A study reveals that story elements in VR exercise games could enhance physical activity, offering a novel way to motivate exercise in young adults. Despite not increasing playtime, narratives led to more vigorous activity.
A study showed VR exposure therapy reduced anxiety symptoms in three children with phobias, demonstrating its potential as an effective, feasible treatment for childhood anxiety disorders.
Scientists have started to examine whether virtual reality can help teenagers with developmental language disorders improve their social skills and emotional understanding.
Researchers have discovered the "phantom touch illusion" in VR, where users feel touch without physical contact, challenging our understanding of sensory processing and brain-body interaction.
Playing "Beat Saber" in VR improved some cognitive functions, unlike physical training, according to new research. The findings suggest that VR shows promise for cognitive gains in short, engaging sessions.
Virtual reality therapy may help individuals with hoarding disorder declutter, with a pilot study showing promising results published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. The study involved older adults using VR to simulate discarding items, leading to a reported decrease...
A recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology indicates that spacious natural landscapes can enhance feelings of selflessness, connectedness, and boost positive emotions. The research, conducted using immersive virtual reality, found that participants felt a diminished sense of...
A study of 9 to 13-year-old children in Finland has revealed that children's eye movements during a virtual reality memory game can help identify those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The pattern characteristics that allowed the differentiation were dispersed throughout...
Researchers at the University of Tartu in Estonia have developed a virtual reality (VR) experience that seeks to simulate the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs. They hope that replicating psychedelic experiences within VR will produce similar therapeutic benefits to psychedelic-assisted...
This research is the first to show that interacting with a virtual agent promotes real-world relationships. A virtual relationship threat—one that by definition could not be acted on— allows people to contemplate resistance to real attractive alternatives. The resulting protective reaction...
Working out and playing video games are often seen as polar opposite activities, but virtual exercise has become increasingly common in recent years. A study published in Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences shows that virtual exercise may have the potential to...
A study in a virtual reality bar setting assessed the effects of being subjected to painful heat on alcohol consumption. Results showed that men decreased intervals between sips of the alcoholic drink, but did not drink more in each sip....
A study in a virtual reality environment found that action video game players have better implicit temporal skills than non-gamers. They are better at preparing to time their reactions in tasks that require quick reactions and they do it automatically,...
A new study found promising results for a combined physical fitness and cognitive intervention designed to enhance neuroplasticity in older adults. Using a motion-capture video game, the intervention appeared to remediate age-related declines in attention. The findings were published in...
A new study has utilized virtual reality to demonstrate that moderate-to-vigorous effort influences the perceived pleasantness of human faces with neutral expressions. The new findings have recently been published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise.