Electrophysiological (EEG) microstates during dream‐like bizarre experiences in a naturalistic scenario using immersive virtual reality

Monitoring whether an experience is real or not is crucial for everyday functioning, but this reality monitoring can go awry during dreams or hallucinations. To investigate brain processes underlying perceptual reality monitoring—the online assessment of reality during an experience—healthy young participants were immersed in a highly naturalistic virtual reality environment containing either realistic or dream-like bizarre elements. Dream-like bizarreness altered subjective experiences of reality and bizarreness and increased the contribution of a specific EEG microstate, labeled C'. This microstate is linked to suspending disbelief, or suppressing mismatches that seem bizarre. The findings suggest that prefrontal meta-conscious control processes are important for perceptual reality monitoring.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Monitoring the reality status of conscious experience is essential for a human being to interact successfully with the external world. Despite its importance for everyday functioning, reality monitoring can systematically become erroneous, for example, while dreaming or during hallucinatory experiences. To investigate brain processes associated with reality monitoring occurring online during an experience, i.e., perceptual reality monitoring, we assessed EEG microstates in healthy, young participants. In a within-subjects design, we compared the experience of reality when being confronted with dream-like bizarre elements versus realistic elements in an otherwise highly naturalistic real-world scenario in immersive virtual reality. Dream-like bizarreness induced changes in the subjective experience of reality and bizarreness, and led to an increase in the contribution of a specific microstate labelled C'. Microstate C' was related to the suspension of disbelief, i.e. the suppression of bizarre mismatches. Together with the functional interpretation of microstate C' as reported by previous studies, the findings of this study point to the importance of prefrontal meta-conscious control processes in perceptual reality monitoring.