The effect of gender on vection perception and postural responses induced by immersive virtual rotation drum

Virtual reality is an interactive synthetic environment generated by a computer and is commonly regarded as a means of sensory stimulation in neural engineering. A series of physiological and psychological reactions will be generated while immersing in virtual reality. In order to verify gender differences in vection perception and potential physiological responses, 55 participants (28 females) were enrolled in an immersive virtual reality experiment simulating the optokinetic drum to invest the gender effect on vection perception and postural responses. We found vection perception was of no gender differences as well as postural oscillation onset. But postural responses presented stronger in women. The results might support the multi-sensory information explanation of gender difference in performing a directional task.