Psycho-physiological Effects of a Virtual Reality Relaxation Experience after Acute Stressor Exposure

We examined the effects of a VR experience ("The Secret Garden") designed to promote relaxation following acute stress induction. Participants (N=47, mean age = 26,0 years, S.D. 7,9, 31 females, 16 males) were exposed to a laboratory stressor (i. e., The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress, TSST and randomly assigned to either the experimental condition (VR relaxation environment, N=24) or the control condition (resting, N=23). Stress recovery was assessed via repeated measures at baseline, after TSST and following VR/resting conditions. Psychological measures included the administration of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the ITC-Sense of Presence Inventory (ITC-SOPI). Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) data were also collected. Repeatedmeasure ANOVAs revealed that anxiety levels significantly increased from baseline to post-TSST, with main HR indexes following the same pattern. There was no main effect of experimental condition on both anxiety and HR measures, but a significant time per condition interaction effect, with a higher mean reduction of anxiety in the VR group after the acute stress induction than in the control group. No main effects of condition were found on HR/HRV indexes. These findings suggest that TSST increased psychological and physiological stress and that VR relaxation was able to help recovery from stress condition, although this effect was not corroborated by HRV data analysis. These results confirm the potential of VR as a procedure to support recovery from acute stress and warrant further studies.