Body, action and cognition: virtual reality with regard to cognitive sciences

Virtual reality technologies are used to study multisensory integration or motor control in neuroscience, have been employed as a diagnostic and rehabilitation tool in neurology and psychiatry. VR provides information and stimuli for researchers to foster further investigations and constitutes a research topic in itself. It has the potential to create an artificial space in which specific stimuli can be embedded. Furthermore, VR allows an experimentally controlled interaction with an environment in which the body of the user is an active participant. The numerous applications of VR techniques, from experimental research to clinical applications, indicate that interac­tion, based on a willing action of the immersed subject, and simulation, are the essentials features of VR.