WIMI Hologram Academy: Psychological application of multi-perceptual interactive experience of virtual reality technology

HONG KONG, May 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WIMI Hologram Academy, working in partnership with the Holographic Science Innovation Center, has written a new technical article describing their exploration of  the VR technology in the treatment of mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, and phobia. This article follows below:

There is a long past in psychology, but only a short history. With the major breakthroughs and in-depth application of VR peripheral support technologies such as 5G, AI, and HD display, VR technology has developed rapidly and truly become a new field of science and technology, and the psychological application of VR has become increasingly mature. Virtual reality (VR) technology fusion of electronic computers, electronic information, and modern simulation technology, based on the computer simulation virtual environment, situation, and scene to give a good immersion, conception, autonomy, perceptual interactive experience, and is widely used in scientific research, education and training, psychological intervention and treatment and other fields. Scientists from WIMI Hologram Academy of WIMI Hologram Cloud Inc.(NASDAQ: WIMI), discussed the VR technology in the treatment of mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, and phobia.

Virtual reality technology was applied to psychology even later, only more than 20 years old. Virtual reality technology, fusion 3D sensory technology, modern simulation technology, electronic computer technology, electronic information technology, through computer simulation virtual 3D environment, simulation situation, realistic scene to give a person with good immersion, conception, autonomy, perceptual interactive experience, destined to VR from its birth is closely related to psychology and is widely used in the field of psychology.

1. Application of VR in psychology

The psychological application of VR has been very active, and many scholars at home and abroad are carrying out beneficial exploration. In recent years, the theory of systematic desensitization therapy and exposure therapy has specially introduced VR application, and new achievements have been made in the treatment of phobia, anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, thus promoting the further innovation and development of psychological theory.

1.1 Systematic desensitization therapy and exposure therapy

System desensitization therapy is firstly created by the western psychiatrist, which is based on the classic conditioning and operational conditioning, the basis of treatment is against conditioning, treatment is mainly to induce the visitors to slowly exposed neurosis anxiety, fear, and then through psychological relaxation to fight anxiety, to achieve the purpose of eliminating anxiety or fear, gradually no longer sensitive pathological response to harmful stimuli. The basic principle of systematic desensitization is interactive inhibition, that is, guiding the visitor to make an anxiety inhibition response while inducing the appearance of anxiety stimuli, and inhibiting the weakness through interaction until finally the bad stimulus and anxiety are cut off. Systematic desensitization therapy is therefore also known as the interactive inhibition method.

Exposure therapy, also known as shock therapy, full irrigation therapy, or flooding therapy, derived from Foa and Kozak’s emotional processing theory, is mainly divided into imagination exposure and real exposure, preventing visitors from any relaxation training, direct imagination, or directly into the most terrible, anxiety situation, but the most worried, the most terrible disaster or consequences did not happen, thus quickly correct the wrong knowledge of terror, anxiety, and eliminate by bad stimulation habitual anxiety, terror reaction.

2. Progress in the application of VR in psychotherapy

VR through the computer virtual creates a child personality for humans to play in the real world can not do or cannot do, cannot complete the event, and experience the personality in the virtual world activities affect our real life, the current thought, psychology, and behavior pattern, widely used in the treatment of phobia, anxiety, anorexia, attention defect disorder diagnosis, schizophrenia, and other mental illness.

2.1 VR treatment for anxiety disorders

At present, the VR treatment of anxiety disorders mostly adopts systemic desensitization therapy. In the psychotherapy room, the fairy tale forest, over the forest, in the safe, blue seafloor, even to the vast outer space in soft music, and friendly virtual friends.

If the patient’s anxiety is deep and simply integrating and immersion in the virtual world is not enough to achieve the treatment effect, the guidance of the psychologist is needed. In the context of virtual reality situations or virtual reality worlds, psychologists can better treat psychological anxiety through professional psychological guidance.

2.2. VR treatment for the phobia

Different from VR treatment of anxiety disorders, scholars have found that VR treatment of phobia, systematic desensitization therapy, and exposure therapy all have a good effect. For the VR treatment of the phobia, the therapy mainly depends on the reality of the VR scene and the immersion of the visitor in the VR scene, and the severity of the phobia.

In VR exposure therapy, the psychologist enters the virtual scene together with the client. Through psychological speech guidance and action demonstration, psychologists help visitors to look directly at their psychological fear while giving psychological correction and treatment. In the VR world, even if exposed to a very real terrorist scene, visitors have no personal safety crisis, and can describe their feelings more accurately and directly, which is more accurate than the recall description of traditional psychological methods, and more helpful to the psychological analysis and corrective treatment of psychologists.

Nowadays, VR has been widely used in the psychotherapy of fear of heights, flight, animals (such as spiders), driving, claustrophobia, and social phobia.

2.3. VR treatment for PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, mostly occurs after major traumatic events, such as war, severe domestic violence, or major disasters, and it is difficult to reproduce the scenes that can make patients immersive in reality. Patients with PTSD usually refuse to recall the traumatic past and do not cooperate with the treatment, and it is difficult to accurately describe what they think inside. Therefore, traditional psychology is more difficult to treat PTSD.

And VR combined with psychological exposure therapy, not only easy to reproduce the major traumatic events or closer to the real scene, PTSD patients through immersive events flashbacks, in the key time and event node constantly get the guidance of psychological doctors and psychological support, psychological treatment, to obtain psychological growth and psychological cure. Research by some scholars shows that it is much more effective than working through traditional psychological treatments.

In addition, virtual reality has quite satisfactory results in the treatment of psychological disorders such as anorexia, attention deficit disorder, and schizophrenia.

3. Progress of VR in psycho-behavioral training

The main purpose of psychological behavior training is to improve the willpower and psychological adaptability of the trainees, shape a good psychological quality, and forge a teamwork spirit. Traditional psychological behavior training mainly includes extreme psychological behavior training methods, cognitive psychological behavior training methods, situational psychological behavior training methods, and implied psychological behavior training methods.

Different from traditional psycho-behavioral training, VR psycho-behavioral training is not dangerous and has almost no incidence of training injury. VR psycho-behavioral training is highly immersive and realistic and immersive feeling.VR psychological and behavioral training mainly includes physical and mental relaxation training, systematic desensitization training, cognitive and behavioral training, and extreme psychological and behavioral training.

VR physical and mental relaxation training, mainly through the situation into deep space, underwater world, primeval forest, glacier mountains, grassland, beach, fairy tale world and other virtual scenes, supplemented by music background, to achieve the relaxation effect; VR system desensitization training, mainly for the high altitude fear, dense terror, square terror, fear, death anxiety, abject terror (spiders, snakes), specific place fear (funeral home, cemetery, etc.), dark fear and other psychological problems, in VR scene training psychological counseling and psychological intervention;VR cognitive behavior training combines traditional cognitive training and behavioral training, integrates the cognitive correction and behavior correction in VR experience, and allows the participants to control emotions and overcome diseases; VR extreme psychological behavior training trains and complete tasks to improve the skill, physical ability, tactical level and physical and psychological endurance. According to the theory of educational training, a certain human quality or ability can only be trained under the corresponding environment and conditions requiring such quality or ability. The characteristics of complex confrontation, fierce confrontation intensity, increase of confrontation elements, expansion of confrontation field, and increased danger of confrontation, determine that the usual training must reach high intensity, and the professional efficiency can be maximized.

4. Conclusion

With the continuous breakthrough progress of peripheral technology, the design and structure of the virtual environment, situation, and scene of VR are becoming more and more realistic, and the immersive, conceptual, autonomous and multi-perceptual interactive experience are becoming stronger and more strong. The psychological application scope of VR will also be wider and wider.

Founded in August 2020, WIMI Hologram Academy is dedicated to holographic AI vision exploration, and conducts research on basic science and innovative technologies, driven by human vision. The Holographic Science Innovation Center, in partnership with WIMI Hologram Academy, is committed to exploring the unknown technology of holographic AI vision, attracting, gathering and integrating relevant global resources and superior forces, promoting comprehensive innovation with scientific and technological innovation as the core, and carrying out basic science and innovative technology research.

Contacts

Holographic Science Innovation Center

Email: pr@holo-science. com