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Using virtual reality to understand mechanisms of therapeutic change

Nature Reviews Psychology (2024)Cite this article

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Establishing causality is crucial to understanding the mechanisms that underlie effective treatments for mental health disorders. Virtual reality environments enable manipulation and control of participants’ attributes in a therapeutic session, which could potentially revolutionize research on mechanisms of change.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Sigal Zilcha-Mano, Tal Krasovsky.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Sigal Zilcha-Mano

  2. Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Tal Krasovsky

  3. Department of Pediatric Rehabilitation, The Edmond & Lily Safra Children’s Hospital, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Tal Krasovsky

Authors
  1. Sigal Zilcha-Mano
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  2. Tal Krasovsky
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Correspondence to Sigal Zilcha-Mano or Tal Krasovsky.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Zilcha-Mano, S., Krasovsky, T. Using virtual reality to understand mechanisms of therapeutic change. Nat Rev Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00303-2

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