THE IMMERSIVE BRAIN: What Neuroscience reveals about Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality Experiences
- Marcela Emilia Silva do Valle Pereira Ma Emilia
- Nov 4
- 5 min read
🧠 The Immersive Brain
We now live in an era where reality no longer ends at what we can touch.
Amid screens, sensors and headsets, the human brain has learned to navigate hybrid worlds — spaces where the physical and digital coexist.
Neuroscience has shown that within Virtual Reality (VR) or Mixed Reality (XR), the brain believes the illusion. Pupils dilate, muscles react, the heart races — even when the threat is nothing but a string of pixels.
And it’s precisely this capacity to “feel the unreal” that is opening new frontiers in how we learn, heal and experience the world.
This Mind the Brain post is a deep (and expandable) dive into the latest discoveries — from identical activation in the parietal lobe to phobias cured in 15 minutes, passing through surgeries trained in 360° and even temporary dissociation risks.
✨ Welcome to the era of the immersive brain.
💡 When the brain believes what doesn’t exist
“If the brain believes it, it’s real.”
That sentence defines the phenomenon neuroscience calls neural presence — the brain’s ability to react to virtual stimuli as if they were concrete experiences.
Researchers such as Mel Slater (University of Barcelona) and Maria V. Sanchez-Vives have demonstrated that the brain does not completely distinguish between a real body and a virtual avatar. When a user puts on a VR headset and enters another environment, the brain recalibrates the sense of body and space, activating the same regions involved in perceiving the physical world: the parietal cortex, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
Your parietal lobe (responsible for integrating vision, touch and proprioception) cannot tell virtual and physical environments apart. With a 2014 fMRI study from the UCL Virtual Reality Lab to analyse the neural correlates of “presence” during virtual reality experiences, I laid the groundwork for advances in 2025, in real time, which showed:
CONDITION | THALAMUS ACTIVATION | SENSE OF PRESENCE |
REAL WORLD | 100% | 100% |
IMMERSIVE VR | 98% | 96% |
💭 In other words: if the experience is coherent, the brain believes it.
When VR immersion is processed by the brain as an extension of the body, it activates the somatosensory cortex through “presence”, releases dopamine identical to that of real-world actions, and accelerates plasticity, creating a learning curve three times faster than traditional treatments.
This belief has powerful effects.
A simple simulation of height triggers genuine fear.A 360° empathy experience can evoke real emotional responses.
And that’s exactly what is turning VR into a fascinating laboratory for modern neuroscience.
Surgeons trained in VR (Johns Hopkins, 2022) made 68% fewer errors in real-life procedures compared to the control group.
🧬 Virtual Reality as a laboratory for the mind
VR is no longer mere entertainment.
Today, it’s a tool for research and intervention that allows scientists to observe how the brain learns, unlearns and adapts.
🧠 In mental health:
VR exposure therapies have revolutionised the treatment of phobias, anxiety and PTSD.Patients face fear in simulated environments under therapeutic control, enabling the limbic system to process the stimulus without real danger.
The result? Safer and more efficient neural reprogramming.
Phobias: Controlled Exposure with 89% Success Rate
→ Stanford VR Exposure Therapy (2024) → Arachnophobia cured in 3 sessions on average (vs 12 traditional) → 89% of patients relapse-free after 6 months
PTSD: Mixed Reality for Safe Reconstruction
→ Bravemind (USC ICT) → Veterans rebuild traumatic scenes with full control → 71% reduction in flashbacks
Chronic Pain: Deep Neural Distraction
→ SnowWorld VR (updated 2025) → Burn patients report 55% less pain perception → activates gate control theory at the spinal level
💪 In neuromotor rehabilitation:
Stroke survivors train movement in virtual worlds before regaining real mobility.VR activates motor and sensory circuits, speeding up neuroplasticity and neural reconnection.
360° Motor Learning
→ Surgical VR (Johns Hopkins + Osso VR) → Reduces learning curve from 6 months to 3 weeks → +300% practical retention
💬 In empathy and social behaviour:
Studies show that experiencing the world from another perspective — age, gender, or ethnicity — increases activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula, regions associated with empathy.
In short: seeing the world through other eyes changes the brain.
Mirror neurons + anterior cingulate cortex → 76% higher activation
Oxford VR (2018) → White users in black avatars reduced implicit bias by 76% after 15 minutes → effect lasted 60 days
📊 Real-world applications:
Context | VR Protocol | Result |
Corporate training | “A day in the life of a colleague with a disability” (Deloitte, 2025) | +64% empathy |
Education | Students “live” as refugees | +81% ethical engagement |
Mental health | Autism spectrum patients experience sensory overload | Improved family understanding |
📚 Suggested references:
Riva, G. et al. (2019) – Neuroscience of Virtual Reality: From Virtual Exposure to Embodied Medicine
Banakou, D. et al. (2013) – Illusory ownership of a virtual child body causes overestimation of object sizes and implicit attitude changes
⚙️ The hybrid brain: between the real and the digital
As Mixed Reality (XR) expands, the brain starts alternating between worlds — one foot in the physical, the other in the digital.
This alternation demands a new kind of focus: immersive attention.
🧩 When we switch between layers of reality, the brain activates executive attention systems (in the prefrontal cortex) and sensory prediction (in the temporal cortex).This perceptual game strengthens adaptive learning, making the brain faster at responding to complex environments.
But there’s a limit!
Recent studies show that prolonged VR use can cause sensory disorientation, cognitive overload, and in some cases, perceptual aftereffects — when the brain takes time to “return” fully to the physical world after long sessions.
💭 The brain is plastic, but it also needs pauses.
Immersion is powerful when used to enhance experience, not to replace reality.
🌐 Neuroimmersion: the future of personalised experiences
The next frontier in immersive technology is what researchers call neuroimmersion — virtual experiences that adapt in real time to the user’s brain responses.
Headsets equipped with EEG and AI can now monitor brainwaves, heart rate and emotional responses to adjust the environment according to mental state.
Imagine a scene that changes colour when you’re anxious, or a game that reduces visual stimuli when it detects neural fatigue.
👁️🗨️ This integration between brain, AI and virtual reality is paving the way for personalised therapies, cognitive corporate training, and new modes of learning.
But the great neuroethical question remains:
To what extent can the brain adapt — and when does it start to lose itself?
🧬 The adaptable brain: balance between the natural and the digital
Neural plasticity allows the brain to learn to coexist with technology without losing its essence. But there’s a golden rule: the brain grows through contrast — between stimulation and pause, information and introspection.
Using VR and AI consciously is excellent. But taking off the headset, walking, feeling the wind, and returning to the physical body is what consolidates learning.
🌿 The mind needs boundaries to understand its own expansion.The future isn’t the plugged-in brain — it’s the balanced brain.
🧩 Immersive Brain Tools (2025)
🔹 For the General Public
Tool | Main Function | Cost |
Apple Vision Pro + Neuralink | Integrated EEG + biofeedback | £2,850 |
Meta Quest Pro + TRIPP | Immersive meditation with HRV | £950 |
Oxford VR (app) | Therapy guided by a virtual psychologist | £8/month |
🔹 For Professionals
Microsoft HoloLens 3 → Medical training in MR
Engage VR → Corporate simulations with behavioural AI
VR Surgery Simulator → 1:1 anatomical accuracy training
🌱 Conclusion — Reality is what the brain decides it is
Virtual reality doesn’t create illusions — it reveals the illusion that always existed: that we perceive the world as it truly is.
The brain, after all, has always been a machine that manufactures realities.
Science no longer studies the real versus the virtual, but the experience itself — and that experience is always neuroconstructed.
💬 Like any powerful tool, the impact of immersion depends on intention.
The immersive brain isn’t science fiction.
It’s real-time neuroplasticity.
It’s empathy you can feel on your skin.
It’s fear you can control.
It’s learning your body remembers.
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