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PARIS (AFP) – People who have lived with fear of heights for decades have become less frightened by the virtual reality (VR) therapy that led them to climb a flying whale, researchers said yesterday [19659002]. Computer experts put the confirmed acrophobes to the test in a series of virtual reality simulations, after which they all announced "a reduction of fear," they announced.
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With a virtual" coach "to guide people through treatment, the new method could offer an inexpensive way of providing care to people who can not afford or access a face-to-face -face. The VR coach uses the recorded voice of an actor
The fear of heights, the most common phobia, affects one in five people at some point in their lives, according to researchers who published their findings in T The Medical Journal The Lancet Psychiatry
Most never receive treatment.
For the last study, the team recruited 100 volunteers. Half received VR treatment and the other half not, to allow comparison.
This was the first VR phobia treatment that did not require the presence of a real-life therapist, the team said. be as imaginative, entertaining and easy to navigate as possible, "says study leader Daniel Freeman of Oxford University's Department of Psychiatry
Wearing goggles and tactile gloves on firm ground, patients evolve in a 3D world. centered in the massive atrium of a 10-story computerized office building.
The 30-minute prerecorded programming sessions ran automatically, with the virtual coach explaining what the participants had to do.
a rickety bridge, save a cat from a tree, perform tasks near the edge of a balcony, and ride a flying whale
The result after several sessions exceeded the expectations of researchers.
k, "More than three-quarters of participants receiving VR treatments showed at least a halving of their fear of heights," Freeman said.
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