1,721,211 research outputs found
Biofeedback interventions using immersive virtual natural environment: A scoping review
No full textThis work presents a scoping review of psychological interventions where biofeedback is enhanced by immersive natural Virtual Reality scenarios. Our target is to describe the biofeedback implementations in which the physiological feedback to the user is embedded in the design of the virtual environment. We focus specifically on the studies leveraging natural environment scenarios, as these are proven to enhance the sense of presence in the user. After a thorough screening of search results, we selected 16 articles fulfilling these desired criteria
Venturing through storm and stress. A virtual reality app for the assessment of Emotional Sensitivity
No full textResearch has shown that emotion (dys)regulation is a central feature in adolescence, resulting from the mutual interactions between neurobiological and temperamental features. Indeed, a lack in the ability to regulate affective states is related to a wide range of pathological outcomes and behavioral problems. Emotional sensitivity (ES) is a dispositional feature that drives individuals to perceive more negative emotions in response to a broad range of stimuli and has been shown to foster maladaptive emotion regulation strategies both in clinical and non-clinical populations. Nevertheless, ES has not been uniquely operationalized and studied. This contribution's main objective is to suggest the development of a Virtual Reality (VR) app for assessing ES through different custom-made scenarios. A group of adolescents and a group of young adults will participate in 20-minute evaluations using a new technological app to assess ES via a head-tracked Head Mounted Display (HMD). Each subject might be inside an emotionally neutral, positive, or negative social environment. The subject must try to recognize different emotions in specific characters (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise) and then rate his/her emotional experience after every task. A validated device will record Heart Rate Variability as a further measure of emotion regulation. This innovative app allows us to explore ES in an ecological and valid environment, providing useful information on it as a result of the multilevel associations between self-reported and physiological levels of emotional activation, emotion recognition, and cognitive reappraisal. The ES app will provide reliable information for clinical use and research
Let’s dive into it! exploring mentalizing abilities in adolescence in an immersive 360° environment
No full textAdolescence is a crucial developmental phase encompassing sometimes rapid changes in the psychological processes concerning the quality of interpersonal relationships, i.e., social cognition (SC). Mentalization is a form of SC that describes the ability to understand behaviors in terms of underlying mental states such as thoughts, emotions, and motivations (theory of mind, ToM). However, mentalization assessment showed mixed findings and highlighted the need for valid ecological measures to capture the complexity of adolescents' subjective experience of "making sense" of interpersonal relationships. Assessment with 360° videos enables an engaging and immersive environment fostering a first-person and realistic experience. This contribution's main objective is to suggest the development of a new tool for assessing mentalizing abilities (MA) in adolescence through an immersive technology-based approach. Subjects participate in 25/30 minutes evaluations using a new technological app to assess MA via a head-tracked Head Mounted Display (HMD). Each subject is inside a virtual apartment and observes the interaction between some characters. The subject must try to evaluate their thoughts, emotions, and motivations. The HMD device will assess the participants' ability to make inferential thoughts about others' states of mind and a validated device will record Heart Rate Variability as a measure of emotion regulation. This protocol allows thoroughly evaluating MA in an ecological and valid environment via an innovative technology-based approach, providing useful insights on the individuals’ specific abilities/deficiencies. This innovative and engaging tool will provide reliable information for clinical use and research about adolescents, often adverse to psychological assessment
New Horizons for Neuropsychological Assessment: a Novel Platform for Building Cognitive Tasks with 360-degree Videos and Images
No full textNeuropsychological testing aims to evaluate cognitive abilities on a behavioral task. Most neuropsychological tests are conducted using paper-and-pencil modality or computerized protocols. Recent concerns about the effectiveness of these procedures have focused on their ecological validity, i.e., the relationship between test results seen in a laboratory setting and actual daily cognitive functioning. The emergence of virtual reality presents new clinical and experimental opportunities since it is focused on exposing people to simulated but realistic stimuli and environments while simultaneously maintaining a controlled laboratory environment and gathering cutting-edge measures of cognitive functioning. An additional opportunity for neuropsychological assessment in the field of VR are 360° immersive images and videos. Although recent studies have provided encouraging results for memory and executive function testing, their use in neuropsychological assessment is not yet so widespread. One issue might be the challenge of creating tools or modifying 360-degree videos in accordance with clinical requirements. This study aims to present a platform to develop ecologically valid and controlled environments, with standardized multimodal stimulation, precisely calibrated feedback about the performance, and automatic registration of outcomes. Two memory tests will be presented: an object recognition task and a spatial memory task. Implementing 360° media does not require the knowledge and understanding of advanced technical skills, and the equipment needed to record and visualize them is more affordable than a standard VR setup. By evaluating behaviors in real-world situations, this platform could make it possible to develop ecological testing or enhance existing ones with higher rate of ecological validity
Virtual reality for the assessment and rehabilitation of neglect: where are we now? A 6-year review update
No full textUnilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a frequent repercussion of a cerebrovascular accident, typically a stroke. USN patients fail to orient their attention to the contralesional side to detect auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli, as well as to collect and purposely use this information. Traditional methods for USN assessment and rehabilitation include paper-and-pencil procedures, which address cognitive functions as isolated from other aspects of patients’ functioning within a real-life context. This might compromise the ecological validity of these procedures and limit their generalizability; moreover, USN evaluation and treatment currently lacks a gold standard. The field of technology has provided several promising tools that have been integrated within the clinical practice; over the years, a “first wave” has promoted computerized methods, which cannot provide an ecological and realistic environment and tasks. Thus, a “second wave” has fostered the implementation of virtual reality (VR) devices that, with different degrees of immersiveness, induce a sense of presence and allow patients to actively interact within the life-like setting. The present paper provides an updated, comprehensive picture of VR devices in the assessment and rehabilitation of USN, building on the review of Pedroli et al. (2015). The present paper analyzes the methodological and technological aspects of the studies selected, considering the issue of usability and ecological validity of virtual environments and tasks. Despite the technological advancement, the studies in this field lack methodological rigor as well as a proper evaluation of VR usability and should improve the ecological validity of VR-based assessment and rehabilitation of USN
Problematic internet use as a moderator between personality dimensions and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescence
No full textDigital technology use plays an essential role in adolescents’ psychological adjustment, impacting their mental health and well-being. In this scenario, Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is a risky condition for developing behavioral addiction in adolescence. Most of the research on PIU in adolescence focus on dimensions that may amplify or buffer it, finding significant associations between PIU and interpersonal problems with peers, maladaptive personality traits, low self-esteem, emotion dysregulation, and increasing psychological difficulties. It has been suggested that PIU might represent a maladaptive coping strategy to tackle problematic psychosocial functioning. In this line, the current cross-sectional study focused on PIU’s role in the association between personality dimensions and internalizing/externalizing problems. Two-hundred thirty-one middle and late adolescents (age range 15–19 years; 62% Female) attending public junior high schools in Italy completed the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Adolescent Personality Structure Questionnaire (APS-Q), and the Youth Self Report (YSR). Moderation analyses were used to test the hypothesis that higher PIU amplifies the relationship between maladaptive personality dimensions and psychological symptoms. Results indicated that only high PIU influenced the relationship between difficulties in building significant relationships with peers and internalizing problems. Conversely, PIU buffered the relationship between difficulties in adolescents’ sense of self (identity) and internalizing problems and the association between aggression regulation and internalizing problems, supporting the role of PIU as a maladaptive coping strategy. These findings encourage accurately evaluating PIU as a risk factor in adolescence: (1) considering how high PIU’s presence should impact the relationship between adolescent personality and the quality of their relationships with peers; (2) acknowledging the role of PIU as a regulation strategy for identity difficulties and aggression dysregulation
Cyberintervention on plant workforce’s mental activity for safety
No full textStress is recognized as an important health and safety indicator in work environments as it can both endanger workers and hinder companies’ workflow. HRV is recognized as a good psychophysiological indicator of personal stress and can also be detected with innovative wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) bands which allow us to obtain recordings in real-life situations. This work proposes an innovative procedure for the assessment and a subsequent intervention against stress, using an AI approach for the detection of unhealthy stress status followed by a VR heart rate variability biofeedback treatment to address it. The procedure consists of assessing personal data and stress and tiredness levels of workers, and then collecting their ECG data through the cardio band Zephyr BioHarness during a standard workday. Researchers will shadow the participants without interfering, labeling each activity according to a predefined scale in clusters of homogeneous behaviors. After preliminary analysis, the data will populate a database to be used to train an AI with the goal to detect patterns related to stress and find out which HRV components are best at predicting stress. To compare our on-field recordings, we will also use data from open-source databases, with physiological registration of stressful situations. This procedure was tested on 11 plant workers during a standard job day
Setting-up a clinical trial: Some methodological recommendations
No full textWell-designed clinical trials are the gold standard for evidence-based research and for the assessment of the effectiveness of a clinical intervention. Methodological guidelines are available from various sources, such as textbook, funding applications and institutional guidelines. Nevertheless, a high number of published trials still lack methodological rigor, decreasing their utility, quality and scientific validity. In this article, we aim at providing some methodological recommendations for the development and report of a clinical trial, including the definition and recruitment of the sample, the basic study designs, randomization, blindness, data analysis and data report. Finally, we will discuss some of the most important ethical issues
Using 360° Video in Psychometric Assessment of Cognitive Functions: SemApp and its Usability data
No full textThe effectiveness of psychometric tests in assessing real-world abilities is increasingly emerging as an issue in the neuropsychological field. Researchers stress the importance of collecting information that is more comparable to what is observed in reality. In comparison to traditional paper-and-pencil tests, 360-degree technology appears as a promising tool for offering lifelike experiences in a controlled and safe manner, maintaining high levels of graphical realism and immersion. Moreover, it appears technical user-friendliness compared to traditional computer-based virtual reality. These characteristics seem to be essential components for resolving the validity problem. Thus, we aim to investigate the potential benefits of using 360-degree technology for memory assessment. Based on previous evidence, the present study aims to create a novel application focused on two crucial components of everyday memory: spatial and episodic memory. We present and test the usability of semApp, which is composed of an object recognition task and a spatial memory task. Both evaluate memory by simulating a real-life situation: a relocation and the exploration of a house. This cross-platform tool can be deployed on the patients’ devices (e.g., tablets and smartphones) and guarantee an objective and standardized evaluation. 7 end-users judged the usability of the application. They were Mild Cognitive Impaired patients, who evaluate semApp as a promising tool for enhancing the ecological value of standard memory assessment tests
Understanding the relationship between Traumatic experiences and Compulsive Internet use through the lens of mentalization: A mediation analysis
No full textThis study aimed to investigate the association between history of traumatic experiences, compulsive Internet use, and reflective functioning in an Italian sample. The relationship between history of traumatic experiences and excessive Internet use was fully mediated by uncertain reflective functioning. Contrary to literature, no gender influence was found. Our preliminary findings provide additional insight into the psychological processes underlying excessive Internet use
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