Virtual Reality (VR) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are both relatively new, high-tech tools that are being used in cognitive neuroscience. Some academic explorations have shown the utility of merging the two technologies. Currently, many fMRI studies are contrived, abstract and removed from real-life situations. VR has the potential of providing realistic simulations of how people perform tasks in their daily lives, and it provides an approach to doing neuroimaging studies using more relevant social situations. We propose to provide a flexible, user-friendly platform for neurobehavioral studies that can also be used for integrated VR/Fmri studies. This VR system, and the methods used to test the tasks developed for it, will be demonstrated and pilot-tested in this Phase I application using a simulation that provides quantifiable measures of anxiety-provoking stimuli embedded in an elaborate virtual world of multiple environments and characters within a city and a town. All actions of the subject within the simulation will be logged to a file for analysis. Two channels of concurrent physiological data will be synchronized with the simulation and logged for analysis. A subjective rating scale will allow subjects to rate their level of discomfort immediately following the presentation of each of the stimuli. The ability of dynamic stimuli within the simulation to elicit brain activation in normal subjects will be compared to similar static pictures from the International Affective Picture System. In addition we will explore the possibility of developing a more immersive, wide field of view display for VR/fMRI studies. This VR system of software and hardware will be developed as both a stand-alone, non-fMRI research tool for the neurobehavioral community and as a sophisticated fMRI research tool.
