Neurophysiological Correlates of Embodied Cognition in Games and Their Implications For Consciousness

Brendan Lehman

Behavioural Neuroscience & Department of Biology Laurentian University

Sudbury, Ontario

Supervisor: Dr. M.A. Persinger

Embodied Cognition

Cognitive Sciences�

• Enactivism (Varela, 1991)
• organism + environment = cognition

Game Studies�

• Arjoranta (2013)
• interfaces
• interpretation
• Lankoski & Järvelä (2012)
• immersion has a brain basis

Consciousness Research

Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives�(Schneider & Velmans, 2008)�

• Not just awareness

Out-of-Body Experiences�

• Booth & Persinger (2009)
• brain areas of OOBE

Immersion & Flow State

Cognitive Science

• Csíkszentmihályi (1990)
• flow zones
• Dietrich (2004)
• brain networks

Game Studies

• Jenova Chen MFA (2006)
• dynamic difficulty adjustment
• Jennett, et al (2008)

Electroencephalography (EEG)

• electrical activity

Stimulus & Design

TES V: Skyrim

• obvious reasons
• bleak falls dungeon

• active vs. passive�
• 20 minutes�
• 4 participants�
• acoustic chamber

Analysis & Tools

Independent Component Analysis

• EEGLAB�
• deconstruct complex signals

Cluster Analysis

• numbers forming groups

Results

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Primary Clusters

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• left & right hemispheres�
• frontal, temporal, parietal lobes

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Results

Secondary Clusters

• relevant areas

Brain Activation & Embodied Cognition

Brain Hemispheres

• left = self�right = other�

OOBEs

• not quite?

Enactivism

• interaction of environment and self�
• individual interpretation�
• extension of consciousness?
• de Chardin

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Game Design

Future Direction�

• Brain activation and game mechanics�
• informed game design and innovation

Thank You!

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Brendan Lehman

@neurochems

bx_lehman@laurentian.ca

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Artwork from Shadertoy, by Cale Bradbury (@netgrind)