Ricerc@Sapienza

Recent theories posit that physiological signals contribute to corporeal awareness - the basic feeling that one has a body (body ownership) which acts according to one's will (body agency) and occupies a specific position (body location). Combining physiological recordings with immersive virtual reality, we found that an ecological mapping of real respiratory patterns onto a virtual body illusorily changes corporeal awareness.

Detecting errors in one's own actions, and in the actions of others, is a crucial ability for adaptable and flexible behavior. Studies show that specific EEG signatures underpin the monitoring of observed erroneous actions (error-related negativity, error-positivity, mid-frontal theta oscillations). However, the majority of studies on action observation used sequences of trials where erroneous actions were less frequent than correct actions.

EEG studies show that observing errors in one's own or others' actions triggers specific electro-cortical signatures in the onlooker's brain, but whether the brain error-monitoring system operates according to graded or discrete rules is still largely unknown. To explore this issue, we combined immersive virtual reality with EEG recording in participants who observed an avatar reaching-to-grasp a glass from a first-person perspective. The avatar could perform correct or erroneous actions.

The development of technological applications that allow people to control and embody external devices within social interaction settings represents a major goal for current and future brain-computer interface (BCI) systems

Field independence refers to the ability to perceive details from the surrounding context as a whole and to represent the environment by relying on an internal reference frame. Conversely, field dependence individuals tend to focus their attention on single environmental features analysing them individually. This cognitive style affects several visuo-spatial abilities including spatial memory. This study assesses both the effect of field independence and field dependence on performance displayed on virtual environments of different complexity.

Today, an ever-increasing number of diseases requiring a surgical solution are treated by means of minimally invasive procedures [1]. When possible, these procedures are suggested instead of traditional approaches because they decrease both the surgical risk and postsurgery hospitalization. The growing technological advances in terms of imaging techniques (i.e., visualization of organs and tissues) and handling of the minimally invasive instruments (e.g., endoscopes) play a key role in improving the qualitative aspects of the interventions [2].

In this paper, a fully immersive serious game system that combines two Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) and a Head Mounted Display (HMD) to provide an interactive Virtual Environment (VE) for patient rehabilitation is proposed. Patients\textquotesingle~data are acquired in real-time by the NUIs, while by the HMD the VE is shown to them, thus allowing the interaction.