Previous research shows that individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) misinterpret ambiguous social information in a negative and threatening manner. These erroneous threat appraisals are thought to maintain disorder symptomatology and psychosocial impairment by reinforcing individuals' distorted self-image and ideas of social undesirability. Thus, maladaptive interpretation biases represent an important treatment target for this population; however, existing bias assessments and modification protocols are limited by the hypothetical and distal nature of scenarios and do not capture momentary experiential threat processes. The current study tested virtual reality (VR) technology as a novel, in vivo means of eliciting, identifying, and measuring threat interpretation biases in a clinical sample to better understand the fear/threat structure activated during social interactions in BDD. Findings indicated that, relative to nonpsychiatric controls (N = 25), individuals with BDD (N = 25) evidenced greater in vivo threat interpretation biases and discomfort ratings (distress, fear, perceived threat, urge to check, urge to avoid) in response to interpersonal scenarios presented via VR. This pattern of findings was also observed for established dispositional interpretation bias measures. Study findings enhance our understanding of disorder maintenance and offer more nuanced treatment targets. This study represents a critical first step in the long-term goal of harnessing VR gaming technology to supercharge existing treatment approaches for this debilitating illness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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对身体变形障碍认知偏见的虚拟现实研究。

先前的研究表明，患有身体畸形障碍（BDD）的人以消极和威胁性的方式误解了歧义的社会信息。这些错误的威胁评估被认为可以通过增强个人扭曲的自我形象和社会不良观念来维持疾病症状和心理社会损害。因此，适应不良的解释偏见代表了该人群的重要治疗目标。但是，现有的偏差评估和修改协议受方案的假设性和远端性限制，无法捕获瞬时的体验性威胁过程。当前的研究将虚拟现实（VR）技术作为一种新颖的体内手段来引发，识别，并测量临床样本中的威胁解释偏差，以更好地了解BDD中的社交互动过程中激活的恐惧/威胁结构。研究结果表明，相对于非精神病控制者（N = 25），患有BDD的个体（N = 25）表现出更大的体内威胁解释偏见和不适等级（遇险，恐惧，感知到的威胁，敦促检查，敦促避免）通过VR呈现的人际关系场景。既定的倾向性解释偏见措施也观察到了这种发现模式。研究结果增强了我们对疾病维持的理解，并提供了更细微的治疗目标。这项研究代表了利用VR游戏技术为这种令人衰弱的疾病增强现有治疗方法的长期目标中至关重要的第一步。