Social Environment Simulation in VR Elicits a Distinct Reaction in Subjects with Different Levels of Anxiety and Somatoform Dissociation

ABSTRACT

Virtual reality has taken many great strides in the recent years. It is increasingly used and is an accepted means of delivering behavioral therapy for phobias and anxiety disorders. In this paper, we examine methods of virtual reality stress induction for use in treatment of somatoform and anxiety disorders, as well as the adequate measures of the evoked stress response. In total, 42 healthy subjects took part in testing as part of this study. The results show that electrodermal activity is more sensitive in capturing a subject reaction to non-interactive social environment simulation while cardiovascular parameters better reflect task-related stress. Furthermore, our results suggest a distinct relationship between electrodermal activity and anxiety and cardiovascular parameters and somatoform dissociation. These results can point to a possibility of virtual reality utilization in the research and treatment of disorders in which anxiety and somatization are important features.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the grant of Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic 16-31457A. The study was approved by the Ethical Committee at the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bojan Kerous

Bojan Kerous is a doctoral student in Visual Computing department of Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University with interests in affective and multimodal human-computer interaction and particular focus on Augmented and Vitrual Reality technologies and applications.

Richard Barteček

Richard Barteček is a psychiatrist and the deputy for education at the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University and University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic. His main research interests include neuroimaging, affective disorders and utilization of VR in a wide array of psychiatric disorders.

Robert Roman

Robert Roman is experienced in neurophysiology with a focus on electrophysiological correlates of brain functions studied by intracerebral electrodes; he is a researcher at CEITEC MU and an assistant professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno.

Petr Sojka

Petr Sojka is a psychologist with an interest in functional neurological disorders, interoceptive awareness and brain imaging. He is a doctoral student in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University.

Ondřej Bečev

Ondřej Bečev is a researcher in behavioral neuroscience with an interest in neurophysiology of voluntary agency, consciousness and methodology of subjective reporting. He is a doctoral researcher at Behavioral and Social Neuroscience research group, CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology, Brno.

Fotis Liarokapis

Fotis Liarokapis is an Associate Professor and the director of the HCI Laboratory at Masaryk University, Faculty of Informatics at Brno, Czech Republic. He has organized multiple conferences and workshops and he is the co-founder of the International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games).