Research in the field of psychology and neuroscience often involve brain imaging to understand neural responses to different environments. One challenge that occurs in these studies is creating environments which reflect the real world. In order to gather a better understanding the cognition involved in certain environments, the tasks completed by participants must be realistic and comparable to actions in everyday life. It is difficult to make such tasks more realistic due to the constraints of imaging technologies and maintaining the necessary level of control variables within a study.

The CulhamARI lab from the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University is leading the development of a virtual gaming environment for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Their project will involve determining whether brain activity in real life situations can match those produced by the actions of a virtual avatar. They also intend to analyze brain activation produced by three dimensional environments and active video game-play.

After this technology has been developed, the researchers hope to increase the range of natural brain functions represented in the virtual gaming environment. Moreover, if the brain function of normal individuals can be understood by this technology, one can determine the differences in cognitive processes of individuals with neurological diseases.

One member of the team involved in the development of a virtual gaming environment for fMRI is the director of the Brain and Mind Institute, Ingrid Johnsrude. Johnsrude and others from the School of Communication Sciences & Disorders and the National Centre for Audiology will now be using an “Audio Dome” to conduct their research. This device is an advanced geodesic dome that will aid in understanding cognitive responses to auditory stimuli. The geodesic dome will allow researchers to create virtual auditory environments that can represent the sounds which individuals experience in everyday life.

Furthermore, the realistic auditory environments produced by this technology and the developing technology from the CulhamARI lab will improve the ability of researchers to understand cognition the real life and could in turn result in better understanding of neurological disorders.