Dependence of Heart Rate Variability on Immersion in a Virtual Game and Change of Visual Content in the Flow of Virtual Reality

Abstract

ABSTRACTA modern person constantly changes the environment of his mental activity, moving real into an immersive environment, for example, from the surrounding reality to the information environment of a smartphone and back. This kind of transition is needed to satisfy many of the cognitive and emotional needs of people. The transition from a real physical environment to virtual reality (VR) with the help of a special headset, for example, the Oculus Rift or HTC vive, occurs less often, causing less frequent emotional state. If at the same time the emotional state of a person is investigated, then, as a rule, the manifestation of heart rate variability (HRV) is used as an indicator. However, there are relatively few studies in the literature on physiological responses using HRV during the perception of VR content. The results of such studies are extrapolated to data evoked in HRV manifestations by stimuli of real and virtual environments. We studied HRV in 55 participants while they were in the flow of VR content of different dynamics. The results were analyzed by statistically testing the hypothesis of the effect of VR immersion and the effect of transitions between realities on HRV manifestations, as well as the effect of VR flow dynamics on HRV. The results showed that the perception of the VR flow and the content transitions made in it determine the change in HRV in the form of such parameters as LF and the Baevsky Index, which can be considered as markers of immersion in VR. An increase in emotional arousal with sequential participation in virtual games in one virtual stream determines the manifestations of HRV - HR, Moda and PAR.The results contribute to understanding the possibilities of using VR technology to recognize emotions during the transition between the natural environment and VR, as well as to determine the level of emotional arousal when immersed in the changing flow of virtual content. These studies are important for the study of the psychology of emotions in the VR flow paradigm.