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Cited by 43Virtual Reality Applications and ImpactsAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMemory and Neural Mechanisms

Within- and Between-Session Prefrontal Cortex Response to Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Acrophobia

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Landowska, Aleksandra, Roberts, David, Eachus, Peter, Barrett, Alan·2018·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
DOI 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00362PMC PMC6221970
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Abstract

Exposure Therapy (ET) has demonstrated its efficacy in the treatment of phobias, anxiety and PTSD, however, it suffers high drop- out rate because of to low or to high patient engagement in treatment. Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) is comparably effective regarding symptom reduction and offers an alternative tool to facilitate engagement for avoidant participants. Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that both exposure therapy and virtual reality exposure therapy normalise brain activity within a fear circuit. However, previous studies have employed brain imaging technology which restricts people’s movement and hides their body, surroundings and therapist from view. This is at odds with the way engagement is typically controlled. We used a novel combination of neural imaging and virtual reality technology - Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and Immersive Projection Technology (IPT), to avoid these limitations. Although there are a few studies that have investigated the effect of VRET on a brain function after the treatment, the present study utilised technologies which promote ecological validity to measure brain changes after VRET treatment. Furthermore, there are no studies that have measured brain activity within VRET session. In this study brain activity within the prefrontal cortex was measured during three consecutive exposure sessions. N=13 acrophobic volunteers were asked to walk on a virtual plank with a 6m drop below. Changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin concentrations in the prefrontal cortex were measured in three blocks using fNIRS. Consistent with previous fMRI studies, the analysis showed decreased activity in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex during first exposure. The activity increased toward normal across three sessions. The study demonstrates potential efficacy of a method for measuring within-session neural response to virtual stimuli that could be replicated within clinics and research institutes, with equipment better suited to an exposure therapy session and a fraction of the cost, when compared to fMRI. This has application in widening access to, and increasing ecological validity of, immersive neuroimaging across understanding, diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of, a range of mental disorders such as phobia, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder or addictions.

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  • VR exposure therapy (VRET) is more easily accepted by most patients with a specific phobia than traditional in-vivo exposure therapy.

    “Studies have shown that VR exposure therapy (VRET) would be more easily accepted by most patients with a specific phobia than traditional (in-vivo) ET, which may suggest an opportunity for the improvement and application of this sort of treatments (Landowska et al., 2018).”

    From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as Landowska et al., 2018

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Authors
Landowska, A., Roberts, D., Eachus, P., & Barrett, A.
Affiliations
  • University of Salford (GB)
  • Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
Corresponding author
Landowska, Aleksandra
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2018-11-01
Volume
12
Pages
362-362
ISSN
1662-5161 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fnhum.2018.00362
PMC
PMC6221970
OpenAlex
W2899296763
Cited by
43
References
126
Citations by year
2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 3
FWCI
4.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Salford Institutional Repository (University of Salford) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Keywords
virtual reality exposure therapy, acrophobia, prefrontal cortex, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, ecological validity, fear circuit, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, hemoglobin oxygenation, treatment engagement, phobia treatment

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

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