Just Add Monsters: Stressful Biofeedback Games for Improved Physiological Control
type: CreativeWork
description: Anxiety is often experienced as an explicitly physiological sensation: an increased breathing rate, sweaty palms, and a racing heart which can precede, co-occur with, and follow stressful experiences. The bi-directional relationship between these physiological responses and their subjective experiences suggests that physiology itself could be a useful therapeutic target. Many established therapies incorporate elements of physiological control (e.g., breathing techniques are often included in cognitive behavioural therapy), and other therapeutic techniques (such as biofeedback) rely entirely on physiological regulation as the mechanism of action for improving mental health. During the current global mental health crisis, many people face a lack of immediate access to appropriate care, meaning that more readily and rapidly available therapeutic methods are required. Here, physiological regulation training could act as a stopgap measure for people on waiting lists to receive standard treatment (such as medication or talking therapies) or may be appropriate as a standalone therapy if shown to be sufficiently efficacious. This thesis describes the process of creating and testing a series of virtual reality (VR) experiences and games, which have the potential to be developed into clinically relevant tools in the future. Such VR games, through their technology and the inherently motivating and enjoyable aspects of gameplay, can offer unique benefits for both psychological testing and therapeutics by providing an ideal medium for people to develop and practise new skills – including physiological regulation. The aims of the project were twofold: firstly, to produce a battery of virtual reality experiences that could be used as experimental stressors in psychological studies. Secondly, to create short VR games that can teach people physiological regulation techniques and then encourage them to apply these techniques in a stressful game setting. The VR experiences created wer…
abstract: Anxiety is often experienced as an explicitly physiological sensation: an increased breathing rate, sweaty palms, and a racing heart which can precede, co-occur with, and follow stressful experiences. The bi-directional relationship between these physiological responses and their subjective experiences suggests that physiology itself could be a useful therapeutic target. Many established therapies incorporate elements of physiological control (e.g., breathing techniques are often included in cognitive behavioural therapy), and other therapeutic techniques (such as biofeedback) rely entirely on physiological regulation as the mechanism of action for improving mental health. During the current global mental health crisis, many people face a lack of immediate access to appropriate care, meaning that more readily and rapidly available therapeutic methods are required. Here, physiological regulation training could act as a stopgap measure for people on waiting lists to receive standard treatment (such as medication or talking therapies) or may be appropriate as a standalone therapy if shown to be sufficiently efficacious. This thesis describes the process of creating and testing a series of virtual reality (VR) experiences and games, which have the potential to be developed into clinically relevant tools in the future. Such VR games, through their technology and the inherently motivating and enjoyable aspects of gameplay, can offer unique benefits for both psychological testing and therapeutics by providing an ideal medium for people to develop and practise new skills – including physiological regulation. The aims of the project were twofold: firstly, to produce a battery of virtual reality experiences that could be used as experimental stressors in psychological studies. Secondly, to create short VR games that can teach people physiological regulation techniques and then encourage them to apply these techniques in a stressful game setting. The VR experiences created wer…
author: Daniel-Watanabe, Lucie
language: eng
keywords: Anxiety, Biofeedback, Psychiatry, Stress, Virtual Reality
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ecc619fc-7bca-4951-ae59-7fcff96cfd28/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2024-09-09
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:00Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.115787