Increased personal space of patients with schizophrenia in a virtual social environment.
Virtual reality may be a good alternative method for measuring personal space and overcoming some limitations in previous studies on the social aspects of schizophrenia. Using this technology, we aimed to investigate the characteristics of personal space in patients with schizophrenia and evaluate the relationship between their social behaviors and schizophrenic symptoms. The distance from a virtual person and the angle of head orientation while talking to a virtual person in a virtual environment were measured in 30 patients with schizophrenia and 30 normal controls. It was found that patients with schizophrenia had longer distances and larger angles than did normal controls. The severity of the negative syndrome had significant inverse correlations with the distance from the angry and neutral virtual persons and with the angle of head orientation toward the happy and angry virtual persons, suggesting that negative symptoms may have a close relationship with personal space, including distancing and eye gaze. The larger personal space of patients may reflect their discomfort in close situations or cognitive deficits. Showing these profiles to patients could help them realize the amount of personal space they need.
Park
Sung-Hyouk
SH
Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National Hospital, Republic of Korea.
Ku
Jeonghun
J
Kim
Jae-Jin
JJ
Jang
Hee Jeong
HJ
Kim
So Young
SY
Kim
Soo Hyun
SH
Kim
Chan-Hyung
CH
Lee
Hyeongrae
H
Kim
In Young
IY
Kim
Sun I
SI
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010550:Personal Space; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012931:Social Environment; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult