Seeking neutral: A VR-based person-identity-matching task for attentional bias modification – A randomised controlled experiment

Abstract

Background Attentional bias modification (ABM) aims to reduce anxiety by attenuating bias towards threatening information. The current study incorporated virtual reality (VR) technology and 3-dimensional stimuli with a person-identity-matching (PIM) task to evaluate the effects of a VR-based ABM training on attentional bias and anxiety symptoms. Methods One hundred participants with elevated social anxiety were randomised to four training groups. Attentional bias was assessed at pre- and post-training, and anxiety symptoms were assessed at pre-training, post-training, 1-week follow-up, and 3-month follow-up. Results Change in anxiety did not correlate with change in bias ( r = −0.08). A repeated-measures ANOVA showed no significant difference in bias from pre- to post-ABM, or between groups. For anxiety symptoms, a linear mixed-effects model analysis revealed a significant effect of time. Participants showed reduction in anxiety score at each successive assessment ( p < .001, Nagelkerke's pseudo r 2 = 0.65). However, no other significant main effect or interactions were found. A clinically significant change analysis revealed that 4% of participants were classified as ‘recovered’ at 3-month follow-up. Conclusions A single session of VR-based PIM task did not change attentional bias. The significant reduction in anxiety was not specific to active training, and the majority of participants remained clinically unchanged.

Visualization and Interaction Technologies in Serious and Exergames for Cognitive Assessment and Training: A Survey on Available Solutions and Their Validation

“…[1], [9], [36], [60], [111], [128], [146], [151], [159] Standard test and game data 20<n<=60 [24], [39], [181] n>60 [76], [136], [201] Standard test and physiological data 20<n<=60 [43], [88], [158], [177], [204] Clinical practice Articles Healthcare Structure [16], [21], [22], [24], [61], [69], [74], [75], [80], [83], [84], [103], [118], [121], [135], [146]- [148], [151], [152], [159], [173], [206], [213] Research Center [15], [25], [47], [64], [65], [70], [79],…”

“…Body tracking [173] VR Immersive HMD Controller/joystick/gamepad [14], [17], [20], [27], [35], [42], [177], [179], [180], [183], [185]- [189], [193]- [195], [201], [205], [207], [209], [210], [215] Mouse/keyboard [174], [175], [178], [184], [212] Hand gesture [29], [46], [176], [191], [211] Body tracking [181], [182], [196], [197], [204] Voice [47], [216] Custom device [199] EEG [214] Eye Tracking [213] Cycle-ergometer and controller [203], [208]…”

The effect of immersive virtual reality‐based attentional bias modification on anxiety mitigation in healthy population

“…Given Ma et al (2020) failed to find the difference between 2D and 3D face images, the positive results revealed in immersive VR-ABM should be further examined in future. Notably, the 3D stimuli used in the current study were dynamic facial expressions that were made from college student models (see Stimuli for details).…”

“…To our knowledge, only a few studies have tested a VR-based ABM training on persons with social anxiety (Ma et al, 2019(Ma et al, , 2020Machulska et al, 2021;Urech et al, 2015). In one study, Urech et al (2015)…”

“…The finding was in line with Ma et al's (2020) study regardless of the difference in ABM procedure and session design. As a matter of fact, many studies failed to associate the reduction of anxiety with the changed attentional bias (Boettcher et al, 2013;Heeren et al, 2015a;Ma et al, 2019Ma et al, , 2020Miloff et al, 2015;see Kruijt et al, 2019 for a review). It seemed that the attentional bias change via the dot-probe task was harder than expected (e.g.…”