Tag Archives: Virtual Reality

CAN VIRTUAL BODY SWAPPING HELP FIGHT RACIAL PREJUDICE? (Video)

Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Cyberpsychology, Dissociation, Health, Identity, Out of Body Experiences, Presence, Self-Consciousness, Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality Therapy, , ,

IMG_0643-1.JPG

“Virtual reality (VR) might help us overcome these implicit biases, according to a paper recently published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Researchers used VR to help people slip into the skin of an avatar and temporarily take on a new identity, cultivating cross-racial empathy along the way.”

“These simple illusions manipulate the way the brain uses information from senses like sight and touch. They show how plastic our brain is,” Manos Tsakiris, a co-author of the paper and professor of psychology at the University of London, told Popular Science.”

By Alissa Zhu at Popular Science

Read more: http://www.popsci.com/what-happens-when-you-put-white-person-black-body-virtual-reality

Virtual Reality Simulates Social Interactions in Autism Research

Autism, Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Cyberpsychology, Health, Identity, Learning, Presence, Self-Consciousness, Social Skills Training, Speech Therapy, Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality Therapy, , , , , , ,

“The scientific team at the Center for BrainHealth is partnering with researchers at Yale’s Child Study Center to test the feasibility of providing the research-based training program to young adults across the country. A person with autism can use the technology to “practice” and hone their skills initiating a conversation with a person they would like to meet, interviewing for a job, or standing up for themselves by confronting a friend or colleague. Practicing social interaction in a safe, non-threatening, gaming environment helps people reduce anxiety and gain the confidence and skills they need to attempt more social interactions in their daily lives.”

By Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman from the Center for BrainHealth writing in the Huffington Post.

Read more at the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sandra-bond-chapman/autism-research_b_5077624.html

Soldiers being cured of PTSD with new virtual reality treatment (CTV News) with Dr “Skip” Rizzo, USC Institute for Creative Technologies

Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Cyberpsychology, Health, Presence, PTSD, Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality Therapy, , , , ,

20140413-122643.jpg

“At the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, they are helping treat soldiers with virtual reality simulations.

You strap it to your head and that puts you inside a first-person shooter video game,” says Mitic to Kevin Newman Live. He is the same soldier who made it to the finals of The Amazing Race Canada. He is a double amputee after stepping on a landmine, but doesn’t have PTSD. He flew to Los Angeles with Vice Canada to do a documentary with Vice’s tech site Motherboard on new PTSD treatments. “Once you are inside there are sounds and scents. It goes back to immersion therapy or stress inoculation; you are immerged in what caused your trauma. A therapist is there to talk you through it.”

Read more: http://knlive.ctvnews.ca/soldiers-being-cured-of-ptsd-with-new-virtual-reality-treatment-1.1733643

More info: Dr Rizzo – Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California http://ptsdtech.ict.usc.edu

Using virtual reality to conquer fears of sexual assault (Dr. Stephane Bouchard)

Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Cyberpsychology, Health, Presence, PTSD, Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality Therapy, , , , , ,

20140406-162022

Their lab at the University of Quebec in the Outaouais has re-created realistic scenarios to help these victims face their fears in a virtual world”.

Read more: http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/using-virtual-reality-to-conquer-fears-of-sexual-assault-1.1754392#ixzz2y7RB72dG

Virtual out-of-body experience – Prof. Olaf Blanke (LNCO Lab)

Cyberpsychology, Dissociation, Identity, Out of Body Experiences, Presence, Self-Consciousness, Video Capture, , , ,

“A group of neuroscientists at Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have induced out-of-body experiences for the first time, using virtual reality and an experimental set-up. By deliberately scrambling a person’s visual and tactile senses, it is now possible to give them an “out-of-body” experience.

Two procedures – which are the first to imitate an out-of-body experience artificially – use cameras to fool people into thinking they are standing or sitting somewhere else in a room. They provide the strongest proof yet that people only imagine floating out of their bodies during surgery or near-death experiences.”

By Andy Coghlan for New Scientist

mq1

More info:

New Scientist – http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12531-outofbody-experiences-are-all-in-the-mind.html

Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience – http://lnco.epfl.ch

Out of Body Experiences – ABC Television (EPFL & USZ Switzerland)

Cyberpsychology, Dissociation, Identity, Out of Body Experiences, Presence, Self-Consciousness, Video Capture, , , ,

Out of Body Experiences

“A surprisingly large number of people report having had an Out of Body Experience. A common story is they find their awareness floating up near the ceiling. Dr Graham Philips met up with scientists in Switzerland who’ve been examining the phenomenon.

The question is asked “could my consciousness leap from me to a virtual body just as it does with the rubber hand illusion?

The Rubber Hand Illusion occurs because my brain knows I’m feeling the touch in one place, my real arm, but seeing it in another. It goes with the dominant sense: sight.”

abc

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2816872.htm#.UizLZi24gDM.facebook

More info:

Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience – http://lnco.epfl.ch/