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Updated: May 8, 2026
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Virtual Reality Experiments with Physiological Measures
Published on: August 29, 2018
Virtual reality experiments linking social environment and psychosis: a pilot study.
Wim Veling1, Willem-Paul Brinkman, Emily Dorrestijn
11 Parnassia Psychiatric Institute , The Hague, The Netherlands .
Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking
|September 3, 2013
Summary
Virtual reality (VR) is a feasible tool for studying psychosis. VR environments help understand social mechanisms of first episode psychosis (FEP) and may aid in developing new treatments.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Psychology
- Virtual Reality Technology
Background:
- Virtual reality (VR) shows promise for investigating psychosis mechanisms.
- Previous studies indicate VR is safe for individuals with persecutory delusions.
- This pilot study explores VR feasibility in first episode psychosis (FEP).
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the feasibility and side effects of VR social risk environments in FEP patients and healthy controls (HC).
- To investigate paranoid thoughts and their correlates in virtual social settings.
- To examine the impact of avatar population density and ethnicity on paranoia.
Main Methods:
- Seventeen FEP patients and 24 HC underwent four VR experiments in a virtual café.
- Participants encountered avatars with varying population densities and ethnicities.
- Measures included paranoid thoughts, psychological, physiological (galvanic skin response), and behavioral responses.
Main Results:
- Both FEP patients and HC reported paranoid thoughts about avatars.
- Real-world paranoia strongly correlated with virtual paranoia in both groups.
- FEP patients maintained less distance to avatars and showed heightened galvanic skin response to avatars of different ethnicities compared to HC.
Conclusions:
- VR is an acceptable and realistic method for use with FEP patients.
- VR research can enhance understanding of psychosis's social and psychological mechanisms.
- VR holds potential for developing novel treatment applications for psychosis.
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