Clinical trial NCT06897332: Comparing Brain Cortical Activity in Real and Immersive Virtual Reality Manual Dexterity Tasks
Official title: Comparing Brain Cortical Activity in Real and Immersive Virtual Reality Manual Dexterity Tasks
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Conditions: Brain
Virtual Reality
EEG
fNIRS
Manual Dexterity
Lead sponsor: Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc- Université Catholique de Louvain
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Université Catholique de Louvain
First posted: 2025-03-26
Enrollment: 12
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: OTHER
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Participants will be recruited through word-of-mouth within the Belgian population

Brief summary: With advances in technology, virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in various fields, including rehabilitation, motor learning, and neuroscience. Its ability to provide controlled, immersive, and interactive environments makes it a valuable tool for training and assessment. However, despite its growing adoption, limited evidence exists on how cortical activation in VR compares to real-world conditions. Moreover, brain cortical activity during motor tasks, such as manual dexterity tasks, remains underexplored.

This study aims to compare brain cortical activity in real and immersive virtual reality settings during a manual dexterity task. Secondary objectives include:

* Examining the relationship between brain cortical activity and kinematics in both conditions.
* Comparing brain cortical activity between hand-tracking and controller-based interactions.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age over 18 years old
* Normal-to-corrected vision
* Ability to understand simple instructions

Exclusion Criteria:

* History of seizure
* Recent participation (within the last three months) in a study involving a manual dexterity task in immersive virtual reality
* Neurologic or orthopaedic pathology potentially affecting upper extremity movement

Primary outcomes:
measure: Brain cortical activity
timeFrame: Baseline (at rest: before task performance) and Day 1 (during each of the three task performances within the single study session)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Average speed
timeFrame: Day 1 (during each of the three task performances within the single study session)
measure: Maximal movement speed
timeFrame: Day 1 (during each of the three task performances within the single study session)
measure: Movement smoothness
timeFrame: Day 1 (during each of the three task performances within the single study session)
measure: Variation of velocity
timeFrame: Day 1 (during each of the three task performances within the single study session)
measure: Average distance between thumb and other fingers
timeFrame: Day 1 (during each of the three task performances within the single study session)
measure: Variation of distance between thumb and other fingers
timeFrame: Day 1 (during each of the three task performances within the single study session)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Brussels
country: Belgium
facility: Neuro Musculo Skeletal Lab
state: Brussels-Capital Region
Study officials:
affiliation: Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc UCL
name: Thierry Lejeune, MD, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: