CCarvalho - Presentation - A theoretical inquiry into the role of enaction in Cybertherapy. PPT print (2015). (original) (raw)
Foundations of Science
The author of this paper discusses the theme of the "simulated body", that is the sense of "being there” in a body that is not one's own, or that does not exist in the way one perceives it. He addresses this issue by comparing Immersive Virtual Reality technology, the phenomenological approach, and Gerald Edelman's theory of Neural Darwinism. Virtual Reality has been used to throw light on some phenomena that cannot be studied experimentally in real life, and the results of its simulations enrich the phenomenological discourse on the lived body. Virtual “Reality” seems to replicate—at least in part—the simulation mechanisms of our mind, thus favoring developments in the field of philosophy of mind.
A healthy mind in a healthy virtual body: The future of virtual reality in health care
2017
The increasing interest of neuroscience, cognitive science and social psychology towards the study of the body experience is providing a more comprehensive framework for the Bodily Self Consciousness (BSC), namely the experience of being in a body. In particular, it suggests that BSC is the outcome of the “body matrix” a supramodal multi-sensory representation of the body and the space around it which provides predictions about the expected sensory input and tries to minimize the amount of free energy (or ‘surprise’). The contents of the body matrix are modified by bottom-up prediction errors that signal mismatches between predicted and actual content of the different body representations. In this view, damage, malfunctioning, or altered feedback from and toward the body matrix might be involved in the aetiology of different clinical disturbances: from neurological disorders, such as chronic pain and neglect to psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, eating and wei...
Virtual Embodiment, Or: When I Enter Cyberspace, What Body Will I Inhabit?
Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 2023
The following paper attempts to look at virtual reality technologies—and the (dis)embodiment affected by them—through a phenomenological lens. Specifically, augmenting traditional discussions of virtual reality as a purely technical problem, this paper seeks to bring Maurice Merleau-Ponty's embodied phenomenology into the discussion to try to make sense of both what body we leave behind and what body we gain as we enter virtual worlds. To do this, I look both at historical examples of virtual reality technologies and their methods of (dis)integrating the body and speculative future examples of virtual reality where the corporeal body is fully sidelined through the lens of Merleau-Ponty's account of the body schema, noting that habituation is an ever present factor that must be considered in virtual environments. Ultimately, I conclude that even in a scenario of one-to-one mind-computer transference, the virtual world will, like the physical world we currently inhabit, solicit a 'phantom body' thus forcing us to act and live in accordance with a mutual interplay between self and virtual world.
Sensoria: A Journal of Mind, Brain and Culture, 2014
New approaches in the philosophy of mind defend the idea that basic forms of cognition and human intersubjectivity are deeply and inextricably embodied and embedded. In its more extreme forms this approach to mind and cognition opposes the idea that cognition is always or primarily a matter of forming mental representations of that environment (Gallagher & Hutto, 2008; Hutto & Myin, 2013). Taking these ideas seriously in the context of therapy directs us to the way therapy can be enhanced by modifying environmental and social affordances and the way clients interact with them as opposed to how they represent them. These conceptual and methodological paradigms encourage a rethinking of existing applications, inspired by reformulating the theoretical foundation that underpins practice in body psychotherapy (BPT; e.g. Geuter, in press). Given the emerging evidence base for BPT in the treatment of severe mental health problems (e.g. Röhricht, 2009) it is timely to question whether its intervention strategies can be better understood as a kind of applied embodied cognition. In this paper we only explore BPT practice from a framework of its more radical variants. We explore new ways that effective therapeutic embodied engagements might be realised, while casting fresh light on how therapists can successfully venture into the everyday life of their patients and their interactions with significant others. This includes discussing a revised version of encounter groups and “marathon” workshops as well as experimental solutions such as “Virtual Reality” clinics.
Physical body awareness and virtual embodiment
Body awareness and embodiment are core terms and research topics being used to comment on the new interdisciplinary aspects of virtual immersive experiences. In this article we present the methodology adopted in the Disembody research project with the aim to explore body-space relationship through the lenses of interdisciplinary considerations drawn from architecture and cognitive science. Employing an empirical, case study approach inside virtual reality (VR), we came up with observations about how virtual embodiment can be experienced as an instance of otherness embodiment that generates a sensation of alloaesthesia. This post-human condition can be bidirectionally fed into re-establishing the body-space relationship towards expanded architectural and cognitive perspectives.
Virtual Reality as communicative medium between patient and therapist
The great potential offered by VR to clinical psychologists derives prevalently from the central role, in psychotherapy, occupied by the imagination and by memory. These two elements, which are fundamental in our life, present absolute and relative limits to the individual potential. Using VR as an advanced imaginal system an experience that is able to reduce the gap existing between imagination and reality it is possible to transcend these limits. In this sense VR can improve the efficacy of a psychological therapy for its capability of reducing the distinction between the computer’s reality and the conventional reality. Two are the core characteristics of this synthetic imaginal experience: the perceptual illusion of nonmediation and the possibility of building and sharing a common ground. In this sense, experiencing presence in a clinical VE such as a shared virtual hospital requires more than reproduction of the physical features of external reality. It requires the creation and...
3 Virtual Reality and Psychotherapy
2004
Abstract Virtual Reality (VR) is a new technology consisting on a graphic environment in which the user, not only has the feeling of being physically present in a virtual world, but he/she can interact with it. The first VR workstations were designed for big companies in order to create environments that simulate certain situations to train professionals. However, at this moment a great expansion of this technology is taking place in several fields, including the area of health. Especially interesting for us is the use of VR as a therapeutic ...
Embodiment in Virtual Reality: The Body, Thought, Present, and Felt in the Space of Virtuality
International Journal of Creative Interfaces and Computer Graphics, 2021
Virtual reality (VR) has been a prominent idea for exploring new worlds beyond the physical, and in recent decades, it has evolved in many aspects. The notion of immersion and the sense of presence in VR gained new definitions as technological advances took place. However, even today, we can question whether the degrees of immersion achieved through this technology are profound and felt. A fundamental aspect is the sense of embodiment in the virtual space. To what extent do we feel embodied in virtual environments? In this publication, the authors present works that challenge and question the embodiment sensation in VR, specifically in the artistic aspect. They present initial reflections about embodiment in virtuality and analyze the technologies adopted in creating interactive artworks prepared for galleries and theater stage, questioning the sensations caused by the visual embodiment in virtual reality under the perspective of both the audience and the performer.
Neuroscience of Virtual Reality: From Virtual Exposure to Embodied Medicine
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Is virtual reality (VR) already a reality in behavioral health? To answer this question, a meta-review was conducted to assess the meta-analyses and systematic and narrative reviews published in this field in the last twenty-two months. Twenty-five different articles demonstrated the clinical potential of this technology in both the diagnosis and the treatment of mental health disorders: VR compares favorably to existing treatments in anxiety disorders, eating and weight disorders, and pain management, with long-term effects that generalize to the real world. But why is VR so effective? Here, the following answer is suggested: VR shares with the brain the same basic mechanism: embodied simulations. According to neuroscience, to regulate and control the body in the world effectively, the brain creates an embodied simulation of the body in the world used to represent and predict actions, concepts, and emotions. VR works in a similar way: the VR experience tries to predict the sensory consequences of an individual's movements, providing to him/her the same scene he/she will see in the real world. To achieve this, the VR system, like the brain, maintains a model (simulation) of the body and the space around it. If the presence in the body is the outcome of different embodied simulations, concepts are embodied simulations, and VR is an embodied technology, this suggests a new clinical approach discussed in this article: the possibility of altering the experience of the body and facilitating cognitive modeling/change by designing targeted virtual environments able to simulate both the external and the internal world/body.