Abstract
Simulation technology has a long history of adding value in aviation, military training, automotive/aircraft design, and surgical planning. In clinical psychology, Norcross et al. (2013) surveyed 70 therapy experts regarding interventions they predicted to increase in the next decade and virtual reality (VR) was ranked 4th out of 45 options, with other computer-supported methods occupying 4 out of the top 5 positions. The increased popularity of VR in the news, social media, conferences, and from innovative start-ups may give the impression that VR is something new. However, it is important to look back in time and recognize that as early as the 1960’s, Heilig proposed a multisensory immersive experienced called the Sensorama, and Sutherland and Sproull had created a stereoscopic head mounted display (HMD) (Berryman 2012; Srivastava et al. 2014). The term VR was coined more than 30 years ago by Jaron Lanier and commercial games were distributed to the public as early as 1989 by Mattel (in the US, and by PAX in Japan) for its PowerGlove™ and Nintendo’s failed Virtual Boy™ was released in 1995. Clinical VR applications were proposed as early as the mid 1990’s by Lamson, Pugnetti, Rothbaum, Riva, Rizzo, Weiss, and Wiederhold (named in alphabetical order), among others. Moreover, several scientific journals, conferences, and handbooks dedicated to the subject have been reporting scientific findings for decades.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andrews, G., Basu, A., Cuijpers, P., Craske, M. G., McEvoy, P., English, C. L., & Newby, J. M. (2018). Computer therapy for the anxiety and depression disorders is effective, acceptable and practical health care: An updated meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 55, 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.01.001.
Baumeister, H., Reichler, L., Munzinger, M., & Lin, J. (2014). The impact of guidance on internet-based mental health interventions – A systematic review. Internet Interventions, 1(4), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2014.08.003.
Baus, O., & Bouchard, S. (2014). Moving from virtual reality exposure-based therapy to augmented reality exposure-based therapy: A review. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(112), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00112.
Berryman, D. R. (2012). Augmented reality: A review. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 31, 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2012.670604.
Blanke, O. (2012). Multisensory brain mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(8), 556–571.
Bouchard, S., Robillard, G., Larouche, S., & Loranger, C. (2012). Description of a treatment manual for in virtuo exposure with specific phobia. In C. Eichenberg (Ed.), Virtual reality in psychological, medical and pedagogical applications (pp. 82–108). Rijeka (Croatia): InTech. ISBN 978-953-51-0732-3.
Bouchard, S., Robillard, G., Renaud, P., & Bernier, F. (2011). Exploring new dimensions in the assessment of virtual reality induced side effects. Journal of Computer and Information Technology, 1(3), 20–32.
Bouchard, S., St-Jacques, J., Robillard, G., & Renaud, P. (2008). Anxiety increases the sense of presence in virtual reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, (4, 1), 376–391.
Cruz-Neira, C., Sandin, D. J., DeFanti, T. A., Kenyon, R. V., & Hart, J. (1992). The cave: Audio visual experience automatic virtual environment. Communications of the ACM, 35(6), 64–72. https://doi.org/10.1145/129888.129892.
Fuchs, P. (2017). Virtual reality headsets: A theorical and pragmatic approach (p. 200). Leiden: CRC Press. ISBN 9781138632356.
Fuchs, P., Moreau, G., & Guitton, P. (2011). Virtual reality: Concepts and technologies (1st ed.). Leiden: CRC Press.
Freeman, D., Haselton, P., Freeman, J., Spanlang, B., Kishore, S., Albery, E., et al. (2018). Automated psychological therapy using immersive virtual reality for treatment of fear of heights: A single-blind, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Psychiatry, 5, 625–632. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30226-8.
Gualano, M. R., Bert, F., Martorana, M., Voglino, G., Andriolo, V., Thomas, et al. (2017). The long-term effects of bibliotherapy in depression treatment: Systematic review of randomized clinical trials. Clinical Psychology Review, 58, 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.09.006.
Haug, T., Nordgreen, T., Ost, L. G., & Havik, O. E. (2012). Self-help treatment of anxiety disorders: A meta-analysis and meta-regression of effects and potential moderators. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(5), 425–445.
Heeter, C. (1992). Being there: The subjective experience of presence. Presence (Camb.), 1, 262–271.
Lombard, M., & Ditton, T. (1997). At the heart of it all: The concept of presence. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(2).
Milgram, P., & Kishino, F. (1994). A taxonomy of mixed reality visual displays. IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, E77-D(12), 1321–1329.
Minsky, M. (1980, June). Telepresence. OMNI magazine, 45–52.
Norcross, J. C., Pfund, R. A., & Prochaska, J. O. (2013). Psychotherapy in 2022: A delphi poll on its future. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. American Psychological Association, 44(5), 363–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/a003/4633.
Reger, G. M., Smolenski, D., Edwards-Stewart, A., Skopp, N. A., Rizzo, A. A., & Norr, A. (2018). Does virtual reality increase simulator sickness during VR exposure therapy for PTSD? Telemedicine and eHealth. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2018.0175.
Riva, G., Mantovani, F.Bouchard, S. (2014). Presence. Dans B. K. Wiederhold et S. Bouchard (dir.), Advances in virtual reality and anxiety disorders (p. 9–4). New York: Springer US.
Rizzo, A. S., & Koenig, S. T. (2017). Is clinical virtual reality ready for primetime? Neuropsychology, 31(8), 877–899. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000405.
Rizzo, A. S., Strickland, D., & Bouchard, S. (2004). The challenge of using virtual reality in telerehabilitation. Telemedicine Journal and E-Health, 10(2), 184–195.
Sharples, S., Cobb, S., & Burnett, G. (2014). Sickness in virtual reality. In B. K. Wiederhold & S. Bouchard (Eds.), Advances in virtual reality and anxiety disorders (Ch. 3) (pp. 35–62). London: Springer.
Slater, M. (2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philantropical Transactions of the Royal Society – B Biological Sciences, 364(1535), 3549–3557. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0138.
Slater, M., Spanlang, B., Sanchez-Vives, M. V., & Blanke, O. (2010). First person experience of body transfer in virtual reality. PLoS One, 5(5), e10564. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010564.
Srivastava, K., Das, R. C., & Chaudhury, S. (2014). Virtual reality applications in mental health: Challenges and perspectives. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 23(2), 83–85. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-6748.151666.
Stevenson Won, A., Bailenson, J., Lee, J., & Lanier, J. (2015). Homuncular flexibility in virtual reality. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20(3), 241–259. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12107.
Tardif, N., Therrien, C.-H., & Bouchard, S. (2019). Re-examining psychological mechanisms underlying virtual reality-based exposure for spider phobia. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 22(1), 39–45.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bouchard, S., Rizzo, A.“. (2019). Applications of Virtual Reality in Clinical Psychology and Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience–An Introduction. In: Rizzo, A.“., Bouchard, S. (eds) Virtual Reality for Psychological and Neurocognitive Interventions. Virtual Reality Technologies for Health and Clinical Applications. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9482-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9482-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9480-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9482-3
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)