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Texte intégral / Full text (pdf, 20 MiB) - Infoscience - EPFL

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Chapter 6. Experimental Validations - Social Phobia<br />

0 100 <strong>20</strong>0 300 400 500 600<br />

Sample number<br />

0 100 <strong>20</strong>0 300 400 500 600<br />

Sample number<br />

Figure 6.10: Blink rates and durations example. Left: Control subject. Right: Phobic subject.<br />

RABS. On the other hand, subject PC did not demonstrate the same improvement. These<br />

results were confirmed by our psychiatrist collaborator in her personal assessement of the<br />

subjects’ evolution throughout the therapy.<br />

6.3.4 Discussion<br />

Tables 6.9 and 6.10 show a recapitulation of the present behaviors in each of the subjects<br />

before and after treatment. A tick symbolizes the presence of the behavior whilst a cross<br />

symbolizes its absence. The wave represents a slight presence of the behavior and the dash,<br />

an absence of results. The presence or absence of salient facial feature avoidance and hypervigilance<br />

have been subjectively evaluated by visually analyzing the eye-tracking results.<br />

For hyperscanning, the threshold was at 10. For eye blink rates, it was at 50 and for eye blink<br />

durations, the limit was set at 400ms.<br />

Facial feature avoidance: Visually and numerically, we can see that some social phobic<br />

subjects present facial feature avoidance whilst others do not, should it be in the form of<br />

elusion or hypervigilance. However, no subjects from the control group showed this type of<br />

behavior. Moreover, when comparing the results of the pre-therapeutic and post-therapeutic<br />

phases, the phobic subjects prone to this type of behavior and having gone through both<br />

eye-tracking sessions showed improvement. On the other hand, none of the control group<br />

subjects demonstrated any noticeable difference for this measure. This analysis therefore<br />

seems to be a promising tool for visual contact avoidance diagnosis and assessment.<br />

Eye scan velocity: When comparing the results of eye scan velocity for all subjects before<br />

therapy, we can see that the subjects presenting the highest rates are from the social phobic<br />

group. When comparing these results to those of the post-therapeutic phase, we can notice<br />

that subject PC did not show any improvement for either scene. On the other hand, subject<br />

PB demonstrated a decrease in eye scan velocity.<br />

Eye blinks: Regarding the eye blinks, as for previous measures, some phobic subjects show<br />

a high eye blink rate and/or long lasting blinks whilst others do not. We have seen that, on the<br />

whole, both of these measures were higher in the case of the phobic subjects than in the case<br />

of the control group subjects in the pre-therapeutic phase. Moreover, one of the subjects<br />

presented very long blink durations which was not the case in any of the control group<br />

subjects. On the whole, subjects presenting high blink rates in the pre-therapeutic phase<br />

92

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