Bound by Infinities: Technology, Immediacy and Our Environmental Crisis.

This paper explores the relationship between human desire, technology, and imagination, emphasizing (1) the phenomenology of this relationship, and (2) its ontological and ecological ramifications. Drawing on the work of Bion and Winnicott, the paper will develop a psychoanalytic container for attitudes contributing to our current climate-based crisis, paying special attention to the problematic effect technology has had on our sense of time and place. Many of our technologies stunt sensuous engagement, collapse psychic space, diminish our capacity to tolerate frustration, and blind us to our dependence on worlds beyond the human. In short, our technologies trouble our relationship to our bodies and other bodies. The paper argues that omnipotent fantasies organizing our relationship to technology, to each other, and to the nonhuman world, have cocooned us in a kind of virtual reality that devastates a sense of deep obligation to the environment.

What can virtual reality offer to stroke patients? A narrative review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Studies demonstrated the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) as a method supporting the post-stroke neuro-rehabilitation process by activating motor learning processes. Nevertheless, stroke is frequently accompanied by serious psychological problems including depression, which is associated with an increased risk of mortality, lower post-stroke physical activity, and higher disability in stroke patients. OBJECTIVES: To explore the current use of VR as a method supporting the neuro-rehabilitation process, both in physical and psychological dimensions. METHODS: An exploratory review was conducted with a narrative synthesis. PubMed was used for literature search. Search includes the use of VR in physical rehabilitation, and as support therapy in psychiatric disorders. Both primary research and systematic reviews were included. RESULTS: In neurological disorders rehabilitation, out of 22 studies, 16 concerned stroke survivors. In psychiatric disorders, 44 literature reviews were included. CONCLUSION: The studies confirmed the effectiveness of various forms of VR treatment in the alleviation of psychological and behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders. There is a shortage of VR-based technological solutions that would, besides physical rehabilitation, offer stroke patients therapeutic tools to alleviate psychological disturbance and improve the patient's mood and motivation. Such solutions will most likely become a field of intensive research in the coming years.

Virtual reality as a clinical tool in mental health research and practice
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Virtual reality (VR) is a potentially powerful technology for enhancing assessment in mental health. At any time or place, individuals can be transported into immersive and interactive virtual worlds that are fully controlled by the researcher or clinician. This capability is central to recent interest in how VR might be harnessed in both treatment and assessment of mental health conditions. The current review provides a summary of the advantages of using VR for assessment in mental health, focusing on increasing ecological validity of highly controlled environments, enhancing personalization and engagement, and capturing real-time, automated data in real-world contexts. Considerations for the implementation of VR in research and clinical settings are discussed, including current issues with cost and access, developing evidence base, technical challenges, and ethical implications. The opportunities and challenges of VR are important to understand as researchers and clinicians look to harness this technology to improve mental health outcomes.
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La realidad virtual (RV) es una tecnología potencialmente poderosa para mejorar la evaluación en salud mental. En cualquier momento o lugar, las personas pueden ser transportadas y quedar inmersos en mundos virtuales interactivos que están totalmente controlados por el investigador o el clínico. Esta capacidad es parte fundamental del interés reciente por la manera en cómo se podría aprovechar la RV tanto en el tratamiento como en la evaluación de las condiciones de salud mental. Esta revisión proporciona un resumen de las ventajas del empleo de la RV para la evaluación en salud mental, enfocándose en el aumento de la validez ecológica de entornos altamente controlados, en mejorar la personalización y el compromiso, y capturar datos automatizados en tiempo real en contextos del mundo real. Se discuten las consideraciones para la implementación de la realidad virtual en investigación y en situaciones clínicas, incluidos los problemas actuales de costo y acceso, el desarrollo en base a la evidencia, los desafíos técnicos y las implicancias éticas. Es importante comprender las oportunidades y los desafíos de la realidad virtual, ya que los investigadores y los médicos buscan aprovechar esta tecnología para mejorar los resultados de salud mental.

L'évaluation de la santé mentale pourrait bénéficier de la puissance de la technologie de la réalité virtuelle (RV). Les sujets peuvent être transportés en immersion à tout moment ou en tout lieu dans des mondes virtuels interactifs totalement contrôlés par le chercheur ou le médecin. C'est ce qui motive l'intérêt récent sur la façon d'exploiter la RV à la fois dans le traitement et l'évaluation des maladies mentales. Notre présentation résume les avantages de la RV dans ce cadre ; elle est centrée sur la validité écologique renforcée des environnements très contrôlés, sur une meilleure personnalisation et participation du sujet, et sur la saisie de données automatisées en temps et contextes réels. Nous analysons les conditions de l'introduction de la RV en recherche et en clinique, y compris les enjeux actuels de coût et d'accès, le développement d'une base de données, les défis techniques et les questions éthiques. Chercheurs et médecins souhaitent expérimenter la réalité virtuelle pour améliorer les résultats dans le contexte de la santé mentale, il est donc important d'en comprendre les opportunités et les difficultés.

Virtual reality in research and rehabilitation of gait and balance in Parkinson disease.

Virtual reality (VR) technology has emerged as a promising tool for studying and rehabilitating gait and balance impairments in people with Parkinson disease (PD) as it allows users to be engaged in an enriched and highly individualized complex environment. This Review examines the rationale and evidence for using VR in the assessment and rehabilitation of people with PD, makes recommendations for future research and discusses the use of VR in the clinic. In the assessment of people with PD, VR has been used to manipulate environments to enhance study of the behavioural and neural underpinnings of gait and balance, improving understanding of the motor-cognitive neural circuitry involved. Despite suggestions that VR can provide rehabilitation that is more effective and less labour intensive than non-VR rehabilitation, little evidence exists to date to support these claims. Nevertheless, much unrealized potential exists for the use of VR to provide personalized assessment and rehabilitation that optimizes motor learning in both the clinic and home environments and adapts to changes in individuals over time. Design of such systems will require collaboration between all stakeholders to maximize useability, engagement, safety and effectiveness.

Uma etnografia virtual em um grupo sobre o transtorno bipolar: sociabilidades e saberes produzidos no meio on-line / Virtual ethnography in a group about bipolar disorder: sociabilities and knowledge produced in the online environment / Una etnografía virtual en un grupo sobre el trastorno bipolar: sociabilidades y saberes producidos en el medio on-line

Publicado pela primeira vez no Manual Diagnóstico e Estatístico de Transtornos Mentais (DSM) III, o transtorno bipolar trouxe uma nova maneira de entender e vivenciar as oscilações emocionais, fortemente imbuída dos referenciais da psicofarmacologia, neurociências e novas conceituações sobre as variações afetivas. Com o objetivo de investigar os sentidos, as sociabilidades e os modos de ser constituídos a partir desse diagnóstico, foi feita uma etnografia no grupo brasileiro do Facebook mais numeroso sobre a bipolaridade, que identificou o seguinte: a rede facilita a produção de uma expertise experiencial; a ideia de que "apenas quem sofre entende" fortalece a identificação mútua; em contraposição à antiga psicose maníaco-depressiva, o transtorno bipolar adquire certa positividade, tornando-se fonte de humor; a química medicamentosa é o principal recurso usado para gerir a vida afetiva, tornando os pacientes parcialmente independentes do médico ao manejarem esses recursos entre si; e o transtorno bipolar é dissociado do Eu.(AU)

Published for the first time in DSM IIII, bipolar disorder has brought a new way of understanding and experiencing emotional oscillations, strongly impregnated with the frameworks of psychopharmacology, neurosciences, and with new conceptualizations of affective variations. Aiming to investigate the meanings, sociabilities and ways of being constituted from this diagnosis, an ethnography was performed in the most numerous Brazilian Facebook group about bipolar disorder, which identified the following aspects: the network facilitates the production of an experiential expertise; the idea that "only those who suffer from it can understand it" strengthens mutual identification; in opposition to manic depression, as it was formerly called, bipolar disorder acquires a certain positivity, becoming a source of humor; drug therapy is the main resource used to manage affective life, making patients partially independent from the physician when they handle these resources among themselves; bipolar disorder is dissociated from the "self".(AU)

Publicado por primera vez en el DSM III, el trastorno bipolar proporcionó una nueva manera de entender y experimentar las oscilaciones emocionales, fuertemente basada en los referenciales de la psicofarmacología, neurociencias y nuevas conceptuaciones sobre las variaciones afectivas. Con el objetivo de investigar los sentidos, sociabilidades y modos de ser constituidos a partir de este diagnóstico, se realizó una etnografía en el grupo brasileño del Facebook más numeroso sobre la bipolaridad que identificó lo siguiente: la red facilita la producción de una expertise con base en la experiencia; la idea de que "solamente quien lo sufre entiende" fortalece la identificación mutua; en contraposición a la antigua psicosis maníaco-depresiva, el trastorno bipolar adquiere cierta positividad, convirtiéndose en fuente de humor; la química medicamentosa es el principal recurso utilizado para administrar la vida afectiva, haciendo que los pacientes sean parcialmente independientes del médico al manejar estos recursos entre sí; el trastorno bipolar se disocia del "yo".(AU)

Single-paradigm and hybrid brain computing interfaces and their use by disabled patients.

Brain computer interfacing (BCI) has enjoyed increasing interest not only from research communities such as engineering and neuroscience but also from visionaries that predict it will change the way we will interact with technology. Since BCIs establish an alternative communication channel between the brain and the outside world, they have been hailed to provide solutions for patients suffering from severe motor- and/or communication disabilities such as fully paralyzed locked-in syndrome patients. However, despite single-case successes, which sometimes reach a broad audience, BCIs are actually not routinely used to support patients in their daily life activities. This review focusses on non-invasive BCIs, introduces the main paradigms and applications, and shows how the technology has improved over recent years. We identify patient groups that potentially can benefit from BCIs by referring to disability levels and etiology. We list the requirements, indicate how BCIs can tap into their spared competences, and discuss performance issues also in view of other assistive communication technologies. We discuss hybrid BCIs, a more recent development that combines paradigms and signals, possibly also of non-brain origin, to increase performance in terms of accuracy and/or communication speed, also as a way to counter the low performance with a given paradigm by involving another, more suitable one (BCI illiteracy). Finally, we list a few hybrid BCI solutions for patients and note that demonstrations with the ones based entirely on brain activity are still scarce.

[Development of virtual reality as an exposure technique]. / Die Entwicklung virtueller Realität als Expositionsverfahren.

BACKGROUND: Virtual reality (VR) has been investigated as a medium for exposure therapy of anxiety disorders for 20 years. Various meta-analyses have provided convincing evidence of the therapeutic efficacy of exposure therapy in VR. OBJECTIVE: In recent years VR technology and its applications have considerably improved. Therefore, the current state of the art of VR exposure therapy is presented. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This article provides a narrative review of current research on VR exposure therapy for anxiety disorders and major directions of development in this area. RESULTS: After an almost exclusive focus on specific phobias in the early days, research on more complex anxiety disorders (particularly on social anxiety disorder) is increasing. In addition, VR has become established as an experimental method to probe psychopathological processes and to elucidate the mechanism of action of (VR) exposure therapy. CONCLUSION: There is still a need for more research into VR exposure therapy, especially in complex anxiety disorders (e. g. panic disorder, agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder) and trauma-related disorders. Furthermore, VR has become established as a research tool. The rapid technological development gives reason to expect a continuing increase in VR research, in clinical as well as basic research.

Virtual Reality Therapy: Emerging Topics and Future Challenges.

Virtual reality (VR) is no longer a fantasy or a novelty to be used for pure entertainment. It is a technology that has, over the past three decades, taken hold and enriched multiple areas of science, most notably healthcare. Starting from these premises, this special issue will specifically investigate how VR and other important advanced technologies are being adopted and adapted for use in the healthcare field, with a specific focus toward the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders.

Trends in robot-assisted and virtual reality-assisted neuromuscular therapy: a systematic review of health-related multiplayer games.

BACKGROUND: Multiplayer games have emerged as a promising approach to increase the motivation of patients involved in rehabilitation therapy. In this systematic review, we evaluated recent publications in health-related multiplayer games that involved patients with cognitive and/or motor impairments. The aim was to investigate the effect of multiplayer gaming on game experience and game performance in healthy and non-healthy populations in comparison to individual game play. We further discuss the publications within the context of the theory of flow and the challenge point framework. METHODS: A systematic search was conducted through EMBASE, Medline, PubMed, Cochrane, CINAHL and PsycINFO. The search was complemented by recent publications in robot-assisted multiplayer neurorehabilitation. The search was restricted to robot-assisted or virtual reality-based training. RESULTS: Thirteen articles met the inclusion criteria. Multiplayer modes used in health-related multiplayer games were: competitive, collaborative and co-active multiplayer modes. Multiplayer modes positively affected game experience in nine studies and game performance in six studies. Two articles reported increased game performance in single-player mode when compared to multiplayer mode. CONCLUSIONS: The multiplayer modes of training reviewed improved game experience and game performance compared to single-player modes. However, the methods reviewed were quite heterogeneous and not exhaustive. One important take-away is that adaptation of the game conditions can individualize the difficulty of a game to a player's skill level in competitive multiplayer games. Robotic assistance and virtual reality can enhance individualization by, for example, adapting the haptic conditions, e.g. by increasing haptic support or by providing haptic resistance. The flow theory and the challenge point framework support these results and are used in this review to frame the idea of adapting players' game conditions.

Interventions for the treatment of theory of mind deficits in schizophrenia: Systematic literature review.

Theory of Mind (ToM) plays a central role in regulating social interactions and its impairment is consistently reported in schizophrenia. Regarding schizophrenia, ToM is usually discussed as a sub-domain of social cognition. Since social cognitive deficits have drawn the attention of researchers, a variety of novel treatment techniques and approaches targeting social cognitive deficits have been developed. Encouraging results have repeatedly been reported on the modifiability of social cognitive impairment through these techniques. However, emotional perception seems to be over-represented in these approaches at the expense of other areas, such as ToM. This article presents a systematic review on the social cognitive interventions of the last 10 years, which focused on the remediation of ToM or used techniques primarily focusing on one or more social cognitive domains other than ToM, but with hypothetical effects on it. The aim of our systematic review was to compare these intervention techniques in order to see how effective they are in the remediation of ToM, and to find the best techniques to ameliorate ToM deficits in schizophrenia. According to our findings targeted ToM intervention produced more improvement in ToM tasks, while data regarding non-ToM interventions showed contradictory results with limited effects on ToM.

Increase of frontal neuronal activity in chronic neglect after training in virtual reality.

OBJECTIVES: A third of patients with stroke acquire spatial neglect associated with poor rehabilitation outcome. New effective rehabilitation interventions are needed. Scanning training combined with multisensory stimulation to enhance the rehabilitation effect is suggested. In accordance, we have designed a virtual-reality based scanning training that combines visual, audio and sensori-motor stimulation called RehAtt® . Effects were shown in behavioural tests and activity of daily living. Here, we use fMRI to evaluate the change in brain activity during Posner's Cuing Task (attention task) after RehAtt® intervention, in patients with chronic neglect. METHODS: Twelve patients (mean age = 72.7 years, SD = 6.1) with chronic neglect (persistent symptoms >6 months) performed the interventions 3 times/wk during 5 weeks, in total 15 hours. Training effects on brain activity were evaluated using fMRI task-evoked responses during the Posner's cuing task before and after the intervention. RESULTS: Patients improved their performance in the Posner fMRI task. In addition, patients increased their task-evoked brain activity after the VR interventions in an extended network including pre-frontal and temporal cortex during attentional cueing, but showed no training effects during target presentations. CONCLUSIONS: The current pilot study demonstrates that a novel multisensory VR intervention has the potential to benefit patients with chronic neglect in respect of behaviour and brain changes. Specifically, the fMRI results show that strategic processes (top-down control during attentional cuing) were enhanced by the intervention. The findings increase knowledge of the plasticity processes underlying positive rehabilitation effects from RehAtt® in chronic neglect.

Virtual environments as an assessment modality with pediatric ASD populations: a brief report.

Virtual environments (VEs) have demonstrated promise as a neuropsychological assessment modality and may be well suited for the evaluation of children suspected of having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some recent studies indicate their potential for enhancing reliability, ecologically validity, and sensitivity over traditional neuropsychological evaluation measures. Although research using VEs with ASD is increasing to the degree that several reviews of the literature have been conducted, the reviews to date lack rigor and are not necessarily specific to cognitive or neuropsychological assessment as many focus on intervention. The aim of this project was to comprehensively examine the current literature status of neuropsychological assessment in pediatric ASD using VEs by conducting a systematic review. Specifically, psychometric comparisons of VEs to traditional neuropsychological assessment measures that examined reliability, validity, and/or diagnostic accuracy for pediatric individuals, age 18 and below, with ASD were sought. The search using key words yielded 899 manuscripts, 894 of which were discarded for not meeting inclusion criteria. The remaining five met exclusion criteria. Therefore, the systematic review was modified to a brief report. These findings (or lack thereof) indicate a significant gap in the literature in that psychometric comparisons of these tools for the neuropsychological assessment of pediatric individuals with ASD are lacking. An important future direction of research will be extending the demonstrated incremental validity of VE neuropsychological assessment with other neurodevelopmental (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and adult populations to pediatric ASD populations.

Virtual Reality in Pediatric Psychology.

Virtual reality (VR) technologies allow for controlled simulations of affectively engaging background narratives. These virtual environments offer promise for enhancing emotionally relevant experiences and social interactions. Within this context, VR can allow instructors, therapists, neuropsychologists, and service providers to offer safe, repeatable, and diversifiable interventions that can benefit assessments and learning in both typically developing children and children with disabilities. Research has also pointed to VR's capacity to reduce children's experience of aversive stimuli and reduce anxiety levels. Although there are a number of purported advantages of VR technologies, challenges have emerged. One challenge for this field of study is the lack of consensus on how to do trials. A related issue is the need for establishing the psychometric properties of VR assessments and interventions. This review investigates the advantages and challenges inherent in the application of VR technologies to pediatric assessments and interventions.

Health services and rehabilitation for active duty service members and veterans with mild TBI.

OBJECTIVE: We review health services and reintegration practices that contribute to the rehabilitation of US active duty service members (ADSMs) and Veterans who experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI), especially mild TBI (mTBI), as discussed at the 2015 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) TBI State-of-the-Art (SOTA) Conference. METHODOLOGY: We reviewed the state-of-the-art at the time of the previous 2008 TBI SOTA Conference, advances in the field since then, and future directions to address gaps in knowledge. MAIN RESULTS: We reviewed: (1) mTBI and its comorbid conditions documented in ADSMs and Veterans, and recognized the need for additional healthcare utilization, health cost and quality of care studies; (2) VA vocational rehabilitation programmes and the effectiveness of supported employment for helping those with workplace difficulties; (3) the application of technology to assist in TBI rehabilitation, including mobile device applications for self-management, videoconferencing with providers, and virtual reality to help with behavioural and cognitive challenges, and (4) Department of Defense (DoD)-VA partnerships on identification, evaluation and dissemination of TBI best practices. CONCLUSIONS: There have been significant advances in TBI rehabilitation, but multiple areas across the DoD and VA care continuum need further exploration and development to meet the needs of ADSMs and Veterans.

To Be Real or Virtual? That is the Question .

This editorial describes a crossroad that many plastic surgeons face when they have to decide how to manage their career. Level of Evidence V This journal requires that the authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Functional assessment in mental health: lessons from occupational therapy.

Occupational therapists have been conducting functional assessments since World War I, and this accumulated experience has taught us several critical lessons. First, a comprehensive profile of a patient's functioning requires multiple assessment methods. Second, assessment content and measurement constructs must change with the times. Third, technology can enhance and extend functional assessment. Fourth, performance-based assessments of everyday activities can also be used to measure body functions/impairments. However, while deconstructing activities into body functions/impairments is possible, the results do not reflect patients' abilities to integrate the cognitive, motor, sensory and affective functions necessary to complete a complex activity. Finally, the differential complexity of everyday activities that a patient can master or successfully complete can also provide a ruler with which to measure progress.

Los terapeutas ocupacionales han realizado evaluaciones funcionales desde la Primera Guerra Mundial, y esta experiencia acumulada nos ha enseñado algunas lecciones importantes. Primero, un perfil comprensivo del funcionamiento de un paciente requiere de mùltiples métodos de evaluación. Segundo, el contenido de la evaluación y los constructos de medición deben cambiar con los tiempos. Tercero, la tecnología puede reforzar y ampliar la evaluación funcional. Cuarto, las evaluaciones basadas en el desempeño de las actividades diarias también se pueden emplear para medir las funciones y deterioros corporales. Sin embargo, aunque es posible la deconstrucción de las actividades en funciones y deterioros corporales, los resultados no reflejan las capacidades de los pacientes para integrar las funciones cognitivas, motoras, sensoriales y afectivas necesarias para completar una actividad compleja. Por último, la complejidad diferencial de las actividades diarias que un paciente puede dominar o completar exitosamente también puede aportar una regla con la cual medir el progreso.

Les ergothérapeutes ont mené des évaluations fonctionnelles depuis la première guerre mondiale et cette accumulation d'expérience nous a enseigné plusieurs leçons essentielles. Tout d'abord, de nombreuses méthodes d'évaluation sont nécessaires pour établir le profil complet du fonctionnement d'un patient. Deuxièmement, le contenu de l'évaluation et les méthodes de mesure doivent évoluer avec le temps. Troisièmement, la technologie peut améliorer et élargir l'évaluation fonctionnelle. Quatrièmement, les évaluations basées sur la performance des activités quotidiennes peuvent aussi être utilisées pour mesurer le fonctionnement du corps (ou les troubles du fonctionnement). Toutefois, bien qu'il soit possible de décomposer les activités du quotidien par fonction, les résultats obtenus ne reflètent pas la manière dont les patients sont capables de coordonner leurs fonctions cognitives, motrices, sensorielles et affectives pour effectuer une activité complexe. Enfin, différents niveaux de complexité des diverses activités quotidiennes qu'un patient peut maîtriser ou exécuter avec succès peuvent aussi fournir une règle permettant de mesurer le progrès.

Future Directions: How Virtual Reality Can Further Improve the Assessment and Treatment of Eating Disorders and Obesity.

Transdisciplinary efforts for further elucidating the etiology of eating and weight disorders and improving the effectiveness of the available evidence-based interventions are imperative at this time. Recent studies indicate that computer-generated graphic environments-virtual reality (VR)-can integrate and extend existing treatments for eating and weight disorders (EWDs). Future possibilities for VR to improve actual approaches include its use for altering in real time the experience of the body (embodiment) and as a cue exposure tool for reducing food craving.

Virtual Reality in Health System: Beyond Entertainment. A Mini-Review on the Efficacy of VR During Cancer Treatment.

Virtual reality (VR), a computer-generated virtual environment, has been increasingly used in the entertainment world becoming a very new evolving field, but VR technology has also found a variety of applications in the biomedical field. VR can offer to subjects a safe environment within which to carry on different interventions ranging from the rehabilitation of discharged patients directly at home, to the support of hospitalized patients during different procedures and also of oncological inpatient subjects. VR appears as a promising tool for support and monitoring treatments in cancer patients influencing psychological and physiological functions. The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of all the studies that used VR intervention on cancer patients and analyze their main findings. Nineteen studies across nearly a thousand articles were identified that explored effects of VR interventions on cancer patients. Although these studies varied greatly in setting and design, this review identified some overarching themes. Results found that VR improved patients' emotional well-being, and diminished cancer-related psychological symptoms. The studies explored various relevant variables including different types of settings (i.e., during chemotherapy, during pain procedures, during hospitalization). Here, we point to the need of a global and multi-disciplinary approach aimed at analyzing the effects of VR taking advantage of the new technology systems like biosensors as well as electroencephalogram monitoring pre, during, and after intervention. Devoting more attention to bio-physiological variables, standardized procedures, extending duration to longitudinal studies and adjusting for motion sickness related to VR treatment need to become standard of this research field.