Evaluating Psychological Effects of Amputation Through Virtual Reality Embodiment: A Study on Anxiety and Body Appreciation
Aina Manzano-Torra, Bruno Porras-Garcia, José Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Giulia Maria Giordano, Claudio Brasso · 2024
Read Evaluating Psychological Effects of Amputation Through Virtual Reality Embodiment: A Study on Anxiety and Body Appreciation by Aina Manzano-Torra, Bruno Porras-Garcia, José Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Giulia Maria Giordano, Claudio Brasso (2024) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-11642823.txt.
Description
Aina Manzano-Torra and co-authors use virtual reality to preview the psychological shock of losing a leg. Many amputees develop anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress, but studying that reaction before it happens is impossible in real life. Their 2024 study embodies healthy participants in a virtual body with a right lower-limb amputation, and compares the experience with a whole-body avatar.
Participants first rated how much they appreciate their own bodies, then wore each avatar in turn, rating anxiety after each. Anxiety ran significantly higher in the amputated body. Across both bodies, lower body appreciation went with higher anxiety, suggesting that people who already feel worse about their bodies suffer a sharper jolt from the virtual loss. The authors propose such simulations as a safe way to study, and perhaps one day soften, the mental blow of amputation.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Aina Manzano-Torra, Bruno Porras-Garcia, José Gutiérrez-Maldonado, Giulia Maria Giordano, Claudio Brasso |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 37 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |