The spoils of war for returning veterans may include addictions, injury, and the constant images of horrific events they witnessed. Now a University of Houston joint study funded by the Veterans Health Administration Rehabilitation Research and Development service looks to address these issues through the use of virtual reality. Included in this report is a […]
In people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), the inability to make quick movements limits basic functioning in daily life. Movement can be improved by various cueing techniques, such as providing visual or auditory stimuli when movements are started. In a study scheduled for publication in the August issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, […]
Participants in two weight-loss programs — one involving traditional health club sessions and the other delivered online in a 3D virtual world — lost similar amounts of weight and body fat, but the online contingent reported significantly greater gains in behaviors that could help them live healthier and leaner lives. The study “Comparison of a […]
For those soldiers worried about the stigma associated with seeing a therapist, virtual reality applications for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be the alternative to the traditional “talk therapy.” A new paper by Albert Rizzo from the University of Southern California, Institute for Creative Technologies, Los Angeles, and his team, reviews how […]
If a tree falls in a virtual reality forest, will anyone hear an environmental message? They will, as long as they were the ones who cut down the make-believe redwood. New findings from Stanford researchers show that people who were immersed in a three-dimensional virtual forest and told to saw through a towering sequoia until […]
Virtual reality explosions, anti-American insults, and smells of smoke and foreign spices will be part of a new therapy program to help servicemen and women recover from their wartime experiences. Sounds such as explosions and gunfire have long been part of therapy programs for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But smells have rarely been included even […]
An article published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress is one of the first to provide evidence of the effectiveness of exposure therapy with active duty military service members suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study shows that virtual reality exposure therapy resulted in significant reductions in PTSD symptoms after […]
Food presented in a virtual reality (VR) environment causes the same emotional responses as real food. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Annals of General Psychiatry compared the responses of people with anorexia and bulimia, and a control group, to the virtual and real-life snacks, suggesting that virtual food can be used for […]
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