Visibility analysis, spatial experience and EEG recordings in virtual reality environments: The experience of ‘knowing where one is’ and isovist properties as a means to assess the related brain activity

Virtual Reality environments in combination with brain activity recordings using electroencephalography (EEG) offer a fruitful method to investigate the emergence of specific experiential events in response to the built environment. However, real-world experimental settings involve dynamic and complex conditions which are difficult to be controlled in order to test specific hypothesis that are related to neurophysiology. We discuss here several factors that should be taking into account when designing ecological EEG experiments such as a reflective approach on the human spatial experience, consideration of first-person perspectives and a quantitative analysis of the spatial context. The focus of this paper is to propose a methodology that may facilitate the design of virtual reality EEG experiments that aim to investigate the human experience and cognition within and of the built environment. A pilot virtual reality case study is presented to illustrate how the experience of 'suddenly knowing where one is' could be approached. In this case the isovist measurements of area and revelation along participants' paths offer a useful 'tool' that allows us to isolate and study with further analysis of the EEG signal, the moment that this experience might be manifested as neuronal firing patterns in the human brain.