A growing body of literature documents how exposure to another person's fear-related body odorants can increase one's own anxiety and interfere with processing of social information, such as facial expression and impression formation. Building on these results, we aimed to 1) test the hypothesis that exposure to fear-related odorant would affect impression formation through fear contagion and 2) verify whether these effects can be observed in an ecologically valid (i.e., virtual) environment. We proposed that exposure to fear-related odorant would cause receivers to feel more anxious, which in turn would lead them to report less trust toward an unknown virtual character. This study had 2 distinct phases. First, we collected perspiration odorants from the armpits of 12 male senders (i.e., the source of the odorant) during the viewing of either fear or joy inducing film clips. In the second phase, 53 women receivers were exposed to either a fear, joy, or neutral odorant (i.e., between-subjects design) by breathing through a gauze attached to a disposable respirator mask while immersed in a virtual bar. As expected, receivers exposed to fear odorants felt significantly more stressed. Mediation analysis also revealed an indirect effect of exposure on trust through anxiety. More specifically, the more anxious the receiver felt, the less she trusted the virtual character. Our results show for the first time that the impact of exposure to fear-related body odorants on negative interpersonal impression formation is mediated by the anxiety induced in the receiver.

Resumen: Pocos estudios se han centrado en los efectos secundarios negativos generados por la inmersión con realidad virtual (RV) en poblaciones clínicas que padecen ansiedad. Estos efectos son conocidos como "cibermareos" o "cybersickness". A partir de una revisión bibliográfica que combinó las palabras clave cybersickness y anxiety, se identificaron seis estudios que abordan estos tópicos. Estos estudios fueron revisados en el presente trabajo a fin de: (1) establecer una panorá-mica general de la prevalencia de los cibermareos en población clínica; (2) analizar la validez del Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, utilizado en muestras clínicas que padecen ansiedad y; (3) comprender mejor la superposición de los cibermareos y los síntomas inducidos por la ansiedad. Las conclusiones del presente trabajo, proporcionan reflexiones interesantes que pueden ser de utilidad para los profesionales de la salud que utilizan la RV como herramienta de tratamiento en personas que padecen ansiedad.Palabras clave: Cibermareos; realidad virtual; ansiedad. The negative side effects of virtual reality immersion in clinical populations with anxietyAbstract: Few studies have focused on the negative side effects caused by the immersion in virtual reality (VR) in clinical populations with anxiety. These effects are known as "cybersickness". Through a literature review that combined the keywords cybersickness and anxiety, six studies addressing these topics were identified. These studies were reviewed in this paper in order to: (1) establish an overview of the prevalence of cybersickness in clinical population; (2) analyze the validity of the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, using clinical samples with anxiety; (3) better understand the overlap of cybersickness and anxiety induced symptoms. The findings of this study provide interesting insights that may be useful for health professionals who use VR as a treatment tool for people with anxiety.Keywords: Cybersickness; virtual reality; anxiety. INTRODUCCIÓNEl uso de la realidad virtual (RV) ha despertado durante más de diez años, el interés de los Canadá. E -mail: stephane.bouchard@uqo.ca Agradecimientos: Este trabajo ha sido posible gracias a la Chaire de Recherche en Cyberpsychologie Clinique, en colaboración con l'Université du Québec en Outaouais. Y a la ayuda para estancias de movilidad en el extranjero de la Universidad Jaime I E-2014-23. clínicos y los investigadores, ya que permite a los usuarios hacer frente a situaciones temidas mediante ambientes estandarizados que emulan la realidad, y los cuales son capaces de evocar estados emocionales como la ansiedad, cogniciones y comportamientos que son muy similares a los que son experimentados en la vida cotidiana (Wiederhold y Bouchard, 2014). Aunque el uso de esta tecnología tiene muchas ventajas, los efectos sobre la salud y la seguridad de los usuarios siguen siendo áreas sin explorar. A menudo estos aspectos son abordados por los comités éticos de investigación

The aim of this study is to assess whether distraction (lack of attentional focus) and attention (cognitive load) are differentially involved in the analgesic effect of virtual reality (VR) immersions during a cold pressor test (CPT). Methods: Thirty-one participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions (high and low cognitive load, attention with or without a reminder of the pain stimuli) and performed three CPTs. Pain was assessed based on the duration of the CPT (pain tolerance), a visual analog rating scale of perceived pain intensity during the CPT and the subjective pain scale of the Short form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ). Results: The statistical analyses revealed that VR immersions were associated with less pain compared to the baseline (all p <0.001), but for the experimental manipulations, only the conditions where there was an increase in cognitive load (ie, from low cognitive load at Immersion 1 to high cognitive load at Immersion 2) were effective for increasing pain tolerance (significant Time X Conditions interaction). The interactions were not significant for pain intensity assessed with the VAS or the SF-MPQ. Conclusion: The results suggest that increases in cognitive load play an important role in the analgesic effect of VR immersion, although the combination of attentional focus and cognitive load may be important. Suggestions are given for designing a replication study.

Berenice serrAnobserrano@uji.es resumen introducción: Actualmente existe una alta prevalencia del trastorno de ansiedad social (tAs), siendo el miedo a hablar en público (mhp) el temor más común entre las personas con ansiedad social. La terapia cognitivo-conductual es considerada el tratamiento de elección y la exposición el componente nuclear del mismo. No obstante, la exposición en vivo o en imaginación, cuenta con limitaciones. Es por ello que en la última década se ha validado la eficacia de los ambientes virtuales (AV) como herramienta para realizar la exposición. El objetivo del presente estudio fue validar la eficacia de la interacción verbal con un avatar en un AV para producir ansiedad en una población clínica Españo-la. método: Participaron 42 voluntarios de los cuales la mitad fueron diagnosticados con tAs ó mhp (grupo clínico). Los participantes se expusieron a la interacción verbal con un avatar en un AV mientras realizaban varias tareas asociadas con diferentes subtipos de interacciones sociales. resultados: Los resultados señalan una respuesta de ansiedad significativamente mayor en el grupo clínico durante la inmersión en AV; así mismo, experimentaron valores significativamente más elevados de ansiedad en todos los subtipos de interacción social en el AV. Ambos grupos reportaron altos niveles de sentido de presencia, y ninguno informó haber experimentado efectos secundarios significativos a la exposición con el AV. discusión: Los hallazgos sugieren que la interacción con el AV es eficaz para producir ansiedad en personas con tAs o mhp con temores a diferentes interacciones sociales, y deja ver su potencial utilidad en el tratamiento de estos trastornos.palabras clave: ansiedad social, avatar, realidad virtual, subtipos de interacción social, tratamiento psicológico. I V 186àgorA de sAlut. Vol. iV. issn: 2443 -9827. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/AgorAsAlut.2017 Abstract introduction: Prevalence of social anxiety disorder (sAd) is high and public speaking anxiety (psA) is the most widespread fear among people with social anxiety. Cognitive behavioural therapy is considered the treatment of choice and exposure therapy its main component. However, in vivo or in imagination exposure has limitations. In the last decade, research on virtual reality exposure therapy (Vret) has demonstrated its effectiveness as an alternative tool for exposure. As technology has improved in recent years, research on Vr environments has focused mainly on using virtual humans (avatars) to show their therapeutic usefulness as they are able to produce anxiety when people interact with them. method: The present study consisted in a Spanish sample (n = 42), half of whom were diagnosed with sAd or psA, and the other half were healthy subjects. They were all exposed to verbal interaction with an avatar in a Vr environment while they performed tasks associated with different types of social interactions. results: The results showed an increased anxiety response in the clinical population after Vret. The participants with sAd and...