Embodying self-compassion within virtual reality and its effects on patients with depression

Background: Self-criticism is a ubiquitous feature of psychopathology and can be combatted by increasing levels of self-compassion. However, some patients are resistant to self-compassion. Aims: To investigate whether the effects of self-identification with virtual bodies within immersive virtual reality could be exploited to increase self-compassion in patients with depression. Method: We developed an 8-minute scenario in which 15 patients practised delivering compassion in one virtual body and then experienced receiving it from themselves in another virtual body. Results: In an open trial, three repetitions of this scenario led to significant reductions in depression severity and self-criticism, as well as to a significant increase in self-compassion, from baseline to 4-week follow-up. Four patients showed clinically significant improvement. Conclusions: The results indicate that interventions using immersive virtual reality may have considerable clinical potential and that further development of these methods preparatory to a controlled trial is now warranted

Paranoia and post-traumatic stress disorder in the months after a physical assault: a longitudinal study examining shared and differential predictors.

Background: Being physically assaulted is known to increase the risk of the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms but it may also skew judgements about the intentions of other people. The objectives of the study were to assess paranoia and PTSD after an assault and to test whether theory-derived cognitive factors predicted the persistence of these problems. Method: At 4 weeks after hospital attendance due to an assault, 106 people were assessed on multiple symptom measures (including virtual reality) and cognitive factors from models of paranoia and PTSD. The symptom measures were repeated 3 and 6 months later. Results: Factor analysis indicated that paranoia and PTSD were distinct experiences, though positively correlated. At 4 weeks, 33% of participants met diagnostic criteria for PTSD, falling to 16% at follow-up. Of the group at the first assessment, 80% reported that since the assault they were excessively fearful of other people, which over time fell to 66%. Almost all the cognitive factors (including information-processing style during the trauma, mental defeat, qualities of unwanted memories, self-blame, negative thoughts about self, worry, safety behaviours, anomalous internal experiences and cognitive inflexibility) predicted later paranoia and PTSD, but there was little evidence of differential prediction. Conclusions: Paranoia after an assault may be common and distinguishable from PTSD but predicted by a strikingly similar range of factors

MoveBox: Democratizing MoCap for the Microsoft Rocketbox Avatar Library

This paper presents MoveBox an open sourced toolbox for animating motion captured (MoCap) movements onto the Microsoft Rocketbox library of avatars. Motion capture is performed using a single depth sensor, such as Azure Kinect or Windows Kinect V2. Motion capture is performed in real-time using a single depth sensor, such as Azure Kinect or Windows Kinect V2, or extracted from existing RGB videos offline leveraging deep-learning computer vision techniques. Our toolbox enables real-time animation of the user’s avatar by converting the transformations between systems that have different joints and hierarchies. Additional features of the toolbox include recording, playback and looping animations, as well as basic audio lip sync, blinking and resizing of avatars as well as finger and hand animations. Our main contribution is both in the creation of this open source tool as well as the validation on different devices and discussion of MoveBox’s capabilities by end users

The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars

As part of the open sourcing of the Microsoft Rocketbox avatar library for research and academic purposes, here we discuss the importance of rigged avatars for the Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR, AR) research community. Avatars, virtual representations of humans, are widely used in VR applications. Furthermore many research areas ranging from crowd simulation to neuroscience, psychology, or sociology have used avatars to investigate new theories or to demonstrate how they influence human performance and interactions. We divide this paper in two main parts: the first one gives an overview of the different methods available to create and animate avatars. We cover the current main alternatives for face and body animation as well introduce upcoming capture methods. The second part presents the scientific evidence of the utility of using rigged avatars for embodiment but also for applications such as crowd simulation and entertainment. All in all this paper attempts to convey why rigged avatars will be key to the future of VR and its wide adoption

Embodying self-compassion within virtual reality and its effects on patients with depression.

Background Self-criticism is a ubiquitous feature of psychopathology and can be combatted by increasing levels of self-compassion. However, some patients are resistant to self-compassion. Aims To investigate whether the effects of self-identification with virtual bodies within immersive virtual reality could be exploited to increase self-compassion in patients with depression. Method We developed an 8-minute scenario in which 15 patients practised delivering compassion in one virtual body and then experienced receiving it from themselves in another virtual body. Results In an open trial, three repetitions of this scenario led to significant reductions in depression severity and self-criticism, as well as to a significant increase in self-compassion, from baseline to 4-week follow-up. Four patients showed clinically significant improvement. Conclusions The results indicate that interventions using immersive virtual reality may have considerable clinical potential and that further development of these methods preparatory to a controlled trial is now warranted.N/

Embodying compassion: A virtual reality paradigm for overcoming excessive self-criticism

Virtual reality has been successfully used to study and treat psychological disorders such as phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder but has rarely been applied to clinically-relevant emotions other than fear and anxiety. Self-criticism is a ubiquitous feature of psychopathology and can be treated by increasing levels of self-compassion. We exploited the known effects of identification with a virtual body to arrange for healthy female volunteers high in self-criticism to experience self-compassion from an embodied first-person perspective within immersive virtual reality. Whereas observation and practice of compassionate responses reduced self-criticism, the additional experience of embodiment also increased self-compassion and feelings of being safe. The results suggest potential new uses for immersive virtual reality in a range of clinical conditions.N/

Publication rates and characteristics of PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy resident research projects

Introduction: To describe the publication rates and characteristics of PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residency projects presented as a poster presentation at the annual meetings of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) from 2002 to 2018. (As of 2022 the organization is under the name, American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists.) Methods: CPNP abstracts from even years were strategically searched in PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Google Scholar. If a publication was identified, additional data were collected for characterization, including study information, journal information, author information, institutional affiliation, publication year, and time to publication. Results: A total of 348 abstracts were evaluated. Publication in a journal was achieved for 60 projects (17.2%), with publication rates decreasing from 2012 to 2018. The mean time to publication was 17.3 months after completion of the residency, with most projects published at 8 months. More than half (51.7%) of these projects were published in a psychiatric pharmacy journal affiliated with CPNP. Study designs were predominantly retrospective, observational, cohort studies with a focus on evaluation of a drug therapy outcome. The PGY2 resident was the first author in 90% of the publications. Forty percent included other health care professionals outside of pharmacy as a coauthor. PGY2 residencies affiliated with academic institutions had overall higher publications rates. Discussion: Publication rates for PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residency projects are low and are decreasing over time despite an increasing number of PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residency programs. This publication rate is lower than that reported in the literature for PGY2 critical care residency programs. The downward trend of publication rates for PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residency projects is concerning

Human Balance Behaviour in Immersive Virtual Environments

Presence is defined as the illusion of being in a place depicted by an immersive virtual reality (IVR) system. A consequence of this illusion is that participants respond to places and events in an IVR as if they were real. Currently, there is no objective measure of presence that applies across all systems and applications. In this thesis we examine a particular type of response as if real, human balance behaviour (HBB), the actions that prevent the body’s centre of gravity from moving outside the base of support, as a way to measure presence in an IVR. Our first experiment was designed to investigate whether HBB can detect presence in IVRs. We used surface EMG to measure muscle activations and found an increase when subjects walked on a virtual raised platform compared to a virtual floor registered to the laboratory floor. A similar increase was found when subjects walked on a real raised platform. This provides evidence of real HBB induced by an IVR . In a second experiment HBB was used to compare partial-body and full-body tracking configurations. When participants viewed a lateral lean imposed on the torso of a synchronous virtual body (SVB), their stance angle changed in a compensatory direction. We found a weaker negative correlation indicating compensatory leaning in the partial-body tracking condition leaning. This suggests partial-body tracking may dampen the full-body illusion in IVRs. We carried out a case study to show the relevance of HBB for IVRs used for movement rehabilitation. Hemiparetic stroke patients observed a SVB that was colocated with their own. When an animation caused their virtual arms to rise up, we found evidence of counterbalancing in centre of pressure data that was not apparent when the subjects were told to simply imagine the movement. Here HBB directly indicates the effectiveness of an IVR application

Cognitive triggers of auditory hallucinations: an experimental investigation.

It has proved difficult to establish the internal process by which mental events are transformed into auditory hallucinations. The earlier stages of the generation of hallucinations may prove more accessible to research. Cognitions have been reported by patients as a trigger of auditory hallucinations, but the role of these preceding thoughts has not been causally determined. Therefore, the role of cognition in triggering auditory hallucinations was tested in an experimental study. Thirty individuals who experienced auditory hallucinations in social situations entered a neutral social situation presented using virtual reality. Participants randomised to the experimental condition were instructed to think their hallucination-preceding thoughts, and those randomised to the control condition were instructed to think neutral thoughts. Twenty-seven participants (93%) were able to spontaneously identify a cognition which preceded a hallucination. There was no difference between the experimental and control groups in the occurrence or severity of auditory hallucinations in virtual reality. Virtual reality did not lead to physical side effects or an increase in anxiety. The relationship between antecedent cognitions and auditory hallucinations is likely to be more complex than the one tested. It is argued that the effect of cognition on auditory hallucinations may be mediated by affect but this needs to be investigated through further experimental research

It feels real: physiological responses to a stressful virtual reality environment and its impact on working memory

Background Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used to study and treat psychiatric disorders. Its fidelity depends in part on the extent to which the VR environment provides a convincing simulation, for example whether a putatively stressful VR situation actually produces a stress response. Methods We studied the stress response in 28 healthy men exposed either to a stressor VR elevator (which simulated travelling up the outside of a tall building and culminated in the participant being asked to step off the elevator platform), or to a control elevator. We measured psychological and physiological (salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase, blood pressure, pulse, skin conductance) stress indices. We also measured subsequent performance on the N-back task because acute stress has been reported to impact on working memory. Results Compared to participants in the control elevator, those in the external elevator had increases in skin conductance, pulse and subjective stress and anxiety ratings, altered heart rate variability, and a delayed rise in cortisol. N-back performance was unaffected. Conclusions A putatively stressful VR elevator produces a physiological as well as a psychological stress response, supporting its use in the investigation and treatment of stress-related disorders, and its potential value as an experimental laboratory stressor.</p