Arousal responses to personal space intrusions in psychotic illness: A virtual reality study

IF 3.6 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY

Schizophrenia Research Pub Date : 2024-09-20 DOI:10.1016/j.schres.2024.09.004

Baktash Babadi , Katherine Dokholyan , Nicole R. DeTore , Roger B.H. Tootell , Rachel F. Sussman , Sarah L. Zapetis , Daphne J. Holt

{"title":"Arousal responses to personal space intrusions in psychotic illness: A virtual reality study","authors":"Baktash Babadi , Katherine Dokholyan , Nicole R. DeTore , Roger B.H. Tootell , Rachel F. Sussman , Sarah L. Zapetis , Daphne J. Holt","doi":"10.1016/j.schres.2024.09.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Prior studies have found that individuals with schizophrenia often have an enlarged “personal space”. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this consistent finding remain unknown.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>The well-validated Stop Distance Procedure was used to measure the personal space preferences of individuals with psychotic disorders (PD, <em>N</em> = 22) and demographically-matched healthy controls (HC, <em>N</em> = 20) in response to human and virtual (avatar) intruders. Physiological arousal and subjective discomfort were measured during intrusions into personal space and modeled across different interpersonal distances. Additionally, participants were interviewed to assess their subjective awareness of their personal space preferences.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Personal space measurements with humans and avatars were highly correlated and reliable over repeated trials, and influenced by the displayed emotion and gender of the intruders, in both groups. The PD group exhibited a larger personal space than the HC group (all <em>p</em> < 0.028), and the size of personal space with avatar intruders was significantly correlated with positive symptom severity in the PD subjects. Moreover, the magnitude of arousal responses to personal space intrusions was proportional to a power (exponent) of the distance between subjects and intruders, with a significantly smaller exponent in the PD (compared to the HC) for both human (<em>p</em> = 0.026) and avatar (<em>p</em> = 0.011) intruders, indicating a less steep function. Lastly, much of the participants' qualitative impressions of their personal space behaviors were consistent or correlated with the quantitative findings, reflecting some awareness of the determinants of personal space.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>These findings reveal both intact and altered aspects of personal space regulation in psychotic disorders, and the potential utility of personal space measurements, given their high reliability, to serve as objective targets of interventions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":21417,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Research","volume":"274 ","pages":"Pages 158-170"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Schizophrenia Research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920996424004055","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Prior studies have found that individuals with schizophrenia often have an enlarged “personal space”. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this consistent finding remain unknown.

Methods

The well-validated Stop Distance Procedure was used to measure the personal space preferences of individuals with psychotic disorders (PD, N = 22) and demographically-matched healthy controls (HC, N = 20) in response to human and virtual (avatar) intruders. Physiological arousal and subjective discomfort were measured during intrusions into personal space and modeled across different interpersonal distances. Additionally, participants were interviewed to assess their subjective awareness of their personal space preferences.

Results

Personal space measurements with humans and avatars were highly correlated and reliable over repeated trials, and influenced by the displayed emotion and gender of the intruders, in both groups. The PD group exhibited a larger personal space than the HC group (all p < 0.028), and the size of personal space with avatar intruders was significantly correlated with positive symptom severity in the PD subjects. Moreover, the magnitude of arousal responses to personal space intrusions was proportional to a power (exponent) of the distance between subjects and intruders, with a significantly smaller exponent in the PD (compared to the HC) for both human (p = 0.026) and avatar (p = 0.011) intruders, indicating a less steep function. Lastly, much of the participants' qualitative impressions of their personal space behaviors were consistent or correlated with the quantitative findings, reflecting some awareness of the determinants of personal space.

Conclusions

These findings reveal both intact and altered aspects of personal space regulation in psychotic disorders, and the potential utility of personal space measurements, given their high reliability, to serve as objective targets of interventions.

查看原文本刊更多论文

精神病患者对个人空间侵入的唤醒反应：虚拟现实研究

背景先前的研究发现，精神分裂症患者的 "个人空间 "通常比较大。方法采用经过充分验证的 "停止距离程序"（Stop Distance Procedure）来测量精神障碍患者（PD，22 人）和人口统计学上匹配的健康对照组（HC，20 人）对人类和虚拟（虚拟化身）入侵者的个人空间偏好。在入侵个人空间时测量生理唤醒和主观不适感，并在不同的人际距离上进行建模。此外，还对受试者进行了访谈，以评估他们对自己个人空间偏好的主观意识。结果两组受试者对人类和虚拟化身的个人空间测量结果在重复试验中具有高度相关性和可靠性，并受到入侵者所显示的情绪和性别的影响。与 HC 组相比，PD 组表现出更大的个人空间（所有 p 均为 0.028），并且与头像入侵者的个人空间大小与 PD 受试者的阳性症状严重程度显著相关。此外，对个人空间入侵的唤醒反应程度与受试者和入侵者之间距离的幂指数（指数）成正比，对于人类入侵者（p = 0.026）和头像入侵者（p = 0.011），PD 组（与 HC 组相比）的指数明显较小，这表明函数的陡度较低。最后，大部分参与者对其个人空间行为的定性印象与定量研究结果一致或相关，反映出他们对个人空间的决定因素有一定的认识。结论这些研究结果揭示了精神障碍患者个人空间调节的完整和改变方面，以及个人空间测量的潜在效用，由于其可靠性高，可作为干预的客观目标。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Schizophrenia Research 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

7.50

自引率

8.90%

发文量

429

审稿时长

10.2 weeks

期刊介绍： As official journal of the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) Schizophrenia Research is THE journal of choice for international researchers and clinicians to share their work with the global schizophrenia research community. More than 6000 institutes have online or print (or both) access to this journal - the largest specialist journal in the field, with the largest readership! Schizophrenia Research''s time to first decision is as fast as 6 weeks and its publishing speed is as fast as 4 weeks until online publication (corrected proof/Article in Press) after acceptance and 14 weeks from acceptance until publication in a printed issue. The journal publishes novel papers that really contribute to understanding the biology and treatment of schizophrenic disorders; Schizophrenia Research brings together biological, clinical and psychological research in order to stimulate the synthesis of findings from all disciplines involved in improving patient outcomes in schizophrenia.