Virtual Reality for Psychological and Neurocognitive Interventions

Albert “Skip” Rizzo is a clinical psychologist and Director of Medical VR at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. He is also a Research Professor with the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and School of Gerontology. Over the last 25 years, Skip has conducted research on the design, development and evaluation of Virtual Reality systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation across the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations. This work has focused on PTSD, TBI, Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and other clinical conditions. He has also driven an extensive research program on the use of intelligent virtual human agents for clinical training, healthcare information support, and clinical assessment. In spite of the diversity of these clinical R&D areas, the common thread that drives all of his work with digital technologies involves the study of how Virtual Reality simulations can be usefully applied to human healthcare beyond what’s possible with traditional 20th Century methods.Stéphane Bouchard holds the Canada Research Chair in Clinical cyberpsychology and teaches psychotherapy and cyberpsychology at the Université du Québec en Outaouais in Canada As a scientist-practitioner, his current research projects involve developing virtual environments to treat complex anxiety disorders and pathological gambling, leading randomized control trials on the efficacy of in virtuo exposure for mental health disorders, and conducting experimental studies to understand to why virtual reality is an effective treatment tool. Another prolific area of expertise is telepsychotherapy, where he conducts randomized control trials and processes studies on the efficacy of delivering cognitive-behavior therapy in videoconference. His research lab holds Psyche, the only six-sided total immersion virtual reality system dedicated to mental health research. He has received for more than 12 million dollars in research funding, has published more than 150 scientific articles and book chapters, delivered hundreds of scientific communications around the world and is actively collaborating with researchers from around the globe. He is also the president of Cliniques and Development In Virtuo, as company that distributes virtual environments to mental health professionals.

Chapter 1: Applications of Virtual Reality in Clinical Psychology and Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience – An Introduction.- Chapter 2: Virtual Reality:  Whence, How and What For.- Chapter 3: Virtual Reality and Anxiety Disorders Treatment: Evolution and Future Perspectives.- Chapter 4: Virtual Reality Applications to Treat Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.- Chapter 5: Using VR for Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.- Chapter 6: Virtual Environments for Substance Abuse Assessment and Treatment.- Chapter 7: Virtual Reality in the Assessment and Treatment of Weight-Related Disorders.- Chapter 8: Virtual Reality Distraction Helps Control Acute Pain and Has Potential to Reduce PTSD Symptom Severity during Medical Procedures. Chapter 9: Using Virtual Reality with Child Sexual Offenders: Assessing Deviant Sexual Interests.- Chapter 10: Using Innovative Technologies as Therapeutic and Educational Tools for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.- Chapter 11. A Review of Virtual Classroom Environments for Neuropsychological Assessment.-  Chapter 12.  Developmental and Learning Disabilities.- Chapter 13. Virtual Reality and Psychotic Disorders.- Chapter 14. Assessment and Rehabilitation Using Virtual Reality after Stroke: A Literature Review.- Chapter 15: Assessment and Rehabilitation after Traumatic Brain Injury using Virtual Reality: A Systematic Review and Discussion Concerning Human-Computer Interactions.- Chapter 16: Developing Virtual Environments for Learning and Enhancing Skills for the Blind: Incorporating User-Centered and Neuroscience Based Approaches.- Chapter 17: Virtual Human Standardized Patients for Clinical Training.