Manipulating subjective realism and its impact on presence: Preliminary results on feasibility and neuroanatomical correlates q Stéphane Bouchard a,⇑ , Stéphanie Dumoulin a , Jeanne Talbot b , André-Anne Ledoux c , Jennifer Phillips d , Johana Monthuy-Blanc a,e , Geneviève Labonté-Chartrand a , Geneviève Robillard a , Matteo Cantamesse f , Patrice Renaud a a Cyberpsychology Lab of UQO, Université du Québec en Outaouais, C.P. 1250, Succursale Hull, Gatineau, Québec, Canada J8X 3X7 b Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Ottawa, Canada c School of Psychology, Université d’Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada d University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, Canada e Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Department of Education, Trois-Rivières, Canada f Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Centro Studi e Ricerche di Psicologia della Comunic, Milano, Italy article info Article history: Available online 15 May 2012 Keywords: Feeling of presence Virtual reality Subjective realism fMRI Parahippocampus abstract The feeling of presence has been shown to be an important concept in several clinical applications of vir- tual reality. Among the factors influencing presence, realism factors have been examined extensively from the angle of objective realism. Objective realism has been manipulated by altering numerous tech- nological characteristics such as pictorial quality, texture and shading, or by adding more sensory infor- mation (i.e., smell, touch). Much less studied is the subjective (or perceived) realism, the focus of the two pilot studies reported in this article. In Study 1, subjective realism was manipulated in order to assess the impact on the feeling of presence. Method: Presence was measured in 31 adults after two immersions in virtual reality. Participants were immersed in a neutral/irrelevant virtual environment and subsequently subjected to the experimental manipulation. Participants in the experimental condition were falsely led to believe that they were immersed live in real time in a ‘‘real’’ room with a ‘‘real’’ mouse in a cage. In the control condition, participants believed they were immersed in a replica of the nearby room. All partic- ipants were actually immersed in the exact same virtual environment. Results: A manipulation check revealed that 80% of the participants believed in the deception. A 2 Times by 2 Conditions repeated mea- sure ANOVA revealed that leading people to believe they were seeing a real environment digitized live in virtual reality increased their feeling of presence compared to the control condition. In Study 2, the same experimental design was used but with simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in order to assess brain areas potentially related to the feeling of presence. fMRI data from five participants were subjected to a within subject fixed effect analysis to verify differences between the experimental immersion (higher presence) and the control immersion (lower presence). Results revealed a statistically significant difference in left and right parahippocampus areas. Conclusion: Results are discussed accord- ing to layers of presence and consciousness and the meaning given to experiences occurring in virtual reality. Some suggestions are formulated to target core presence and extended presence. Ó 2012 British Informatics Society Limited. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Virtual reality (VR) has been described as ‘‘an application that lets users navigate and interact with a three-dimensional, com- puter-generated (and computer-maintained) environment in real time’’ (Pratt et al., 1995, p. 17). Virtual environments (VEs) can elicit strong emotional reactions that can be used in psychother- apy. Advocates of virtual reality interventions in the treatment of anxiety disorders contend that VE can elicit stronger reactions than imaginal exposure and, as a result, are more likely to activate the underlying neural fear processing network necessary for habitua- tion to occur (see Foa and Kozak, 1986; Rothbaum et al., 1996). Presence is considered an important factor involved in the mechanism of exposure therapy using virtual reality (Wiederhold & Wiederhod, 2005). The sense of presence is often defined as the subjective impression of being there in the VE (Sadowski and Stanney, 2002), or as the illusion of being unaware of the medium used to create the immersion (the so called illusion of 0953-5438/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 British Informatics Society Limited. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intcom.2012.04.011 q This paper has been recommended for acceptance by Dr. D. Murray. ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Laboratory of Cyberpsychology, Université du Québec en Outaouais, PO Box 1250, Station Hull, Gatineau, Québec, Canada J8X 3X7. Tel.: +1 819 595 3099; fax: +1 819 595 2250. E-mail address: Stephane.Bouchard@uqo.ca (S. Bouchard). Interacting with Computers 24 (2012) 227–236 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Interacting with Computers journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/intcom