Comprehensive Assessment of Physiological and Psychological Responses to Virtual Reality Experiences

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a technology with huge improvements in the last few years, offering immersive experiences and paving the way for novel applications across various fields. In the medical field, VR is advancing at a notable rate, allowing for new innovations ranging from pain treatment to rehabilitation and showing its potential to reconfigure the brain to modify how our mind perceives our body and environment. The immersive nature of VR can be reflected in people’s physiological and psychological responses, making stress management a key focus to obtain potentially transformative effects as a regulatory stress treatment. This pilot study focuses on a comprehensive assessment, both physiologically and psychologically, of the impact of stressful versus relaxing VR experiences. Our exploratory study examines the effectiveness of this emerging technology in manipulating stress levels in a group of 20 healthy volunteers. In a randomized cross-over design, each subject was exposed to both experiences in two independent sessions, during which their physiological signals were continuously measured. Additionally, blood draws and psychological tests were obtained before and after each VR experience. The results show physiological changes consistent with the paradigm of the experience and supported by self-reported psychological scores. Laboratory findings reveal statistical differences in cortisol levels when comparing changes in the Stress versus Relax experience. Additionally, statistically significant changes in white blood cell counts are observed when comparing pre- versus post-Stress VR. These results provide a first attempt to explore how VR scenarios can modulate individual stress levels and the immune response. Future exploratory avenues may include the implementation of VR-based treatments for stress modulation aimed at mitigating the detrimental effects of stress on mental health, cardiovascular disease, and the immune system.