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Frontiers in Psychology 2020Focusing on lucid dreaming, this paper examined relationships between dissociated experiences related to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (lucid dreaming, nightmares, and...
Focusing on lucid dreaming, this paper examined relationships between dissociated experiences related to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (lucid dreaming, nightmares, and sleep paralysis), reality testing, and paranormal experiences/beliefs. The study comprised a UK-based online sample of 455 respondents (110 males, 345 females, = 34.46 years, = 15.70), who had all previously experienced lucid dreaming. Respondents completed established self-report measures assessing control within lucid dreaming, experience and frequency of nightmares, incidence of sleep paralysis, proneness to reality testing deficits (Inventory of Personality Organization subscale, IPO-RT), subjective experience of receptive psi and life after death (paranormal experience), and paranormal belief. Analysis comprised tests of correlational and predictive relationships between sleep-related outcomes, IPO-RT scores, and paranormal measures. Significant positive correlations between sleep and paranormal measures were weak. Paranormal measures related differentially to sleep indices. Paranormal experience correlated with lucid dreaming, nightmares, and sleep paralysis, whereas paranormal belief related only to nightmares and sleep paralysis. IPO-RT correlated positively with all paranormal and sleep-related measures. Within the IPO-RT, the Auditory and Visual Hallucinations sub-factor demonstrated the strongest positive associations with sleep measures. Structural equation modeling indicated that Auditory and Visual Hallucinations significantly positively predicted dissociated experiences related to REM sleep, while paranormal experience did not. However, paranormal experience was a significant predictor when analysis controlled for Auditory and Visual Hallucinations. The moderate positive association between these variables explained this effect. Findings indicated that self-generated, productive cognitive-processes (as encompassed by Auditory and Visual Hallucinations) played a significant role in conscious control and awareness of lucid dreaming, and related dissociative sleep states (sleep paralysis and nightmares).
PubMed: 32256437
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00471 -
Clinical Ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) 2021To test the ability of a virtual reality (VR) orientation and mobility (O&M) protocol to serve a measure of functional vision for patients with inherited retinal...
PURPOSE
To test the ability of a virtual reality (VR) orientation and mobility (O&M) protocol to serve a measure of functional vision for patients with inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs).
METHODS
A VR-O&M protocol designed using a commercially available VR hardware was tested in normally sighted control subjects (n=7; ages 10-35yo; Average 22.5yo) and patients with -associated Leber Congenital Amaurosis (n=3; ages 7-18yo; Average 12.7yo), in two of them before and after gene therapy. Patients underwent perimetry and full-field sensitivity testing. VR-O&M parameters correlated with the visual dysfunction.
RESULTS
Visual acuities in patients were on average worse than 20/200, dark-adapted sensitivity losses >5 log units, and fields constricted between 20° and 40°. Before treatment, patients required ~1000-fold brighter environment to navigate, had at least x4 more collisions, and were slower both to orient and navigate compared to control subjects. Improvements in cone- (by 1-2 L.u.) and rod-mediated (by >4 L.u.) sensitivities post-treatment led to fewer collisions (at least by half) at ~100-fold dimmer luminances, and to x4 times faster navigation times.
CONCLUSION
This study provides proof-of-concept data in support for the use of VR-O&M systems to quantify the impact that the visual dysfunction and improvement of vision following treatments has on functional vision in IRDs. The VR-O&M was useful in potentially challenging scenarios such as in pediatric patients with severe IRDs.
TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE
A VR-O&M test will provide much needed flexibility, both in its deployment as well as in the possibility to test various attributes of vision that may be impacted by gene therapy in the setting of translational studies.
PRECIS
This study provides proof-of-concept data in support for the use of a virtual reality orientation and mobility test to quantify the impact of the disease and of treatments thereof on functional vision in inherited retinal degenerations.
PubMed: 33688162
DOI: 10.2147/OPTH.S292527 -
Food Research International (Ottawa,... Jul 2021While virtual reality (VR) has become increasingly popular in food-related research, there has been a lack of clarity, precision, and guidelines regarding what exactly... (Review)
Review
While virtual reality (VR) has become increasingly popular in food-related research, there has been a lack of clarity, precision, and guidelines regarding what exactly constitutes a virtual reality study, as well as the options available to the researcher for designing and implementing it. This review provides a practical guide for sensory and consumer scientists interested in exploring the emerging opportunities offered by VR. We take a deep dive into the components that make up a VR study, including hardware, software, and response measurement methods, all the while being grounded in immersion and presence theory. We then review how these building blocks are put together to create two major categories of research scenarios: product selection, which can be entirely created in VR, and food evaluation, which involve tasting products in real life. For each category, we review current literature with a focus on experimental design, then highlight future avenues and technical development opportunities within sensory and consumer research. Finally, we evaluate limitations and ethical issues in VR food research, and offer future perspectives which go above and beyond ensuring ecological validity in product testing.
Topics: Research Design; Software; Taste; Virtual Reality
PubMed: 34112413
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110410 -
Ugeskrift For Laeger Feb 2022Digital health technology is promising for improving mental healthcare by enabling continuous monitoring of behaviour by smartphones and wearables, new paradigms for... (Review)
Review
Digital health technology is promising for improving mental healthcare by enabling continuous monitoring of behaviour by smartphones and wearables, new paradigms for testing in virtual reality, and analysis of big data through machine learning for prediction models. This might advance prevention efforts, and contribute to diagnostics and treatment; however, high quality studies of clinical effects and applicability are needed before implementation. In this review, we summarize the current status of the field relevant for a Danish mental healthcare setting, and comment on challenges.
Topics: Humans; Machine Learning; Psychiatry; Smartphone; Virtual Reality
PubMed: 35244022
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of Educational Evaluation For... 2023
Presidential address: improving item validity and adopting computer-based testing, clinical skills assessments, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality in health professions licensing examinations in Korea.
Topics: Humans; Artificial Intelligence; Clinical Competence; Health Occupations; Virtual Reality; Computers; Republic of Korea
PubMed: 36967486
DOI: 10.3352/jeehp.2023.20.8 -
JMIR Medical Education Jan 2023Virtual reality has been gaining ground in health professions education and may offer students a platform to experience and master situations without endangering... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Virtual reality has been gaining ground in health professions education and may offer students a platform to experience and master situations without endangering patients or themselves. When implemented effectively, virtual reality technologies may enable highly engaging learning activities and interactive simulations. However, implementation processes present challenges, and the key to successful implementation is identifying barriers and facilitators as well as finding strategies to address them.
OBJECTIVE
This scoping review aimed to identify the literature on virtual reality implementation in health professions education, identify barriers to and facilitators of implementation, and highlight gaps in the literature in this area.
METHODS
The scoping review was conducted based on the Joanna Briggs Institute Evidence Synthesis methodologies. Electronic searches were conducted in the Academic Search Elite, Education Source, and CINAHL databases on January 5, 2022, in Google Scholar on February 2 and November 18, 2022, and in PubMed database on November 18, 2022. We conducted hand searches of key items, reference tracking, and citation tracking and searches on government webpages on February 2, 2022. At least 2 reviewers screened the identified literature. Eligible studies were considered based on predefined inclusion criteria. The results of the identified items were analyzed and synthesized using qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS
We included 7 papers and identified 7 categories related to facilitators of and barriers to implementation-collaborative participation, availability, expenses, guidelines, technology, careful design and evaluation, and training-and developed a model that links the categories to the 4 constructs from Carl May's general theory of implementation. All the included reports provided recommendations for implementation, including recommendations for careful design and evaluation, training of faculty and students, and faculty presence during use.
CONCLUSIONS
Virtual reality implementation in health professions education appears to be a new and underexplored research field. This scoping review has several limitations, including definitions and search words, language, and that we did not assess the included papers' quality. Important implications from our findings are that ensuring faculty's and students' competence in using virtual reality technology is necessary for the implementation processes. Collaborative participation by including end users in the development process is another factor that may ensure successful implementation in higher education contexts. To ensure stakeholders' motivation and potential to use virtual reality, faculty and students could be invited to participate in the development process to ensure that the educational content is valued. Moreover, technological challenges and usability issues should be resolved before implementation to ensure that pedagogical content is the focus. This accentuates the importance of piloting, sufficient time resources, basic testing, and sharing of experiences before implementation.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)
RR2-10.2196/37222.
PubMed: 36692934
DOI: 10.2196/41589 -
Fertility and Sterility Nov 2016
Topics: Dreams; Genetic Testing; Humans; Preimplantation Diagnosis
PubMed: 27645293
DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.08.046 -
Cancer Cytopathology Mar 2018
Topics: High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans; Lung Neoplasms; Nucleotides; RNA; Thyroid Neoplasms
PubMed: 29364571
DOI: 10.1002/cncy.21962 -
Journal of Clinical and Translational... May 2020The use of virtual reality (VR) technology continues to grow in the areas of clinical assessment and rehabilitation. Both researchers and health-care providers are... (Review)
Review
UNLABELLED
The use of virtual reality (VR) technology continues to grow in the areas of clinical assessment and rehabilitation. Both researchers and health-care providers are exploring ways to incorporate VR in clinical practice as an emerging technology. VR postural control and neuropsychological testing represent a promising next step in sport-related concussion (SRC) management. This article reviews the current literature on VR applications for SRC assessment.
RELEVANCE FOR PATIENTS
VR-based postural control assessments suggest that visual motion is destabilizing following SRC, perhaps indicating persistent perceptual-motion disintegration when clinical postural control tests suggest complete recovery. VR can also provide functional neuropsychological assessments using real-life scenarios or virtual environments, which may be more sensitive than traditional pencil-and-paper or computerized neuropsychological assessments.
PubMed: 32671279
DOI: No ID Found -
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2022The mistiming of predictive thought and real perception leads to postdiction in awareness. Individuals with high delusive thinking confuse prediction and perception,...
BACKGROUND
The mistiming of predictive thought and real perception leads to postdiction in awareness. Individuals with high delusive thinking confuse prediction and perception, which results in impaired reality testing. The present observational study investigated how antipsychotic medications and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) modulate postdiction in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that treatment reduces postdiction, especially when antipsychotics and CBT are combined.
METHODS
We enrolled patients with schizophrenia treated in a natural clinical setting and not in a randomized controlled trial. We followed up two schizophrenia groups matched for age, sex, education, and illness duration: patients on antipsychotics ( = 25) or antipsychotics plus CBT ( = 25). The treating clinician assigned the patients to the two groups. Participants completed a postdiction and a temporal discrimination task at weeks 0 and 12.
RESULTS
At week 0, postdiction was enhanced in patients relative to controls at a short prediction-perception time interval, which correlated with PANSS positive symptoms and delusional conviction. At week 12, postdiction was reduced in schizophrenia, especially when they received antipsychotics plus CBT. Patients with schizophrenia were also impaired on the temporal discrimination task, which did not change during the treatment. During the 12-week observational period, all PANSS scores were significantly reduced in both clinical groups, but the positive symptoms and emotional distress exhibited a more pronounced response in the antipsychotics plus CBT group.
CONCLUSION
Perceptual postdiction is a putative neurocognitive marker of delusive thinking. Combined treatment with antipsychotics and CBT significantly ameliorates abnormally elevated postdiction in schizophrenia.
PubMed: 35735408
DOI: 10.3390/bs12060198