RU2800590C1 - Method of relaxation and stabilization of emotional state using virtual reality using biofeedback method - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: psychology, medicine and rehabilitation.

SUBSTANCE: invention is intended for conducting deep breathing training, relieving emotional stress, reducing anxiety, increasing the level of adaptation to stressful situations. A breath sensor is attached to the patient. The patient is immersed into virtual reality in a scene of water and sky. Depending on the patient's breathing rate, the weather in the scene changes from rainy to sunny. The reference respiratory rate is set depending on the patient's individual breathing parameters recorded at the preparatory stage of the training. With each stage of the training, the reference respiratory rate is increased by 10% of the previous value. To assess the effectiveness of the training, the patient's respiratory rate indicators are compared between the preparatory and final stages of the training.

EFFECT: method provides an increase in the effectiveness of stabilization of the psycho-emotional state by reducing the information flow, increasing the concentration of attention on respiratory sensations, relieving emotional and muscle tension, increasing the adaptive capabilities of the psyche and the body.

1 cl, 3 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of psychology, medicine and physiology and is intended for deep breathing training, relieving emotional stress, reducing anxiety, increasing the level of adaptation to stressful situations. Also, the invention can be used for the prevention of psychosomatic disorders, which are based on emotional instability and disruption of the nervous regulation of mental activity and preparation for behavior in stressful situations, which allows to avoid negative health consequences.

State of the art

From the prior art there is known a method of systemic correction of the mental state of a person (RU 2745192 C1 2021.03.22) through the use of methods of rational psychotherapy, which includes a dialogue between a doctor and a patient, during which, on the basis of logical reasoning, the patient is persuaded and taught to think correctly about his illness . The disadvantages of this solution are due to the long duration of the training. In addition, the method is designed to work with patients who have developed analytical thinking.

From RU 2760385 C1 2021.11.24 a method is known for increasing self-regulation and adaptive reserves in adolescents, which is carried out on the basis of biofeedback. The course of biofeedback consists of 10-15 sessions of biofeedback with a total duration of 30 minutes each with sessions 3 times a week. At the same time, for the patient, the control parameter is the continuous measurement of his heart rate with the presentation of the value of this parameter on the monitor screen in real time simultaneously with the target value to be achieved as a result of the course. The method provides an increase in the efficiency of self-regulation by determining and normalizing the functional state of the nervous system. The disadvantage of the known system is that before and immediately after each biofeedback session, omegametry is performed, which may take from 4 to 60 minutes to identify the most stable amplitude characteristics, and in order to achieve the claimed effect, it is necessary to undergo a long training course.

Known method of correction of mental states and treatment of neurotic disorders and pathological addictions "integral-synergetic psychotherapy", the method consists of three cycles. After that, during the second personal correction cycle, taking into account the results of the analytical cycle, new personality traits are formed, the type of thinking and stereotypes of response to the influence of the social environment are changed. At the end of the second cycle, the ongoing changes are analyzed with an assessment of the patient's life positions. At the third communicative and corrective cycle, the system of the patient's relationship with his social environment is corrected. The disadvantage of this method is the inclusion of the social environment in the process of therapy, as well as the long term of corrective actions.

From RU 2728268 C1 2020.07.28, a method is known to reduce the psychological significance of negative psycho-emotional attitudes and memories. The method provides a reduction in the severity of psycho-emotional response to negative psycho-emotional attitudes and memories due to the formation of a psycho-emotional state that is optimal for cognitive processing of the presented information in the form of graphic images and/or verbal definitions presented against the background of dynamic bilateral stimulation with individually formed parameters according to objective and subjective indicators of the current psychoemotional state. The disadvantage of this method is that it is designed for patients with a high level of imagination and visualization skills.

Disclosure of invention

The method is aimed at relaxation and correction of the patient's emotional state, where relaxation is understood as "the general state of rest, relaxation when going to sleep, after strong experiences or physical effort, as well as complete or partial muscle relaxation resulting from voluntary efforts such as autogenic training" [ Big psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EUROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003]. And the emotional state means “states caused by a person’s experience of his relationship to the outside world and himself and characterized by changes in the quantitative and qualitative parameters of responses to signals from the external environment” [Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy. 2013].

The technical result of the method of relaxation and stabilization of the emotional state using virtual reality using the biofeedback method is to positively change the patient's psycho-emotional state, reduce the level of perceived stress, reduce the level of emotional exhaustion, situational and personal anxiety.

Implementation of the invention

The method of relaxation and stabilization of the emotional state using virtual reality using the biofeedback method consists of hardware and software parts.

The hardware consists of:

- VR helmet

- System unit and monitor or laptop

- Naso-oral breathing sensor

The software part consists of:

- Virtual reality scene with breathing technique

- System for collecting the dynamics of changes in the user's state

To implement the method, the patient sits down in a comfortable sitting position, a naso-oral breathing sensor is attached to it, which reads the patient's breathing rate, and a virtual reality helmet is put on. The patient is placed in a virtual environment - figure 1 on a fixed starting point with the ability to look around without the option of moving to another position.

The technical result is achieved by the fact that the patient goes through 7 stages of training: stage 1 - diagnostic, stages 2-6 of the respiratory training itself, stage 7 - final. The duration of each stage is 2 minutes. Between each stage of the training 20 seconds rest. After passing through all stages of the training, the patient is shown changes or their absence in the respiratory rate.

At the first stage of the training, the patient's initial respiratory rate is calculated. At this stage, the weather in the virtual reality scene does not change, and the patient is instructed that he should breathe at his usual pace and not try to breathe deeply. After the completion of the stage, the patient is shown the result in the numerical values of the frequency of his breathing.

At stages two through six, the patient is tasked with changing the weather from rainy to clear, sunny by controlling the frequency of his breathing. Before each stage, the patient is presented with an instruction with a specified breathing rate, which must be followed in order for the weather in the virtual reality scene to change in a positive direction. At the beginning of the training in the scene rainy weather - Fig.2.

If the patient follows the breathing rate from the instructions, the weather will improve, if the breathing rate is exceeded, the weather in the scene starts to deteriorate. If the user observes the breathing rate specified in the instructions, then the weather in the scene begins to change in the following sequence from unfavorable (level 1-4) to favorable (level 4-5):

1.Heavy rain/downpour (level I)

2. Light rain (level II)

3. Heavy cloud cover (level III)

4. Partly cloudy (level IV)

5. Clear/Sunny (Level V)

All stages of the training are accompanied by background music and natural sounds that correspond to the weather in the scene.

At the seventh stage, the instructions coincide with the instructions for the first stage of the training. The patient should breathe at a comfortable pace. There are no weather changes in the VR scene.

After completion of the seventh stage, the patient is shown a comparative result between stages 1 and 7 in percent (X ₁ *100/X ₂ ).

Where

X - respiratory rate.

Dynamic animation of weather change is a visualization of the biological feedback between the patient and the VR environment and is carried out through the indicator of the reference respiratory rate - RR, which is calculated by the following formula:

BH=X _n - 10%

Where

X - respiratory rate

n - number of the previous training stage

An example of calculating the reference respiratory rate during training:

1. Diagnostic stage. At this stage, the respiratory rate was recorded using a sensor = 20

2. In the instructions for step 2, the reference breathing rate that must be adhered to in order for the weather to change to favorable will be X2 \u003d 20-10% \u003d 18

3. In the instructions for step 3, X3 will be equal to X3 \u003d 18-10% \u003d 16.2

4. In the instructions for step 4, X4 will be equal to X4 \u003d 16-10% \u003d 14.4

5. In the instructions for step 5, X5 will be equal to X5 \u003d 14-10% \u003d 12.6

6. In the instructions for step 6, X6 will be equal to X6 \u003d 14-10% \u003d 12.6

7. Final training. Recorded respiration rate=15

8. Final result: 25% more successful completion of the training!

To achieve the technical result of the method of relaxation and stabilization of the emotional state using virtual reality using the biofeedback method, it is necessary to perform from 5 to 10 sessions, with a pause between sessions of no more than two days.

The achievement of the technical result is facilitated by the fact that this method is based on the phenomenon of awareness. Mindfulness is the ability to voluntarily focus attention on the current situation and sensations, arbitrarily switch attention between different stimuli and at the same time feel control over this process of concentration. In a state of awareness, a person focuses on their current sensations and experiences and is not distracted by past or future events.

The level of awareness is associated with differences in a number of parameters of brain activity. J.D. Creswell, using functional neuroimaging techniques, found that high levels of awareness were associated with decreased activation in the amygdala region and a wider field of activation in the prefrontal cortex. This suggests that mindfulness practitioners are better able to regulate emotional responses by activating the prefrontal cortex and inhibiting activity in the amygdala region.

Both the theoretical model and empirical studies show that a person's ability to concentrate, to be aware of the current internal and external experience, to manage the process of awareness is an important factor in stress resistance and psychological well-being.

Biofeedback makes it easier for the user to focus on their feelings. Biological feedback is a method in which a person, using electronic devices, is instantly and continuously provided with information about the physiological performance of his internal organs through sound or visual feedback signals. Based on this information, a person can learn to arbitrarily change these insensible parameters under normal conditions. The naso-oral breathing sensor is based on highly sensitive thermistors that monitor the temperature of inhaled/exhaled air. Feedback about the user's breathing is transmitted with minimal delay, which allows you to instantly track physiological indicators.

The technical result of the method is achieved because during the training process a person focuses on current sensations, since the success of the task depends on them, and dynamic and continuous biofeedback does not make it possible to be distracted from current events by one's previous experience or predicting the future.

To prove the efficiency of the method in table 1 - figure 3 presents the results of relaxation of 10 people according to the above method. Each took part in 10 training sessions for 10 consecutive days. Before the first session and after the last session, each participant underwent a psychodiagnostic procedure, which included answers to questionnaires: the PSS-10 Perceived Stress Scale, the Maslach Burnout Questionnaire, and the Spielberger-Khanin Anxiety Scale. All participants showed positive changes in performance.

Claims (11)

A method of relaxation and stabilization of the emotional state using virtual reality using the biofeedback method, characterized in that the test subject is immersed in a virtual environment using a virtual reality helmet, a naso-oral breathing sensor is used that reads the respiratory rate (RR) of the patient, and continuous measurement of the patient's respiratory rate is carried out, while the patient goes through 7 stages of training, the duration of each stage is 2 minutes, between each stage of training 20 seconds of rest; at the 1st stage, the initial RR of the patient is calculated, while the patient breathes at his usual pace, at 2-6 stages the patient adheres to the reference RR indicated for each stage, which is calculated by the following formula: BH=Xn - 10%, where X is the respiratory rate; n - number of the previous training stage; at stage 7, the patient breathes at his usual pace, and at the end of the stage, the patient is shown a comparative result between stages 1 and 7 in percent; weather changes are used as dynamic animation in the virtual environment, while at stages from the second to the sixth, if the patient observes the reference black hole, the weather in the virtual reality scene will improve in the following sequence: 1) downpour, 2) rain, 3) heavy cloudiness, 4) a little cloudy, 5) sunny; when the reference black hole is exceeded, the weather in virtual reality deteriorates in the reverse order.