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Virtual reality

as a tool for anxiety disorder research

Exposure Therapy Research

Several of our current studies focus on the mechanisms of exposure therapy in VR. VR is a suitable instrument for this research field as it provides the possibility to generate controllable and easily adjustable experimental settings.

VR as a tool to create multiple contexts in exposure therapy research.

In one study we analyzed the effects of multiple context exposure on fear renewal in spider phobia. Renewal of fear is one form of relapse that occurs after successful exposure therapy as a result of an encounter with a feared object in a context different from the exposure context. The results were that virtual spiders elicit self-report and physiological fear response in spider phobic patients and virtual reality exposure (VRE) in multiple contexts reduces renewal of fear.

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Shiban, Y., Pauli, P., & Mühlberger, A. (2013). Effect of multiple context exposure on renewal in spider phobia. Behaviour research and therapy, 51(2), 68-74.

VR-Brille

Social Interactions Research

Another research focus at our department are social interactions, which are often relevant for experiencing stress in private as well as professional contexts. They are also a defining component of several mental disorders and point of intervention in psychotherapy. 

VR as a tool to investigate aspects of social interactions.

To shed more light on various aspects of social interactions, we utilize virtual reality paradigms, with the ultimate goal to develop tools to investigate social interactions, which can also be used in mental illness prevention programs and to treat social anxiety.

 

In one study we investigated social conditioning and extinction in humans using an operant social fear conditioning paradigm in VR. Virtual male agents served as conditioned stimuli (CS). During the acquisition phase, unconditioned stimuli (US): a combination of an air blast and a female scream, were presented when participants reached the virtual male agent. During the extinction and the test phases, no US was delivered. After the acquisition phase the CS+ was rated clearly less pleasant than the CS-. Furthermore, the heart rate remained high for the CS+, while the HR for the CS- was clearly lower after than before the acquisition. Importantly, at the generalization test, higher socially fearful participants rated pleasantness of all agents as low whereas the lower socially fearful participants rated pleasantness as low only for the CS+. These findings suggest that the paradigm is suitable to expand the knowledge about the learning and unlearning of social fears.

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Mühlberger, A., Shiban, Y., Reichenberger, J., & Neumann, I. D. (2015). Social conditioning and extinction paradigm: A translational study in virtual reality. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.0040

Behind the scenes

Here you can see photos from our research projects

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