Exploring interaction with environmental affordances in schizophrenia spectrum disorders using virtual reality.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Schizophrenia is linked to altered perception of environmental affordances.
• Previous research used static tasks, not reflecting real-world dynamic perception-action.
• Immersive virtual reality (VR) offers a novel approach to study these dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate environmental exploration and interaction in schizophrenia using immersive VR.
• To compare visual exploration patterns between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
• To explore the relationship between anomalous world experiences and VR-based behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory study with 19 patients with schizophrenia and 19 healthy controls.
• Utilized immersive VR with natural/urban 360° video environments and an interactive game.
• Recorded and coded field of view data; assessed subjective affect, stress, and presence.

Main Results:

• Schizophrenia patients showed significantly reduced visual exploration (fewer gaze shifts/min), especially in urban scenes.
• Object interaction in a VR game was comparable, but social interaction initiation showed longer latencies.
• Reduced fixation on virtual characters' faces correlated with specific anomalous world experiences.

Conclusions:

• Immersive VR reveals subtle alterations in environmental exploration in schizophrenia.
• Basic object interaction appears preserved, but social interaction initiation may be affected.
• VR paradigms show promise for studying altered subject-world relations in psychosis.