Cargando…

Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications

Mental Illnesses, particularly anxiety, insomnia, and depression often involve vicious cycles which are self-perpetuating and can trap one into a more chronic state. For example in the case of insomnia, sympathetic overactivity, intrusive thoughts, and emotional instability due to sleep loss can per...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jerath, Ravinder, Beveridge, Connor
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8295564/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34305666
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.645289
_version_ 1783725454339866624
author Jerath, Ravinder
Beveridge, Connor
author_facet Jerath, Ravinder
Beveridge, Connor
author_sort Jerath, Ravinder
collection PubMed
description Mental Illnesses, particularly anxiety, insomnia, and depression often involve vicious cycles which are self-perpetuating and can trap one into a more chronic state. For example in the case of insomnia, sympathetic overactivity, intrusive thoughts, and emotional instability due to sleep loss can perpetuate further sleep loss the next night and so on. In this article, we put forward a perspective on breaking these vicious cycles based on preeminent theories in global and spatial cognition, that the foundation of the conscious mind is a spatial coordinate system. Based on this we discuss the potential and future of virtual reality therapeutic applications which utilize massive virtual spaces along with biofeedback designed to help break perpetual cycles in depression, anxiety, and insomnia. “Massive spaces” are those which are truly expansive such as when looking to the clear night sky. These virtual realities may take the form of a night sky, fantastical cosmic scenes, or other scenes such as mountain tops. We also hope to inspire research into such a spatial foundation of mind, use of perceived massive spaces for therapy, and the integration of biofeedback into virtual therapies.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8295564
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82955642021-07-23 Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications Jerath, Ravinder Beveridge, Connor Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Mental Illnesses, particularly anxiety, insomnia, and depression often involve vicious cycles which are self-perpetuating and can trap one into a more chronic state. For example in the case of insomnia, sympathetic overactivity, intrusive thoughts, and emotional instability due to sleep loss can perpetuate further sleep loss the next night and so on. In this article, we put forward a perspective on breaking these vicious cycles based on preeminent theories in global and spatial cognition, that the foundation of the conscious mind is a spatial coordinate system. Based on this we discuss the potential and future of virtual reality therapeutic applications which utilize massive virtual spaces along with biofeedback designed to help break perpetual cycles in depression, anxiety, and insomnia. “Massive spaces” are those which are truly expansive such as when looking to the clear night sky. These virtual realities may take the form of a night sky, fantastical cosmic scenes, or other scenes such as mountain tops. We also hope to inspire research into such a spatial foundation of mind, use of perceived massive spaces for therapy, and the integration of biofeedback into virtual therapies. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-07-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8295564/ /pubmed/34305666 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.645289 Text en Copyright © 2021 Jerath and Beveridge. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Jerath, Ravinder
Beveridge, Connor
Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications
title Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications
title_full Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications
title_fullStr Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications
title_full_unstemmed Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications
title_short Harnessing the Spatial Foundation of Mind in Breaking Vicious Cycles in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Depression: The Future of Virtual Reality Therapy Applications
title_sort harnessing the spatial foundation of mind in breaking vicious cycles in anxiety, insomnia, and depression: the future of virtual reality therapy applications
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8295564/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34305666
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.645289
work_keys_str_mv AT jerathravinder harnessingthespatialfoundationofmindinbreakingviciouscyclesinanxietyinsomniaanddepressionthefutureofvirtualrealitytherapyapplications
AT beveridgeconnor harnessingthespatialfoundationofmindinbreakingviciouscyclesinanxietyinsomniaanddepressionthefutureofvirtualrealitytherapyapplications