MOSCOW, May 17. NRU «BelSU» scientists have developed a method for correcting a person's psychological state using virtual reality. According to them, a personalized VR walk through various spaces can increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation and reduce the time it takes to complete it, the press service of the university reported.
Over the past decade, virtual reality (VR) has been widely used for the treatment of mental illness and the correction of emotional states, said researchers from the Belgorod State National Research University (NRU «BelSU»).
Scientists have developed a new way to correct the psychological state using VR technologies. According to them, when moving in a digital environment, the system of positioning in space is activated in the brain.
“You can say that the brain fixes the path a person is walking on. This helps to train various brain areas responsible not only for good mood, but also special areas that allow you to restore connections between neurons,» said Uliana Moskvitina, head of the project, Associate Professor of the Department of Psychiatry, Narcology and Clinical Psychology, National Research University «BelSU».
According to her, virtual reality technologies can expand the approach to the correction of depressive states and neurodegenerative disorders.
The scientists emphasized that there are no analogues of this method yet. They proposed to consider the content of virtual reality in terms of a holistic image with its boundaries.
Previously, the creators of virtual reality programs believed that a person is influenced by observing the plot itself or interacting with it (a pleasant mountain landscape, a walk in a park or forest). The researchers of the National Research University «BelSU» drew attention to the fact that the boundaries of the surrounding reality and how predictably they change are also important factors.
«It's one thing when you walk along a beautiful sandy beach and have a wide view, and another when you have to make your way through a dense thicket of the forest, where the visibility and viewing angle are quite limited. And what is around the corner is generally difficult to predict,» explained Uliana Moskvitina.
The study participant was shown a sequence of shots created personally for him: a field, mountains, the anthropogenic relief of a modern city, a living room or an office. During virtual movement in these spaces, a person had different reactions. They were tracked by changes in indicators of the functional activity of the brain, the scientists explained.
“Thus, by choosing a different relief and duration of a virtual walk, one can influence the psycho-emotional state of the patient. At the same time, all parameters are selected individually, taking into account the reactions of a particular person,” said Orest Ivashchuk, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Modeling of the Institute of Engineering and Digital Technologies.< br />According to the researchers, the described method affects the entorhinal cortex of the brain. It is responsible for one of the regions responsible for the regulation of the depressive phenotype, as well as neurogenesis and neuroplasticity of the adult brain.
Scientists have noted that the entorhinal cortex can be damaged in the early stages of Alzheimer's, Pick's, Parkinson's, with depressive disorders, stressful influences.
«The entorhinal cortex is constantly involved when a person moves in space. It has high neuroplasticity, since the brain needs to map, recognize and compare the space every time a person moves around. And with depression and other disorders of mental activity, the neuroplasticity mechanism suffers,» — added Moskvitina.
According to the developers, any of the means of creating a visible virtual space (for example, VR glasses or VR lenses) can be used as a visualization tool.
«In addition, the correction process includes an assessment of the state before and after the session using psychopathological questionnaires, measuring pulse, blood pressure, studying the level of oxygen saturation in the blood and other methods of functional diagnostics,» said Ulyana Moskvitina.
She noted that the proposed method increases the effectiveness of rehabilitation, reduces the time of its passage. The results can be used in medicine, when creating artificial intelligence, personalized robotics. The architecture and creation of the anthropogenic relief of modern cities can also be a potential area of application of the method.
The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of doctors, psychologists and IT specialists under the project of the strategic development program «Priority 2030».
On patent No. 2792205 was received.