Prefrontal Cortex Activated Bilaterally by a Tilt Board Balance Task: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study in a Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality Environment
Prefrontal Cortex Activated Bilaterally by a Tilt Board Balance Task: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study in a Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality Environment
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DOI：
10.1007/s10548-013-0320-z
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发表时间：
2014-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Quaresima, Valentina
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ferrari, Marco;Bisconti, Silvia;Quaresima, Valentina
本研究的目的是评估在由深度感应摄像头驱动的半沉浸式虚拟现实 (VR) 环境中，前额皮质 (PFC) 对 5 分钟增量倾斜板平衡任务 (ITBBT) 的氧合反应。鉴于 PFC 参与注意力资源的分配以维持姿势控制，假设 PFC 将被双边激活以应对 ITBBT 难度的增加。 22 名健康男性受试者被要求使用内侧-外侧姿势摇摆来保持在虚拟倾斜板 (VTB) 上的平衡，并在枢轴上保持平衡。当受试者无法将 VTB 角度保持在 +/- 35A 度内时，VTB 变为红色（错误）。采用八通道 fNIRS 系统来测量 PFC 氧合-脱氧血红蛋白（分别为 O(2)Hb-HHb）的变化。结果显示，随着ITBBT难度的增加，所表演的棋盘晃动和错误的数量也随之增加。观察到 PFC 激活，并在任务的最后 2 分钟内 O(2)Hb-HHb 变化趋于稳定。在 O(2)Hb 和 HHb 中发现了难度水平的显着主效应 (p < 0.001)。研究表明，当受试者在半沉浸式 VR 环境中进行 ITBBT 时，PFC 上的氧合增加。这种增加是由任务难度调节的，表明前额皮层双边参与需要注意力的任务。鉴于该任务对老年人和运动障碍患者的适应性，可被认为对诊断测试和功能性神经康复有用。
The aim of this study was to assess the prefrontal cortex (PFC) oxygenation response to a 5-min incremental tilt board balance task (ITBBT) in a semi-immersive virtual reality (VR) environment driven by a depth-sensing camera. It was hypothesized that the PFC would be bilaterally activated in response to the increase of the ITBBT difficulty, given the PFC involvement in the allocation of the attentional resources to maintain postural control. Twenty-two healthy male subjects were asked to use medial-lateral postural sways to maintain their equilibrium on a virtual tilt board (VTB) balancing over a pivot. When the subject was unable to maintain the VTB angle within +/- 35A degrees the VTB became red (error). An eight-channel fNIRS system was employed for measuring changes in PFC oxygenated-deoxygenated hemoglobin (O(2)Hb-HHb, respectively). Results revealed that the number of the performed board sways and errors augmented with the increasing of the ITBBT difficulty. A PFC activation was observed with a tendency to plateau for both O(2)Hb-HHb changes within the last 2 min of the task. A significant main effect of the level of difficulty was found in O(2)Hb and HHb (p < 0.001). The study has demonstrated that the oxygenation increased over the PFC while the subject was performing an ITBBT in a semi-immersive VR environment. This increase was modulated by the task difficulty, suggesting that the PFC is bilaterally involved in attention-demanding tasks. This task could be considered useful for diagnostic testing and functional neurorehabilitation given its adaptability in elderly and in patients with movement disorders.