“A lively and unconventional exploration of our senses, how they work, what is revealed when they don’t, and how they connect us to the world”.

Our Senses: An Immersive Experience by Robert DeSalle, Yale University Press.

DeSalle’s book is deep-dive into the evolution of our senses, very much recommended!

I’m excited to see that my research on Game Transfer Phenomena is mentioned in the book! Check out the chapter “No Limits: The Limits to What We can Sense and the Future to our Senses”

As DeSalle, an evolutionary biologist noticed in his book we spend at least half of our day staring at tiny and small screens or big to very big screens, not to mention how much time we expend interacting with digital simulations.

We have only started to understand how digital sensory stimulation affects our brains, what impact the images that have been engrained in our minds have on us, and how we even can take advantage of the sensory stimulation.

I’m happy to say that my research is contributing to settling down the bases and shedding some light on the understanding of the effects of the exposure to digital sensory stimulation and simulations.

Here is a short audio clip from the book where GTP is mentioned:

“…Modern humans experience sounds, sounds levels, and range of sound that our ancestors never have to. How we adapt to this changed auditory world is also a subject ripe for study. Researchers have also tried to examine downstream neurological effects of sensory stimulation via video gaming. Psychologist Angelica Ortiz de Gortari has carved out a niche in this regard and has studied what she calls Game Transfer Phenomena as a result of intense game playing. For some gamers, their sensory experience are so intense (and their mental states are susceptible enough) that they experience pseudohallucinations as a result of the gaming. They also incur visual aftereffects that can potentially cause them to misperceive the real world around them. It gets worse with more and more prolonged gaming, and it affects not only visual and auditory sensory perceptions but tactile and perhaps olfactory sensations, too” (p., 261).

Buy the book to read more!