— This paper presents an application formed by a classification method based on the architecture of ART neural network (Adaptive Resonance Theory) and the Fuzzy Set Theory to classify physiological reactions in order to automatically and dynamically adapt a robot-assisted rehabilitation therapy to the patient needs, using a three-dimensional task in a virtual reality system. Firstly, the mathem...

Behavioral therapy techniques for treating phobias often includes graded exposure of the patient to anxiety-producing stimuli (Systematic Desensitization). However, in utilizing systematic desensitization, research reviews demonstrate that many patients appear to have difficulty in applying imaginative techniques. This chapter describes the Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT), a new therapeutical app...

A growing body of literature suggests that virtual reality is a successful tool for exposure therapy in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Virtual reality (VR) researchers posit the construct of presence, defined as the interpretation of an artificial stimulus as if it were real, to be a presumed factor that enables anxiety to be felt during virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE). However, a h...

In this paper, we present a study, conducted over eight social phobic subjects, whose aim is to evaluate the efficiency and flexibility of virtual reality as a therapeutic tool in the confines of a social phobia behavioral therapeutic program. Our research protocol, accepted by the ethical commission of the cantonal hospices’ psychiatry service, is identical in content and structure for each pa...

This chapter describes the deployment of Virtual Reality (VR) for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to treat anxiety and other psychological disorders. Regarding anxiety, the most common technique is constituted of Exposure Therapy that, transposed to Virtual Reality, allows the patient to face a digital version of the feared object or situation, instead of a real or imaginal one. Virtual Real...

Immersive virtual reality (VR) has proved to be potentially valuable as a pain control technique for patients with severe burns undergoing wound care and physical therapy. Recent studies have shown that single, 3-min visits to a virtual world can dramatically reduce the amount of pain experienced during wound care, and the illusion of going inside the computer-generated world helps make VR anal...

Around 25,000 war veterans in Portugal suffer posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This clinically controlled study evaluates virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) as an alternative procedure to reduce PTSD symptoms. Ten patients were assigned to three groups: VRET, exposure in imagination (EI), and waiting list (WL). The patients were Portuguese veterans from a series of wars fought in form...

background playing video games in childhood may help achieve advanced laparoscopic skills later in life. the virtual operating room will soon become a reality, as “doctor games 2.0” will doubtlessly begin to incorporate virtual laparoscopic techniques. objectives to teach surgical skills to schoolchildren in order to attract them to urology as a professional choice later in life. materials and ...