Investigating novel treatment approaches for schizophrenia: Virtual reality, brain stimulation and social cognition

This thesis examined novel approaches for assessing and improving social cognition in schizophrenia using virtual reality (VR) and non-invasive brain stimulation. Findings showed VR was a more sensitive social cognitive measure than traditional methods and when combined with brain stimulation, improved task performance in healthy controls and increased resting-state brain activity in people with schizophrenia. This research demonstrates, for the first time, the feasibility and utility of combining VR and brain stimulation to improve social cognition and provides a platform for further development of more effective, targeted, ecologically valid social cognitive interventions in both healthy and clinical populations.