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Living In a Virtual World Requires Less Brain Power

Posted by samzenpus on from the dumbing-it-down dept.

sciencehabit writes "If you were a rat living in a completely virtual world like in the movie The Matrix, could you tell? Maybe not, but scientists studying your brain might be able to. Today, researchers report that certain cells in rat brains work differently when the animals are in virtual reality than when they are in the real world. In the experiment, rats anchored to the top of a ball ran in place as movie-like images around them changed, creating the impression that they were running along a track. Their sense of place relied on visual cues from the projections and their self-motion cues, but they had to do without proximal cues like sound and smell. The rodents used half as many neurons to navigate the virtual world as they did the real one."

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. So you're saying... by filmorris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...that by using half the senses you use half the neurons? Next thing you'll be telling me water is wet and earth is round!

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    1. Re:So you're saying... by ebno-10db · · Score: 5, Funny

      So you're saying that by using half the senses you use half the neurons?

      No, he's saying that computers make you stupid. That's not news either.

  2. Poor virtual worlds by swillden · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This just shows that living in a poor virtual world, with less sensory input, requires less brain power. That may be an interesting result, but it's hardly what the headline says.

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  3. Missing something? by jbmartin6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I missing something? "Less input, less activity" seems incredibly obvious. There is value in confirming even the obvious but this seems a bit too far. Plus, the summary is way off since the tested 'virtual world' was nothing of the sort. The Matrix was a full sensory experience, not just a movie.

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    1. Re:Missing something? by jbmartin6 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Yes I was missing something, study was a good bit more interesting than the summary really conveys. from TFA:

      On a real track, the rat's version of that neuron would fire when it had taken two steps away from the start, and then again when the animal reached the same spot on its return trip. But in virtual reality, something odd happened. Rather than firing a second time when the rat reached the same place on its return trip, the cells fired when the rat was two steps away from the opposite end of the track

      See there is value in testing the obvious.

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