Physiological response to a speech stressor presented in a virtual reality environment

Area of Science:

• Psychophysiology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Stress Research

Background:

• Assessing the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) for inducing physiological stress responses.
• Investigating VR as a controlled environment for laboratory stress induction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate VR's capability in eliciting measurable physiological stress.
• To compare VR-induced stress responses with traditional stress tasks.

Main Methods:

• 12 volunteers participated in laboratory sessions.
• Participants completed a speech task in VR and a math task outside VR.
• Physiological measures included blood pressure, heart rate, and plasma catecholamines.

Main Results:

• Both VR and non-VR tasks significantly increased systolic/diastolic blood pressure and heart rate.
• Plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine showed non-significant increases during tasks.
• VR demonstrated potential for consistent audience response variability.

Conclusions:

• VR technology is a feasible tool for inducing physiological stress responses.
• VR offers a promising alternative to current stress-induction methods.
• VR may reduce variability in audience reactions during stress tasks.