POSTER DETAILS
Objets, Shadows and the Brain
Irini Giannopulu, Elahe Abdi, Tomoko Yonezawa
Date / Location: Tuesday, 12 July 2022 / S05-073
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Immersed in a virtual reality environment, 40 participants (20 female and 20 males) aged 25 years old in average were instructed to perceive and indicate the synchronicity or asynchronicity between a mobile object shadow with regard to a mobile object from the one side, and the synchronicity or asynchronicity between their own body shadow and position in space from the other. Their brain activity was recording using an EEG system and an fNIRS device. Bilateral beta (13.5-30 Hz) oscillations and OxyHb concentrations of frontal and parietal brain areas were analysed as they were considered predictors of perceptual and motor performance. According to the general hypothesis, beta oscillations and OxyHb concentrations associated with the perception of an object shadow would envision the neural activity of the body shadow. It was therefore expected that the fronto-patietal neural activations associated with perception of object shadow would anticipate the neural activations of body shadow. A series of Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) revealed that body shadow specific modulations in the bilateral frontal areas reflect and infer object shadow relevant sensorimotor perception, and subsequent decision making in 3D virtual environments. The current data suggest the existence of a cortical network in which neural dynamics of object shadows would provide a mechanism for the formation of functional networks during internal re/activation of body relevant cortical representations, that is, a substitution of the physical body. They also suggest that prediction and anticipation along with inference and exploration might be general principles of cortical functioning in real and 3D virtual environments.