New Citations | The Limitlessness of Virtual Reality

BIOPAC provides software and hardware that allows research teams to conduct studies in virtual reality. Here are a few notable studies using both virtual reality systems and BIOPAC equipment researching to see how virtual reality could impact emotions, health, and medicine.

Feelings on 2D vs. 3D

Previous studies have suggested that virtual reality (VR) can elicit emotions in different visual modes using both 2D and 3D headsets. Which dimension elicits more emotions, however? This study, using a BIOPAC Data Acquisition System, measured both EEG and SCR to see which type of virtual environment induced greater emotional arousal. Read the full study: A Review on Physiological Signal Based Emotion Detection (Feng Tian, Minlei Hua, Wenrui Zhang, Yingjie Li, Xiaoli Yang)

Fighting PTSD with VR

Recounting one’s terrible PTSD memories is a proven and effective treatment for PTSD. However, could multisensory virtual reality systems be used to activate a traumatic memory and improve therapy outcomes over traditional treatments? With a thermistor transducer to measure skin temperature and AcqKnowledge to analyze data, these researchers tried to understand if virtual reality could help those suffering from trauma‐related stimuli. Read the full study: Psychophysiology during exposure to trauma memories: Comparative effects of virtual reality and imaginal exposure for posttraumatic stress disorder (Michael A. Gramlich, Derek J. Smolenski, Aaron M. Norr, Barbara O. Rothbaum, Albert A. Rizzo, Frank Andrasik, Emily Fantelli, Greg M. Reger)

VR, the Next Aspirin?

Could virtual reality be used as an analgesic pain reliever? By having participants play varying levels of difficulty in a VR game, researchers were able to test if the participant’s pain tolerance went up while being distracted in a VR environment. ECG and EDA signals were collected with a BIOPAC Data Acquisition System and analyzed through AcqKnowledge Software to reach a conclusion. Read the full study: Virtual reality gaming for pain distraction – Investigation of attentional and psychophysiological effects (Elisabeth Holl, Katharina Rischer, Layla Battistutta, and Katharina Barcatta)