Embodied Medicine: Mens Sana in Corpore Virtuale Sano
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience March 16, 2017 G. Riva, S. Serino, D. di Lernia et al.
Medical progress has improved physicians' ability to interact with patients' physical bodies, but medicine still views the body mechanistically. The interaction between cognitive neuroscience of bodily self-consciousness, rooted in multisensory integration, with virtual reality, haptic technologies, and robotics is giving new meaning to "Mens sana in corpore sano." This provides the basis for "Embodied Medicine": using advanced technologies to alter body experience to improve health. The authors argue that existing bodily illusions need improvement by incorporating free-energy and predictive coding approaches and integrating internal inputs (interoceptive, proprioceptive, vestibular). They propose "Sonoception" as an extension using sound and vibrations to modify internal body experience.