How do the body and the brain respond when immersive virtual reality (VR) games are added to a workout? A collaborative study at UMD has been exploring such questions, combining VR with aerobic exercise and tracking changes in the brain, cognition, stress, and mood.
Faculty from the Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences program and the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) teamed up on this project with support from a UMD Chancellor's Innovation Grant. Co-investigators include Professor June Lee and Associate Professors Mary Stenson and Sharyl Samargia-Grivette.
The project was sparked by Lee’s previous research, which found that when college students paired a stationary bicycle workout with immersive VR games, they reported better moods and less stress than when they cycled without the VR games, even though in both conditions they worked out at the same physical intensity.
“When Dr. Stenson and I heard about this result, we both said, ‘But why? What's happening in the body and the brain to reduce the stress?’" asks Samargia-Grivette.
Building on Lee’s research, the team recruited healthy college students for an expanded study.
The control group rode a stationary bike for 20 minutes at a moderate intensity. The experimental group rode while also being immersed in VR games, such as kayaking or horseback riding.
A series of measurements were added to understand the physiological and neurological changes that occurred in the different groups. Participants were assessed three times, once before the activity to establish a baseline, then immediately after biking for 20 minutes, and finally after 30 minutes of rest.
Physiologically, the exercise science side of the project is tracking changes in participants’ heart rate as well as cortisol, a stress hormone. “What we're trying to see is if the virtual reality biking, which is goal-directed, is different from just regular cycling at the same intensity,” explains Stenson. “We're also looking at stress and mood. We’re measuring stress with heart rate variability and salivary cortisol. We're also measuring self-reported mood and exercise enjoyment.”
Samargia-Grivette is using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive brain stimulation device, to measure cortical inhibition during these different states. Cortical inhibition helps balance neural activity, allowing us to focus our attention, regulate our emotions, and coordinate our movements.
The collaborative aspect of this work has been exciting for the investigators. “We’ve all been here, collecting data and working together, so there's also been this sort of interdisciplinary component that we've never had before between exercise science and CSD,” says Stenson. She points out it’s not just a collaboration between faculty from different departments; the project involves students as well.
Several students had the chance to gain hands-on research experience through this project, including Jessica Elias and Nathan Flaim, undergraduates in exercise science and CSD, respectively. CSD graduate student Kendall Gerke also worked on the project, as did Callie Showalter, a post-baccalaureate who is preparing for medical school.
Practical applications
Data collection ended in May and analysis will occur over the summer. The results may have significant practical applications for work in both fields.
On the exercise science side, Stenson is expecting that virtual reality may tire participants out faster. “If they have to think about things while they're exercising, I want to know if that affects their fatigue. That has implications for post-exercise recovery. How do we need to recover people? Are they going to be ready for the next session of exercise?”
Meanwhile, on the neurological side, the team is optimistic about what these additional measurements might show. “What we're hoping to know at the end of the study is whether Dr. Lee’s previous finding of a better mood and decreased stress is associated with reduced cortisol and maybe possibly a reduction in inhibition in the brain,” Samargia-Grivette says.
If the latter finding holds, she hopes to translate the work to other populations. “Moving forward, I might like to try biking with virtual reality as a precursor to therapy for people with disabilities. To use it as a primer — to prime the brain before we hit them with rehab. This could have potential for therapeutic use in stroke or brain injury patients.”