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Related Concept Videos

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder01:28

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition characterized by recurrent obsessions, compulsions, or both, which consume significant time and interfere with daily functioning. Obsessions involve persistent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts, images, or urges that evoke anxiety. Common examples include irrational fears of contamination or harm. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessions. For instance, individuals...

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Related Experiment Video

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Brain Activation During Virtual Reality Symptom Provocation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Proof-of-Concept Study.

Martine J van Bennekom1, Guido van Wingen1, Willem Benjamin Bruin1

  • 1Adult Psychiatry Amsterdam UMC location University of Amsterdam Amsterdam Netherlands.

JMIR XR and Spatial Computing
|December 4, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Virtual reality (VR) games show a trend in activating brain regions like the amygdala in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Further research with larger sample sizes is needed to confirm these findings for OCD symptom provocation.

Keywords:
MRIOCDVRneuroimagingobsessive-compulsive disordersymptom provocationvirtual reality

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Medical Imaging

Background:

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition defined by obsessions and compulsions.
  • Previous research demonstrated virtual reality (VR) games can provoke and measure OCD symptoms.
  • This study explored if a VR game activates brain regions linked to OCD symptom provocation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate neural activation in OCD patients during VR symptom provocation and compulsive actions.
  • To identify specific brain regions engaged by interactive OCD-related events in VR.
  • To examine the relationship between OCD severity and brain activation during VR tasks.

Main Methods:

  • A proof-of-concept study involving 9 OCD patients and 9 healthy controls.
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measured brain activity during VR game play.
  • Analysis focused on brain activation related to OCD events and virtual compulsions, with trend significance (P<.10) reported due to sample size.

Main Results:

  • A trend for increased left amygdala activation (P=.07) was observed in OCD patients during OCD-related events.
  • Trends for bilateral amygdala (P=.06, P=.09) and right insula (P=.09) activation were noted during virtual compulsive actions.
  • Observed amygdala and insula activation did not significantly correlate with OCD severity.

Conclusions:

  • VR successfully elicits brain activation patterns consistent with prior provocation studies.
  • Findings suggest VR's potential as a novel tool for interactive symptom provocation in neuroimaging research.
  • Replication with larger sample sizes is crucial to validate these preliminary results.