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TITLE: A VR-based Serious Game for Studying Emotional Regulation in Adolescents ABSTRACT:We all use more or less adapted strategies to confront adverse emotional situations in our lives without being psychologically affected. Emotional Regulation (ER) strategies that we use determine the way in which we feel, express and behave. Moreover, ER strategies are particularly important in adolescents, a population in the age when the deficits of ER strategies can be linked to the appearance of numerous mental health disorders such as depression or anxiety, or disruptive behaviors. Thus, the early detection of dysfunctional ER strategies and the training in adaptive ER strategies will help us to prevent the future occurrence of possible behavioral and psychosocial disorders. In this paper, we present the GAMETEEN SYSTEM (GT-System), a novel instrument based on Virtual Reality and serious games for the assessment and training of ER strategies in adolescent population. The results of our preliminary evaluation suggest that this system is effective in training and evaluating emotional regulation strategies in the adolescent population.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to establish the concurrent validity and reliability of four different two-dimensional (2D) video-based techniques for quantifying frontal plane knee kinematics during a 40 cm double-legged drop jump.Participants and methodsA convenience sample of 16 healthy participants (nine males and seven females; age: [mean ± standard deviation] 25.5±2 years; body mass index: 24.33±2.98 kg/m2) participated in this investigation. A total of five trials during a 40 cm drop jump maneuver with a countermovement jump were used as the functional task. Four knee valgus measures, such as two different frontal plane projection angle measures, knee-to-ankle separation ratio (KASR), and knee separation distance (KSD), were measured using 2D and three-dimensional (3D) systems. To generalize to the greater population of possible evaluators, the testers performing the biomechanical analyses were three novice physical therapists. Intra- and intertester intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were estimated for 2D analysis variables. ICCs were estimated for all measures between systems to determine concurrent validity of the 2D system.ResultsAll four 2D measures showed good to excellent reliability (ICC: 0.89–0.99). KASR and KSD showed excellent correlation (ICC: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.82–0.98 and ICC: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.90–0.96, respectively) with the 3D system, while both methods of frontal plane projection angle showed poor to moderate correlation (ICC: 0–0.57) with the 3D system.Conclusion2D KASR and KSD measures are cost effective, reliable, and highly correlated with the same measures using 3D techniques for the evaluation of knee valgus.

TITLE:Assessing brain activations associated with emotional regulation during virtual reality mood induction procedures ABSTRACT:Emotional Regulation Strategies are used by people to influence their emotional responses to external or internal emotional stimuli. The aim of this study is to evaluate the brain activations that are associated with the application of two different emotional regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) during virtual reality mood induction procedures. We used Emotiv EPOC to measure the brain electrical activity of participants while sadness is induced using a virtual reality environment. We monitored 24 participants, who were distributed among three experimental groups: a control group, a cognitive reappraisal group and an expressive suppression group. In the control group, we found significant activations in several right frontal regions that are related to the induction of negative emotions'. We also found significant activations in the limbic, occipital, and parietal regions in the emotional regulation groups. These regions are related to the application of emotional regulation strategies. The results are consistent with those shown in the literature, which were obtained through clinical neuroimaging systems.