Andrea Gaggioli*, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy Giuseppe Riva*, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy Pietro Cipresso, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy Andrea Gagliati, Virtual Reality Multi-Media Park, Turin, Italy Giuseppe Donvito, Virtual Reality Multi-Media Park, Turin, Italy Giovanni Pioggia, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute of Clinical Physiology (IFC), Italy, Pisa, Italy Gennaro Tartarisco, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute of Clinical Physiology (IFC), Italy, Pisa, Italy Track: Research Presentation Topic: Virtual (3D) environments, Second Life Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2012-09-12

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Background. Psychological stress refers to the complex emotional and physiological response experienced when an individual confronts a situation in which the perceived demands are higher than his/her coping abilities. Prolonged stress responses may lead to severe health consequences. In recent years, several authors have proposed the use of Virtual Reality (VR) exposure therapy as a potentially effective approach to treat anxiety and stress disorders. Objective. We present the design and preliminary testing results of INTERSTRESS, a novel ICT-based solution for the assessment and management of psychological stress that integrates immersive VR, wearable biosensors and a decision support system that allows an automatic classification of the stress response during VR exposure. Methods. The design of the INTERSTRESS platform is based on “interreality”, a personalized immersive e-therapy whose main novelty is a hybrid, closed-loop empowering experience bridging physical and virtual worlds. Its main goal is the creation of a two-fold link between the virtual and the real world: (a) behavior in the physical world influences the experience in the virtual one; (b) behavior in the virtual world influences the experience in the real one. The INTERSTRESS platform consists of three (fully-integrated) components: a) a VR system; b) a newly-developed personal biomonitoring system; c) a decision support system (for the automatic classification of stress response during VR exposure). The VR system allows exposing the participant to simulated realistic stressful scenarios that are used for assessment and training. During VR exposure, the personal biomonitoring system allows tracking a number of physiological and behavioral variables (EEG, ECG, respiration, motion, posture, gestures). The biosensor data collected during VR exposure are filtered, pre-processed in order to extract specific stress-related features, and sent to a remote server for further signal processing and storage. The decision module is realized on a knowledge basis, using neural network and fuzzy logic algorithms able to combine as input the psycho-physiological and behavioral features extracted and to automatically classify the level of stress, after previous knowledge acquired during a training phase. Results. Preliminary results from the (ongoing) ergonomic testing of the INTERSTRESS platform are presented and discussed. Conclusion. VR exposure therapy is a potentially effective strategy to assess and treat anxiety and stress disorders. Here, we introduced the INTERSTRESS, a VR system that allows the therapist to expose the patient to a simulated stressful situation, and to automatically classify the stress response by means of psycho-physiological and behavioral measures elaborated by a decision support system. This strategy allows a closed-loop approach actually missing in current strategies to the evaluation and treatment of psychological stress: a) the assessment is conducted continuously throughout the virtual experiences: it enables tracking of the individual’s psycho-physiological status over time in the context of a realistic task challenge; b) the information is constantly used to improve both the appraisal and the coping skills of the patient.