@article{onita_autonomic_2025,

title = {Autonomic and Neuroendocrine Reactivity to VR Game Exposure in Children and Adolescents with Obesity: A Factor Analytic Approach to Physiological Reactivity and Eating Behavior},

author = {C. A. Onita and D. -V. Matei and L. -M. Trandafir and D. Petrescu-Miron and C. Corciova and R. Fuior and L. -M. Manole and B. -M. Mihai and C. -G. Dascalu and M. Tarcea and S. Bouchard and V. Mocanu},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105013574948&doi=10.3390%2Fnu17152492&partnerID=40&md5=d1e974dae00d424b9f6fae86b8a7cc6a},

doi = {10.3390/nu17152492},

issn = {20726643 (ISSN)},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Nutrients},

volume = {17},

number = {15},

abstract = {Background/Objectives: The aim was to identify patterns of autonomic and neuroendocrine reactivity to an immersive virtual reality (VR) social-emotional stressor and explore their associations with perceived stress and eating behavior. Methods: This one-group pretest–posttest study included 30 children and adolescents with obesity (15 boys and 15 girls), aged 8 to 17 years. The VR protocol consisted of two consecutive phases: a 5 min relaxation phase using the Forest application and a 5 min stimulation phase using a cognitively engaging VR game designed to elicit social-emotional stress. Physiological responses were measured using heart rate variability (HRV) indices and salivary stress biomarkers, including cortisol and alpha amylase. Subjective stress and eating responses were assessed via visual analogue scales (VAS) administered immediately post-exposure. The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R21C) was used to evaluate cognitive restraint (CR), uncontrolled eating (UE), and emotional eating (EE). Results: The cortisol reactivity was blunted and may reflect both the attenuated HPA axis responsiveness characteristic of pediatric obesity and the moderate psychological challenge of the VR stressor used in this study. Two distinct autonomic response patterns were identified via exploratory factor analysis: (1) parasympathetic reactivity, associated with increased RMSSD and SDNN and decreased LF/HF, and (2) sympathetic activation, associated with increased heart rate and alpha-amylase levels and reduced RR intervals. Parasympathetic reactivity was correlated with lower perceived stress and anxiety, but also paradoxically with higher uncontrolled eating (UE). In contrast, sympathetic activation was associated with greater cognitive restraint (CR) and higher anxiety ratings. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that immersive VR game exposure elicits measurable autonomic and subjective stress responses in children and adolescents with obesity, and that individual differences in physiological reactivity are relevantly associated with eating behavior traits. The findings suggest that parasympathetic and sympathetic profiles may represent distinct behavioral patterns with implications for targeted intervention. © 2025 by the authors.},

keywords = {Adolescent, adolescent obesity, alpha amylase saliva isoenzyme, alpha-Amylases, amylase, anthropometry, anxiety assessment, appetite, article, Autonomic Nervous System, autonomic nervous system function, chemistry, Child, childhood obesity, clinical article, controlled study, craving, eating behavior, Electrophysiology, emotional eating, emotional stress, exploratory factor analysis, Factor Analysis, feeding behavior, female, Heart Rate, heart rate variability, human, Humans, Hydrocortisone, hypothalamus hypophysis adrenal system, immersive VR game, male, mental stress, metabolism, neuroendocrine system, Neurosecretory Systems, pathophysiology, Pediatric Obesity, physiology, Psychological, psychology, Saliva, salivary alpha-amylase, salivary cortisol, social stress, Statistical, Stress, stress assessment, subjective stress, three-factor eating questionnaire (TFEQ), Three-Factor-Eating-Questionnaire, video game, Video Games, virtual reality, virtual reality exposure therapy, visual analog scale},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{berube_stress_2025,

title = {Stress and emotion recognition predict the relationship between a history of maltreatment and sensitive parenting behaviors: A moderated-moderation},

author = {A. Bérubé and J. Pearson and C. Blais and H. Forget},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85182715913&doi=10.1017%2fS095457942300158X&partnerID=40&md5=b3a9056662cf94740131bfd6fbe7352e},

doi = {10.1017/S095457942300158X},

issn = {09545794 (ISSN)},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Development and Psychopathology},

volume = {37},

number = {1},

pages = {281–291},

publisher = {Cambridge University Press},

abstract = {Our study proposes to examine how stress and emotion recognition interact with a history of maltreatment to influence sensitive parenting behaviors. A sample of 58 mothers and their children aged between 2 and 5 years old were recruited. Parents' history of maltreatment was measured using the Child Trauma Questionnaire. An emotion recognition task was performed. Mothers identified the dominant emotion in morphed facial emotion expressions in children. Mothers and children interacted for 15 minutes. Salivary cortisol levels of mothers were collected before and after the interaction. Maternal sensitive behaviors were coded during the interaction using the Coding Interactive Behavior scheme. Results indicate that the severity of childhood maltreatment is related to less sensitive behaviors for mothers with average to good abilities in emotion recognition and lower to average increases in cortisol levels following an interaction with their children. For mothers with higher cortisol levels, there is no association between a history of maltreatment and sensitive behaviors, indicating that higher stress reactivity could act as a protective factor. Our study highlights the complex interaction between individual characteristics and environmental factors when it comes to parenting. These results argue for targeted interventions that address personal trauma. © 2024 The Author(s).},

note = {Publisher: Cambridge University Press},

keywords = {adult, Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, chemistry, Child, Child Abuse, child abuse survivor, child parent relation, childhood maltreatment, emotion, Emotion Recognition, Emotions, Facial Expression, female, human, Humans, Hydrocortisone, male, mental stress, metabolism, mother, mother child relation, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Parenting, physiology, Preschool, preschool child, Psychological, psychology, Saliva, sensitivity, Stress, stress reactivity},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{quintana_effect_2019,

title = {The effect of exposure to fear-related body odorants on anxiety and interpersonal trust toward a virtual character},

author = {P. Quintana and K. Nolet and O. Baus and S. Bouchard},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85074305238&doi=10.1093%2fchemse%2fbjz063&partnerID=40&md5=50ec319370e1688498abfa845c7ec343},

doi = {10.1093/chemse/bjz063},

issn = {0379864X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Chemical Senses},

volume = {44},

number = {9},

pages = {683–692},

publisher = {Oxford University Press},

abstract = {A growing body of literature documents how exposure to another person's fear-related body odorants can increase one's own anxiety and interfere with processing of social information, such as facial expression and impression formation. Building on these results, we aimed to 1) test the hypothesis that exposure to fear-related odorant would affect impression formation through fear contagion and 2) verify whether these effects can be observed in an ecologically valid (i.e., virtual) environment. We proposed that exposure to fear-related odorant would cause receivers to feel more anxious, which in turn would lead them to report less trust toward an unknown virtual character. This study had 2 distinct phases. First, we collected perspiration odorants from the armpits of 12 male senders (i.e., the source of the odorant) during the viewing of either fear or joy inducing film clips. In the second phase, 53 women receivers were exposed to either a fear, joy, or neutral odorant (i.e., between-subjects design) by breathing through a gauze attached to a disposable respirator mask while immersed in a virtual bar. As expected, receivers exposed to fear odorants felt significantly more stressed. Mediation analysis also revealed an indirect effect of exposure on trust through anxiety. More specifically, the more anxious the receiver felt, the less she trusted the virtual character. Our results show for the first time that the impact of exposure to fear-related body odorants on negative interpersonal impression formation is mediated by the anxiety induced in the receiver. © 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.},

note = {Publisher: Oxford University Press},

keywords = {adult, Anxiety, article, body odor, body odorant, chemistry, controlled study, emotion, Emotions, exposure, Fear, female, fragrance, happiness, human, human experiment, Humans, male, metabolism, Middle Aged, odor, Odorants, pathology, Pleasure, priority journal, Sweat, sweating, Trust, unclassified drug, virtual reality, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{daudelin-peltier_effect_2017,

title = {The effect of acute social stress on the recognition of facial expression of emotions /631/378/2649 /631/378/1457 article},

author = {C. Daudelin-Peltier and H. Forget and C. Blais and A. Deschênes and D. Fiset},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85018189261&doi=10.1038%2fs41598-017-01053-3&partnerID=40&md5=4405225de4b80852d5d98a2fd2171812},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-017-01053-3},

issn = {20452322},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {7},

number = {1},

publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},

abstract = {This study investigates the effect of acute social stress on the recognition of facial expression of emotions in healthy young men. Participants underwent both a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor (TSST-G) and a control condition. Then, they performed a homemade version of the facial expressions megamix. All six basic emotions were included in the task. First, our results show a systematic increase in the intensity threshold for disgust following stress, meaning that the participants' performance with this emotion was impaired. We suggest that this may reflect an adaptive coping mechanism where participants attempt to decrease their anxiety and protect themselves from a socio-evaluative threat. Second, our results show a systematic decrease in the intensity threshold for surprise, therefore positively affecting the participants' performance with that emotion. We suggest that the enhanced perception of surprise following the induction of social stress may be interpreted as an evolutionary adaptation, wherein being in a stressful environment increases the benefits of monitoring signals indicating the presence of a novel or threatening event. An alternative explanation may derive from the opposite nature of the facial expressions of disgust and surprise; the decreased recognition of disgust could therefore have fostered the propensity to perceive surprise. © 2017 The Author(s).},

note = {Publisher: Nature Publishing Group},

keywords = {adult, Anxiety, clinical study, controlled study, disgust, evolutionary adaptation, Facial Expression, Facial Recognition, human, Humans, Hydrocortisone, male, mental stress, metabolism, monitoring, pathophysiology, Pattern Recognition, Photic Stimulation, photostimulation, physiology, Psychological, reaction time, social stress, Stress, Visual, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{bouchard_using_2012,

title = {Using biofeedback while immersed in a stressful videogame increases the effectiveness of stress management skills in soldiers},

author = {S. Bouchard and F. Bernier and E. Boivin and B. Morin and G. Robillard},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84860485827&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0036169&partnerID=40&md5=4b29a984169d2fe12d54f4c562344723},

doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0036169},

issn = {19326203},

year  = {2012},

date = {2012-01-01},

journal = {PLoS ONE},

volume = {7},

number = {4},

abstract = {This study assessed the efficacy of using visual and auditory biofeedback while immersed in a tridimensional videogame to practice a stress management skill (tactical breathing). All 41 participants were soldiers who had previously received basic stress management training and first aid training in combat. On the first day, they received a 15-minute refresher briefing and were randomly assigned to either: (a) no additional stress management training (SMT) for three days, or (b) 30-minute sessions (one per day for three days) of biofeedback-assisted SMT while immersed in a horror/first-person shooter game. The training was performed in a dark and enclosed environment using a 50-inch television with active stereoscopic display and loudspeakers. On the last day, all participants underwent a live simulated ambush with an improvised explosive device, where they had to provide first aid to a wounded soldier. Stress levels were measured with salivary cortisol collected when waking-up, before and after the live simulation. Stress was also measured with heart rate at baseline, during an apprehension phase, and during the live simulation. Repeated-measure ANOVAs and ANCOVAs confirmed that practicing SMT was effective in reducing stress. Results are discussed in terms of the advantages of the proposed program for military personnel and the need to practice SMT. © 2012 Bouchard et al.},

keywords = {adult, Arousal, article, Biofeedback, clinical trial, controlled clinical trial, controlled study, explosion, feedback system, first aid, Heart Rate, human, human experiment, Humans, Hydrocortisone, male, mental stress, metabolism, methodology, Military Personnel, military phenomena, normal human, pathophysiology, Psychological, psychological aspect, psychology, Psychophysiology, randomized controlled trial, recreation, Saliva, saliva level, simulation, soldier, Stress, Stress management, Video Games},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}