Assessment of the influence of navigation control and screen size on the sense of presence in virtual reality using EEG

• We analyzed the sense of presence experienced in a virtual environment using EEG.
• Free navigation in a virtual environment was compared with video and photographs.
• We compared the results obtained using two different screens.
• A common Desktop screen and a high-resolution power wall screen were compared.
• We used an Emotiv EPOC headset, obtaining activation mainly in the Insula.

In the virtual reality field, presence refers to the sense of “being there” in the virtual world. Our aim in this work is to evaluate the usefulness of the Emotiv EPOC EEG device to measure brain activations due to the sense of presence in a virtual environment (VE), using for the analysis the sLORETA tool. We compare between three experimental conditions: photographs, video and free navigation through a VE. We also compare the differences in the sense of presence due to the visualization of the VE in different screens: a common desktop screen and a high-resolution power wall screen. We monitored 20 healthy subjects, obtaining significant differences between the navigation and video conditions in the activity of the right Insula for the Theta band. We also found a higher activation of the Insula for the Alpha and Theta bands while navigating, when comparing the two screen types. The Insula activation is related to stimulus attention and self-awareness processes, directly related with the sense of presence.