Empathy and Virtual Reality (VR)

University of Miami

Status: Begins enrollment this month

Conditions: Fear; Virtual Reality

Treatments: Behavioral: Fear-inducing Virtual Reality (VR) experience; Behavioral: Neutral Virtual Reality (VR) experience

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07314788

20241195

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will characterize the subjective and physiological changes associated with empathy following a fear-inducing virtual reality (VR) experience.

Enrollment: 110 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 25 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• College-aged adults (18-25 years old)
• English-speaking
• Normal or corrected vision.
• Able to provide consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Presence of a significant and/or unstable medical illness (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurological disorder) or head trauma (e.g., concussion).

Additional exclusion criteria apply to virtual reality (VR):

• VR contraindications: epilepsy, migraines, flu, sleep deprivation, etc.
• More than minimal VR experience assessed via self-report (e.g., How often have you used virtual reality in the past? 0=never, 6=very frequently)
• Extreme phobia of heights and/or spiders will be assessed using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) specific phobia subscale.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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110 participants in 2 patient groups

Fear-inducing Virtual Reality (VR) experience

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will complete a single virtual reality (VR) exposure lasting approximately 1-2 minutes, involving a fear-inducing scenario (e.g., walking a plank above a high-rise building or canyon).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Fear-inducing Virtual Reality (VR) experience

Neutral Virtual Reality (VR) experience

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will complete a single virtual reality (VR) exposure lasting approximately 1-2 minutes, involving a neutral scenario (e.g., walking to the edge of a curb at street level).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Neutral Virtual Reality (VR) experience