title: The illusion of presence in immersive virtual reality during an fMRI brain scan.
abstract: The essence of immersive virtual reality (VR) is the illusion it gives users that they are inside the computer-generated virtual environment. This unusually strong illusion is theorized to contribute to the successful pain reduction observed in burn patients who go into VR during woundcare (www.vrpain.com) and to successful VR exposure therapy for phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present study demonstrated for the first time that subjects could experience a strong illusion of presence during an fMRI despite the constraints of the fMRI magnet bore (i.e., immobilized head and loud ambient noise).
authors.affiliation: Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. hunter@hitL.washington.edu
authors.forename: Hunter G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: Todd
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Coda
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Sam R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Sharar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011936:Reality Testing; D014584:User-Computer Interface