by Ruggiero Corcella
From nausea to headaches, the best-known physical consequences are linked to the so-called cyber (or motion) sickness which, however, affects only 20% of people. Exposure to VR can positively change people’s behavior or even manipulate them
What are you looking for in the metaverse? What happens when you walk through its doors? Which brain mechanisms (and not only) are activated? Does it change us and how? «Sending a self, even if in the form of a cartoon, to interact outside one’s body, involves a series of philosophical, psychological and neurological problems» prefaces Professor Salvatore Maria Aglioti, professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychological Physiology at the Sapienza University of Rome. Rome.
Sight and hearing
«The metaverse was born as visual and, subsequently, auditory because in that world the most obvious things are listening to someone talk, shouting, threatening, swearing and seeing what happens. Today it is enriched with sensoriality to the point of becoming a world more real than life”, explains the neuroscientist.
«I can enter this world with an avatar, which may or may not have my appearance: psychology and neuroscience have discovered that I can assimilate not only its physical appearance but also the mental characteristics that I attribute to it. It is one of the lines of research we are working on the most. This is the so-called “Proteus effect”: I “wear” an avatar, I feel it as part of my body because for example it moves like me. If this avatar for me is a super intelligent person, for example Einstein, I get better at calculations. It seems like a joke, but scientific studies prove it”, adds Aglioti.
Why you enter the metaverse: escape
So, what drives us to try the metaverse? «The first motivation is escape, what man does in a thousand ways with poetry, with music, with creativity. An escape towards a “beyond”. Beyond the hype of the moment, everyone is looking for different things. There are those who want to earn tons of money and therefore for them the metaverse is bitcoins (virtual money, ed.). Others support the battle to decentralize the web and thus put an end to the current Big Tech oligopoly: for them the metaverse is blockchain (a security technology, ed.).”
How our brain reacts
How does our brain react to the metaverse? «First of all, all the areas relating to the processing of visual and spatial perception are activated – says Professor Andrea Gaggioli, professor of General Psychology at the Cattolica of Milan -. Let’s keep in mind that, in his premise, the metaverse should be a multisensory medium because it stimulates all the senses equally. In reality, current technologies have a strong projection towards visual and auditory immersion. A series of tactile or haptic technologies are maturing (that is, providing tactile responses through vibrations or impulses, ed.). There are some very early attempts to develop olfactory and gustatory peripherals (hardware devices, ed.).
«During a simulation, something interesting happens in the brain and it concerns its predictive nature. The brain in itself is a simulation machine, that is, when we imagine something, we actually create an artificial reality, in fact we believe we are in a reality that does not exist physically but only within our mind, which is a beautiful definition of virtual reality or metaverse”, continues Gaggioli.
Hallucination
«Starting from this definition it is very difficult to distinguish hallucination or dream from what is virtual reality, which we could also define as a “technological” hallucination. The difference is that in virtual reality I can however control the events, because I control the interaction. Therefore the brain is already a simulation machine and also a predictive machine, that is, the brain does not undergo physical reality but “creates it” by emulating it. And whenever this simulation “matches” with the information coming from the surrounding world, this correspondence constitutes what reality is for us”, adds the expert.
The negative effects
So far, the psychophysical effects observed are linked to the use of viewers, the so-called cyber (or motion) sickness, a typical disorder of virtual reality which essentially consists of a series of symptoms ranging from nausea to headaches, dry mouth and incoordination. But it affects 20% of people and is reduced with exposure to VR (Virtual Reality). The matter becomes more uncertain when it comes to psychological or psychiatric aspects, because these effects are more likely observable after long-term exposure to VR. Which isn’t happening for now. However, VR is a medium with powerful properties and the possibility that it lends itself to forms of manipulation of people with harmful effects is not so remote.
«We don’t know the risks of the metaverse: will it even change our biology? Nobody can predict it. Everything that happens to us changes us in a more or less radical way. The theme is to explore how radical this change will be”, concludes Aglioti.
What it feels like to live “a day from God”
Meanwhile, studies on the subject show surprising results. Just think. for example, that in virtual reality embodying an omnipotent figure could increase the perception of one’s own strength and invulnerability, with possible applications in pain therapy and in the field of personal growth. It is the conclusion of a study published in Scientific Reports by researchers from the Neuroscience and society laboratory coordinated by Salvatore Maria Aglioti of the Italian Institute of Technology (Iit), in collaboration with La Sapienza University of Rome and the Irccs Fondazione Santa Lucia Hospital. Starting from these observations, the Iit team recruited a group of 54 volunteers, each of whom took on the appearance of 3 different avatars: a normal one, another muscular and the third omnipotent, inspired by the representation of God present in Michelangelo’s fresco «The creation of the stars and plants» of the Sistine Chapel.
Two studies were carried out: the first was used to calculate the feeling of invulnerability, measured as the perception of physical danger felt by the participants in relation to an adverse event, while the second was to understand how the volunteers perceived their physical abilities, making them estimate the maximum distance they thought they could jump to avoid danger. Overall, the results highlighted an influence on participants’ perception of physical limitations and capabilities. In particular, when impersonating the omnipotent avatar, the volunteers perceived the adverse event as less threatening to their safety than the able-bodied avatar. Similarly, in “God’s shoes” the volunteers felt they could jump further than the other two avatar versions.
The “wow effect” to change lifestyles
Virtual reality for studying emotions and changing lifestyles: it is one of the lines of research carried out by Professor Gaggioli’s team at the Cattolica in Milan «Together with Alice Chirico, we started in 2019 by conducting a first study that compared the emotional responses to real and virtual naturalistic experiences. The results were quite surprising: the emotions aroused by the virtual and real conditions did not differ so significantly, nor did the sense of presence experienced by the participants.”
Precisely by leveraging the emotional induction mechanism of VR, the team has carried out studies to promote pro-environmental sustainability behaviors. Immersing people in a virtual garden where the plastic bottles used by a million people in a year were represented induced a wonder effect capable of arousing indignation, disgust and anger. Thus triggering a change in the participants. Of emotions and affective states in virtual reality and in the metaverse, prof. Gaggioli will speak at the OnMetaverse Summit, the two-day Fiera Milano event on 8 and 9 November within the Allianz MiCo spaces in Milan.
The proposal: a European quality certification
Therefore the metaverse seems destined to revolutionize healthcare too. But, as with many technological innovations, the ground must first be prepared. From a regulatory point of view, the European Commission presented the «Strategy for the metaverse» which sees healthcare at the forefront. There CEP Foundation (Centre for European Policy) sees huge opportunities for the healthcare sector, but insists on a binding “quality certificate” to protect personal data. “It is essential to consider the interaction between data protection and competition,” says Patrick Stockebrandt, a healthcare expert at the CEP who with Anselm Küsters assessed the opportunities and risks of the metaverse, identifying many more advantages than dangers.
«Virtual worlds connect data in real time that were previously evaluated separately such as eye movements, brain waves or cardiac activity. As a result, diagnosis and therapy will improve significantly,” emphasizes Küsters. But we need to build sufficient technological trust in the population. To do this, according to the two researchers, a quality certification for virtual worlds is needed. This is a real regulatory challenge, they point out, precisely because the metaverse is still in development. Only then will it be able to bring real benefits.
September 25, 2023 (modified September 25, 2023 | 09:12)
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