Linking Embodiment, Simulator Sickness, and EEG Activity During XR-BCI Use: A Single-Participant Case Study.

Overview

1. Department of Physiotherapy, Escola Superior de Saúde do Alcoitão, 2649-506 Alcabideche, Portugal
2. iBiMED—Instituto de Biomedicina, Departamento de Ciências Médicas, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
3. Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS), Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 4160-005 Porto, Portugal

Abstract

Background: Subjective experience is increasingly recognised as an important component of brain–computer interface (BCI) performance in extended reality (XR) environments. Although embodiment and simulator sickness are known to influence user experience, their relationships with cortical activity during XR–BCI operation remain poorly understood. Building upon our previous investigations of embodiment and simulator sickness in XR–BCIs, the present study examined whether these subjective dimensions are associated with distinct neurophysiological patterns during repeated XR–BCI use in a participant with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods: Seventeen XR–BCI sessions performed by a participant with chronic complete SCI were analysed. Bayesian correlation analyses examined associations among embodiment, simulator sickness, BCI performance, and EEG activity. Multiple linear regression was used to identify variables independently associated with sensorimotor beta activity, and the robustness of the regression findings was evaluated using bootstrap estimation and leave-one-out sensitivity analyses. Results: Bayesian analyses identified two principal patterns of association. Sense of embodiment was positively associated with frontal theta activity (F3), whereas simulator sickness showed a negative association with sensorimotor beta activity (C3–C4). As expected, classifier acquisition accuracy was strongly associated with subsequent BCI performance. Multiple regression demonstrated that simulator sickness was the only variable independently associated with C3–C4 beta activity after accounting for embodiment and BCI performance. This association remained robust following bootstrap estimation and leave-one-out sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Although limited to a single participant, these findings suggest that different dimensions of subjective experience during XR–BCI operation are associated with partially distinct neurophysiological correlates. In particular, simulator sickness was the variable most consistently associated with sensorimotor beta activity across all analyses. These findings provide a foundation for future longitudinal investigations of the neural mechanisms linking subjective experience and cortical dynamics during XR–BCI use.

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Data Availability Statement

The data are not publicly available due to patient confidentiality, privacy, and ethical restrictions. A description of all analysis scripts (OpenViBE scenario files) is available in a public repository (https://osf.io/9hmxj/overview?view_only=c74da968c4b443fe88502dc5304d474e) (accessed on 9 August 2026). The repository includes representative data and a detailed description of the BrainVision Analyzer preprocessing workflow sufficient to reproduce the analysis pipeline.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 3 authors, 6 keywords, 1 funder, 40 references.

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Tomás, D. J., Pais-Vieira, M., & Pais-Vieira, C. (2026). Linking Embodiment, Simulator Sickness, and EEG Activity During XR-BCI Use: A Single-Participant Case Study. Life (Basel, Switzerland), 16(8), 1352. https://doi.org/10.3390/life16081352

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