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Adaptive Changes in Spontaneous Brain Activity After Virtual Reality Height Training in Healthy Individuals

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

LINGFEI GUAN^1,2 (), Denilson BRILLIANT T^1,2, Yuhui WANG³, Xiaoqian CHANG^1,2, Wenyu ZHANG^2,4, Sachihiro SHIRAHAMA^1,2, Yu’ang CHEN^1,2, Kazufumi KARUBE^1,2, Ayumi TAKEMOTO^2,4, Motoaki SUGIURA^2,4,5; ¹Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, ²IDAC, Dept. Tohoku University, ³Graduate School of Information Science,Tohoku University, ⁴Cognitive Neuroscience Application Center,Tohoku University, ⁵IRIDeS,Tohoku University

The fear system is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism enabling rapid threat detection and response, yet its adaptive regulation and underlying neurocognitive processes remain partly unknown.Exposure-based interventions can gradually shift threat processing from automatic emotional reactivity and bottom-up vigilance(amygdala–insula–ACC) toward top-down regulation and safety learning (vmPFC/dlPFC). Beyond task-related neural changes, resting-state activity reflects the consolidation of adaptive neural reorganization.Previous resting-state studies of other phobia extinction show prefrontal–limbic reorganization, reflecting reduced baseline emotional arousal and threat monitoring. Findings on height fear are limited to sensorimotor–visual spontaneous networks, suggesting diminished attention to external threat cues but leaving broader extinction mechanisms unclear especially in the healthy. Thirty healthy adults (Height = 16; Control = 14) completed four evaluation sessions within two weeks, including fMRI(both resting-state and height-fear-video watching task)and VR-based behavioral assessment. The height group trained at virtual high altitude, while control group walked on a virtual ground. Repeated VR-based height exposure significantly reduced subjective peak fear (Group × Session, p = 0.046). A mixed-design ANCOVA on ReHo maps (DPABI V9.0_250415; GRF-corrected, voxel p < 0.001, cluster p < 0.05, two-tailed) revealed a potential Group × Session interaction in the right supramarginal gyrus. Preliminary results show a trend of greater fear reduction and adaptive modulation in height group. Ongoing analyses mainly focus on motion data and integrate ROI validation, resting-state connectivity (SN, CEN, motor networks) and task-evoked activation (amygdala, ACC) to clarify how resting-state–related intrinsic regulation and consolidation processes and task-state–related external threat and emotional response jointly shape height fear extinction in healthy individuals.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions