This is your brain on VR: A tech reporter and a neuroscientist discuss the ins and outs of the technology

As technology evolves, virtual reality and augmented reality have become more ubiquitous in everyday life.

Once reserved for high-price experiences, exclusive entertainment and sci-fi-like scenarios, the technology has become more accessible, and we’ve see VR and AR being used in very practical ways: workforce development training, healthcare, transit and higher education.

On last week’s episode of “Media Inside Out,” a talk show diving into modern media and technology, this reporter joined Sherri Hope Culver, who is a Temple University professor and director of the Center for Media and Information Literacy,  as well as University of Pennsylvania cognitive neuroscience professor Dr. H. Branch Coslett, to talk about the ways in which we see VR and AR used in society.

The science is pretty clear, Coslett told us: Your brain treats the world that you see as if it’s real.

In his line of work, where VR is being used in medical research, he’s seen patients who have lost a limb still react with pain when a fake limb is stabbed or injured. They have all the physiological responses that they would if they still had the limb.

“Brains are really good at changing in response to what we see,” he said.

Check out the conversation below:

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