Brains, according to the latest advancements in neuroscience, are statistical machines. They combine information coming from the different senses with prior knowledge that they have already learnt. One of the things brains learn early on is that there is a difference between their own body and the environment. This might seem trivial but if you have a chance to look at babies you’ll see how their arms flap around sometimes even hitting their face. It takes time for specific higher areas of the brain to learn they can predict and direct the arm. The part of the brain that can predict and direct one’s own body is called in literature a “minimal-self” and is known to be very plastic. For instance the cloths that you wear or the tools that you often use become part of this “minimal-self”. Another great example is the Rubber Hand Illusion. The sight of a rubber hand being touched at the same time as a sensation of touch on a person’s actual hand results in the brain predicting that the rubber hand is part of the body and the minimal-self.
MindMoVR is based on these ideas. In MindMoVR you create your own abstract psychedelic world where each of the objects in the world reacts to your movements. As you move your body in certain ways objects will grow, change color, move and more. As you dance or move in this world your brain starts learning the new statistical correlations between your movements and the virtual environment and your sense of self slowly expands to include the new environment you built.
Besides being a whole lot of fun and inducing plasticity in the brain MindMoVR can be used as a movement meditation or to get increased visual feedback of specific movements you are practicing. After building your world you can securely attach the Vive controllers to your hips or legs to explore many body movements.
In Future versions we will introduce a randomize function which will change the statistical correlations between your movements and the world so your brain can continue to learn novel unexpected patterns through playing.
We will also create a sensitivity level for the objects to allow you to focus either on small delicate movements or large energetic ones. If you want to help in building this experience please use it, share it and donate if you can.
A VR experience for HTC VIVE - expand your mind and move your body. Donate as much as you want and you will a download link in your email. Check spam folder if you don't see the email. Your e-mail will never be used and you can put 0 to download for free.
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