It has been revealed that there are new ways to tackle your fears, according to experts. Check out the latest news on the matter below.
How to tackle fear
Fear is a crucial component in the survival of humans, as it enables us to identify and respond to dangerous situations.
However, there are instances when persistent anxiety and fear can hinder our ability to function properly. Long-term fear and anxiety can have adverse effects on our mental and physical health, impacting everything from our sleep to our digestive system.
Nevertheless, recent studies suggest that modern technology has the potential to assist individuals in overcoming their phobias and fears.
“Virtual reality can change people’s ways of thinking and feeling through novel experiences,” Masahiko Haruno, a computational social neuroscientist at the Japanese Center for Information and Neural Networks and professor at Osaka University in Japan, said.
“Research has demonstrated that VR experiences can reduce acrophobia [fear of heights], racial prejudice, and mental barriers in mathematical problem-solving.”
Haruno and his team conducted a recent study to investigate how virtual reality can assist individuals with acrophobia (fear of heights) by simulating a virtual flight experience. In the experiment, the participants were able to control a video of themselves flying over a city.
According to Haruno, virtual reality has an advantage of allowing people to have a sense of control and predict future outcomes, which helps them avoid fear through their actions.
After the virtual flight experience, the participants were asked to walk a plank in virtual reality.
The study found that participants who had been able to control their flying experience had a significantly reduced fear response compared to those who had only watched the same flying video but had no control over the experience.
The findings of this research will be presented at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting on Monday, November 13th.
However, virtual exposure to fearful stimuli may yield the best results when body movement is also involved, according to the original notes.
“We could speculate that virtual experiences, when they more closely mimic naturalistic real-life scenarios and contexts, might be more likely to generalize to real-life responses,” Ai Koizumi, a researcher in neuroscience and psychology at the Sony Computer Science Labs, said.
