fMRI assessment of small animals’ phobia using virtual reality as stimulus

Up to now, still images or videos of real animals have been used in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) protocols to evaluate brain activations associated to small animals’ phobia. Our aim in the present work is to evaluate the use of virtual environments in this context, which will have the added benefit of allowing the subject to move and interact with the environment, giving the subject the illusion of being there. We have analyzed brain activation in a group of phobic people while they navigated in a virtual environment that included the small animals that are the object of their phobia. We have found activation mainly in the left occipital inferior lobe, related with enhanced visual attention to the phobic stimuli; and in the superior frontal gyrus, related with the feeling of self-awareness. In our opinion, these results demonstrate that virtual stimulus can enhance brain activations coherent with previous studies with still images, but in an environment closer to the real situation they would face in their daily lives.