Daniel-Watanabe Lucie, Cook Benjamin, Leung Grace, Krstulović Marino, Finnemann Johanna, Woolley Toby, Powell Craig, Fletcher Paul
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge Ringgold Standard Institution, Cambridge, UK.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Jan;62(1):e14705. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14705. Epub 2024 Oct 9.
Physiological regulation strategies can be effective in reducing anxiety. However, while these strategies are often learned and practised under low-stress conditions, they are more likely to be required under conditions of high stress. We created virtual reality (VR) biofeedback games to both teach participants a breathing technique and then practise that technique under stress. We present two studies: the first provides a proof of concept, demonstrating that participants can apply the breathing technique during stress, with a significant lowering of both respiration rate and increase in heart rate variability (HRV) under stress (p < .001). The second study explicitly evaluated the effectiveness of training by comparing trained and untrained groups. Training was associated with a significantly greater HRV (p = .008) under stress. In within-group comparisons of HRV during stress compared to a baseline stressor presented before training, the trained group showed a significantly greater increase compared to untrained controls (p = .025). Our results show the feasibility and potential effectiveness of VR-based games for biofeedback training under experimentally applied stress. This may offer the opportunity for clinical techniques to more closely reflect the circumstances under which those techniques will be required.
生理调节策略在减轻焦虑方面可能是有效的。然而，虽然这些策略通常是在低压力条件下学习和练习的，但在高压力条件下更有可能需要它们。我们创建了虚拟现实（VR）生物反馈游戏，既可以教参与者一种呼吸技巧，然后在压力下练习该技巧。我们展示了两项研究：第一项提供了概念验证，表明参与者可以在压力期间应用呼吸技巧，在压力下呼吸频率显著降低且心率变异性（HRV）增加（p < 0.001）。第二项研究通过比较训练组和未训练组明确评估了训练的有效性。在压力下，训练与显著更高的HRV相关（p = 0.008）。在压力期间HRV的组内比较中，与训练前呈现的基线应激源相比，训练组显示出与未训练对照组相比显著更大的增加（p = 0.025）。我们的结果表明了基于VR的游戏在实验应用压力下进行生物反馈训练的可行性和潜在有效性。这可能为临床技术提供机会，使其更紧密地反映需要这些技术的情况。
