Subjective and Objective Assessment of the Impact of Stress and Mental Workload on Cybersickness During Virtual Reality Training

Antoine Moinnereau, Marc; Tiwari, Abhishek; Benesch, Danielle; Bolt, Nicole; P Krätzig, Gregory; Paré, Simon; Henrique Falk, Tiago · 2025 · Crossref

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006348

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This study investigates the impact of stress and mental workload on cybersickness during immersive virtual reality (VR) training, addressing the hypothesis that high-demand scenarios exacerbate symptoms like nausea and dizziness. While cybersickness is traditionally attributed to sensory conflict, recent evidence suggests psychological factors play a significant role. The researchers aimed to isolate the effects of stress, mental workload, and their combination to inform the design of more comfortable and effective VR training protocols for high-risk professions. The experimental design involved twelve participants performing a VR driving simulation across three conditions: high mental workload (counting pedestrians of specific colors), high stress (navigating aggressive traffic and hazards), and a combined condition. A baseline driving period served as a control. Data collection utilized a multi-modal approach, combining subjective self-reports via the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) with objective neurophysiological measurements. Participants wore an instrumented Meta Quest 3 headset equipped with 16-channel EEG and EOG sensors, alongside wearable devices monitoring electrocardiography (ECG), photoplethysmography (PPG), and respiration. Accelerometer data from the headset tracked head movement dynamics. Results indicated that cybersickness symptoms increased significantly from the baseline to the experimental conditions, with the most pronounced effects observed in the combined mental workload and stress scenario. Subjective reports showed marked increases in general discomfort, nausea, and vertigo in the combined condition, while the stress-only condition elicited milder symptoms. Objective measures corroborated these findings: head movement frequency nearly doubled in the mental workload and combined groups, a known aggravator of cybersickness. Physiological data revealed decreased heart rate variability and increased respiration rates across all conditions, with the strongest reductions in heart rate variability occurring in the combined group. EEG analysis showed a consistent decrease in alpha power, particularly over occipital regions, in the mental workload scenarios, indicating increased cortical activation and visual engagement. Notably, the stress manipulation failed to elicit strong subjective stress responses or distinct physiological arousal compared to the workload conditions. The study concludes that cybersickness in VR is driven primarily by visual complexity, attentional demands, and head movement dynamics rather than emotional stress alone. The findings suggest that tasks requiring active visual scanning and frequent head movements significantly worsen symptoms, whereas the stress scenario, despite its design, did not generate sufficient psychological pressure to impact cybersickness levels distinctly. These insights highlight the need for adaptive VR systems that monitor physiological states to dynamically adjust scenario pacing and complexity, thereby mitigating cybersickness and improving user comfort during demanding training sessions.

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• simulator sickness
• workload measurement
• passenger motion sickness comfort

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: physiological data, self report data