Article
Psychology, Biological
Stefan Wiens, Rasmus Eklund, Malina Szychowska, Alexander Miloff, Danielle Cosme, Stephen Pierzchajlo, Per Carlbring
Summary: This study examined the effects of in-vivo and virtual reality exposure therapy on electroencephalography (EEG) measures and emotional reactions in spider-phobic individuals. The results showed that both treatment methods had similar effects on reducing fear reactions and did not affect early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) in motivated attention.
Article
Psychiatry
Philip Lindner, Peter Dafgard, Alexander Miloff, Gerhard Andersson, Lena Reuterskiold, William Hamilton, Per Carlbring
Summary: Consumer Virtual Reality (VR) technology is a powerful medium for disseminating mental health interventions, VR exposure therapy has been shown to be effective in treating anxiety disorders, and the lowered threshold hypothesis suggests a mechanism for continued improvement.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Review
Psychiatry
Jonas Hinze, Anne Roeder, Nicole Menzie, Ulf Mueller, Katharina Domschke, Matthias Riemenschneider, Michael Noll-Hussong
Summary: Recent fMRI studies have identified specific brain regions involved in fear processing in specific animal phobias, suggesting both conscious and subconscious fear processing play crucial roles. Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in treating specific phobias and associated with neuroplastic effects. New approaches such as virtual or augmented reality therapy show promise in expanding treatment options for phobias.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ghaida Albakri, Rahma Bouaziz, Wallaa Alharthi, Slim Kammoun, Mohammed Al-Sarem, Faisal Saeed, Mohammed Hadwan
Summary: A specific phobia, a common anxiety-related disorder, can be efficiently treated with exposure therapy or cognitive therapy. Virtual reality and augmented reality exposure therapies have shown positive outcomes in treating most phobias, but standard procedures may be more effective for certain specific phobias.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Hijab e Zainab, Narmeen Zakaria Bawany, Wajiha Rehman, Jaweria Imran
Summary: Virtual Reality technology is being used in psychotherapy, specifically Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) for anxiety disorders like phobias. Although VRET has been proven effective, its widespread adoption is lacking, mainly due to the lack of standardized guidelines for development. This highlights the need to establish critical design requirements for practical, safe, and commercially viable VRET solutions.
MULTIMEDIA TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Andrea Baldini, Sergio Frumento, Danilo Menicucci, Angelo Gemignani, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo, Alberto Greco
Summary: This study proposes a new method of inducing and measuring fear using virtual reality and skin conductance, aiming to overcome the difficulties in studying fear perception. The researchers developed a VR scenario to induce fear in participants and recorded skin conductance signals during the process. The results showed that the fearful scenario elicited greater sympathetic activation compared to other scenarios, and there was a significant relationship between features extracted from the skin conductance signals and fear perception.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AFFECTIVE COMPUTING
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Nadine Dijkstra, Peter Kok, Stephen M. Fleming
Summary: Imagination and externally triggered perception rely on similar neural mechanisms, posing a challenge in determining what is real and what is imagined. High-level cortical circuits evaluate sensory and cognitive factors to monitor perceptual reality, sharing core computations with metacognition. This multi-level architecture explains source confusion and dissociations between knowing something is real and experiencing it as real.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Software Engineering
Liwen Wang, Shaoyu Cai, Christian Sandor
Summary: This paper investigates the differences in size perception of virtual objects in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). The results indicate that users are more sensitive to size changes in VR than in AR. These findings have implications for designers in adapting content for different spatial computing platforms.
COMPUTERS & GRAPHICS-UK
(2023)
Review
Psychiatry
Marek Krzystanek, Stanislaw Surma, Malgorzata Stokrocka, Monika Romanczyk, Jacek Przybylo, Natalia Krzystanek, Mariusz Borkowski
Summary: VRET is an effective treatment for agoraphobia and social phobia, typically performed 8-12 times at least once a week for 15 minutes, or in longer sessions lasting 45-180 minutes for specific phobias. The use of head mounted displays is effective in VRET, and increasing session frequency and adding drug therapy may shorten treatment duration. The effectiveness of VRET is greater without psychiatric comorbidity, and inducing immersion in the VR environment is crucial for treatment success. Studies show sustained effects of VRET in phobia treatment.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Jessica Reitmaier, Anika Schiller, Andreas Muehlberger, Michael Pfaller, Marie Meyer, Youssef Shiban
Summary: Rhythmic eye movements during virtual exposure did not enhance the effectiveness of treatment for spider-phobic patients in this study. Both groups showed clear treatment effects, with almost no group differences, but the eye movement group had lower heart rates during exposure, suggesting a potentially less stressful treatment.
PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY-THEORY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Software Engineering
Shaoyu Chen, Budmonde Duinkharjav, Xin Sun, Li-Yi Wei, Stefano Petrangeli, Jose Echevarria, Claudio Silva, Qi Sun
Summary: This paper proposes a perceptually-optimized progressive 3D streaming method for spatial quality and temporal consistency in immersive interactions. By estimating the perceptual importance based on user gaze behaviors in 2D image space and mapping it to 3D object space, the streaming priorities for edge-side rendering are scheduled.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Jan-F Flor, Marina Aburas, Fedaa Abd-AlHamid, Yupeng Wu
Summary: This study investigated the user acceptance of different types of ETFE cushions in retrofitting office buildings through virtual reality technology. Results showed that users prefer clear ETFE in double-skin facades, while fritted and switchable ETFE received lower satisfaction. Overall, view clarity is a key factor in user acceptance of DSF facades.
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Sergio Frumento, Danilo Menicucci, Paul Kenneth Hitchcott, Andrea Zaccaro, Angelo Gemignani
Summary: The systematic review of 26 papers investigating subliminal exposure to phobic stimuli in phobic patients found that such stimulations can elicit physiological responses and lead to successful reduction in psychophysiological and behavioral correlates without improving subjective fear. The study integrates these findings with recent models of emotional regulation to propose a new form of exposure therapy that involves preliminary subliminal stimulation for maximized effectiveness and acceptability.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Kati Roesmann, Elisabeth J. Leehr, Joscha Boehnlein, Bettina Gathmann, Martin J. Herrmann, Markus Junghoefer, Hanna Schwarzmeier, Fabian R. Seeger, Niklas Siminski, Thomas Straube, Udo Dannlowski, Ulrike Lueken
Summary: This study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms of action for immediate and sustained treatment response of virtual-reality exposure treatment (VRET) for spider phobia. The study found that higher within-session fear reductions predicted better treatment outcomes, and lower initial fear activation tended to be associated with better long-term results. The findings highlight the importance of fear reduction in VRET for short-and long-term treatment success.
JOURNAL OF ANXIETY DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Amy Trappey, Charles V. Trappey, Chia-Ming Chang, Meng-Chao Tsai, Routine R. T. Kuo, Aislyn P. C. Lin
Summary: Driving phobia is a common anxiety disorder that affects people's professional and social lives. Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) is increasingly being used to treat driving phobia, and through improvements in experimental design and system performance, it helps subjects overcome their fear of driving.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2021)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Josee Ouellette, Steve Gwynne, Robert Brown, Max Kinateder
Summary: This article discusses the development and application of a notation system to improve documentation of evacuee performance in fire incidents. Two historic case studies are used to illustrate the approach, and limitations and future research needs of the notation system are also discussed.
FIRE AND MATERIALS
(2021)
Review
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Cathy Agyemang, Max Kinateder
Summary: Movement on stairs is crucial for evacuating from buildings during fire emergencies, and biomechanical analyses highlight factors like foot placement, use of handrails, and balance that influence safe descent. While traditional evacuation analyses may not consider these factors, their inclusion can help identify areas of particular risk in evacuation procedures from physiological, environmental, design, and engineering perspectives.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Jessica Reitmaier, Anika Schiller, Andreas Muehlberger, Michael Pfaller, Marie Meyer, Youssef Shiban
Summary: Rhythmic eye movements during virtual exposure did not enhance the effectiveness of treatment for spider-phobic patients in this study. Both groups showed clear treatment effects, with almost no group differences, but the eye movement group had lower heart rates during exposure, suggesting a potentially less stressful treatment.
PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY-THEORY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Ivo Kaethner, Matthias Eidel, Anne-Sophie Haege, Annika Gram, Paul Pauli
Summary: This study found that even a brief observation of physicians' behavior towards a third person was sufficient to modulate pain tolerance of participants, despite maintaining emotional neutrality in direct interactions with the participants. This highlights the importance of physician empathy in treatment and suggests that aspects of patient-physician communication can be studied through this simulated experimental approach.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Iris Schelhorn, Swantje Schlueter, Kerstin Paintner, Youssef Shiban, Ricardo Lugo, Marie Meyer, Stefan Suetterlin
Summary: This study investigated the predictors of emotional changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in a German sample. Crisis self-efficacy and felt restriction were found to predict changes in both unpleasant emotions and joy. The use of emotion regulation strategies was weakly associated with changes in joy, with only savoring the moment predicting joy changes.
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Iris Schelhorn, Emily Buchner, Ferdinand Kosak, Fabian Hutmacher, Max Kinateder, Youssef Shiban
Summary: Emotional experience can influence cognitive estimates, with fear inducing the perception of infection rates being farther away and of shorter duration. Ratings of fear of COVID-19 also affect estimates of psychological distance.
COGNITION & EMOTION
(2022)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Marie Lisa Meyer, Arne Kaesler, Stefanie Wolffgramm, Nicolina Laura Peric, Gentian Bunjaku, Lilith Dickmann, Silvia Serino, Daniele Di Lernia, Cosimo Tuena, Luca Bernardelli, Elisa Pedroli, Brenda K. Wiederhold, Giuseppe Riva, Youssef Shiban
Summary: This study evaluates the impact of the online self-help protocol "COVID Feel Good" on the psychological burden during the COVID-19 pandemic in a German sample. The results show that this self-help protocol has significant effects in reducing general distress, depression, anxiety, and stress, and also improves social connectedness.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Angelika Ecker, Irina Jarvers, Daniel Schleicher, Stephanie Kandsperger, Iris Schelhorn, Marie Meyer, Thomas Borchert, Michael Luedtke, Youssef Shiban
Summary: This study found that in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, being a parent (whether with or without children at home) does not necessarily increase additional psychological burden, but rather offers better coping strategies.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Paul Geoerg, Jette Schumann, Maik Boltes, Max Kinateder
Summary: Despite previous research focused on homogeneous crowds and young adults without disabilities, this study examines pedestrian movement in more diverse and heterogeneous crowd conditions, particularly when individuals with reduced mobility are present. The study found that participants with disabilities reduced their speed further away from a bottleneck compared to participants without disabilities, and that participants without disabilities stayed closer to neighbors with disabilities. The study emphasizes the importance of studying heterogeneous samples in crowd dynamics and highlights the need for interdisciplinary research to better understand the dynamics of interactions between neighbors in a crowd.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Isabel Neumann, Ivo Kaethner, Daniel Gromer, Paul Pauli
Summary: Virtual verbal support in virtual reality can positively influence physiological pain responses, but has no effect on pain ratings. The perceived agency of virtual characters does not significantly affect pain responses.
COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Steve M. V. Gwynne, Enrico Ronchi, Jonathan Wahlqvist, Arturo Cuesta, Javier Gonzalez Villa, Erica D. Kuligowski, Amanda Kimball, Guillermo Rein, Max Kinateder, Noureddine Benichou, Hui Xie
Summary: This paper presents a dataset collected during a community evacuation drill in Roxborough Park, Colorado (USA) in 2019. The data was used to benchmark two evacuation models that adopt different modelling approaches. The analysis showed that the models' performance was sensitive to the assumptions made for pre-evacuation time inputs.
Article
Computer Science, Software Engineering
Jinghuai Lin, Johrine Cronje, Carolin Wienrich, Paul Pauli, Marc Erich Latoschik
Summary: Photorealistic avatars have great potential in social VR and VR collaboration, but identity and privacy issues may compromise their authenticity. To enhance overall trustworthiness, we designed visual indicators (VIs) to convey avatars' authenticity status and investigated the impact of different interactivity levels. Our findings suggest that using a full name can increase trust, and we developed design guidelines for visual indicators as effective tools for conveying authenticity.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kirsten Hilger, Anne-Sophie Haege, Christina Zedler, Michael Jost, Paul Pauli
Summary: Research suggests that pain-associated approach and avoidance behaviors play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of chronic pain. A new Virtual Reality paradigm was introduced to study pain-related behavior and experiences, allowing for the evaluation of multiple dimensions. The findings indicate a rapid reduction in approach behavior in the presence of acute pain, along with slower effects on fear of movement-related pain and pain expectancy ratings. The removal of pain contingencies in the modification phase resulted in changes in all three indices. The study highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms involved in chronic pain and its therapy.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Anesthesiology
I. Neumann, M. Andreatta, P. Pauli, I. Kaethner
Summary: Virtual characters providing social support can reduce pain, and a more human appearance of the virtual characters has beneficial effects on social pain modulation. However, perceived agency does not have a significant impact.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PAIN
(2023)
Proceedings Paper
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Bruno Emond, Jean-Francois Lapointe, Max Kinateder, Eric DeMarbre, Maxine Berthiaume, Irina Kondratova, Natalia Cooper, Noureddine Benichou, Stephen Downes
Summary: This paper reports on the progress made in developing a virtual reality training environment for novice first responders in remote areas to acquire situational awareness and procedural knowledge for the management of dangerous goods transportation incidents.
LEARNING AND COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES: NOVEL TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTS, LCT 2022, PT II
(2022)
Review
Psychology, Biological
Robert W. Levenson
Summary: This article describes the development of paradigms for studying dyadic interaction in the laboratory, methods, and analytics for dealing with dyadic data. It provides research findings from the author and others, with a particular focus on dyadic measures of linkage or synchrony in physiology, expressive behavior, and subjective affective experience.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2024)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Thomas M. Olino, Matthew Mattoni
Summary: This study examined brain function in offspring of mothers with and without depression using monetary and social reward tasks. The results showed no significant differences in task activation and functional connectivity between the two groups. The study discussed the possibility of developmental timing in finding differences.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2024)
