Effect of virtual reality-simulated exercise on sympathovagal balance

Discovery of therapeutic avenues to provide the benefits of exercise to patients with enforced sedentary behavior patterns would be of transformative importance to health care. Work in model organisms has demonstrated that benefits of exercise can be provided to stationary animals by daily intermittent stimulation of adrenergic signaling. Here, we examine as a proof of principle whether exposure of human participants to virtual reality (VR) simulation of exercise can alter sympathovagal balance in stationary humans. In this study, 24 participants performed 15 minutes of cycling exercise at standardized resistance, then repeated the exercise with a virtual reality helmet that provided an immersive environment. On a separate day, they each controlled a virtual environment for 15 minutes to simulate exercise without actual cycling exercise. Response to each treatment was assessed by measuring heart rate (HR), norepinephrine, and heart rate variability, and each participant’s response to virtual exercise was compared internally to his/her response to the actual cycling. We found that neither post-exercise norepinephrine nor post-exercise HR was significantly increased by VR simulation. However, heart rate variability measured during virtual exercise was comparable to actual cycling in participants that engaged in moderate exercise, but not in those that engaged in high-intensity exercise. These findings suggest that virtual exercise has the potential to mimic some effects of moderate exercise. Further work will be needed to examine the longitudinal effects of chronic exposure to VR-simulated exercise.