Key result
A speech task within a virtual reality environment effectively induced significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate in 12 volunteers.
Why the study?
Does a speech task within a virtual reality environment induce a physiological stress response compared to a math task outside VR in volunteers?
Does a speech task within a virtual reality environment induce a physiological stress response compared to a math task outside VR in volunteers?
Virtual reality technology is a feasible method to induce physiological stress responses, offering a viable alternative to traditional stressful tasks with potentially decreased audience variability.
Supports VR speech tasks for inducing hemodynamic stress in small studies; leaves open validation versus traditional methods in larger trials.
The feasibility of using virtual reality (VR) technology to induce a physiological response to stress was assessed in 12 volunteers during a laboratory session in which each participant completed a speech task within a VR environment and a math task outside the VR environment. Both tasks were effective in eliciting a physiological response with significant increases observed in response to each stress task in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate. Increases in plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations were observed during the speech task and in plasma epinephrine concentrations during the math task although these differences did not reach statistical significance. The use of VR technology may be a viable alternative to methods currently employed in presenting stressful tasks with the potential advantage of decreased variability in the audience response to the participants' performance.
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Kotlyar et al. (2008) studied this question. Speech task within a virtual reality environment vs. Math task outside the virtual reality environment was evaluated on Physiological response to stress (systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate). A speech task within a virtual reality environment effectively induced significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate in 12 volunteers.
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