A New Virtual Reality for a New Kind of Exposure Therapy
Emiliano Toso, Marco Vicentini, Elio Carlo, Massimo Agnoletti
In the last two decades, progress in the areas of learning and fear extinction have led to the formulation of a new conceptual model, based on exposure therapy, according to which the extinction of fear (which represents its clinical application) would occur through the creation of a new inhibiting memory rather than through the habituation process. This has led to the development of specific changes in the procedure, which aim to maximise exposure therapy, particularly in terms of diminished fear return. To date, the new «modus operandi» of therapy is being applied to patients by exposing them directly to what they fear, in other words, «in vivo». Virtual Reality environments (VR) are excellent for implementing the potential of inhibitory expository learning, although they are in need of a fully implemented protocol. To this purpose, we are rethinking current technology, modelled towards the process of habituation, in favour of a tool capable of facilitating the learning process through inhibitory learning, and even using the Flow mechanism. This paper makes some considerations on these innovations and proposes the hardware and software changes needed to shape innovative virtual reality psychotherapy.
Keywords
Virtual reality, Exposure therapy, Extinction of fear, Inhibitory learning, Flow.
