Mental Stress Tests with Autonomic Responses Induced in Virtual Reality Environment

Psychological stressors used in mental stress tests largely effect quality and outcomes of experimental studies. This paper aims to develop a novel mental stress induction method using autonomic responses in virtual reality (VR) environments. Recent progress in VR technology promises desirable experience of immersion in a virtual space. Mental stress tests in VR are easy to configure and more flexible in experimental procedure. These virtual tests can provide close/improved outcomes comparing with real tests that use actual apparatuses and configurations. VR media contents of a roller coaster is investigated as stress load in this study. Nine subjects took part in the experiments and the electrocardiogram (ECG) data are analyzed with three short-term HRV analysis methods.