P51: Correlation between skin conductance and anxiety in virtual reality

Abstract

Introduction:Despite the advantages of Virtual Reality (VR), the increase in anxiety caused by motion sickness makes it difficult to apply to patients with depression and anxiety. We studied correlation between skin conductance and anxiety in VR.Methods:We conducted a clinical study of 81 healthy volunteers with high stress, which was defined as a score of 20 or more on the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10). We used STAI-X-1 to measure anxiety, and Galvanic Skin Response to measure skin conductance. This study used an open, randomized, crossover design. The videos consisted of two types, less dizzying video (G1) and more dizzying video (G3). We divided into two groups with exposure order, G1 after watching G3 (Order 1), and G3 after watching G1 (Order 2).Results:Anxiety significantly decreased in the Order 2 group (p < 0.035), whereas there was no significant change in anxiety in the Order 1 group. In both groups, skin conductance significantly increased after exposure to dizzying video. The skin conductance of the Order 1 group mean (SD) was 1.61 (1.07) (p < 0.0001), and the Order 2 group was 0.92 (0.90) (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference between two groups (p = 0.077).Conclusion:It is possible to reduce skin conductance and anxiety by viewing less dizzying VR video first and then viewing more dizzying video later.