When XR & Neuroscience Collide: How the Mind Perceives Art through AR & VR

Brendan Ciecko

In today's race to ramp up AR and VR strategies, some companies are turning toward neuroscience to unlock the fullest potential of these pioneering technologies. In the world of art and culture, new types of experiments are also taking place. Art is the pinnacle of uniquely human creativity and is affected by profound digital transformations. With advancements in AR and VR, it has become possible to experience art and other forms of physical culture in new ways. But new questions emerge: how does the human mind perceive these virtual and augmented experiences amongst their real-world counterparts? In 2019, a Boston-based team of technologists and neuroscientists, supervised by MIT faculty, executed an extensive study to answer this question with empirical data. In this session, we will present the results from the world's first neurological study on this topic, and discuss how neuroscience can be used to advance our understanding of XR and human perception.