Fear in Virtual Reality: How does “Presence” influence Emotional Reactions?

Abstract:

During the first funding period we confirmed that phobic reactions can be triggered by specific visual cues or phobia relevant information. Based on these findings we investigated the influence of visual and multimodal cues and phobia-relevant information on neural processing. The most important motivation for the second funding period however is based on the observation that, apart from external fear triggers - cues or information -, internal states can modulate fearful reactions as well. Cues and information can only trigger fear on the condition of personal relevance to a subject. Therefore we investigate how the experienced “presence” can be manipulated and how presence and fear interact on a subjective, behavioral, and physiological level. The cognitive representation of one’s own body on the experience of presence and phobic reactions is of particular interest. Therefore we integrate the simulation of a hand as a body part, which is relevant to our participants, in our virtual reality. As a model to investigate the research question we regard spider phobia as a valid model. This project extends the thematic framework of our research group by psychopathological associative and reflective processes and the possibilities to modulate them.