Triggering and measuring social inhibitory response in humans immersed in interactions with virtual humans

The aim of the proposed study is to determine if a virtual human canevoke a measurable inhibitory response to anti-social stimuli within the prefrontalcortex. Justification, protocol and demonstrator are described here. The workfollows a previous study demonstrating that neural inhibitory responses can bemeasured within an immersive virtual reality display. We have adopted the approachof combining functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and virtual realityhead-mounted display. Haemodynamic changes will be measured in healthyparticipants and subsequently, subjects with mental deficits, as both engage ininteractions that seek to evoke a response that would normally be inhibited.Disinhibition is an aspect of social response exaggerated by several deficits of mind,including dementia, autism and Tourette’s syndrome. This research could improvetools for understanding, diagnosis and treatment of such condition