Investigating the acceptability and validity of a novel VR paradigm that simulates auditory hallucinations.
International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP January 1, 2026 Donagh Seaver O'Leary, Pat Mulvaney, Laura Moore et al.
A virtual reality simulation of auditory hallucinations (VR-sAH) based on real experiences of people with psychosis was tested in 68 non-clinical participants. The simulation produced a believable and emotionally salient analogue of hallucinatory experiences. Significant reductions in heart rate variability confirmed participants' embodied immersion. Semi-structured interviews with 29 participants and quantitative measures showed the VR-sAH was an acceptable research tool, though with important caveats for including people with psychosis and ensuring researcher integrity. While not replicating full clinical hallucinations, VR-sAH offers an ethically manageable and experimentally controllable analogue for studying perceptual and cognitive processes relevant to psychosis, especially in early-stage non-clinical research.