Uncovering cognitive-motor adaptation to body visualization in immersive technologies through their behavioral and electrophysiological correlates

Abstract

Immersive technologies, encompassed within the x-reality (XR) framework spanning the reality-virtuality continuum, are emerging as tools to facilitate behavioral adaptation through interaction with controlled environments. Yet, how XR features shape users behavior remains poorly understood, particularly when a coordination between cognitive and motor demands is required. Among these features, body visualization (i.e., how the users body is rendered within the environment), is especially relevant to XR usages in rehabilitation and skill training, since body-related feedback is known to strongly influence movement adaptation under cognitive-motor interference. Still, whether and how different body visualization scenarios shape movement adaptation and what are the underlying neural processes, remains unclear. To address these questions, thirty healthy young adults performed a stepping task concurrently with an updating n-back task under three body visualization scenarios (real-body, no-body, and a knee-position cue) and four levels of dual-tasks while we recorded high-density mobile electroencephalography. The absence of body visualization impaired motor performance, reducing stepping accuracy and increasing omissions. Remarkably, a knee-position cue alone restored performance to real-body levels, without improving embodiment. This behavioral benefit co-occurred with neural modulations reflecting enhanced conflict monitoring and adjusted motor preparation, evidenced by changes in the frontocentral N450 component and sensorimotor alpha-and beta-band activity, respectively. These findings indicate that minimal body-related visual cues, rather than full-body visualization, can support cognitive-motor performance in XR, without altering embodiment. They position cueing as a practical design strategy for movement-related XR usages and motivate further investigations of other forms of body-related feedback to optimize cognitive-motor behavior.