VR and its impact on different areas of the brain
In a study (Argento et al., 2017), exploring mazes and navigational learning in VR, researchers found that participants' cognitive performance increased in decision-making and navigational skills and participants learned quicker than traditional methods. This study used electrophysiological monitoring of brain activity which illustrated how different parts of the brain were activated. This is interesting because cognitive augmentation is linked to different parts of the human brain (Di Pino et al., 2014). Decision making alone requires access to the Prefrontal Cortex, the Hippocampus and other parts (Saberi-Moghadam et al., 2019), which may indicate VR's ability to augment many parts of the brain and could pave the way for more targeted augmentations in the future.
VR and the déjà vu effect
In other research (Rosahl et al., 2006) exploring the utility of VR in skull base surgery training, participants reported significant improvements in their understanding and perception of what is usually a highly complex discipline. Rosahl et al. (2006) reported that participants experienced "déjà vu" about the task, found that it made learning the task much simpler and facilitated a quicker understanding of key learning. The déjà vu experienced by participants may be particularly important to note because it may indicate a subconscious augmentation. That is, VR could be making changes to people's neural networks and one may not be consciously aware of it. This may be explained in part by theories of observational learning that have found that observing a task being undertaken triggers the parts of the brain responsible for carrying out such actions that enable motor programming of the task in the brain (Burke et al., 2010). Simply put, the brain sees the task and writes an instruction manual for the task, stores it in memory and recalls it before the person consciously thinks about it.
What does VR’s use with dementia patients show?
These developments in our understanding of VR's potential are exciting as they could potentially lead to targeted augmentations in humans in the future. So far, augmentations have been discussed on the presupposition of boosting cognitive function in the human brain beyond that which may be considered normal. Research (Zając-Lamparska et al., 2019) exploring the utility of VR amongst older adults living with and without dementia showed that not only could VR enhance cognitive performance, but it could also reduce its decline. This appears to support the view that VR has broad utility concerning cognitive augmentation.
However, whether preventing a decline in cognitive performance could be considered augmentation is debatable. If adopting the definition of 'beyond normal human capacity', one could argue that preventing cognitive decline is augmentation as, without the VR intervention, cognitive performance would be reduced below the level of which it would have if it had not been for the intervention. On the other hand, one could also argue that this decline in cognitive performance, in the context of living with dementia, is normal and therefore, VR merely prolongs 'normalness'. Nevertheless, there appears to be some evidence that VR can augment people's minds, although to what extent may be difficult to define.
Conclusion
Much of the research exploring VR and its impact on brain function seems to indicate that it can positively impact the way we learn and remember. Whilst there is some debate about the extent that VR can augment people’s minds, what seems clear is that it can. This is exciting as VR experiences can be tailor made for individuals helping to account for diversity in the way people think and learn.