Making emotion and decision via affecting self-perception

Abstract

We propose a model for generating high-level cognitions, especially emotions and decisions. The development of virtual reality (VR) technologies has made it possible to re-create multi-sensory experiences with high accuracy and resolution. Many studies have tried to reproduce not only the environment but also the psychological experience, such as emotion and decision with VR technology. However, VR has not yet been realized to generate the absolute subjective experience because the influence of the environment on the human mind in the human information process has barely been discussed. On the other hand, in psychology or cognitive science, many studies have shown that the psychological state and self-body image interact mutually. The “body image," which is the representation of one’s body recognized in the brain, is formed based on the perception of self-body (self-perception) through multi-sensory integration received from the environment and one’s body. Given this, appropriately providing artificial sensory stimuli seems capable of generating emotions and decisions in light of the influence of the environment on self-perception. Based on these findings, we propose a methodology “self-perception-based VR” for making emotions and decisions by affecting self-perception. The current paper discusses and offers a guide for “self-perception based VR."