Embodiment of virtual feet correlates with motor performance in a target-stepping task: a pilot study

Frontiers in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality

Alex van den Berg¹  Annelouk van Mierlo¹  Zoë Breedveld¹  Marnix Tijhuis¹  Bart de Vries¹  Laura Marchal-Crespo² 

[1] Motor Learning and Neurorehabilitation Lab, Cognitive Robotics Department, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands;Motor Learning and Neurorehabilitation Lab, Cognitive Robotics Department, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands;Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands;

关键词: embodiment;    gait training;    virtual reality;    avatar;    locomotion;    motor perfomance;    rehabilitation;   

DOI  :  10.3389/frvir.2023.1104638

 received in 2022-11-21, accepted in 2023-05-26,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) has gained popularity in neurorehabilitation for its potential to increase patients’ motivation and engagement. A crucial yet relatively unexplored aspect of IVR interfaces is the patients’ representation in the virtual world, such as with an avatar. A higher level of embodiment over avatars has been shown to enhance motor performance during upper limb training and has the potential to be employed to enhance neurorehabilitation. However, the relationship between avatar embodiment and gait performance remains unexplored. In this work, we present the results of a pilot study with 12 healthy young participants that evaluates the effect of different virtual lower limb representations on foot placement accuracy while stepping over a trail of 16 virtual targets. We compared three levels of virtual representation: i) a full-body avatar, ii) only feet, and iii) no representation. Full-body tracking is computed using standard VR trackers to synchronize the avatar with the participants’ motions. Foot placement accuracy is measured as the distance between the foot’s center of mass and the center of the selected virtual target. Additionally, we evaluated the level of embodiment over each virtual representation through a questionnaire. Our findings indicate that foot placement accuracy increases with some form of virtual representation, either full-body or foot, compared to having no virtual representation. However, the foot and full-body representations do not show significant differences in accuracy. Importantly, we found a negative correlation between the level of embodiment of the foot representation and the distance between the placed foot and the target. However, no such correlation was found for the full-body representation. Our results highlight the importance of embodying a virtual representation of the foot when performing a task that requires accurate foot placement. However, showing a full-body avatar does not appear to further enhance accuracy. Moreover, our results suggest that the level of embodiment of the virtual feet might modulate motor performance in this stepping task. This work motivates future research on the effect of embodiment over virtual representations on motor control to be exploited for IVR gait rehabilitation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Berg, Vries, Breedveld, Mierlo, Tijhuis and Marchal-Crespo.