What is autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)? A narrative review and comparative analysis of related phenomena.

A narrative review of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) was carried out. Definitional factors relevant to ASMR were canvassed. Related, but distinctly unique, sensorial phenomena, including frisson, synaesthesia, and misophonia were considered. Finally, the status of literature with respect to clinical outcomes, individual differences, and current research applications was evaluated. ASMR is a nascent phenomenon that has rapidly progressed in scope and depth of study throughout the past decade; a notable shift from brief-form studies to an increase in formalised trials is noted. Yet, critical questions remain unaddressed, including expectancy and placebo effects, that future research should interrogate.

Money Attitudes After Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques: Psychological Change in a Virtual vs In-Person Group.

Context: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFTs) can reduce anxiety, depression, PTSD, and phobias. Research has found correlations between attitudes toward money and anxiety and depressive symptomatology. No research has yet examined the effectiveness of EFT in changing money attitudes. Objective: The study intended to measure the effectiveness of EFT in changing money attitudes and to contrast EFT's effects delivered virtually or in-person by evaluating multiple markers of stress, including anxiety, depression, pain, happiness, and PTSD. Design: The research team performed a retrospective controlled study. Participants: Participants were a convenience sample of 54 nonclinical individuals. Intervention: The study included participants into an in-person group and a virtual group. The 24 participants in the in-person group met prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 35 participants in the virtual group participated in the workshop toward the end of 2020. Both used EFT to address money-related issues during a two-day workshop. Outcome Measures: The research team used: (1) the brief version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), GAD-2, to assess participants' anxiety; (2) the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) to assess symptoms of depression over the two weeks prior to the testing; (3) the PTSD Checklist (PCL-2) to assess symptoms of PTSD over the month prior to the test; (4) the Happiness Scale, an 11-point Likert scale that indicates whether respondents feel happy in general; (5) the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, a self-rated average of pain that participants had experienced in the 24 hours prior to the test; and (6) the Money Attitudes Scale (MAS) to measure change in attitudes. Results: Postintervention, the in-person group has significant reductions in anxiety (P = .023), PTSD (P = .013), and pain (P = .029) as well as significant improvements in happiness (P < .001). The group's MAS scores for Power-Prestige (P = .008), Distrust (P < .001) and Money Anxiety (P < .01) also decreased significantly. At the six-month followup, the group's mean scores showed significant decreases for PTSD (P < .001) and pain (P < .001) as well as significant improvements in happiness (P < .05). Postintervention, the virtual group had a significant increase in happiness (P < .001), but while anxiety, depression, and pain decreased, the changes weren't statistically significant. The group's money attitudes also showed a significant increase in Retention-Time (P < .001) as well as significantly decreased scores for Distrust (P < .001), Money Anxiety (P < .01) and Power-Prestige (P < .01). At the six-month followup, the virtual group's mean differences from baseline were greater than that of the in-person group. Conclusions: The current study's findings point toward EFT's potential to improve money attitudes as well as psychological symptoms and indicated that EFT can be effective when delivered virtually. The study demonstrated improvements in anxiety, depression, pain, and happiness. The current research team recommends delivering EFT and other evidence-based therapies virtually, through apps, on-demand therapy sessions, virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI).

Learned uncertainty: The free energy principle in anxiety.

Generalized anxiety disorder is among the world's most prevalent psychiatric disorders and often manifests as persistent and difficult to control apprehension. Despite its prevalence, there is no integrative, formal model of how anxiety and anxiety disorders arise. Here, we offer a perspective derived from the free energy principle; one that shares similarities with established constructs such as learned helplessness. Our account is simple: anxiety can be formalized as learned uncertainty. A biological system, having had persistent uncertainty in its past, will expect uncertainty in its future, irrespective of whether uncertainty truly persists. Despite our account's intuitive simplicity-which can be illustrated with the mere flip of a coin-it is grounded within the free energy principle and hence situates the formation of anxiety within a broader explanatory framework of biological self-organization and self-evidencing. We conclude that, through conceptualizing anxiety within a framework of working generative models, our perspective might afford novel approaches in the clinical treatment of anxiety and its key symptoms.

Can a virtual environment enhance understanding of hoarding deficits? A pilot investigation.

This pilot study tested the utility of a virtual environment for assessing cognitive deficits characteristic of hoarding. A sample representing a broad spectrum of hoarding traits (N = 20) was assessed using self-report measures of information processing skills and emotional experience, and placed in a virtually simulated house that contained cluttered spaces and clean spaces. Information-processing significantly differed between high-hoarding and low-hoarding groups, with the high-hoarding group showing increased proneness to emotional attachment and information processing difficulties in the cluttered environment. The high-hoarding group also showed differences in behaviour and appraisal of the simulated environment. The findings suggested that virtual reality is accessible to participants and elicits real-time emotions and behavioural parameters which can assist our understanding of hoarding behaviour. Virtual reality may contribute to hoarding therapy in future, as it allows participants to visualise a different perspective of their condition and could contribute to their knowledge about the severity of their behaviour.

Addressing virtual reality misclassification: A hardware-based qualification matrix for virtual reality technology.

Through its unique sensory synchronized design, virtual reality (VR) provides a convincing, user-centred experience of highly controllable scenarios. Importantly, VR is a promising modality for healthcare, where treatment efficacy has been recognized for a range of conditions. It is equally valuable across wider research disciplines. However, there is a lack of suitable criteria and consistent terminology with which to define VR technology. A considerable number of studies have misclassified VR hardware (e.g. defining laptops as VR), hindering validity and research comparisons. This review addresses these limitations and establishes a standardized VR qualification framework. As a result of a comprehensive theoretical and literature review, the hardware-based VR qualification matrix is proposed. The matrix criteria consist of (1) three-dimensional (3D) synchronized sensory stimulation; (2) degrees of freedom tracking; and (3) visual suppression of physical stimuli. To validate the model and quantify the current scale/diversity of VR misclassification, a 2019 sectional review of health-related studies was conducted. Of the 115 studies examined against standardized criteria, 35.7% utilized VR, 31.3% misclassified VR, 18.3% were considered quasi-VR, and 14.8% omitted critical specifications. The proposed model demonstrates good validity and reliability for qualifying and classifying VR. Key Practitioner Messages Virtual reality (VR) therapy has gained rapid empirical support, although many practitioners do not understand the difference between genuine and less-realistic VR variations. That has resulted from an evident lack of suitable criteria to define VR across a range of studies and protocols. Our proposed hardware-based virtual reality qualification matrix addresses issues to do with misclassification, via the introduction of standardised criteria. Applying the matrix to existing literature has revealed that more than 30% of VR studies use hardware that does not fit the high standards of rigour required for immersion in a simulated space. The model is a practical tool researchers and practitioners can use to quality and verify VR standards across research studies.

Social Media Peer Support Groups for Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders: Understanding the Predictors of Negative Experiences.

INTRODUCTION: As social media platforms become commonplace in daily life, online peer support groups have become an increasingly popular resource for people living with physical and mental health issues. Although the benefits of using online peer support groups have been well documented, there can be also be significant risks associated with groups hosted on social media platforms. People living with obsessive-compulsive related disorders may be particularly vulnerable to negative experiences in such groups. METHOD: Using a mixed-methods approach, the aim of the current study was to identify the predictors of negative experiences among people who used social media peer support groups for obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. RESULTS: Results indicated that barriers to treatment and quality of "offline" interpersonal support predicted users' negative experiences in social media peer support groups for obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Thematic analysis suggested that the contributing factors towards participants' negative experiences included: (1) confronting content; (2) misinformation; (3) preoccupation with symptoms; (4) social comparison; and (5) hopelessness about recovery prospects. DISCUSSION: It was concluded that using social media peer support groups for obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, without adequate support structures in place, can pose users at the risk of negative experiences. Further research is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of how to enhance positive experiences and protect against the possible risks for users of unmoderated online peer support groups.

Virtual skills training: the role of presence and agency.

Virtual reality (VR) simulations provide increased feelings of presence and agency that could allow increased skill improvement during VR training. Direct relationships between active agency in VR and skill improvement have previously not been investigated. This study examined the relationship between (a) presence and agency, and (b) presence and skills improvement, via active and passive VR simulations and through measuring real-world golf-putting skill. Participants (n = 23) completed baseline putting skill assessment before using an Oculus Rift VR head-mounted display to complete active (putting with a virtual golf club) and passive (watching a game of golf) VR simulations. Measures of presence and agency were administered after each simulation, followed by a final putting skill assessment. The active simulation induced higher feelings of general presence and agency. However, no relationship was identified between presence and either agency or skill improvement. No skill improvement was evident in either the active or passive simulations, potentially due to the short training period applied, as well as a lack of realism in the VR simulations inhibiting a transfer of skills to a real environment. These findings reinforce previous literature that shows active VR to increase feelings of presence and agency. This study generates a number of fruitful research questions about the relationship between presence and skills training.

Public speaking anxiety decreases within repeated virtual reality training sessions.

Therapy for public speaking phobia using virtual reality exposure (VRE) has focused on distress arousal rather than distress habituation. Understanding habituation will help optimise session duration, making treatment more affordable and accessible. This pilot study utilised within-speech repeated measures to examine distress habituation during three brief public speaking scenarios in a non-clinical sample (n = 19; 18-76 years). VRE elicited significant distress in all three scenarios. Although within-scenario distress habituation was not observed, between-scenario habituation was partially supported. An increase in distress during the second scenario indicated that three consecutive speech performances were critical in achieving habituation. Brief repeated VRE scenarios using an agent audience were effective in eliciting public speaking distress, as well as habituation.

Down the rabbit hole: assessing the influence of schizotypy on the experience of the Barbie Doll Illusion.

INTRODUCTION: "Body swapping" illusions have been used to explore factors contributing to the experience of "owning" an artificial body. Preliminary research indicated that those people diagnosed with schizophrenia experience more vivid illusions of this kind than do "normal" individuals. OBJECTIVES: Here, we explored whether participants who rated themselves "high" on the cognitive-perceptual factor of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) experienced a more compelling sense of immersion in a variation of the body swapping illusion: The Barbie Doll Illusion. We also hypothesised that these individuals would experience a change in size perception when immersed in the illusion. METHOD: Forty-four participants wore a pair of Head-Mounted Display goggles connected to a video-camera, and thus a doll's body replaced their own body in their visual field. In two conditions, touch was either applied synchronously or asynchronously to the doll's and each participant's leg. After each condition, participants filled out a questionnaire relating to their experience in the illusion. When both conditions were completed, they filled out the SPQ. RESULTS: Our first hypothesis was confirmed, which suggested that people with higher cognitive-perceptual SPQ scores do indeed experience a more compelling Barbie Doll Illusion; however, our second hypothesis was not supported. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated, for the first time, that proneness to the positive and interpersonal factors of schizotypy in a normal population is sufficient to produce a compelling sense of swapping bodies.