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. 2022 Aug 3;22(15):5792.
doi: 10.3390/s22155792.

Assessing Electroencephalography as a Stress Indicator: A VR High-Altitude Scenario Monitored through EEG and ECG

Vasileios Aspiotis  1   2 , Andreas Miltiadous  1 , Konstantinos Kalafatakis  1   3 , Katerina D Tzimourta  1   4 , Nikolaos Giannakeas  1 , Markos G Tsipouras  4 , Dimitrios Peschos  2 , Euripidis Glavas  1 , Alexandros T Tzallas  1
Affiliations

Assessing Electroencephalography as a Stress Indicator: A VR High-Altitude Scenario Monitored through EEG and ECG

Vasileios Aspiotis et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Over the last decade, virtual reality (VR) has become an increasingly accessible commodity. Head-mounted display (HMD) immersive technologies allow researchers to simulate experimental scenarios that would be unfeasible or risky in real life. An example is extreme heights exposure simulations, which can be utilized in research on stress system mobilization. Until recently, electroencephalography (EEG)-related research was focused on mental stress prompted by social or mathematical challenges, with only a few studies employing HMD VR techniques to induce stress. In this study, we combine a state-of-the-art EEG wearable device and an electrocardiography (ECG) sensor with a VR headset to provoke stress in a high-altitude scenarios while monitoring EEG and ECG biomarkers in real time. A robust pipeline for signal clearing is implemented to preprocess the noise-infiltrated (due to movement) EEG data. Statistical and correlation analysis is employed to explore the relationship between these biomarkers with stress. The participant pool is divided into two groups based on their heart rate increase, where statistically important EEG biomarker differences emerged between them. Finally, the occipital-region band power changes and occipital asymmetry alterations were found to be associated with height-related stress and brain activation in beta and gamma bands, which correlates with the results of the self-reported Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire.

Keywords: BPM; ECG; EEG; Frontal Alpha Asymmetry; HMD; Occipital Alpha Asymmetry; Perceived Stress Scale; high-altitude exposure; stress; virtual reality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the experiment.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Independent components as classified by ICLabel.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Experimental design.
Figure 4
Figure 4
BPM signal of a subject across the experiment. Magenta represents the resting state, red represents the calm state, and light blue represents the stressed state.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Calm and stressed state comparison of BPM and alpha, beta, and gamma bands. FR represents frontal cortex, PAR represents parietal cortex, TEMP represents temporal cortex, and OCC represents occipital cortex. The “+” sign at the top of the boxplots represents extreme values.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Brain heatmap comparison of subjects between the two groups for theta, alpha, beta, and gamma energy bands.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Increase in BPM between groups. Y-axis is average BPM in stressed state minus average BPM in calm state. (b) Increase in occipital activity compared between groups. Y-axis is Power Spectral Density (PSD) calculated in uV2/Hz * 1011 in stressed state minus PSD in calm state. (c) OAA and FAA change compared between groups. Y-axis is OAA in stressed state minus OAA in calm state and FAA in stressed state minus FAA in calm state, respectively, calculated as mentioned in Section 2.4.2.
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