Medical

This OHS article reports a new virtual reality technology, developed with the help of standards, is allowing researchers to study trucker fatigue so that a system can be developed to prevent this all-too-common hazard. From the article: "Researchers are developing a system that can detect abnormal steering patterns due to fatigue when they first begin to occur. In order to determine these patterns, scientists asked subjects to deprive themselves of sleep. These subjects were then told to "drive" on a simulated, virtual reality course. When tired, the drivers steered right and left more frequently, in a zigzag pattern. Due to slower reflexes, the drivers started to veer off the road, and then overcorrected in the opposite direction.

This Medical News Today article reports the correlation of videotape scores (VS) of actual surgical procedures, as assessed by the Endoscopic Surgical Skill Qualification (ESSQ) System to motion analysis data on the LapMentor system, a virtual reality laparoscopic surgical simulator. From the article: "The development of realistic simulators for various minimally invasive surgery techniques may potentially provide comprehensive training, a method to maintain surgical skills, and evaluation and certification of surgical competence.

This Media Newswire article reports a NIMH-sponsored double-blind study of 24 war veterans shows a marked reduction in acoustic startle — the reflex response to sudden loud sounds — in those treated with virtual reality exposure therapy combined with either d-cycloserine, an antibiotic that has been shown to facilitate the extinction of fear memories; pill placebo; or the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam ( Xanax ). From the article: ""These preliminary data suggest that this type of virtual reality exposure therapy is effective in reducing the elevated startle response that was evident before treatment," says Barbara Rothbaum, PhD,*a professor in psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

From Positive Technology Journal:
"Virtual reality exposure therapy using a virtual Iraq: Case report."
J Trauma Stress. 2008 Apr 10;21(2):209-213
Authors: Gerardi M, Rothbaum BO, Ressler K, Heekin M, Rizzo A

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been estimated to affect up to 18% of returning Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veterans. Soldiers need to maintain constant vigilance to deal with unpredictable threats, and an unprecedented number of soldiers are surviving serious wounds. These risk factors are significant for development of PTSD; therefore, early and efficient intervention options must be identified and presented in a form acceptable to military personnel. This case report presents the results of treatment utilizing virtual reality exposure (VRE) therapy (virtual Iraq) to treat an OIF veteran with PTSD. Following brief VRE treatment, the veteran demonstrated improvement in PTSD symptoms as indicated by clinically and statistically significant changes in scores on the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS; Blake et al., 1990) and the PTSD Symptom Scale Self-Report (PSS-SR; Foa, Riggs, Dancu, & Rothbaum, 1993). These results indicate preliminary promise for this treatment."

This WJBC article reports an Illinois Wesleyan University assistant professor has landed the college's largest-ever grant to create a virtual reality program to research what influences a person's decision to use a condom. From the article: The $1.2 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health will be used to place people in virtual social situations and study their reactions to different variables, such as a party's atmosphere, a potential mate's appearance, or geographic availability, to see whether they influence safer sex-related decisions. Assistant Psychology Professor Natalie Smoak says the research could have practical applications, especially in this world of Internet dating.

Smoak says the goal is to see if risky sexual decisions are based on environmental cues or personality to determine the best education approach."

This Inquirer article reports Boffins at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, have been using a virtual reality tube ride to measure the extent to which people suffer from paranoia, and the results are higher than ever expected. From the article: "ABOUT ONE THIRD OF the general population regularly experience persecutory and paranoid thoughts according to a new study. Boffins at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, have been using a virtual reality tube ride to measure the extent to which people suffer from paranoia, and the results are higher than ever expected.

From Positive Technology Journal:
"Virtual reality and paranoid ideations in people with an 'at-risk mental state' for psychosis."
Br J Psychiatry Suppl. 2007 Dec;51:s63-8
Authors: Valmaggia LR, Freeman D, Green C, Garety P, Swapp D, Antley A, Prescott C, Fowler D, Kuipers E, Bebbington P, Slater M, Broome M, McGuire PK

BACKGROUND: Virtual reality provides a means of studying paranoid thinking in controlled laboratory conditions. However, this method has not been used with a clinical group. AIMS: To establish the feasibility and safety of using virtual reality methodology in people with an at-risk mental state and to investigate the applicability of a cognitive model of paranoia to this group. METHOD: Twenty-one participants with an at-risk mental state were assessed before and after entering a virtual reality environment depicting the inside of an underground train. RESULTS: Virtual reality did not raise levels of distress at the time of testing or cause adverse experiences over the subsequent week. Individuals attributed mental states to virtual reality characters including hostile intent. Persecutory ideation in virtual reality was predicted by higher levels of trait paranoia, anxiety, stress, immersion in virtual reality, perseveration and interpersonal sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual reality is an acceptable experimental technique for use with individuals with at-risk mental states. Paranoia in virtual reality was understandable in terms of the cognitive model of persecutory delusions.

From SAGE Journals Online:
"Development of symbolic play through the use of virtual reality tools in children with autistic spectrum disorders"
Gerardo Herrera, Francisco Alcantud, Rita Jordan, Amparo Blanquer, Gabriel Labajo, Cristina De Pablo
Autism, Vol. 12, No. 2, 143-157 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1362361307086657

Difficulties in understanding symbolism have been documented as characteristic of autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). In general, virtual reality (VR) environments offer a set of potential advantages for educational intervention in ASD. In particular, VR offers the advantage, for teaching pretend play and for understanding imagination, of it being possible to show these imaginary transformations explicitly. This article reports two case studies of children with autism (aged 8:6 and 15:7, both male), examining the effectiveness of using a VR tool specifically designed to work on teaching understanding of pretend play. The results, confirmed by independent observers, showed a significant advance in pretend play abilities after the intervention period in both participants, and a high degree of generalization of the acquired teaching in one of them.

This Dentistry.co.uk article takes a look at the 'dental Wii': a 3D touch-enabled modelling system, by SensAble Technologies, to design partial sets of false teeth. From the article: "A new invention is using the concept of a virtual reality game console to create perfect dentures.

The Wii – the video game from Nintendo that allows players to control the game action by moving their arms in front of a motion-sensor – made its global debut in 2006.

The ‘dental Wii' is the creation of US company SensAble Technologies, whose 3-D touch-enabled modelling systems can be used to design partial sets of false teeth.

SensAble showed off their system at Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Show last week.

This Emerging Technology Trends article takes a look at a new technology to make easier to diagnose and plan the treatment of cancer. From the article: "Computerized image analysis is used to extract information from images. It can be used in medical applications to determine the size of organs or to build 3-D models of organs before surgery. For example, a PhD candidate at Uppsala University, Sweden, has developed new technology to make easier to diagnose and plan the treatment of cancer.