Re-Examining Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Virtual Reality-Based Exposure for Spider Phobia.

The proposed study aims at expanding results from a previous study on mechanisms of change after exposure in virtual reality (VR) and documenting the impact of adding tactile and haptic feedback. It was predicted that change in the severity of spider phobia according to the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) would be significantly predicted by change in dysfunctional beliefs toward spiders and self-efficacy, over and above the variance explained by a physiological measure of fear during exposure (heart rate) and presence during the immersion. Participants (N = 59) were randomly assigned to the presentation of visual stimuli only, visual plus tactile stimuli, or visual, tactile plus haptic feedback stimuli. A standard multiple regression was conducted to predict change on the FSQ using the following predictors: beliefs about spiders, beliefs about one's own behavior when facing spiders, perceived self-efficacy, disgust, presence, and heart rate. Only changes in beliefs about spiders and in perceived self-efficacy significantly predicted the reduction in fear of spiders. This result enhances our understanding of the mechanisms involved in exposure conducted in VR. Analyses of variance also show that participants reported statistically significant changes in their clinical condition, with little added value to the addition of tactile and haptic feedback. The advantages of tactile and haptic stimulation are questioned, at least in the context of only one brief exposure session and the equipment used.

Research status on haptic simulation in the virtual bone drilling surgery / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

Virtual reality technology and force feedback technology are novel human-machine interaction technologies. The virtual surgery simulation training system combined with these two technologies provides a new method for orthopedic surgery training, which can improve the training efficiency,thereby reducing the training costs and shortening the growth cycle of young orthopedic surgeons. In recent years, the virtual drilling bone surgery simulation technology have been researched broadly and obtained a preliminary application. In this paper, the existing research statusof virtual bone drilling operation depended on visuo-haptic techniques were studied, classified and summarized, the main content focused on three key techniques: bone modeling, drilling bone force prediction model and tactile simulation, and then analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of existing methods. Finally,some perspectives for related technology development trend of the virtual simulation bone drilling surgery in future was pointed out.