS) and propose an innovative approach for a frequency-dependent reduction in CS in VR via transcranial oscillatory stimulation of the vestibular cortex. The authors indicate that the new approach may be used to treat a variety of vestibular dysfunctions.…”

“…In addition, VEs are increasingly being incorporated into research and evaluation of natural aging processes or effective support in (neuro)geriatric care (e.g., preventing falls or improving cognitive function in the elderly) [21,70,71]. Model studies with healthy participants are important and interesting in evaluating/testing new technologies [4,28,29,[54][55][56].…”

“…The considerations so far show how serious a problem cybersickness symptoms can be. Hence, intensive research is being conducted to reduce the adverse symptoms associated with being in the digital world [54,[90][91][92]. Recommendations are being prepared, and interesting neuroscientific studies are being presented to reduce the risk of adverse symptoms.…”