IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY ALTERS BEHAVIORAL AND NEURAL MARKERS OF SPATIAL ATTENTION

Traditionally, cognitive neuroscience experimentation has relied on tightly controlled laboratory settings that often lack ecological validity. This study examined whether immersive stereoscopic virtual reality (VR), which affords greater ecological validity while maintaining experimental control, alters attentional orienting and its neural correlates in a similar manner to a traditional two-dimensional (2D) display. Thirty-five participants completed two conditions while electroencephalography was recorded: a 2D Posner cueing task and a corresponding VR version, both embedded within a semi-realistic environment. The main difference between conditions was the presence of stereoscopic depth in VR, which more closely approximates natural visual perception. Behaviorally, the expected validity effect was observed in both environments: faster reaction times and higher accuracy for validly cued than invalidly cued trials. Overall reaction times were longer in VR; however, the attentional reorienting cost was significantly smaller, indicating more efficient reallocation of attention following invalid cues. Event-related potential analyses revealed no significant differences for the P1 and N1 components between valid and invalid trials in either condition. This absence of early validity modulation may reflect inhibition of return or increased visual complexity in both task environments. The P3 component showed classic attentional reorienting effects, with larger amplitudes for invalid trials, and exhibited a posterior topographical shift in VR relative to 2D. This shift suggests a redistribution of perceptual resources toward more sensory-driven processing areas. These findings indicate that immersive VR shifts attentional processing toward more perceptually grounded, bottom-up mechanisms, supporting its value as a tool for improving ecological validity in cognitive neuroscience research.