{"id":1828,"date":"2011-02-23T10:30:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T14:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=1828"},"modified":"2011-02-23T10:30:05","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T14:30:05","slug":"%e2%80%9cavatar-virtual-reality-scientists-explore-self-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2011\/02\/23\/%e2%80%9cavatar-virtual-reality-scientists-explore-self-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAvatar&quot; Virtual Reality: Scientists Explore Self-Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"addthis_button\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/v2\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1826 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/02\/avatarmoviejamescamerontechnology-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"avatarmoviejamescamerontechnology\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/02\/avatarmoviejamescamerontechnology-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/02\/avatarmoviejamescamerontechnology.jpg 530w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">In the 2009 film <em>Avatar<\/em>, scientists exploring the planet Pandora used alien hybrid bodies called &#8220;avatars&#8221; that functioned through a\u00a0mental connection established with their genetically-matched human counterparts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">While this kind of technology seems as science fictionally fantastic as only the movies can portray it, recent work in the neuro-scientific community may lead the world to think otherwise. \u00a0Neu\u00adrol\u00ado\u00adgist Olaf Blanke, with the Brain Mind In\u00adstitute at Ecole Poly\u00adtechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lau\u00adsanne in Switzer\u00adland, led a Virtual-Reality (VR) experiment utilizing computerized \u201cvirtual humans\u201d to gain a deeper understanding of the neurobiological basis for the knowledge of one\u2019s location in space. \u00a0Interestingly, his team seems to have discovered that the sensation of possessing a body arises as part of our own conscious experience.<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1827\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/02\/therealavata-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"therealavata\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/02\/therealavata-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/files\/2011\/02\/therealavata.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Blanke and his team had vol\u00adunteers wear VR stereoscopic visors, or view projections on a large screen, while the researchers challenged them about fundamental aspects of self perception. \u00a0The scientists physically touched the subjects ei\u00adther in sync or out of sync with their dig\u00adital human \u201cavatars\u201d as they wandered through 3D environments, and even \u2018immersed\u2019 them into an avatar of the opposite sex. \u00a0They also changed the subject\u2019s perspective from the first to the third-person point of view. \u00a0While such methods may seem a bit odd and even unorthodox, the response of the subjects to such testing was both highly positive and truly fascinating. \u00a0Indeed, as Blanke commented regarding his own observations: &#8220;They start think\u00ading that the avatar is their own body; \u00a0we cre\u00adated a partial out-of-body experience. \u00a0We were able to disas\u00adsociate touch and vi\u00adsion and make people think that their body was two me\u00adtres in front of them&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the experiement, subjects were fitted with \u00a0electrode-containing skullcaps to record the electrical activity produced by their brains. \u00a0The data collected by the electrodes and brain imaging scans (via fMRI) during the study demonstrated a height\u00adened response in the temporo-pa\u00adri\u00adetal and frontal regions of the vol\u00adunteer&#8217;s brains, areas classically considered responsible for integrating touch and vision. \u00a0These findings suggest that the subjects&#8217; brains were successfully being tricked as they experienced their own &#8220;bodies&#8221; in virtual space.<\/p>\n<p>Progression in the knowledge of self-awareness and virtual reality could lead to major advances in the fields of robotics, neuro-rehabilitation and even severe-pain treatment. \u00a0Imagine being able to temporarily \u201cleave\u201d the body as it heals after a serious injury! \u00a0Though we may never get to explore Pandora, the implications of such out of body &#8220;avatar&#8221; experiences could be enormous.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/2\/4b4f16e0-3aca-11e0-9c1a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ElvEMR38\">Scientists project humans into avatars<\/a><a><\/a> &#8211; Financial Times<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/newspaper\/ireland\/2011\/0218\/1224290141097.html\">Scientists explore the meaning of self-consciousness<\/a><a><\/a> &#8211; Irish Times<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/pub_releases\/2011-02\/epfd-tra012411.php\">The real avatar<\/a><a><\/a> &#8211; EurekAlert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 2009 film Avatar, scientists exploring the planet Pandora used alien hybrid bodies called &#8220;avatars&#8221; that functioned through a\u00a0mental connection established with their genetically-matched human counterparts. While this kind of technology seems as science fictionally fantastic as only the movies can portray it, recent work in the neuro-scientific community may lead the world to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7099,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[589],"tags":[710,802,1146],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7099"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}