Out-of-Body Experience in Virtual Reality Induces Acute Dissociation
Dalena van Heugten-van der Kloet, J. Cosgrave, Joram J. van Rheede, S. Hicks
Psychology of Consciousness December 1, 2018 DOI: 10.1037/cns0000172 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA virtual reality setup simulating out-of-body experiences significantly increased acute dissociation, especially depersonalization, in 25 healthy participants. Participants wore an Oculus Rift headset connected to a camera showing their own body and surroundings, and completed exercises before and after the VR exposure. Dissociation was measured with the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale. The authors present this as the first study to use VR to induce acute dissociation and offer preliminary support for VR as a viable method to study dissociative states in healthy subjects.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Pre-post pilot study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 25 |
| Population | Healthy participants |
| Keywords | Psychology |
| Key finding | VR exposure simulating out-of-body experiences significantly increased acute dissociation, particularly depersonalization, in healthy participants. |
Abstract
An established challenge in studying dissociation is developing effective methodologies to induce dissociative symptomatology in the laboratory. The primary aim of this study was to pilot the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) in inducing dissociative states in healthy subjects by simulating out-of-body experiences. Healthy participants (N =25) were asked to wear an Oculus Rift (Menlo Park, CA) VR head-mounted display, which was connected to a wide-angle GoPro (San Mateo, CA) video camera placed in front of participants so they could view themselves, the experimenter, and the surrounding environment. They were asked to partake in a number of exercises while wearing the Oculus Rift and completed a questionnaire on sleep quality (the Sleep Condition Indicator; Espie et al., 2014) and the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS; Bremner et al., 1998) both before and after the perceptual experience. Findings highlight a significant increase in acute dissociation after VR exposure, particularly with respect to the endorsement of depersonalization on the CADSS. This is—to the best of our knowledge—the first study to implement VR in inducing acute dissociation, and it offers preliminary support for the application of VR as a viable method to induce dissociative states in healthy participants. Our research paves the way for the investigation and use of these new technologies in the assessment and treatment of dissociative symptomatology, providing a valuable and fruitful path to understanding dissociation in the future.