Translator: Erwan Sartre Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
What about sharing together a virtual reality experiment?
Picture yourself putting on a VR headset like this one,
with built-in screens right before your eyes.
Here.
We put it on kind of like a ski or diving mask - like this.
You look around you.
And there you go,
you are now immersed
in a very realistic virtual world.
You are in a room
which looks like an office, probably kind of like yours.
On the left, a potted plant is sitting in a corner.
A table, right before you.
On the right, a poster on the wall
Now, here I am, talking to you,
I'm asking you to look at your hand.
You look down
and you see a very realistic virtual hand, it too,
perfectly superimposed to yours
and exactly following your finger movements.
However, something is bothering you about this hand, something is not right.
After a while, you notice:
“Ah, there it is!”
In fact, a sixth finger
has appeared right there, between your ring finger and pinky.
Unbelievable, unbelievable.
Now, I'm asking you to place your hand on the table and stop moving.
I, with a brush,
am going to carefully and successively brush,
each of your fingers in a random order.
You look at the brush brushing each one of your fingers
when it gets closer to the sixth finger, you are on guard.
And yet, you perfectly feel
the brush's bristles caressing your skin.
So you physically feel this additional finger.
In a few minutes, your brain integrated an artificial limb.
That is the whole point of the experiences we are conducting in my laboratory:
to make you believe in chimeras,
things that don't exist.
Between us, I can give you my virtual magician’s trick.
In fact, when you look at the brush brushing your sixth finger,
I am brushing your ring finger with my brush.
And your brain is going to project this tactile sensation
onto the sixth finger.
And it works very well.
The most amazing part of the experience is at the end:
I press a button to give back a "normal" look
to your virtual hand, which instantly becomes a five-fingered hand again.
Everything is back to normal,
and yet, in this moment, you feel like something is missing.
As if your finger got cut off.
Thus, virtual reality's effects can be extremely powerful.
It's because they are so powerful,
that I'm telling you to be careful
next time you will have to choose an avatar.
You know, that character embodying you on the internet
or in a virtual world.
In theory, the choice is endless.
Which virtual body, which character will you pick?
You can opt for a taller body, a smaller body
more corpulent, thinner,
more muscular, less muscular.
You can even try to change your skin colour
or to change your gender.
After all, you can.
But beware because
this avatar, its looks, its characteristics,
are then going to significantly influence
your behaviour in the virtual world.
For example, a study has shown that,
if you take on the avatar of a 6-year-old child,
with a smaller body,
you are progressively going
to behave in a more childish way.
You are going to talk with a slightly higher-pitched voice,
almost as if you were regressing,
almost as if you were going through a quick rejuvenation in virtual reality.
In another study, Spanish researchers have shown that,
if you take on an avatar that closely resembles
Albert Einstein, the famous physician,
if asked to do cognitive tests, puzzles,
the simple act of embodying Einstein
is going to significantly improve your results,
almost as if you became more intelligent in virtual reality.
It can go really far.
We call that the Proteus effect,
in tribute to a divinity from Greek mythology, Proteus,
who would have morphing capacities,
which touches on avatar’s influence
on your behaviour, on your identity,
which itself become changeable, malleable,
In the virtual world and even somtimes in the real world,
because this Proteus effect can last some time after immersion,
after you have taken off your mask.
You will tell me “It’s all very well,
but what’s the point?”
Well, I think that the most promising use of these technologies,
including the one we are relentlessly working on in my laboratory,
are those concerning the medical field,
for therapies and physioterapies in particular.
Let’s take the example of the Covid-19 crisis.
Everyone has been more or less impacted by this disease.
We all knew someonone who developped a severe form of Covid-19
who needed to be in intensive care,
which means with intubation and so, in the coma.
When you wake up from a coma, you are extremly weak,
your muscle mass has shrunk,
it has became nearly impossible
to stand up, to walk, to eat by yourself.
You will need to relearn all of these everyday actions.
This situation doesn't only affect Covid-19 patients,
but almost half of the patients going in intensive care,
In France and everywhere else, who are intubated.
The problem is that in these departments,
there are in fact very few ways
of rehabilitating and exercising in this condition,
especially because if you begin to exercise,
the simple act of standing up,
your heart is no longer used to that and you can faint.
This is why, with my fellow researchers,
we have developed a very inovative application,
actually based on the virtual world and avatars.
I invite you to imagine that you are one of these patients.
You just woke up,
a few hours ago, in a hospital room.
You’re in shock.
You are perfused, linked to a machine constantly monitoring your condition,
very tired, almost unable to move.
Hours are very long.
This morning, we invite you to try out our device.
You are equipped with a VR headset like this one,
but directly in your hospital bed.
In the scene, you are taking on an avatar which looks quite like you.
You are sitting on a virtual chair, in a virtual hospital room,
quite similar to yours.
Once you are ready, the nurse starts the simulation.
At this point, your avatar stands up and takes a few steps.
It's a very powerful sensation
because it's kind of like you were watching a film
while being the actor.
Kind of like you could see everything they would do through their own eyes.
So you see yourself standing up
and walking for the first time in a while.
Then, the journey goes on:
your avatar opens a door and leaves the room -
leaves the hospital.
Before you, a long wooden pontoon stretches on several hundred meters.
You begin to walk on it calmly
to explore a beautiful landscape,
sometimes a meadow, sometimes a forest, sometimes a beach
A complete change of scene.
All this time, you see yourself walking
in a walking body, in a body that walks again,
when in fact, all this time,
you were lying on your hospital bed.
This walk by virtual proxy,
we will repeat it for nine days,
everyday, ten minutes per session.
Our hypothesis is that, seeing yourself walking
and thinking that you are actually doing it everyday,
your brain will reactivate certain circuits linked to locomotion
and that, in a way
will start its rehabilitation process at an early stage.
Therefore, we hope that Covid-19 patients will be able
to recover faster,
to walk again more efficiently
while better up their morale and their trust in the future.
The principle of a hypothesis is that we don’t control the final outcome.
Clinical trials started at Rennes University Hospital a month ago…
a few months ago.
As in all research,
we’ll only have the results at the end,
so in six to twelve months.
But I can tell you, what we know on today September 25th 2021,
it is that all carers
and almost every patient that have tried our tool
wish to continue using it even after the end of the tests.
I don’t know if this hypothesis will be proven, but I believe in it.
I'm sure that these technologies will allow people to get,
in a few years, different, faster, more efficient therapies,
and probably more accessible to a broad number of patients all over the world.
Now, what about you?
How will you react tomorrow,
in a few years,
when it will be your turn to see a doctor, a physiotherapist
or just see your dance teacher,
your sports teacher, your theater teacher,
when they take a visio headset like this one
and hand it to you saying:
“Are you ready for your little session?
And today, which virtual body, which avatar do you want to pick?"
Well, the choice will be yours.
By making this choice, you have the keys,
you will become the actor of your own transformation in the virtual world
and maybe even in the real world.
The choice is yours,
but, don't forget, choose wisely
because now, you know the deep effects
and the very real power of the virtual world on our brains.
Thank you.
(Cheers)