About this Research Topic

Background

Psychiatric diagnosis and interventions have mainly been conducted face-to-face. This traditional approach has the advantage of allowing the subtle mental state to be examined based on the competence of an experienced human evaluator. However, it is difficult to provide a rich context to induce the participants' natural behavior, and the ecological validity of the study is lowered in a controlled environment such as a laboratory.

Recently, digital transformation is being carried out based on extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in various research fields. It is becoming possible to secure the ecological validity of research on human subjects, to realize various experimental manipulations that are impossible in reality, to perform sophisticated analysis and evaluation based on abundant data, and to accurately predict and model human behavior.

The application of XR and AI is no exception to research and clinical approaches to the human mind, and great advances are taking place in psychiatry with the help of these technologies. In particular, it is possible to analyze, measure, and clarify the relationship between real-world experience and mental activity, which is expected to enable a breakthrough in traditional psychiatric research. It presents a new possibility to study the complex mechanisms of the human mind by simulating consciousness phenomena such as mind-body relationship, sense of agency, and behaviors of patients with mental disorders such as schizophrenia, dementia, and ASD.

This Research Topic intends to deal with recent trends in psychiatric research using XR and AI technologies and will cover the evaluation and modelling of mental processes, and Technology-Assisted Interventions for the improvement of clinical symptoms. This Research Topic will also include studies that develop AI that mimics human mental states based on data obtained from scientific research on psychiatric states. It is expected that a multidisciplinary theoretical foundation will be formed that converges new technologies such as ER and AI in psychiatric research.

This Research Topic will cover the following themes:

- Studies on the diagnosis and enhancement of sensory-motor, perception, emotion, and various high-level cognitive functions with XR & AI

- Research that provides various types of interactions in virtual and augmented reality, and analyzes behavioral responses and various bio-signals with artificial intelligence technology

-Studies on the development and evaluation of computer models and intelligent agents that simulate conscious, cognitive, and psychiatric states of human behavior

Researchers from diverse disciplines and fields including but not limited to, clinical psychology, experimental psychology, embodied cognition, cognitive science, cognitive neuropsychiatry, psychophysiology, cognitive neurosciences, artificial intelligence, cognitive modelling, virtual reality and augmented reality are encouraged to submit manuscripts. We welcome both original research articles and reviews.

Keywords: Extended Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Mental Health, Mind-Body Relationship, Embodied Cognition, Brain inspired AI

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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