Effects of long duration and repeated exposures in an immersive virtual environment on postural stability

Postural disturbance following virtual environment (VE) exposure has been reported in many studies. Some suggest that postural disturbance could be a pre-cursor of or highly related to simulator sickness (SS). Few studies have addressed long duration exposure and multi-sessions in SS and postural disturbance. This study investigated effects of long duration and repeated exposure to an immersive VE on postural disturbance. The results suggested larger postural disturbance 24 hours and 48 hours after the first VE exposure. However, differences between postural disturbance magnitudes pre- and post- exposure within a day decreased after 48 hours. Differential effects were associated with different postural stances were also found. Suggestions for hrther research are addressed.