One of the most frequent health problems is stress. It has been linked to negative effects on employee well-being in many occupations, and it is considered responsible for many physical and psychological problems. Traditional in-person relaxation therapy has proven to be effective in reducing stress. However, it has some drawbacks such as high cost, required infrastructure and the need for qualified trainers. Relaxation therapy in Virtual Reality (VR) tries to solve these problems. However, one aspect has received little attention, that is personalised therapy. Indeed, while many studies show the need for patient-tailored relaxation exercises, little existing work focuses on personalised VR content. One reason for this is the complexity of recognising emotions, which is required for emotion-based adaptive VR. In this work, a method for adapting VR content to the emotional state of the user is presented. This model has been applied in a VR relaxation therapy application, which adapts to the user’s emotional state utilising a heuristic optimiser. Simulations have proven the performance and usability of the emotion model. Additionally, this paper explores the impact of the order in which adaptations are performed on the effectiveness of the relaxation experience.

Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN) commonly results from a stroke or acquired brain injury. USN affects multiple modalities and results in failure to respond to stimuli on the contralesional side of space. Although USN is a heterogeneous syndrome, present-day therapy methods often fail to consider multiple modalities. Musical Neglect Therapy (MNT) is a therapy method that succeeds in incorporating multiple modalities by asking patients to make music. This research aimed to exploit the immersive and modifiable aspect of VR to translate MNT to a VR therapy tool. The tool was evaluated in a 2-week pilot study with four clinical users. These results are compared to a control group of four non-clinical users. Results indicated that patients responded to triggers in their entire environment and performance results could be clearly differentiated between clinical and non-clinical users. Moreover, patients increasingly corrected their head direction towards their neglected side. Patients stated that the use of VR increased their enjoyment of the therapy. This study contributes to the current research on rehabilitation for USN by proposing the first system to apply MNT in a VR environment. The tool shows promise as an addition to currently used rehabilitation methods. However, results are limited to a small sample size and performance metrics. Future work will focus on validating these results with a larger sample over a longer period. Moreover, future efforts should explore personalisation and gamification to tailor to the heterogeneity of the condition.