A New Questionnaire for Estimating the Severity of Visual Height Intolerance and Acrophobia by a Metric Interval Scale

Huppert, Doreen; Grill, Eva; Brandt, Thomas

doi:10.3389/fneur.2017.00211

Cited by 35 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The experiment was approved by the ethics committee of the UEFISCDI project 1/2018 and UPB CRC Research Grant 2017 and University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers. Prior to the experiment, the subjects signed a consent form and filled in a demographic and a Visual Height Intolerance questionnaire [101]. Prior to the tests, they were informed about the purpose of the experiment and research objectives.…”

Section: Experimental Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Various Machine and Deep Learning Techniques Applied in Automatic Fear Level Detection and Acrophobia Virtual Therapy

Bălan

Moise

Moldoveanu

et al. 2020

Sensors

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In this paper, we investigate various machine learning classifiers used in our Virtual Reality (VR) system for treating acrophobia. The system automatically estimates fear level based on multimodal sensory data and a self-reported emotion assessment. There are two modalities of expressing fear ratings: the 2-choice scale, where 0 represents relaxation and 1 stands for fear; and the 4-choice scale, with the following correspondence: 0—relaxation, 1—low fear, 2—medium fear and 3—high fear. A set of features was extracted from the sensory signals using various metrics that quantify brain (electroencephalogram—EEG) and physiological linear and non-linear dynamics (Heart Rate—HR and Galvanic Skin Response—GSR). The novelty consists in the automatic adaptation of exposure scenario according to the subject’s affective state. We acquired data from acrophobic subjects who had undergone an in vivo pre-therapy exposure session, followed by a Virtual Reality therapy and an in vivo evaluation procedure. Various machine and deep learning classifiers were implemented and tested, with and without feature selection, in both a user-dependent and user-independent fashion. The results showed a very high cross-validation accuracy on the training set and good test accuracies, ranging from 42.5% to 89.5%. The most important features of fear level classification were GSR, HR and the values of the EEG in the beta frequency range. For determining the next exposure scenario, a dominant role was played by the target fear level, a parameter computed by taking into account the patient’s estimated fear level.

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Section: Experimental Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Various Machine and Deep Learning Techniques Applied in Automatic Fear Level Detection and Acrophobia Virtual Therapy

Bălan

Moise

Moldoveanu

et al. 2020

Sensors

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“…The used questionnaire does not allow us to differentiate between vHI and the specific phobia fear of heights. In the meantime such a questionnaire has been developed ( 41 ) which was not available at the time of the study. Furthermore, the onset of BVP remains particularly unclear for most patients since it may be abrupt (i.e., secondary to ototoxic antibiotics) or slowly progressive and asymmetric, involving one ear in the beginning with subsequent involvement of the second ear.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Susceptibility to Fear of Heights in Bilateral Vestibulopathy and Other Disorders of Vertigo and Balance

et al. 2018

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Aims: To determine the susceptibility to visual height intolerance (vHI) in patients with acquired bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP). The question was whether postural instability in BVP, which is partially compensated for by visual substitution of the impaired vestibular control of balance, leads to an increased susceptibility. This is of particular importance since fear of heights is dependent on body posture, and visual control of balance at heights can no longer substitute vestibular input. For comparison susceptibility to vHI was determined in patients with other vestibular or functional disorders.Methods: A total of 150 patients aged 18 or above who had been referred to the German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders and diagnosed to have BVP were surveyed with a standardized questionnaire by specifically trained neurological professionals. Further, 481 patients with other vestibular or functional disorders were included.Results: Susceptibility to vHI was reported by 29% (32 % in females, 25% in males) of the patients with BVP. Patients with vHI were slightly younger (67 vs. 71 years). Seventy percent of those with vHI reported avoidance of climbing, hiking, stairs, darkness, cycling or swimming (84% of those without vHI). Mean age for onset of vHI was 40 years. Susceptibility to vHI was higher in patients with other vertigo disorders than in those with BVP: 64% in those with phobic postural vertigo, 61% in vestibular migraine, 56% in vestibular paroxysmia, 54% in benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, 49% in unilateral vestibulopathy and 48% in Menière's disease.Conclusions: The susceptibility to vHI in BVP was not higher than that of the general population (28%).This allows two explanations that need not be alternatives but contribute to each other: (1) Patients with a bilateral peripheral vestibular deficit largely avoid exposure to heights because of their postural instability. (2) The irrational anxiety to fall from heights triggers increased susceptibility to vHI, not the objective postural instability. However, patients with BVP do not exhibit increased comorbid anxiety disorders. This view is supported by the significantly increased susceptibility to vHI in other vestibular syndromes, which are characterized by an increased comorbidity of anxiety disorders.

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“…To measure the severity of acrophobia, we employed the visual height intolerance (vHI) questionnaire [30]. This questionnaire has an opening question followed by eight items and results in a severity score (vHISS) between 0 (low) and 13 (high).…”

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To identify and eventually exclude participants who fulfill the psychiatric criteria of acrophobia, we asked them to answer the vHI questionnaire [30]. The vHI questionnaire was only presented to the 16 participants who affirmed the opening question; none of the users gave indications to suffer from acrophobia.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Physical Props in VR Climbing Environments

Schulz

Alexandrovsky

Putze

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Dealing with fear of falling is a challenge in sport climbing. Virtual reality (VR) research suggests that using physical and reality-based interaction increases the presence in VR. In this paper, we present a study that investigates the influence of physical props on presence, stress and anxiety in a VR climbing environment involving whole body movement. To help climbers overcoming fear of falling, we compared three different conditions: Climbing in reality at 10 m height, physical climbing in VR (with props attached to the climbing wall) and virtual climbing in VR using game controllers. From subjective reports and biosignals, our results show that climbing with props in VR increases the anxiety and sense of realism in VR for sport climbing. This suggests that VR in combination with physical props are an effective simulation setup to induce the sense of height. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; Haptic devices; Empirical studies in HCI.

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A New Questionnaire for Estimating the Severity of Visual Height Intolerance and Acrophobia by a Metric Interval Scale

Cited by 35 publications

References 14 publications

An Investigation of Various Machine and Deep Learning Techniques Applied in Automatic Fear Level Detection and Acrophobia Virtual Therapy

An Investigation of Various Machine and Deep Learning Techniques Applied in Automatic Fear Level Detection and Acrophobia Virtual Therapy

Susceptibility to Fear of Heights in Bilateral Vestibulopathy and Other Disorders of Vertigo and Balance

The Role of Physical Props in VR Climbing Environments

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