Challenges and Opportunities of Immersive Technologies for Mindfulness Meditation: A Systematic Review
Nina Döllinger, Carolin Wienrich, M. Latoschik
Frontiers in Virtual Reality April 27, 2021 DOI: 10.3389/frvir.2021.644683 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Current empirical research on XR-based mindfulness mainly targets therapy and uses nature-inspired guided meditations, with no demonstrated advantage over non-mediated practices, though XR holds potential for interactive innovations. |
Abstract
Mindfulness is considered an important factor of an individual's subjective well-being. Consequently, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has investigated approaches that strengthen mindfulness, i.e., by inventing multimedia technologies to support mindfulness meditation. These approaches often use smartphones, tablets, or consumer-grade desktop systems to allow everyday usage in users' private lives or in the scope of organized therapies. Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality (VR, AR, MR; in short: XR) significantly extend the design space for such approaches. XR covers a wide range of potential sensory stimulation, perceptive and cognitive manipulations, content presentation, interaction, and agency. These facilities are linked to typical XR-specific perceptions that are conceptually closely related to mindfulness research, such as (virtual) presence and (virtual) embodiment. However, a successful exploitation of XR that strengthens mindfulness requires a systematic analysis of the potential interrelation and influencing mechanisms between XR technology, its properties, factors, and phenomena and existing models and theories of the construct of mindfulness. This article reports such a systematic analysis of XR-related research from HCI and life sciences to determine the extent to which existing research frameworks on HCI and mindfulness can be applied to XR technologies, the potential of XR technologies to support mindfulness, and open research gaps. Fifty papers of ACM Digital Library and National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (PubMed) with and without empirical efficacy evaluation were included in our analysis. The results reveal that at the current time, empirical research on XR-based mindfulness support mainly focuses on therapy and therapeutic outcomes. Furthermore, most of the currently investigated XR-supported mindfulness interactions are limited to vocally guided meditations within nature-inspired virtual environments. While an analysis of empirical research on those systems did not reveal differences in mindfulness compared to non-mediated mindfulness practices, various design proposals illustrate that XR has the potential to provide interactive and body-based innovations for mindfulness practice. We propose a structured approach for future work to specify and further explore the potential of XR as mindfulness-support. The resulting framework provides design guidelines for XR-based mindfulness support based on the elements and psychological mechanisms of XR interactions.
Comparable studies
Other systematic reviews and meta-analyses on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being Diverse adult clinical populations | 2014 | Meta-analysis | n = 3,515 |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis Healthy subjects | 2009 | Systematic review and meta-analysis | |
| The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Nonclinical groups of adult meditators | 2012 | Meta-analysis | n = 163 |
| Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse Adults with recurrent depression in full or partial remission | 2016 | Meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomized controlled trials | n = 1,258 |
| Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy – a systematic review of randomized controlled trials | 2011 | Systematic review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 25
- Virtual Reality Mindfulness for Meta-Competence Training among People with Different Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review Psychiatry International October 18, 2023
- Psychological and physiological health outcomes of virtual reality-based mindfulness interventions: A systematic review and evidence mapping of empirical studies. Digital health 2024
- Exploring technology-assisted mindfulness: a systematic progressive review on the role of virtual reality Virtual Reality September 2, 2025
- Virtual Reality Combined with Mind-Body Therapies for the Management of Pain: A Scoping Review. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 2024
- A systematic review on mindfulness-based immersive interventions in depressive disorders npj Mental Health Research April 2, 2026
and 20 more in the library
Cites 22
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- Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Assessment February 29, 2008
- The toronto mindfulness scale: Development and validation Journal of Clinical Psychology 2006
- The meeting of meditative disciplines and western psychology: A mutually enriching dialogue. American Psychologist 2006
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and 17 more in the library