Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: John369 on 10/09/2020 11:12:32
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Please help me answer these questions:
1. Where are the major 5 senses inside a human brain? How do they work?
2. How can a device(futuristic VR) control 5 senses? Would it need something like Neuralink? What is required to achieve it? How would it manipulate the brain?
3. Suppose a person's 5 senses are controlled by a VR, what things would they experience? Would they be unable to move in real life and only be moving around and doing work in a VR environment? Similar to lucid dreaming? How would they remove VR headset by themselves if their 5 senses are under control? Would controlling 5 senses alone be totally immersive and feel totally real? If not, what other senses would need to be controlled so as to fool the conscious brain completely into thinking VR world was the real one?
4. Can we also control other senses like the perception of time by maybe speeding up neuron firing and wiring speed? How to speed up electrical signal speeds inside the brain? So that 1 hour could feel like 1 day in VR?
5. How can brain consciousness be frozen like in an experiment where a person stops reading a paragraph then picks up exactly from where they left off without realising the frozen interval?
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It's hard to say precisely *where* a sense is located. But there are specific regions of the brain that are associated with processing the various senses at different levels.
Vision is processed first in the eye itself, and then signals are sent via the optic nerve to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optic_nerve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_cortex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occipital_lobe#Function
(one could imagine hacking in at any point in this process)
For touch, you might be interested in the cortical homunculus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_homunculus
There are also structures known for processing sound, smell, and other senses.
As far as putting our own signals in, I think there is some work that has been done using implanted electrodes (fairly crude), as well as use of microwaves, which can apparently cause people to perceive sounds.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bem.10163
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Clearly there are some ways of messing with how time is perceived (adrenaline and hallucinogens such as LSD being obvious examples of chemicals that can influence time perception), but I don't know if a person can be made to experience a day in an hour...
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Sorry for asking the unknown. Forget the 1st and 5th question, but I really need complete answers for 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
Suppose a person's 5 senses only are controlled, would they be unable to move in reality and be unconscious in it? If someone touched them in reality, would they feel that inside virtual world too? What is required to not let this happen? Do other senses need to be controlled as well for complete replacement of reality? Can a VR controlling just 5 senses also be able to manipulate the person's desire for sleep, pleasure and food? Can they make them hungry and sleepy? Can they increase pain intensity too? What sort of crazy stuff can be done by controlling a person's 5 senses alone?
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Suppose a person's 5 senses only are controlled, would they be unable to move in reality ........... If someone touched them in reality, would they feel that inside virtual world too?
This depends whether the control is placed in parallel or is replacing. In parallel would result in both sets of inputs being available and sometimes conflicting.
..... and be unconscious in it?
Unconscious and levels of consciousness have specific medical definitions, you would need to be more specific.
Can a VR controlling just 5 senses also be able to manipulate the person's desire for sleep, pleasure and food? Can they make them hungry and sleepy? Can they increase pain intensity too?
I think you need to go back to @chiralSPO post about chemical treatments. Clearly they can alter mood, sleep desire, hunger, etc. You would need to research specific drugs for the effects you need.