EEG Alpha Power Is Modulated by Attentional Changes during Cognitive Tasks and Virtual Reality Immersion

Figure 1

(a) Timeline of Experiment 1. The experiment included two sessions, i.e., an arithmetic session and a reading numbers session, separated by a 10 min break, performed by all participants. Each session lasted fifteen minutes and included an initial (r1) 5-minute relaxation phase, a final (r2) 5-minute relaxation phase, and a central 5-minute task phase (T) consisting in an arithmetic task (arithmetic session) or a reading numbers task (reading numbers session). The order of the tasks was counterbalanced across the participants. (b) Design of each session. In both sessions, the relaxation phases (r1 and r2) consisted in the presentation of a gray screen with the world “relax.” In the arithmetic session, during the task phase, the participant had to provide the response to the arithmetic operation (by selecting one of the black button-items with the mouse); after the response selection, a new screen with a new operation appeared. In the reading numbers session, during the task phase, the participant had just to mentally read the numbers appearing on the screen (e.g., 300, 0, 3, 8, …), and the screen updated every 5 seconds.

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