Our clinic is responsible for the treatment of all mental illnesses in adulthood with five stations, a day clinic, an institute ambulance and several special outpatient clinics.
Virtual reality therapy (VRT) describes the computer-generated simulation of immersive, interactive, and reality-close virtual environments for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. A typical VRT application is for instance the reality-close visual simulation of anxiety-provoking situations by means of VR glasses for exposure therapy in anxiety disorders.
The aim of the research group “Virtual Reality Therapy and Medical Technology” (head: Dr. Niclas Braun) is the (further) development and multimodal examination of VR-based diagnostic and therapeutic methods for mental disorders. In addition, the research group deals with various medical technology issues, such as the development and efficacy evaluation of digital healthcare apps and electrosimulative therapy approaches.
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Methods
- Development of HMD-based immersive, virtual 3D environments
- Development of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of ADHD, panic disorder & agoraphobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- Experimental studies on the psychopathology and plasticity of the self by means of different body-transfer illusions (e.g. supernumerary limb illusion und resized limb illusion) in dissociative disorders and psychoses.
- Multimodal investigation (including EEG, EDA, EMG, ECG, EMA, HMD actigraphy, eye tracking, and fNIRS) of VR experiments.
- Therapeutic testing of electrostimulatory procedures (especially tACS).
- RCT-based efficacy evaluation of digital healthcare apps
5 selected publications
- Anders, D., Berisha, A., Selaskowski, B., Asché, L., Thorne, J. D., Philipsen, A., & Braun, N. (2021). Experimental Induction of Micro- and Macrosomatognosia: A Virtual Hand Illusion Study. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2, 47. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.656788
- Braun, N., Berisha, A., Anders, D., Kannen, K., Lux, S., & Philipsen, A. (2020). Experimental Inducibility of Supernumerary Phantom Limbs: A Series of Virtual Reality Experiments. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 1(October), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2020.00012
- Möller, T. J., Braun, N., Thöne, A.-K., Herrmann, C. S., & Philipsen, A. (2020). The Senses of Agency and Ownership in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11(June), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00474
- Spychala, N., Bongartz, E., Philipsen, A., Debener, S. & Braun, N. (2020). Self-paced, embodiable neurofeedback for post-stroke motor rehabilitation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00461
- Braun, N, Debener S, Spychala N, Bongartz E, Sorös P, Müller HHO, Philipsen A. (2018) The senses of agency and ownership: a review. Frontiers in Psychology 9:1–17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00535
