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The “book problem” and its neural correlates

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Abstract

Presence research can tell us why we feel present in the real world and can experience presence while using virtual reality technology (and movies and games) but has strikingly less to say on why we feel present in the scenes described in a book. Just how is it that the wonderful tangible detail of the real world or the complexity of digital technology can be matched and even surpassed by a story in a paperback book? This paper identifies a range of potential neurological solutions to this problem (and the “real world” and “dream” problems for good measure). We consider Jeannerod’s neural simulation of action, Grush’s emulation theory of representation and Rizzolatti’s work on mirror neurons as being candidate solutions to the “book problem”. We conclude by observing that these potential solutions further underline the “purpose” of presence is to act in the world whether it is real, virtual or solely in our imaginations.

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Notes

  1. At this point, it becomes clear that Biocca has shifted the focus of the discussion from presence per se to that of spatial presence which is necessarily only a component of presence.

  2. These simulations are different from Revensuo’s treatment in as much as they only deal with specific actions, such as walking across a room, rather than simulating the whole world in all of its complexity.

  3. Jeannerod (2001) notes that basal ganglia are activated during imagined actions and that execution and imagination engage different parts of the striatum. The putamen, which is part of a purely sensorimotor corticocortical loop, is activated during execution, while the head of the caudate (part of the cognitive loop) is active during imagination.

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  1. School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, 10 Colinton Road, Edinburgh, Eh10 5DT, Scotland, UK

    Phil Turner

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Correspondence to Phil Turner.

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Turner, P. The “book problem” and its neural correlates. AI & Soc 29, 497–505 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-013-0491-x

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