A semi-immersive virtual reality incremental swing balance task activates prefrontal cortex: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

摘要

Previous functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies indicated that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in the maintenance of the postural balance after external perturbations. So far, no studies have been conducted to investigate the PFC hemodynamic response to virtual reality (VR) tasks that could be adopted in the field of functional neurorehabilitation. The aim of this fNIRS study was to assess PFC oxygenation response during an incremental and a control swing balance task (ISBT and CSBT, respectively) in a semi-immersive VR environment driven by a depth-sensing camera. It was hypothesized that: i) the PFC would be bilaterally activated in response to the increase of the ISBT difficulty, as this cortical region is involved in the allocation of attentional resources to maintain postural control; and ii) the PFC activation would be greater in the right than in the left hemisphere considering its dominance for visual control of body balance. To verify these hypotheses, 16 healthy male subjects were requested to stand barefoot while watching a 3 dimensional virtual representation of themselves projected onto a screen. They were asked to maintain their equilibrium on a virtual blue swing board susceptible to external destabilizing perturbations (i.e., randomizing the forward-backward direction of the impressed pulse force) during a 3-min ISBT (performed at four levels of difficulty) or during a 3-min CSBT (performed constantly at the lowest level of difficulty of the ISBT).