ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2021
The Effects of Virtual Reality Treatment on Prefrontal Cortex Activity in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder: Participatory and Interactive Virtual Reality Treatment Study.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex Differences in Elderly Multiple Sclerosis Patients Undergoing Neurorehabilitation: How Many Things are Taken for Granted? A Retrospective Study.Journal of geriatric psychiatry and neurology · 2026Article
- Immersive metaverse art as a psychological intervention for depression and anxiety: a narrative review and multilevel model integrating engagement, cultural identity, and neurocognitive mechanisms.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- The Use of Virtual Reality for Pain and Anxiety Reduction: A Literature Review.Acta medica Lituanica · 2026Review
- Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Monitoring Treatment Response in Psychiatry: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- The New Emerging Treatment Choice for Major Depressive Disorders: Digital Therapeutics.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- Prediction of Specific Anxiety Symptoms and Virtual Reality Sickness Using In Situ Autonomic Physiological Signals During Virtual Reality Treatment in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR serious games · 2022Article
- The gold-standard treatment for social anxiety disorder: A roadmap for the future.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAttempts to use virtual reality (VR) as a treatment for various psychiatric disorders have been made recently, and many researchers have identified the effects of VR in psychiatric disorders. Studies have reported that VR therapy is effective in social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, there is no prior study on the neural correlates of VR therapy in patients with SAD.
objectiveThe aim of this study is to find the neural correlates of VR therapy by evaluating the treatment effectiveness of VR in patients with SAD using portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
methodsPatients with SAD (n=28) were provided with 6 sessions of VR treatment that was developed for exposure to social situations with a recording system of each participant's self-introduction in VR. After each VR treatment session, the first-person view (video 1) and third-person view (video 2) clips of the participant's self-introduction were automatically generated. The functional activities of prefrontal regions were measured by fNIRS while watching videos 1 and 2 with a cognitive task, before and after whole VR treatment sessions, and after the first session of VR treatment. We compared the data of fNIRS between patients with SAD and healthy controls (HCs; n=27).
resultsWe found that reduction in activities of the right frontopolar prefrontal cortex (FPPFC) in HCs was greater than in the SAD group at baseline (t=-2.01, P=.049). Comparing the frontal cortex activation before and after VR treatment sessions in the SAD group showed significant differences in activities of the FPPFC (right: t=-2.93, P<.001; left: t=-2.25, P=.03) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) (right: t=-2.10, P=.045; left: t=-2.21, P=.04) while watching video 2.
conclusionsActivities of the FPPFC and OFC were associated with symptom reduction after VR treatment for SAD. Our study findings might provide a clue to understanding the mechanisms underlying VR treatment for SAD.
trial registrationClinical Research Information Service (CRIS) KCT0003854; https://tinyurl.com/559jp2kp.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.