UnReal? Investigating the Sense of Reality and Psychotic Symptoms with Virtual Reality.

ABSTRACT: Distortions of reality, such as hallucinations, are common symptoms of many psychiatric conditions. Accordingly, sense of reality (SoR), the ability to discriminate between true and false perceptions, is a central criterion in the assessment of neurological and psychiatric health. Despite the critical role of the SoR in daily life, little is known about how this is formed in the mind. Here, we propose a novel theoretical and methodological framework to study the SoR and its relation to psychotic symptoms. In two experiments, we employed a specialized immersive virtual reality (VR) environment allowing for well-controlled manipulations of visual reality. We first tested the impact of manipulating visual reality on objective perceptual thresholds (just noticeable differences). In a second ex

SUBMITTER: Drori G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7355917 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature