Holt D J, DeTore N R, Aideyan B, Utter L, Vinke L, Johnson D S, Zimmerman J, Dokholyan K N, Burke A
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 22;15(1):2790. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-84954-4.
Rates of loneliness and other forms of social disconnection have been increasing worldwide. Prior studies have suggested that brief behavioral interventions can teach skills that may improve social functioning and connection but, currently, access to such interventions is limited. One previously untested approach for addressing this gap is to teach these skills using immersive, multi-user virtual reality (VR). To measure the feasibility of this approach, 33 young adults experiencing social discomfort were enrolled in a study of a VR-based application called Reconnecting with Ourselves and Others in virtual Meetings (ROOM), which delivered a previously validated, mindfulness-based intervention. Satisfaction ratings, qualitative feedback, and quantitative measures of aspects of social functioning, including social comfort, interpersonal distance, and facial affect recognition, were collected from participants. All of the participants attended more than half of the sessions and 90.3% found ROOM to be beneficial and useful. In addition, comfort with others in the real world (p = 0.02) and facial affect recognition accuracy (p = 0.02) significantly increased, while interpersonal distances remained unchanged, following ROOM. An immersive, multi-user VR intervention may represent one feasible, scalable approach for disseminating skills that can improve social functioning and connection. Trial registration Clinicaltrial.org # NCT06360562.
全球范围内，孤独及其他形式的社会脱节发生率一直在上升。先前的研究表明，简短的行为干预可以传授一些技能，这些技能可能会改善社交功能和人际关系，但目前，获得此类干预的机会有限。一种此前未经测试的解决这一差距的方法是使用沉浸式多用户虚拟现实（VR）来教授这些技能。为了衡量这种方法的可行性，33名经历社交不适的年轻人参与了一项针对一款名为“在虚拟会议中与自己和他人重新建立联系”（ROOM）的基于VR的应用程序的研究，该应用程序提供了一种先前经过验证的、基于正念的干预措施。从参与者那里收集了满意度评分、定性反馈以及社交功能方面的定量测量数据，包括社交舒适度、人际距离和面部表情识别。所有参与者都参加了超过一半的课程，90.3%的人认为ROOM有益且有用。此外，在参与ROOM之后，在现实世界中与他人相处的舒适度（p = 0.02）和面部表情识别准确率（p = 0.02）显著提高，而人际距离保持不变。一种沉浸式多用户VR干预可能是一种可行的、可扩展的方法，用于传播可以改善社交功能和人际关系的技能。试验注册Clinicaltrial.org # NCT06360562。
