Page 647 - Total War on PTSD

position above the roof of the vehicle. The number of soldiers in the cab can also be varied as well as their capacity to become wounded during certain attack scenarios (e.g., IEDs, rooftop/bridge attacks).
In addition to the visual stimuli presented in the VR Head-Mounted Display (HMD), directional 3D audio, vibrotactile, and olfactory stimuli (e.g., burning rubber, cordite, garbage, body odor, smoke, diesel fuel, Iraqi food spices, and gunpowder) can be delivered into the BRAVEMIND scenarios in real-time by the clinician. The presentation of all ambient and additive combat-relevant stimuli into the VR scenarios (e.g., helicopter flyovers, bridge attacks, exploding vehicles and IEDs) can be controlled in real time via a separate “Wizard of Oz” clinician’s interface, while the clinician is in full audio contact with the patient.
The clinician’s interface (see Figures 6 and 7a) is a key feature that provides a clinician with the capacity to customize the therapy experience to the individual needs of the patient. This interface allows a clinician to place the patient in VR scenario locations that resemble the setting in which the trauma-relevant events occurred and ambient light and sound conditions can be modified to match the patient’s description of their experience.
The clinician can then gradually introduce and control real time trigger stimuli (visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile), via the clinician’s interface, to foster the anxiety modulation required to promote extinction learning and emotional processing in a customized fashion based on the patient’s past experience and
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