Analyzing neural correlates of attentional changes during the exposure to virtual environments: Application of transcranial doppler monitoring

Abstract

Transcranial Doppler monitoring (TCD) has been proposed as a tool to be used in Augmented Cognition (AugCog) systems to monitor brain activation during the performance of different cognitive tasks. In the present study, the main goal is to analyze variations in blood flow velocity (BFV) measured by TCD during the exposure to a virtual reality environment when there are changes in the focus of attention of the participants. Two abrupt events are forced during the navigation in a virtual environment in order to change their focus of attention to the real world. In one of them, the screen goes completely blue, and in the other one, a mesh appears in front of the virtual environment making it difficult to visualize. Results show that BFV values in both middle cerebral arteries remain similar when the first event occurs, but there is an increase during the second event. The origin of this increment may probably be found in the higher difficulty of having a mesh in front of the virtual environment, requiring more attention than before. These results show that changes in the stimuli can generate modifications in BFV that can be monitored by TCD, and can be useful for AugCog applications. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.