Effects of Social Presence and Perception in Virtual Reality on Pain
CompletedNot applicableNCT03157362
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This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.
Brief summary (from the registry)
This experiment aims to examine the effects of transportation via social presence in "near" and "far" virtual environments, on pain threshold in two groups: 1. healthy volunteers in an induced pain task, and 2. older adults suffering from pain. In the first, pilot group, a within-subjects study, participants will complete a series of induced-pain heat ramps in virtual environments that are "near" or "far"-in other words, they will either duplicate their actual physical environment, or represent another location. A second factor in this experiment will be mediated social presence, in which participants interact with confederates as avatars in either condition. The hypotheses follow: H1: Participants who feel present in a remote location will have a higher pain tolerance than those in a near location. H2: Participants who feel socially present with a confederate will have a higher pain tolerance than those who are alone in a virtual environment. H3: There will be an interaction between social presence and virtual environment such that participants who feel socially present in a remote location will have the highest pain tolerance overall. Building on these results,the next step will be a long-term study on older adult pain patients. In this step, the most successful condition in the first study to lightweight, portable headsets that can be used outside of the lab environment. This intervention will be tested on older adult patients who are suffering from chronic pain.
Study details
- Official title
- Effects of Social Presence and Perception in Virtual Reality on Pain
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Other: Near Non-Social
- Other: Near Social
- Other: Far Non-Social
- Other: Far Social
- Sponsor
- Cornell University
- Collaborators
- Weill Medical College of Cornell University
- Start date
- 2018-02-01
- Primary completion
- 2018-11-08
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 18 Years
- Healthy volunteers
- true
- Results posted
- No results posted in this snapshot
- Countries
- United States
- Total sites listed
- 1
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: Consenting adult Exclusion Criteria: 1. History of cardiovascular disorder 2. History of fainting or seizures 3. Open cut or sore on hand to be thermally tested 4. Burn or sunburn on hand to be thermally tested. 5. Pregnancy 6. Prone to motion sickness, or have balance or dizziness conditions 7. Recent concussion 8. Seizure disorders 9. History of fainting or seizures 10. Visual impairment
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03157362