Beatriz Rey

Immersion and Emotion: Their Impact on the Sense of Presence

The present study is designed to test the role of immersion and media content in the sense of presence. Specifically, we are interested in the affective valence of the virtual environments. This paper describes an experiment that compares three immersive systems (a PC monitor, a rear projected video wall, and a head-mounted display) and two virtual environments, one involving emotional content and the other not. The purpose of the experiment was to test the interactive role of these two media characteristics (form and content). Scores on two self-report presence measurements were compared among six groups of 10 people each. The results suggest that both immersion and affective content have an impact on presence. However, immersion was more relevant for non-emotional environments than for emotional ones.

Changing induced moods via virtual reality

Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are designed to induce emotional changes in experimental subjects in a controlled way, manipulating variables inside the laboratory. The induced mood should be an experimental analogue of the mood that would occur in a certain natural situation. Our team has developed an MIP using VR (VR-MIP) in order to induce different moods (sadness, happiness, anxiety and relaxation). The virtual environment is a park, which changes according to the mood to be induced. This work will present data about the efficacy of this procedure not only to induce a mood, but also to change after the mood is induced.

Internet-based telehealth system for the treatment of agoraphobia.

In this work that is being validated within the VEPSY project, we present a system that allows the patient to continue a psychological virtual reality treatment from his or her home PC as complementary therapy. In the consulting room, we have been using virtual therapy for panic disorder and agoraphobia treatment to expose the patient to several situations. For the complementary therapy, a structured treatment via the Internet has been prepared, which consists of several parts: an assessment protocol; a structured treatment protocol organized in several blocks (such as psychoeducation and exposure); and an outcome protocol. The same situations as in the consulting room have been selected for the exposure, but each of them has been divided into several virtual environments with specific characteristics that limit its difficulty level. The stimuli that are used at each level are controlled automatically by the system. The information of the patient is stored in a database, which is placed in a remote server using XML format and used to control which stages of the treatment he or she can access. The psychologist can limit the evolution of the patient. The virtual environments are installed in the patients PC, and they are implemented with a mechanism that ensures that they can only be run when the patient connects to the web. The user should not have any special virtual reality hardware at home, so head rotations have been simulated with the navigation system.

A Neuroscience Approach to Virtual Reality Experience Using Transcranial Doppler Monitoring

Virtual reality enables people to behave and feel as if they were present in a virtual environment and therefore is a useful tool in many fields. In order to study the usefulness of virtual environments, the concept of presence is examined. Up to now, the most common method to measure presence has been to use subjective measures based on validated questionnaires about user experience. However, more objective measurements, such as physiological measurements, are now being considered. In this study, transcranial Doppler (TCD) sonography is presented as a brain activity measurement technique that can be used to study presence in virtual environments. Thirty-two subjects navigated in a virtual environment in different immersive conditions while TCD was monitored. The results show that there are changes in blood flow velocity in the subjects during moments associated with different levels of presence.

Brain activity and presence: a preliminary study in different immersive conditions using transcranial Doppler monitoring

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) sonography is a brain activity measurement technique that monitors the hemodynamic characteristics of the major cerebral arteries in normal and pathological conditions. As it is not invasive, it can be easily used in combination with virtual environments (VE). In the present study, TCD has been used to analyze brain activity variations in different presence conditions during the exposure to a VE. Forty-two subjects have taken part in the experience grouped in two different visualization conditions: a CAVE-like and a single screen projection configuration. In each session, two different navigation conditions were used: a free navigation (controlled by the subject) and an automatic navigation (controlled by the system). Results show that these immersion and navigation modifications in the VE generate changes in brain activity that can be detected using TCD techniques. Several factors, one of them being presence, could be having an influence on this behavior.

VR-mirror: a virtual reality system for mental practice in post-stroke rehabilitation

Developments in basic neurological research and techniques used to train professional athletes suggest that one way of facilitating this learning process of motor schemas is through the use of motor imagery, a training technique in which the procedure required to perform a task is mentally rehearsed in absence of actual physical movement. Clinical studies have shown that rehabilitation of hemiplegic and hemiparetic patients can be improved by integrating physical and mental practice. In this paper, we describe an advanced virtual reality workbench, the VR- Mirror, that it has been designed to support stroke patients with upper-limb hemiplegia in generating motor images. The development of this prototype has been supported by the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) – IST programme (Project I-Learning, IST 2001-38861).

An fMRI Study to Analyze Neural Correlates of Presence during Virtual Reality Experiences

This study was funded by the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia Spain, Project Game Teen (TIN2010-20187) and partially by projects Consolider-C (SEJ2006-14301/PSIC), ‘CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, an initiative of ISCIII’, the Excellence Research Program PROMETEO (Generalitat Valenciana. Conselleria de Educacion, 2008-157) and the Consolider INGENIO program (CSD2007-00012). The work of Miriam Clemente was supported by the Generalitat Valenciana under a VALi+d Grant.

A VR-Based Serious Game for Studying Emotional Regulation in Adolescents

People all use more or less adapted strategies to confront adverse emotional situations in their lives without being psychologically affected. The emotional regulation (ER) strategies that we use determine the way in which we feel, express, and behave. Moreover, ER strategies are particularly important in adolescents, a population for which ER strategy deficits can be linked to the appearance of numerous mental health disorders, such as depression or anxiety, or disruptive behaviors. Thus, the early detection of dysfunctional ER strategies and training in adaptive ER strategies can help prevent future occurrences of possible behavioral and psychosocial disorders. In this article, the authors present the GameTeen System (GT-System), a novel instrument based on virtual reality and serious games for the assessment and training of ER strategies in adolescents. The results of their preliminary evaluation suggest that this system can effectively train and evaluate emotional regulation strategies in adolescents.

Using an adaptive display for the treatment of emotional disorders: a preliminary analysis of effectiveness

A preliminary study on the use of an adaptive display for treating emotional disorders is presented. This adaptive display (named EMMA) varies the contents that are presented depending on the emotions of the user at each moment. The application has been designed to help in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Adjustment Disorder (AD). The specific objective of the present work is to test the effectiveness of this adaptive display, specifically the acceptance of the treatment by patients. EMMAs tools are compared with the standard of care for PTSD and AD. Results showed differences only for the variable aversiveness. Participants in the EMMA condition evaluated the treatment less unpleasant at post treatment, compared to participants in the traditional condition.

How the physical similarity of avatars can influence the learning of emotion regulation strategies in teenagers

Greater emotion regulation when observing a physically similar avatar.Greater frustration induction when observing a physically similar avatar.Greater physical identification with physically similar avatar.Significant change in brain when observing a physically similar avatar. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of the physical similarity of avatars with the user on emotion regulation strategy training. In this study twenty-four teenagers observed an avatar (either physically similar to the participant or neutral) that gets frustrated with his/her computer, after which he/she applies an emotion regulation strategy (slow breathing). The intensity of the emotional induction and regulation processes was measured using questionnaires and electroencephalogram data. The results show that observing an avatar that is physically similar to the participant has a significantly greater impact on emotional valence and arousal in participants and also induces emotional states that are significantly more intense than when observing a neutral avatar. The results seem to indicate significantly greater activation of specific brain regions that are related to these processes and greater identification with the avatar in terms of both subjective and objective measures in participants that observed an avatar that was physically similar to them. However, there were no significant differences in the sense of presence or the appeal (i.e., satisfaction) to participants regarding the virtual environment. The use of avatars in mental health applications is relatively new and its specific influence is still unknown. We consider this study to be a first step forward in better understanding the use of avatars in mental health applications for youth. This research brings new guidelines to the design of different types of applications in this field in order to achieve greater behavioral changes in youth.