Exploratory fNIRS Assessment of Differences in Activation in Virtual Reality Visual Self-Expression Including With a Fragrance Stimulus

A within-subjects experimental design examined differences in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) assessment of prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation with two virtual reality (VR) drawing conditions (rote tracing and creative self-expression) without a fragrance stimulus. Participants were healthy adults included 18 women, 6 men: age range = 18–54 years. Findings indicate significant such that rote resulted higher PFC activity than the self-expression task. Although there was no impact on overall sample, emergent responsiveness to seen by gender. The study suggests repetitive tasks like can enhance focus self-expressive reduce load induce relaxation flow.