Functional sufficiency in VR: achieving non-corporeal embodiment.
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience January 1, 2026 Malcolm Wright, Olivia Petit, Alexander Schnack
Embodiment in immersive virtual environments depends on preserving the functional integrity of the perception-action loop rather than on mimicking the human body's anatomy. Drawing on a formal cognitive model called the Thin Model and evidence from prior immersive virtual reality studies, the authors argue that when key functional elements—sensing, recognition, inspection, and feedback—are maintained, behavioral and emotional outcomes remain stable even when the way users move through the virtual world changes. This principle of functional sufficiency suggests that interface substitutions that leave core action policies unchanged can still produce genuine embodied experiences. The article offers a testable framework for predicting when virtual experiences will generate cognitive and emotional effects, complementing existing work on telepresence.