Matamala-Gomez Marta, Maselli Antonella, Malighetti Clelia, Realdon Olivia, Mantovani Fabrizia, Riva Giuseppe
Center for Studies in Communication Sciences "Luigi Anolli" (CESCOM), Department of Human Sciences for Education "Riccardo Massa", University of Milano-Bicocca, 1-20126 Milan, Italy.
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), National Research Council (CNR), 44-00185 Rome, Italy.
J Clin Med. 2021 Jan 3;10(1):139. doi: 10.3390/jcm10010139.
Over the last 20 years, virtual reality (VR) has been widely used to promote mental health in populations presenting different clinical conditions. Mental health does not refer only to the absence of psychiatric disorders but to the absence of a wide range of clinical conditions that influence people's general and social well-being such as chronic pain, neurological disorders that lead to motor o perceptual impairments, psychological disorders that alter behaviour and social cognition, or physical conditions like eating disorders or present in amputees. It is known that an accurate perception of oneself and of the surrounding environment are both key elements to enjoy mental health and well-being, and that both can be distorted in patients suffering from the clinical conditions mentioned above. In the past few years, multiple studies have shown the effectiveness of VR to modulate such perceptual distortions of oneself and of the surrounding environment through virtual body ownership illusions. This narrative review aims to review clinical studies that have explored the manipulation of embodied virtual bodies in VR for improving mental health, and to discuss the current state of the art and the challenges for future research in the context of clinical care.
在过去20年里，虚拟现实（VR）已被广泛用于促进患有不同临床病症人群的心理健康。心理健康不仅指没有精神障碍，还指没有一系列影响人们总体和社会幸福感的临床病症，如慢性疼痛、导致运动或感知障碍的神经疾病、改变行为和社会认知的心理障碍，或饮食失调或截肢者身上出现的身体状况。众所周知，对自身和周围环境的准确感知是享受心理健康和幸福感的关键要素，而在患有上述临床病症的患者中，这两者都可能被扭曲。在过去几年中，多项研究表明，VR能够通过虚拟身体所有权错觉来调节这种对自身和周围环境的感知扭曲。本叙述性综述旨在回顾探索在VR中操纵具身虚拟身体以改善心理健康的临床研究，并讨论临床护理背景下的当前技术水平以及未来研究面临的挑战。
