VR and Psychotherapy

A recent research theme in collaboration with doctors at the hospital, that allows to work on hybrid methods for diagnosis and therapy, with hybrid experience modelling at its core.

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  EXTENT: Executive Functions Testing in VR with Embodied Cognition

  VR and Psychotherapy Virtual Reality

  Joint program between Hanyang University, University of Nantes, Nantes University Hospital, and Hanyang University Hospital to design, built, and test embodied cognition-based franco-korean VR environments for testing executive functions. 7 Korean students spent 6 months in Nantes, and 7 VR environments were built to assess several executive disfunctions. The project continued with a postdoctoral contract to further develop and test 3 environments.

  Details

  Partners: LS2N, CHU Nantes, Hanyang University, Hanyang University Hospital
  Funding: IITP (Korea), West Creative Industry (France)
  Cofunding: PHC STAR (French/Korean),
  Beginning: 2019-09-01
  End: 2021-06-30
  

  Related publications

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  • Jieun Han, Gyu Hyun Kwon, Roman Malo, Yannick Prié, and Zied Kefi (Ed). (2023) Future Immersive Healthcare Experience in Medical and Home Setting in Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences Workshops (IMXw '23), Nantes, France, June doi Show abstract The rising accessibility of immersive media technologies opens the opportunity to use them easily in in-hospital and home environments for healthcare. The possibility to completely immerse users or patients in virtual environments, or to augment their surroundings, while tracking their movements and physiological reactions, provide new ways to induce or analyze user experiences. In the healthcare context, immersive media give new opportunities for diagnosis through the study of patient behaviors in controlled environments, as well as rehabilitation, by enabling patients to train in specific and personalized controlled tasks. In an at-home context, immersive media give opportunities to monitor and train mental and physical skills in order to improve users’ health and/or well-being. Care IMX is a half-day workshop of the IMX 2023 Conference, bringing together interdisciplinary medical, technological and social science researchers.
  • Nicolas Ribeiro, Toinon Vigier, Jieun Han, Gyu Hyun Kwon, Hojin Choi, Samuel Bulteau, Yannick Prié. (2024) Three Virtual Reality Environments for the Assessment of Executive Functioning Using Performance Scores and Kinematics: an Embodied and Ecological Approach to Cognition in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 27(2), 127-134. doi Show abstract Virtual reality is an attractive technology for cognitive assessment because it provides a more embodied experience than typical test situations using, for example, paper and pencil. In addition, virtual reality can immerse individuals in complex situations similar to real-life situations, thereby improving the ecological validity (i.e., face validity) of the assessment. Virtual reality can also provide improved scoring of tests as it facilitates the tracking of kinematic information and the temporal tracking of activities. This study assesses the correlation between scores on executive function assessments using standard neuropsychological tasks in paper-and-pencil format, on a tablet, and in three immersive virtual reality environments, each designed to involve specific aspects of executive function. This study also aims to assess the correlation between these performance scores and a set of kinematic measures (speed, duration, distance of the hand) collected in virtual reality. The outcomes (performance score and kinematic measure) correlate with previous assessment methods (paper and pencil and computerised 2D) and with each other, suggesting their potential usefulness in clinical and research contexts. The discussion focuses on the advantages of embodied, situated and spatialised tests for cognitive assessment and the benefits of kinematic tracking in virtual reality tests for the quality of this assessment.

  Additional comments

  Korean IITP funding: “Development of VR and IoT-based Systems for Evaluation of Embodied Cognition”: 7 Korean interns come in France for 6 months

  PHC (Programme Hubert Curien) STAR funding “EXTENT” Korea <> France travels

  Additional illustrations

  
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  HOMERIC: Hybridization of methOds for Modeling ExpeRIenCe in interactive systems

  Affordances Experience analysis and modelling VR and Psychotherapy Virtual Reality

  Our goal is to propose concepts, methods, and models for the study of user experience in virtual reality. We explore an hybrid approach that associates qualitative and quantitative methods, particularly first and third person methods. Our applicative aim is to build an affordance-based VR environment for elicitating several Rdoc dimensions associated to depression.

  Details

  Partners: LS2N, Sphere
  Funding: RFI Ouest Industries Créatives
  Cofunding: Université de Nantes
  Beginning: 2018-10-01
  End: 2019-12-31
  

  Related publications

  • Roman Malo, Yannick Prié. (2023) L’entretien d’explicitation comme outil d’investigation des processus psychiques en contexte expérimental : l’exemple de la flexibilité psychologique in Expliciter - Hors-série 1 - Actes du colloque Pierre Vermersch, pp 197-212 Show abstract Le travail que nous présentons ici est au croisement de la psychologie clinique et des sciences cognitives, dont l’enjeu est de proposer une investigation centrée subjectivité d’un processus psychologique. Il s’agit de souligner l’importance de l’expérience vécue explicitée pour affiner la compréhension des processus psychologiques, en prenant ici comme exemple la notion de flexibilité psychologique. Nous décrivons d’abord le “retour” du phénoménologique dans les modèles en psychologie actuelle dans un bref aperçu théorique, puis nous présentons des résultats du projet HOMERIC qui enrichissent notre compréhension du processus complexe qu’est la flexibilité en nous appuyant sur l’entretien d’explicitation comme outil mobilisé dans l’étude d’une situation expérimentale.
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  IPC4MH: Immersive Prevention Centers for Mental Health

  Patient Experience Trace-based Activity Analysis VR and Psychotherapy Virtual Reality

  Designing and evaluating immersive prevention centers for junior and senior patients in the case of mental health secondary and tertiary prevention.

  Details

  Partners: HES SO, Nantes University, Polish Academy of Sciences, CHU Nantes, Diverssity, C2Care
  Funding: THCS 2024 (Transforming Health and Care Systems)
  Cofunding:
  Beginning: 2025-04-01
  End: 2028-08-31
  
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  PROMETEA: OutPatient Experience in Virtual Reality for Architectural Design

  VR and Psychotherapy Virtual Reality

  A collaboration within Nantes University with clinical psychologists to design an build an ecological VR environment dedicated to prospective memory testing. The system will be evaluated in 2024.

  Details

  Partners: LS2N, LPPL, MIP
  Funding: ELIT Cluster
  Beginning: 2023-04-01
  End:
  
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  Revistim-X: Virtual Reality and Brain Stimulation: an experiential approach

  Experience analysis and modelling VR and Psychotherapy Virtual Reality

  This was the first feasability and acceptability study of the association of cerebral stimulation and virtual reality for treatment in psychotherapy. We designed and built an environment related to acrophobia, and analyzed patients' experiences using mixed methods. The project continues with the development of the EVEREST VR environment.

  Details

  Partners: LS2N, Sphere, IAC 18
  Funding: Université de Nantes
  Cofunding: CHU Nantes, Fondations Université de Nantes, Fondation CHU Nantes
  Beginning: 2017-10-01
  End: 2018-09-31
  

  Related publications

  • Toinon Vigier, Yannick Prié, Florian Melki, Matthieu Perreira Da Silva, Fabien Picarougne, Samuel Bulteau, Olivier Charlet. (2018) New VR Experiences for the Personalization of Care in Psychiatry: the Example of ReViSTIM Project in Care TVX Workshop at ACM TVX 2018, June 2018, Seoul, South Korea. doi Show abstract This paper presents a new VR platform in hospital environment for the study of mental diseases. The Revistim platform consists in several hardware devices and software tools for the immersion of subjects, the collection of various subjective, physiological and behavioral data as well as the use of new psychotherapeutic systems. The platform is used both for research in neuro-psychiatry (diagnosis, rehabilitation and treatment) and user experience modeling. Considering care, the main objective is to propose personalized care in psychiatry through the assessment of the patient state, the priorisation of targeted interventions, and an efficient evaluation of the VR therapy on the different dimensions of the disease.
  • Samuel Bulteau, Andrew Laurin, Kalyane Bach-Ngohou, Morgane Péré, Marie-Anne Vibet, Jean-Benoit Hardouin, Véronique Sebille, Lydie Lagalice, Élodie Faurel-Paul, Didier Acier, Thomas Rabeyron, Valéry-Pierre Riche, Anne Sauvaget, Florian Melki, Toinon Vigier, Matthieu Perreira Da Silva, Olivier Charlet, Yannick Prié. (2022) Feasibility of combining transcranial direct current stimulation and full embodied virtual reality for visual height intolerance: a double-blind randomized controlled study in Journal of Clinical Medecine 2022, 11(2), 345; doi Show abstract Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) may be used to reduce anxiety in visual height intolerance (vHI). Objective/Hypothesis: Our study aims to in-vestigate the feasibility of the association between wireless tDCS and full embodied 360° VRET to reduce anxiety in vHI. Methods: We carried out a randomized, double-blind, controlled study to associate VRET with tDCS by targeting the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in 28 participants. Primary outcomes were the sense of presence level and the tolerability. Secondary outcomes were the anxiety severity and the salivary cortisol concentration. Results: We confirmed the feasibility of the association tDCS+VRET with a good sense of presence without severe adverse effect. tDCS was not superior to sham to reduce anxiety. We observed in two groups a significant reduction of anxiety after stimulations but a significant increase in anxiety at each level of difficulty. Cortisol concentration significantly decreased in the sham group but remained stable in the tDCS group. Conclusion: Our study confirms the feasibility of the association between wireless tDCS and full embodied VRET with a validated environment to induce anxiety. Effects of VRET seem to be stronger than tDCS effects.

  Additional comments

  Revistim-X clinical trial recording.

  Additional illustrations

  
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  Revistim-xX: Virtual Reality and Brain Stimulation: an experiential approach

  Experience analysis and modelling VR and Psychotherapy Virtual Reality

  This second study on the association of cerebral stimulation and virtual reality for treatment in psychotherapy deals with rumination, a dimension of depression. In this study we collect data with questionnaires, EEG, eye-tracking, and micro-phenomenology.

  Details

  Partners: LS2N, Sphere, IAC 18
  Funding: partly funded by RFI Atlanstic 2020
  Cofunding:
  Beginning: 2018-03-01
  End: 2019-09-31
  

  Additional comments

  The “zen” virtual reality environment we use is designed by Healhty Mind

  Revistim-xX clinical trial recording.
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  TECNIS: Immersive Teleclinic

  Patient Experience Trace-based Activity Analysis Trace-based Systems VR and Psychotherapy Virtual Reality

  Designing and evaluating patients' journeys in a virtual teleclinic to carry out series of neuropsychological tests with practitioners.

  Details

  Partners: LS2N, CHU Nantes, BioSerenity
  Funding: Plan de relance.
  Cofunding:
  Beginning: 2022-09-01
  End: 2024-08-31
  

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