Engaging in Awkward Social Interactions in a Virtual Environment Designed for Exposure-Based Psychotherapy for People with Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder: An International Multisite Study.

The effectiveness of in virtuo exposure-based treatment of performance-only social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been demonstrated in several studies. However, few studies have validated virtual environments with participants suffering from generalized SAD. The goal of this study is to confirm the potential of a virtual environment in inducing anxiety in adults suffering from generalized SAD, compared to adults without SAD, when engaged in awkward social interactions.

Are Cognitive Load and Focus of Attention Differentially Involved in Pain Management: An Experimental Study Using a Cold Pressor Test and Virtual Reality.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess whether distraction (lack of attentional focus) and attention (cognitive load) are differentially involved in the analgesic effect of virtual reality (VR) immersions during a cold pressor test (CPT).

Methods: Thirty-one participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions (high and low cognitive load, attention with or without a reminder of the pain stimuli) and performed three CPTs. Pain was assessed based on the duration of the CPT (pain tolerance), a visual analog rating scale of perceived pain intensity during the CPT and the subjective pain scale of the Short form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ).

The Effect of Exposure to Fear-Related Body Odorants on Anxiety and Interpersonal Trust Toward a Virtual Character.

A growing body of literature documents how exposure to another person's fear-related body odorants can increase one's own anxiety and interfere with processing of social information, such as facial expression and impression formation. Building on these results, we aimed to 1) test the hypothesis that exposure to fear-related odorant would affect impression formation through fear contagion and 2) verify whether these effects can be observed in an ecologically valid (i.e.