ALICE & Storytelling ALICE

Just found this great article about Dr. Randy Pausch and his ALICE programs. I've personally been teaching an after-school class featuring Storytelling Alice, a spin-off created especially for middle-schoolers that makes programming simple, engaging, and fun. In the coming months, I plan on sharing screenshots from my students' work with Storytelling Alice, anecdotes, and other experiences. My focus will be on teaching complex skills to populations with special needs, and I'll be developing this as a thesis for my master's program as well.

Gaming for Pain Relief

Video games are being called "the new pain pill" after a study from Simon Fraser University showed that virtual reality games provided very real relief for chronic pain sufferers. When compared to chronic sufferers on a standard drug treatment, the VR group reported substantially lower pain ratings. This is pretty cool news, especially for gaming enthusiasts or people who firmly believe that technology needs to be more integrated into therapy practices. The next step for Diane Gromala, the SFU professor who headed the study, is to develop a way to help chronic pain sufferers manage their pain systematically and implement such technology into standard practices of healthcare professionals.

Next Generation
WIRED Game Life
Canada.com

Dr. Randy Pausch and the Last Lecture

Innovative virtual reality pioneer Dr. Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University gave a talk on realizing your childhood dreams and enabling others to realize their dreams this past Tuesday night to a packed CMU auditorium. Pausch has terminal pancreatic cancer, and the lecture was his last. Pausch has done tremendous things for virtual reality, computer programming, and education and collaborated with institutions far and wide and groups such as Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts. His ALICE, his program that makes learning to program simple, interactive, and fun, is being used to teach computer programming all over the world. You can read more about his Stage3 Research group, which strives to bring virtual reality to the next level, here.

Below is one of the first parts of his lecture; the complete speech is available in sections on YouTube and from CMU. The talk was powerful; captivating, enlightening, honest, and funny. In the end, Pausch reveals that one of the 'head fakes' of the lecture is that it was for his three children: though they weren't present, they are all under the age of five, and now they will be able to see their father's life lessons throughout their own lives, even if he won't be around to impart them in person. Moving, heartwrenching, and just plain good entertainment: all in a day's work for the co-founder of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center.



Read articles about Dr. Pausch and his Last Lecture in the Wall Street Journal and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You can also read about it at MetaFilter.

VR in Pediatric Physical Therapy

The Myrtle Beach Sun News reports on the emerging role of virtual reality in pediatric rehabilitation and physical therapy. One particularly popular technology allows the patient to see themselves projected into the virtual world. In this way, children in wheelchairs can visualize themselves doing everything from scoring goals on the soccer pitch to snowboarding down a snowy slope. The article also highlights the work of Pennsyvlania company VTree, Inc. Their actions back up their mission statement of helping to provide affordable technological solutions to physically and developmentally challenged people, such as employing developmentally delayed workers, taking input from parents, therapists, and teachers of students with special needs, and partnering with corporate sponsors to provide quality, yet affordable products to populations with special needs.

VR and Out of Body Experience

Virtual reality can be used to induce 'out-of-body' experiences, according to Swiss and British scientists. By giving healthy subjects virtual reality goggles and creating virtual representations for them, researchers were able to simulate feelings experienced by many people after traumatic incidents--as if the person's consciousness is outside of the body and watching everything happening to the body from afar. Read more here and view video here.

More Help for Combat Veterans

The Virtual Reality Medical Center (based in San Diego) and the University of Central Florida are partnering to further develop virtual reality technologies to help veterans of combat. The article states that they've already received a quarter-of-a-million-dollar grant from the Air Force, and will be seeking more grant money to continue their projects.

More on VR + CP

The idea of using virtual reality as therapy for kids with cerebral palsy isn't new. Psychologists like Dr. Denise Reid of the University of Toronto have been testing VR systems on CP patients since the early 2000s. Read abstracts here and here (subscription required for full articles). Though the sample population was small, increases were found for playfulness, upper-extremity mobility, and self-efficacy.

Helping Kids with CP Balance

CBS ran a story on VR therapy that allows children with cerebral palsy to move better by visualizing themselves in athletic environments. The system, Irex (made by Gesturetek), projects physical therapy patients onto a green-screen, participating in a variety of physical activities like skiing, soccer, and snowboarding. Each of the games or activities is designed to test a specific part or parts of the body. One group of patients who benefit from this type of therapy are children with cerebral palsy. Using this type of therapy, they can participate in engaging contact sports, which motivates them to complete their exercises, which translates to better balance and coordination.

Walter Reed Gait Laboratory

At the Walter Reed Gait Laboratory, US military personnel can get help improving their stride as they recover from debilitating amputations. A patient's movements are recorded and tracked as points of light on a LED display.

The patient and rehab team, including physician, prosthetist, and physical therapists, can then use the data from the computer program to determine the best prosthetic fit for the patient. The data can be compared to the gaits of non-amputees or even the patient's own non-amputee side stride.

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I tried it before, but I thought I'd try again--do you have an idea for articles for this blog? Shoot me an e-mail at elyse.moretti@gmail.com.

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VR for Social Anxiety Disorder

People with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) may benefit from virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET). Illumenta, a US-based company, hopes to re-condition people who atuomatically associate typical social interactions with fear and anxiety. Illumenta is partnered with Virtually Better, another US company that utilizes VR therapy.

Oklahoma gets VR therapy

KOTV.com has a piece featuring software developed by another PTSD lab at the University of Southern California, currently being used to help Oklahoma veterans.

Newsweek Video: VR and PTSD

Newsweek has joined the growing number of media outlets suggesting the benefits of VR in therapy for veterans with PTSD. Check out the article and video here.

Wii Therapy

Patrick Stumpf of the Appleton Post-Crescent writes about the Nintendo Wii gaming system as a potential therapeutic aid because of the physical actions the system requires.

More VR and Iraq

VR applications for Iraq War veterans are all over the news this week. Today's TIME Magazine has an article detailing an Emory study that combines the typical VR exposure therapy I've been writing about with d-Cycloserine (DCS), which affects the amygdala. The intent is to decrease fear as the painful memories are evoked. For a paper on how DCS may work in rats, click here. If you are a veteran currently suffering from anxiety related to military service, please visit the Emory University Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program.

On Friday, CNN ran a piece on a lab at the NIH using the popular video game, "Duke Nukem" as a measure in the assessment of clinically depressed patients.

Canada Catches On

In Canada, government-funded VR treatment for fear of flying is so popular that there is a six-month waiting period to participate. The Cyberpsychology and Anxiety Virtual Lab boasts a 92% success rate for patients with fear of flying.

More Info on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

As a psychology student, PTSD was one of the first major psychological disorders we covered. After a traumatic event (for example, military combat, being raped, witnessing a death), people relive the event over and over with real physiological consequences (hyperarousal, nightmares, flashbacks). They may also become depressed, have problems expressing themselves, have trouble sleeping and concentrating, develop substance abuse problems, or experience a wide range of related symptoms.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been accepted as the best form of treatment, but recently exposure therapy through virtural reality has been getting some major attention. The idea of exposure therapy is that if the patient can relive the experience in a controlled setting, eventually, the patient will gain control over the experience. Without that control, a patient may have flashbacks, nightmares, etc. at any given time, and may constantly be in a state of high arousal, making normal daily activities nearly impossible.

CBT is also about gaining control, but in a very different manner. In CBT, patients learn to change the way they think about the traumatic event and potential triggers that may make them think about the event. They learn to channel their grief, fear, and anxiety into other emotions, and thus, gain control over the flashbacks. Other courses of treatment include medication, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (similar to CBT), and types of CBT such as cognitive therapy and exposure therapy.

A quick search on Google Scholar shows applications of VR for PTSD with populations such as World Trade Center victims, Vietnam War veterans, and Iraq War veterans. The U.S. Navy has invested in VR research.

Links:
ABC News: Iraq War Veteran treated by Virtual Reality Therapy
National Center for PTSD
PTSD Wiki entry

Side Note: I am training for my new job, so the last week and the next few weeks will be pretty hectic. I apologize for the lack of posts--I now have regular Internet access so the posts should be more consistent!

Improving Quality of Life for MS Patients

Add this to the growing list of virtual reality applications. Patients with multiple sclerosis improved gait and stride both during and after using virtual reality equipment.

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

One application for VR is therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Virtual Reality Iraq is based upon the idea that by controlling virtual environments, we can control and decrease the flashbacks and hyper-aroused status that PTSD victims suffer from.

Sensory Learning Program

On WIRED today, Mark Woodman reports on the status of his son, Caleb, who suffers from sensory processing disorder, after completing the Sensory Learning Program. Caleb's scores on visual integration, motor coordination, and audio & visual perception post-treatment are astonishing. The neurological program has also enhanced his social perceptions and reasoning (Caleb also has Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism).

Virtual Police Lineup

A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle describes a Stanford lab working on a virtual reality replacement of the standard police lineup. By using multidimensional VR images and video, suspect profiles can be manipulated so that witnesses can see them in the context of the crime, how suspects would look in different clothing or with different hairstyles, or from any angle or distance.

Other research topics explored by the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab: diversity simulation, social networking, weight perception, learning in immersive environments, emotion abstraction, and avatar identity.

Virtual Reality and Communication Disorders

Dr. Stacy Williams, one of my undergraduate research mentors, is a professor at Case Western Reserve University and has several exciting new projects underway. One of the most notable is her use of virtual reality in speech-language therapy for dysfluency, or stuttering, disorders. She leads the Virtual Immersion Center for Simulation Research, also known as VICSR, at Case.

One aspect of therapy that speech-language pathologists use to treat stuttering is role play. The therapist may use props or costumes to act out a scenario, then ask the patient to play along and imagine he or she is actually participating in the situation. Dr. Williams explains that one area where traditional role-play falls short is all of the nuances and background distractions present in everyday interactions. For example, one common scenario is ordering food at a restaurant. Though the therapist and patient may act out the script in a role-play, this cannot reproduce all of the people talking in the background, equipment noise, babies crying, etc. Therefore, with VirTra Systems, she has created a virtual CAVE environment for her patients, the first virtual reality theater for speech therapy in the world.

In the CAVE, the speech therapist controls several factors, allowing the therapist to manipulate the environment and make scenarios more or less challenging for the patient (i.e., increasing the intensity of distractions). The therapist also controls characters in the virtual reality setting, selecting from a pre-recorded library of quotes.

Though this research is new and Dr. Williams has not published her findings yet, VICSR is definitely a promising lab to watch as virtual reality and technology make their way to the forefront of modern therapy.

1. VICSR in TIME Magazine
2. VirTra Systems Press Release
3. Case Western Reserve University Press Release

Virtual Reality Therapy for Burn Victims

The HITLab (Human Interface Technology Lab) at the University of Washington has developed a virtual world free of potential pain triggers for burn victims. Hunter Hoffman's SnowWorld features an interactive virtual environment that offers distraction for patients as they undergo wound dressings and skin stretching.


The results of patients undergoing wound care are striking. Reported pain while experiencing SnowWorld is dramatically lower than that of patients not using VR. Moreover, in an fMRI study, healthy people volunteered to experience pain stimuli when in an fMRI machine. Some of them also experienced (magnet-friendly) virtual reality during the fMRI. The VR subjects had less pain-related brain activity than the non-VR subjects.

The lab is also working on water-friendly virtual reality gear (as you can see from the photo, they use a head-mounted display), using VR to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (a full post on that later), and VR for Spider Phobia, among various other projects.

Blog Goals

I've just joined the psychology blogging community, and I wanted to have a place to post my own thoughts on what is hot in psychology research, cutting-edge therapy, and other relevant topics. My primary interest is the intersection of psychology and technology, but this blog will cover a variety of topics. I'd love your feedback, so please shoot me an e-mail if you're so inclined.

I got hooked on psych tech applications as an undergraduate researcher for Dr. Stacy Williams of the VICSR, the Virtual Immersion Center for Simulation Research, at Case Western Reserve University, where I graduated with a B.A. in Psychology (minors in Biology and Chemistry).

Since then, I've been extremely interested in the uses of new technology for clinical interventions. I don't have an advanced or professional degree, and I won't attempt to give out any advice. This blog is all about publicizing new ideas and discussing them openly and critically.