VR-PTSD?Jun 22

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've read from an article that it's a psychological disorder caused from experiencing extreme emotional trauma while connecting to the virtual internet, causing patients to be extremely erratic and suffer from emotional breakdowns once they are reminded of that traumatic memory. One of the reasons why it induces such a reaction is because the brain is directly affected from the trauma, I think?

waves Hi! Resident neuroscience student!

VR-PTSD is not my research area, but from what I know about it, @marlostCAIN ’s summary was pretty good. Unfortunately it is still not understood particularly well, but I’ll try to share what I do know.

Correction: The brain is directly affected by trauma in PTSD in general, not just in VR-PTSD. Fear-based memory is associated with the amygdala, and some studies show changes in the volume & activity of the amygdala in PTSD patients. There also seems to be an effect on hippocampal activity… I’ll have to look more into biomarkers of PTSD when I have a chance. (1/?)

There are a couple of current hypotheses on VR-PTSD, the dominant one being that the person’s consciousness becomes ‘stuck’ in the virtual internet due to emotional overload destroying the ability to disconnect. It has been observed that cells around the physical location of the cyTus chip, as well as cells in the prefrontal cortex governing the executive functions even necessary to say “alright, I’m going to disconnect” in the first place, sustain damage to their receptors due to the trauma causing an overactive stress response. It’s quite a debilitating disease, but I’m hopeful that we’ll find a cure within our lifetime.

I’ve even heard that positive emotional stimulus, such as music that reminds the patient of their life before the trauma, can help stimulate regrowth of those damaged connections. Or maybe that’s just my childish hope talking.

(Re: the hashtag, @miracleworkerAdamas @leucinelucy what do you think? Personally I feel it’s okay to leave it on this post.) (2/2)

@slaughteredvomitdollSyd i tink it's awesome that da hashtag is being used!!!!! thanks for discussing science with us OP :3 idk much about VR-PTSD either but i've heard about music helping 2!!!! music and speech r in different parts of da brain so it seems like it can do stuff that talking can't

@slaughteredvomitdollSyd provided a good summary, as far as my knowledge goes. Like PTSD, VR-PTSD is often comorbid with other conditions like depression and has overlapping symptoms with other brain-related trauma. VR-PTSD is also especially disabling with the modern world's reliance on the virtual internet and the cyTus chip. Individuals with modifications to their cyTus chip's settings or connections can also be more severely impacted by VR-related trauma.

Music may help, but that's not a treatment option available to everyone. I hope further research will provide more ways to support VR-PTSD patients.

Since the SciM hashtag reads as a more general "science on iM" topic, I am also happy to see it used this way.

thank you all... I'm curious, have there been any studies (case studies?) on whether physical damage to the chip during that trauma can cause or affect VR-PTSD outcomes? or is this a completely different thing that I'm conflating with VR-PTSD? sorry, it's a really specific thing to ask about I know

@aviseapA4per I haven't found any, but maybe @slaughteredvomitdollSyd or @leucinelucy would have more luck. I would guess that physical damage to the chip would be accompanied with trauma to the cyTus implant site of the brain, which would likely cause traumatic brain injury and complications to VR-PTSD treatment.

lucy hasn't found anything.... (⓿_⓿)