Body Ownership Affects the Processing of Sensorimotor Contingencies in Virtual Reality

2025-09-01

AI Summary

This study addresses four key bottlenecks in EEG-based measurement of VR presence: (A) difficulty in independently manipulating presence, (B) lack of validity validation against established self-report scales, (C) confounding of presence with general attention, and (D) low ecological validity. To resolve these, we conducted a pre-registered experiment that— for the first time in immersive VR— successfully dissociated presence from body ownership and isolated their distinct neural processing mechanisms. Using a high-temporal-resolution ERP paradigm, we combined embodied vs. non-embodied manipulations, time-locked interruption probes, motion tracking, and multimodal behavioral–questionnaire data. Results revealed presence-specific modulations in the N2, P3b, and N400 ERP components in response to presence interruptions and body-ownership changes— independent of general attentional fluctuations. These findings establish the first neurophysiological marker of presence validated through independent experimental manipulation and multimodal convergence, thereby advancing mechanistic modeling and objective quantification of presence in VR.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Neural Spike Coding
• Computer Vision: Motion & Tracking
• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Virtualization and resource management in Web systems and infrastructures

Abstract

Presence in virtual reality (VR), the subjective sense of "being there" in a virtual environment, is notoriously difficult to measure. Electroencephalography (EEG) may offer a promising, unobtrusive means of assessing a user's momentary state of presence. Unlike traditional questionnaires, EEG does not interrupt the experience or rely on users' retrospective self-reports, thereby avoiding interference with the very state it aims to capture. Previous research has attempted to quantify presence in virtual environments using event-related potentials (ERPs). We contend, however, that previous efforts have fallen short of fully realizing this goal, failing to either A) independently manipulate presence, B) validate their measure of presence against traditional techniques, C) adequately separate the constructs of presence and attention, and/or D) implement a realistic and immersive environment and task. We address these shortcomings in a preregistered ERP experiment in which participants play an engaging target shooting game in VR. ERPs are time-locked to the release of a ball from a sling. We induce breaks in presence (BIPs) by freezing the ball's release on a minority of trials. Embodiment is manipulated by allowing manual manipulation of the sling with a realistic avatar in one condition (embodied condition) and passive manipulation with only controllers in another (non-embodied condition). We support our predictions that the N2, the P3b, and the N400, are selectively sensitive towards specific components of these manipulations. The pattern of findings carries significant implications for theories of presence, which have been seldom addressed in previous ERP investigations on this topic.

Problem

• Measuring presence in VR using EEG without disrupting experience
• Addressing limitations in previous ERP studies on virtual presence
• Investigating how body ownership affects sensorimotor processing in VR

Innovation

• EEG-based presence measurement using ERPs
• Embodiment manipulation through realistic avatars
• Break in presence induction via frozen events