Body mapping, embodiment and emotional responses to an experimental simulation of auditory hallucinations in a VR environment

AbstractBackground: Recent research has examined embodied emotions in psychotic disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate how embodiment, emotional responses and meaning-making interreacted in an experimental simulation of auditory hallucinations in a VR environment (sAH-VR). Methodology: This qualitative experimental study explored embodiment and its relationship to a sAH-VR task with a community sample, analysing body-maps and written qualitative accounts of embodied experiences. These were synthesised using a multi-method “follow-the thread” qualitative process to integrate visual and textual data. Results: Seventy-five percent of participants reported affective embodied responses to the sAH-VR task. Five themes were identified; (i) Relationship between sAH-VR and Bodily Response, (ii) Localized Sensations, (iii) Strong Emotional Reactions, (iv) sAH-VR and Meaning-Making, and (v) Increased Bodily Awareness.Conclusion: Embodied emotional responses were a highly common response to the sAH-VR task. Descriptions of embodiment following the sAH-VR task gave rich qualitative experiences of embodiment with clear parallels to comparable findings in the clinical literature. Further research should test the clinical validity of the methodology.