|
KMID : 1177220060090010005
|
|
Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
2006 Volume.9 No. 1 p.5 ~ p.10
|
|
|
The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Technique for the Evaluation of Eye contact Behavior in Patients with Schizophrenia
|
|
Kim Soo-Hyun
Park Sung-Hyouk
Kim Chan-Hyung
Jang Hee-Jeong
Kim Jae-Jin
Ku Jeong-Hun
Lee Hyeong-Rae
Kim In-Young
Kim Sun-Il
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
Objectives：Appropriate eye contact is important in daily communications, but patients with schizophrenia tend to have inappropriate eye contact in communications. Despite significance of eye contact, there are few studies in schizophrenia. One of the reasons was a difficulty in the objective measurement of eye contact. In this study we addressed the quality and the quantity of eye contact using the virtual reality technique.
Methods：Subjects were 28 patients with schizophrenia (male 14, female 14) and 28 healthy controls (male 14, female 14). They wore head mounted display device and introduced themselves to 6 avatars in virtual reality. During hearing the avatar’s introduction, the degrees of angle of the movement of subject’s head were automatically taken. We analyzed the relationships of the degree of angle with the clinical variables of subjects (gender, social anxiety, positive symptoms, negative symptoms) and the avatars’ factors (gender, attitude during introduction).
Results：Compared to the controls, the patients with schizophrenia had significantly less eye contact. The controls showed a finding that the more social anxiety, the less eye contact. The patients with schizophrenia showed findings that the less social anxiety and the less negative symptoms, the less eye contact. In both groups, there was no difference at the aspect of gender of subjects/avatars, and the attitude of avatars.
Conclusion：We confirmed that virtual reality technique was an effective method to measure the behaviors related to schizophrenic symptoms. As the progression of the development of virtual reality technique, we expect more accurate diagnosis about schizophrenic symptoms and more effective interventions for psychosocial rehabilitations.
|
|
|
KEYWORD
|
|
|
Schizophrenia, Eye contact, Virtual reality, Social anxiety
|
|
|
FullTexts / Linksout information
|
|
|
|
|
|
Listed journal information
|
|
|
|
|