Re:Schizophrenia study: Digital avatars to represent halluci...
by pygy_ on Thursday December 14, 2017 @03:06PM
(#15926411)
This is indeed exactly the same principle, where you fool the brain into connecting a buggy representation with a concrete object that can be gradually modified into something that better fits reality.
Re. digital vs. puppet, that's a good question. I suppose that the closer you can get to the hallucinations the better the treatment will work. So it may work with low tech gear, but it will probably be less effective (because it would be harder to reach the suspension of disbelief that's probably required for the treatment to work).
Re:Schizophrenia study: Digital avatars to represent halluci...
by 172384723875 on Thursday December 14, 2017 @06:45PM
(#15928476)
It is not really a buggy representation though. Autocorrecting your behaviour based on other opinions is a huge part of being human. Its a loss function that we seek to minimise. Whats buggy about it is that you start hearing the process that results in a loop. Listening to the outside world normally has a higher priority. Thats how you autocorrect you inner model. But now you are autocorrecting your inner model based on your inner model. As a result your theory of mind skills deteriorate.
In the book he describes an innovative but quite lo-tech approach using a cardboard box and cleverly arranged mirrors that enabled patients to visualize the missing limb and effectively, as I understood it, rewire their brains to reduce phantom limb pain.
That example does make me wonder how critical the digital component of the treatment is. The article notes:
> Patients were then encouraged to engage in a dialogue with the avatar, who was controlled by a therapist.
I wonder if this would work with similar effectiveness using puppets or actors or perhaps even mirrors.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantoms_in_the_Brain