Effects of Immersive Virtual Reality Content Type to Mindfulness and Physiological Parameters
Seulki Min, Jung-geun Moon, Chul‐Hyun Cho, Gerard Jounghyun Kim
Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) has been applied as a complimentary way to conventional treatment for mental disorders successfully. On the other hand, it has not been clearly shown what type of immersive media such as VR can directly affect one’s physiological parameters, associated with the state of mindfulness. We sought to assess how being subjected to differently designed VR contents can affect and modulate one’s anxiety both psychologically and more importantly physiologically. We empirically tested the comparative effects of two polarizing VR content types to this effect: (1) “calm/soothing” content and (2) “disturbing”. Twenty-five adults participated and their mental state, anxiety level and physiological signals were measured before and after experiencing the respective VR content type. The experiment found a statistically significant effect of the content type to the changes in these measures and confirmed that the “calm” content was helpful for one to self-regulate to lower heart rate and blood pressure, stable GSR, and the “disturbing” content in the opposite way. We applied this result to calm down and stabilize vital signs of patients during actual coronary angiography and catheterization operations. We were able to observe the same effect with positive comments from the patients and operating team.