Functional MRI (fMRI) has long allowed neuroscientists to peek into the living human brain, but traditional methods struggle to capture real-world behavior. At last year’s fMRI User meeting in Bergen, Margaux Dubessy from Fondation Campus Biotech Geneva in Switzerland showcased how immersive virtual reality (VR) is transforming neuroscience research. In her presentation, she demonstrated how advanced VR platforms allow researchers to create ecologically valid, highly engaging experiments inside the MRI scanner.
Margaux Dubessy: Exploring brain behavior with immersive VR
Functional MRI (fMRI) has long allowed neuroscientists to peek into the living human brain, but traditional methods struggle to capture real-world behavior. At last year’s fMRI User meeting in Bergen, Margaux Dubessy from Fondation Campus Biotech Geneva in Switzerland showcased how immersive virtual reality (VR) is transforming neuroscience research. In her presentation, she demonstrated how advanced VR platforms allow researchers to create ecologically valid, highly engaging experiments inside the MRI scanner.
– We want to allow any researcher to do what they dream of in terms of technology and application, she explained, emphasizing the freedom and versatility of VR in experimental design.
Why virtual reality matters in neuroscience
Immersive VR offers clear advantages over conventional 2D stimulus presentations. By immersing participants in realistic virtual environments, researchers can simulate complex tasks while maintaining precise experimental control over timing, sensory input, and environmental variables. This makes experiments highly reproducible. Participants also report enjoying VR experiences more than typical methods, which improves engagement and retention, particularly in longitudinal studies.
– VR is safe, controlled, measurable, and reproducible.
Claustrophobia reduction
One innovative application of VR is studying the reduction of MRI-related claustrophobia. This research project is a collaboration with the HUG (Geneva University Hospital) and EPFL (Polytechnical School of Lausanne) By creating a “virtual twin” of the MRI room, patients can familiarize themselves with the space without facing the intimidating scanner bore. Results showed a clear preference for this VR experience, with some participants unwilling to return for follow-up scans without it.
Insights from VR-based studies
Margaux highlighted several research projects using our VisualSystem HD along with the Unity virtual environments that were carried out at Campus Biotech. In studies on perception of self in space, participants navigated avatars in first- and third-person perspectives, showing increased brain activation in regions linked to self-identification when avatar movements mirrored their own. Investigations revealed that exploring virtual environment scan produce brain activation patterns like grid cells, a ground breaking finding in human fMRI (Moonet al. 2024). Finally, in memory and embodiment tasks, participants learned new words for unfamiliar objects in a virtual shopping scenario; those immersed in VR retained more words short- and long-term compared to tablet-based controls (Franco et al.2025).
Enhancing engagement and reducing dropout
Beyond experimental precision, immersive VR makes studies more enjoyable. Margaux shared that participants often return for sessions sometimes even without compensation, simply to experience the VR setup. This increased engagement, reduces dropout rates and improves data quality overtime.
Margaux Dubessy’s work demonstrates that VR is far more than a novelty – it is a transformative tool for neuroscience. By combining presence, embodiment, and experimental control, researchers can study cognition in ways that are both realistic and reproducible, pushing the limits of what fMRI can reveal about human behavior.
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