Walking on the Edge: Brain Connectivity Changes in Response to Virtual Height Challenges

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) environments simulating height offer a unique platform to investigate neural adaptations to emotionally salient contexts during locomotion. These simulations allow for controlled analysis of motor-cognitive interactions under perceived threat. This secondary analysis of a previously dataset aimed to explore regional and global brain network adaptations, focusing on connectivity, modularity, and centrality, during gait under neutral and height-induced negative conditions. Seventy-five healthy participants performed a VR task involving a virtual plank at two heights: street level (neutral) and 80 floors up (negative). EEG was recorded using 32 scalp electrodes. Functional connectivity was analyzed using local efficiency, modularity, and eigenvector centrality across frontal, central, parietal, temporal, and occipital regions during two tasks: preparation (elevator) and active walking (plank). Repeated-measures ANOVAs examined the effects of task and condition. Frontal connectivity was significantly higher in the negative condition across tasks, suggesting increased cognitive-emotional regulation. Central connectivity showed a task × condition interaction, with elevated values during walking under threat, indicating increased sensorimotor integration. Occipital connectivity was higher during preparation, independent of condition, likely reflecting greater visual scene processing. Modularity was reduced in the negative condition, consistent with decreased functional segregation, while eigenvector centrality was greater in frontal and parietal regions during walking, highlighting their role as integrative network hubs. Height-related threat in VR modulates both regional and global brain network properties, enhancing integration in cognitive, motor, and visual systems. These findings advance our understanding of adaptive brain responses and support the use of VR in rehabilitation.

Keywords: electroencephalography; functional connectivity; gait; locomotion; neural networks; virtual reality.

FIGURE 1

Mean and standard deviation of local connectivity of the frontal (A), central (B), parietal (C), occipital (D), and temporal (E) regions and modularity (F) for the negative and neutral conditions of the elevator and walking tasks.

FIGURE 2

Topographic maps of eigenvector centrality averaged across all participants. The upper panels illustrate cortical centrality during the negative and neutral conditions, while the lower panels depict the elevator and walking tasks. Warmer colors indicate higher centrality values, reflecting increased global influence of the corresponding scalp regions within the functional network. Centrality was computed from EEG connectivity measures and reflects the relative importance of each region in the network topology. All maps present data using the same color scale (range 0–0.25).