Changing heartbeat perception to induce anxiety in virtual environments.

Area of Science:

• Virtual Reality (VR)
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Psychophysiology

Background:

• Virtual environments (VEs) are increasingly used for training and therapy.
• Inducing realistic anxiety responses in VEs is challenging.
• Existing methods often rely on basic audiovisual stimuli.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel biofeedback technique for anxiety induction in VEs.
• To compare the effectiveness of auditory heartbeat perception biofeedback against traditional stimuli.
• To measure physiological and subjective anxiety responses.

Main Methods:

• Development of a general technique using auditory heartbeat perception and biofeedback.
• Implementation in a VE simulating a fire evacuation scenario.
• Experimental comparison of three conditions: avatar injury indicator, audiovisual stimuli, and biofeedback with audiovisual stimuli.
• Electrodermal activity (EDA) measurement (skin conductance level - SCL) and subjective state anxiety assessment.

Main Results:

• The proposed biofeedback technique significantly increased physiological arousal (SCL) compared to other conditions.
• Subjective measures of state anxiety corroborated the physiological findings.
• The combination of biofeedback with audiovisual stimuli yielded the highest arousal.

Conclusions:

• Auditory heartbeat perception biofeedback is an effective method for enhancing anxiety induction in VEs.
• This technique offers a promising avenue for creating more immersive and impactful VR experiences.
• The findings have implications for VR-based training, therapy, and research on anxiety.