Domestic Violence From a Child Perspective: Impact of an Immersive Virtual Reality Experience on Men With a History of Intimate Partner Violent Behavior.

Domestic violence has long-term negative consequences on children. In this study, men with a history of partner aggression and a control group of non-offenders were embodied in a child's body from a first-person perspective in virtual reality (VR). From this perspective, participants witnessed a scene of domestic violence where a male avatar assaulted a female avatar. We evaluated the impact of the experience on emotion recognition skills and heart rate deceleration responses. We found that the experience mainly impacted the recognition of angry facial expressions. The results also indicate that males with a history of partner aggression had larger physiological responses during an explicit violent event (when the virtual abuser threw a telephone) compared with controls, while their physiological reactions were less pronounced when the virtual abuser invaded the victim's personal space. We show that embodiment from a child's perspective during a conflict situation in VR impacts emotion recognition, physiological reactions, and attitudes towards violence. We provide initial evidence of the potential of VR in the rehabilitation and neuropsychological assessment of males with a history of domestic violence, especially in relation to children.

Virtual reality for the rehabilitation and prevention of intimate partner violence - From brain to behavior: A narrative review.

Rehabilitation and prevention strategies to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) have limited effectiveness in terms of improving key risk factors and reducing occurrence. Accumulated experimental evidence demonstrates that virtual embodiment, which results in the illusion of owning a virtual body, has a large impact on people's emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. This narrative review discusses work that has investigated how embodied perspective - taking in virtual reality has been used as a tool to reduce bias, to enhance recognition of the emotional state of another, and to reduce violent behaviors, in particular in the realm of IPV. Some of the potential neurological mechanisms behind these affective and behavioral changes are also discussed. The process of rehabilitation and prevention is complex and not always effective, but the integration of neuroscience-inspired and validated state-of-the-art technology into the rehabilitation process can make a positive contribution.

Impact of Information Placement and User Representations in VR on Performance and Embodiment.

Human sensory processing is sensitive to the proximity of stimuli to the body. It is therefore plausible that these perceptual mechanisms also modulate the detectability of content in VR, depending on its location. We evaluate this in a user study and further explore the impact of the user's representation during interaction. We also analyze how embodiment and motor performance are influenced by these factors. In a dual-task paradigm, participants executed a motor task, either through virtual hands, virtual controllers, or a keyboard. Simultaneously, they detected visual stimuli appearing in different locations. We found that, while actively performing a motor task in the virtual environment, performance in detecting additional visual stimuli is higher when presented near the user's body. This effect is independent of how the user is represented and only occurs when the user is also engaged in a secondary task. We further found improved motor performance and increased embodiment when interacting through virtual tools and hands in VR, compared to interacting with a keyboard. This article contributes to better understanding the detectability of visual content in VR, depending on its location in the virtual environment, as well as the impact of different user representations on information processing, embodiment, and motor performance.

Being the victim of virtual abuse changes default mode network responses to emotional expressions.

Recent behavioural studies have provided evidence that virtual reality (VR) experiences have an impact on socio-affective processes, and a number of findings now underscore the potential of VR for therapeutic interventions. An interesting recent result is that when male offenders experience a violent situation as a female victim of domestic violence in VR, their sensitivity for recognition of fearful facial expressions improves. A timely question now concerns the underlying brain mechanisms of these behavioural effects as these are still largely unknown. The current study used fMRI to measure the impact of a VR intervention in which participants experienced a violent aggression from the specific vantage point of the victim. We compared brain processes related to facial and bodily emotion perception before and after the VR experience. Our results show that the virtual abuse experience led to an enhancement of Default Mode Network (DMN) activity, specifically associated with changes in the processing of ambiguous emotional stimuli. In contrast, DMN activity was decreased when observing fully fearful expressions. Finally, we observed increased variability in brain activity for male versus female facial expressions. Taken together, these results suggest that the first-person perspective of a virtual violent situation impacts emotion recognition through modifications in DMN activity. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the brain mechanisms associated with the behavioural effects of VR interventions in the context of a violent confrontation with the male participant embodied as a female victim. Furthermore, this research also consolidates the use of VR embodied perspective-taking interventions for addressing socio-affective impairments.

Impact of visuomotor feedback on the embodiment of virtual hands detached from the body.

It has been shown that mere observation of body discontinuity leads to diminished body ownership. However, the impact of body discontinuity has mainly been investigated in conditions where participants observe a collocated static virtual body from a first-person perspective. This study explores the influence of body discountinuity on the sense of embodiment, when rich visuomotor correlations between a real and an artificial virtual body are established. In two experiments, we evaluated body ownership and motor performance, when participants interacted in virtual reality either using virtual hands connected or disconnected from a body. We found that even under the presence of congruent visuomotor feedback, mere observation of body discontinuity resulted in diminished embodiment. Contradictory evidence was found in relation to motor performance, where further research is needed to understand the role of visual body discontinuity in motor tasks. Preliminary findings on physiological reactions to a threat were also assessed, indicating that body visual discontinuity does not differently impact threat-related skin conductance responses. The present results are in accordance with past evidence showing that body discontinuity negatively impacts embodiment. However, further research is needed to understand the influence of visuomotor feedback and body morphological congruency on motor performance and threat-related physiological reactions.

Being the Victim of Intimate Partner Violence in Virtual Reality: First- Versus Third-Person Perspective.

Immersive virtual reality is widely used for research and clinical purposes. Here we explored the impact of an immersive virtual scene of intimate partner violence experienced from the victim's perspective (first person), as opposed to witnessing it as an observer (third person). We are ultimately interested in the potential of this approach to rehabilitate batterers and in understanding the mechanisms underlying this process. For this, non-offender men experienced the scene either from the perspective of the victim's virtual body (a female avatar), which moved synchronously with the participants' real movements, or from the perspective of an observer, while we recorded their behavior and physiological responses. We also evaluated through questionnaires, interviews and implicit association tests their subjective impressions and potential pre/post changes in implicit gender bias following the experience. We found that in all participants, regardless of perspective, the magnitude of the physiological reactions to virtual threatening stimuli was related to how vulnerable they felt for being a woman, the sensation that they could be assaulted, how useful the scene could be for batterer rehabilitation, and how different it would have been to experience the scenario on TV. Furthermore, we found that their level of identification with the female avatar correlated with the decrease in prejudice against women. Although the first-person perspective (1PP) facilitated taking the scene personally, generated a sensation of fear, helplessness, and vulnerability, and tended to induce greater behavioral and physiological reactions, we show that the potential for batterer rehabilitation originates from presence and identification with the victim, which in turn is more easily, but not exclusively, achieved through 1PP. This study is relevant for the development of advanced virtual reality tools for clinical purposes.

Virtual body ownership and its consequences for implicit racial bias are dependent on social context.

When people hold implicit biases against a group they typically engage in discriminatory behaviour against group members. In the context of the implicit racial bias of 'White' against 'Black' people, it has been shown several times that implicit bias is reduced after a short exposure of embodiment in a dark-skinned body in virtual reality. Embodiment usually leads to the illusion of ownership over the virtual body, irrespective of its skin colour. Previous studies have been carried out in virtual scenarios that are affectively neutral or positive. Here, we show that when the scenario is affectively negative the illusion of body ownership of White participants over a White body is lessened, and implicit bias is higher for White participants in a Black virtual body. The study was carried out with 92 White female participants, in a between-groups design with two factors: BodyType (their virtual body was White or Black) and a surrounding Crowd was Negative, Neutral or Positive towards the participant. We argue that negative affect prevents the formation of new positive associations with Black and distress leads to disownership of the virtual body. Although virtual reality is often thought of as an 'empathy machine' our results suggest caution, that this may not be universally the case.

Healthy Aging Promotion through Neuroscientific Information-Based Strategies.

To ensure the well-being of a rapidly growing elderly population, it is fundamental to find strategies to foster healthy brain aging. With this intention, we designed a program of scientific-based lectures aimed at dissemination by established neuroscientists about brain function, brain plasticity and how lifestyle influences the brain. We also carried out a pilot study on the impact of the lectures on attendees. The objective was to provide information to elderly people in order to encourage them to identify unhealthy and healthy daily habits, and more importantly, to promote behavioral changes towards healthy brain aging. Here we report on our experience. In order to determine the impact of the lectures in the daily routine of the attendees, we asked them to fill out questionnaires. Preliminary results indicate that neuroscientific information-based strategies can be a useful method to have a positive impact on the lives of elderly, increase their awareness on how to improve brain function and promote positive lifestyle modifications. Furthermore, based on self-reported data, we also found that through this strategy it is possible to promote behavioral changes related to nutrition, sleep, and realization of physical and cognitively stimulating activities. Finally, based on the results obtained, the importance of promoting self-efficacy and the empowerment of the older populations is highlighted.

Influence of Music on Anxiety Induced by Fear of Heights in Virtual Reality.

Music is a potent mood regulator that can induce relaxation and reduce anxiety in different situations. While several studies demonstrate that certain types of music have a subjective anxiolytic effect, the reported results from physiological responses are less conclusive. Virtual reality allows us to study diverse scenarios of real life under strict experimental control while preserving high ecological validity. We aimed to study the modulating effect of music on the anxiety responses triggered by an immersive virtual reality scenario designed to induce fear of heights. Subjects experienced a virtual scenario depicting an exterior elevator platform ascending and descending the total height of its 350 meters tall supporting structure. Participants were allocated to either a group that experienced the elevator ride with background music or without, in a between-groups design. Furthermore, each group included participants with different degrees of fear of heights, ranging from low to high fear. Recordings of heart rate, galvanic skin response, body balance, and head movements were obtained during the experiments. Subjective anxiety was measured by means of three questionnaires. The scenario produced significant changes in subjective and physiological measures, confirming its efficacy as a stressor. A significant increase in state anxiety was found between pre and post-assessment in the silence group, but not in the music group, indicating that post-stress recovery was faster in the musical group. Results suggest that music can ameliorate the subjective anxiety produced by fear of heights.

Using music as a signal for biofeedback.

Studies on the potential benefits of conveying biofeedback stimulus using a musical signal have appeared in recent years with the intent of harnessing the strong effects that music listening may have on subjects. While results are encouraging, the fundamental question has yet to be addressed, of how combined music and biofeedback compares to the already established use of either of these elements separately. This experiment, involving young adults (N = 24), compared the effectiveness at modulating participants' states of physiological arousal of each of the following conditions: A) listening to pre-recorded music, B) sonification biofeedback of the heart rate, and C) an algorithmically modulated musical feedback signal conveying the subject's heart rate. Our hypothesis was that each of the conditions (A), (B) and (C) would differ from the other two in the extent to which it enables participants to increase and decrease their state of physiological arousal, with (C) being more effective than (B), and both more than (A). Several physiological measures and qualitative responses were recorded and analyzed. Results show that using musical biofeedback allowed participants to modulate their state of physiological arousal at least equally well as sonification biofeedback, and much better than just listening to music, as reflected in their heart rate measurements, controlling for respiration-rate. Our findings indicate that the known effects of music in modulating arousal can therefore be beneficially harnessed when designing a biofeedback protocol.

Effects of music learning and piano practice on cognitive function, mood and quality of life in older adults.

Reading music and playing a musical instrument is a complex activity that comprises motor and multisensory (auditory, visual, and somatosensory) integration in a unique way. Music has also a well-known impact on the emotional state, while it can be a motivating activity. For those reasons, musical training has become a useful framework to study brain plasticity. Our aim was to study the specific effects of musical training vs. the effects of other leisure activities in elderly people. With that purpose we evaluated the impact of piano training on cognitive function, mood and quality of life (QOL) in older adults. A group of participants that received piano lessons and did daily training for 4-month (n = 13) was compared to an age-matched control group (n = 16) that participated in other types of leisure activities (physical exercise, computer lessons, painting lessons, among other). An exhaustive assessment that included neuropsychological tests as well as mood and QOL questionnaires was carried out before starting the piano program and immediately after finishing (4 months later) in the two groups. We found a significant improvement on the piano training group on the Stroop test that measures executive function, inhibitory control and divided attention. Furthermore, a trend indicating an enhancement of visual scanning and motor ability was also found (Trial Making Test part A). Finally, in our study piano lessons decreased depression, induced positive mood states, and improved the psychological and physical QOL of the elderly. Our results suggest that playing piano and learning to read music can be a useful intervention in older adults to promote cognitive reserve (CR) and improve subjective well-being.

Putting yourself in the skin of a black avatar reduces implicit racial bias.

Although it has been shown that immersive virtual reality (IVR) can be used to induce illusions of ownership over a virtual body (VB), information on whether this changes implicit interpersonal attitudes is meager. Here we demonstrate that embodiment of light-skinned participants in a dark-skinned VB significantly reduced implicit racial bias against dark-skinned people, in contrast to embodiment in light-skinned, purple-skinned or with no VB. 60 females participated in this between-groups experiment, with a VB substituting their own, with full-body visuomotor synchrony, reflected also in a virtual mirror. A racial Implicit Association Test (IAT) was administered at least three days prior to the experiment, and immediately after the IVR exposure. The change from pre- to post-experience IAT scores suggests that the dark-skinned embodied condition decreased implicit racial bias more than the other conditions. Thus, embodiment may change negative interpersonal attitudes and thus represent a powerful tool for exploring such fundamental psychological and societal phenomena.