A Platform for Virtual Reality Task Design with Intracranial Electrodes

Research with human intracranial electrodes has traditionally been constrained by the limitations of the inpatient clinical setting Immersive virtual reality (VR), however, can transcend setting and enable novel task design with precise control over visual and auditory stimuli. This control over visual and auditory feedback makes VR an exciting platform for new in-patient, human electrocorticography (ECOG) and stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG) research. The integration of intracranial electrode recording and stimulation with VR task dynamics required foundational systems engineering. In this work, we present a custom API that bridges Unity, the leading VR game development engine, and Synapse, the proprietary software of the Tucker Davis Technologies (TDT) neural recording and stimulation platform. To demonstrate the functionality and efficiency of our API, we developed a closed-loop brain-computer interface (BCI) task in which filtered neural signals controlled the movement of a virtual object and virtual object dynamics triggered neural stimulation. This closed-loop VR-BCI task confirmed the utility, safety, and efficacy of our API and its readiness for human task deployment.