Mediating Mindfulness-Based Interventions with Virtual Reality in Non-Clinical Populations: The State-of-the-Art
By Nainika Hira
“How can VR be used for meditation?”
By providing an immersive, engrossing, and controlled visual and auditory experience in which participants can practice mindfulness techniques, Virtual Reality (VR) systems can create immersive, ecologically valid, first-person experiences that can even tap into physiological reactions that align with real-world experiences. This may address the challenge of environmental distractions in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Most of the research that has been conducted on VR-based MBIs has focused solely on clinical subjects. This study aimed to review and evaluate the effectiveness of VR-based MBIs and what impact they have on mood and physiology in a non-clinical population. Only studies that had a control (a comparison group that does not receive the MBI) as well as an experimental group (a group that receives the MBI) were selected for analysis.
The most common mindfulness practices used with VR in this review included non-judgmental breath awareness, a progressive body scan (with scenes at the beach), and videos of forest scenes. The main psychological outcome of this review seemed to be reduced anxiety and an enhanced mindful state. The investigators did point out that this kind of benefit might also be reliant on a general state of calm and reduced fatigue brought on by the particularly enjoyable visual scenes and setups displayed in the VR recordings.
“…most studies used only a brief intervention, implying that MBIs need not necessarily include lengthy or wearisome practices to induce significant mood changes.”
Out of the review, only one study included weekly meditations of about two hours each. Besides, most of the studies only required one meditation session, which ranged from five to fifteen minutes, yet even this was sufficient to reduce negative mood states (anger, depression, anxiety, and tension) and boost mindful states. Hence, most studies used only a brief intervention, implying that MBIs need not necessarily include lengthy or wearisome practices to induce significant mood changes. However, since any type of intervention necessitates more time to promote consistent and long-term change at the behavioral and/or neural level, this may also be a significant limitation of these studies. Secondly, the notable variance in the technological devices and VR procedures used might point towards diverging lines of research but also increase access and ease of delivery. Thirdly, there was a sole reliance on self-report measures, and the studies rarely examined the physiological correlates, such as heart rate variability, of VR-based MBIs.
Future studies have the opportunity to include nonclinical populations from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, ages, genders, cultures and educational qualifications, as well as use a mixed methods approach that includes neurophysiological methods of measurement and/or qualitative reports. Moreover, the review calls for greater rigor in future studies, such as the use of active control groups and three to six-month follow-up assessments. Importantly, since VR-based MBIs are relatively new, the review underscores the imperative to define more robust and reliable methodological procedures for VR-based MBIs for future studies.