The Immersive Media & Cognition Group, directed by Gal Raz (Ph.D.), conducts interdisciplinary research into key psychophysiological aspects of cinema, gaming, virtual-, augmented-, and mixed-reality. We investigate the experiential affordances of these media, focusing on the unique ways in which they trigger perceptual effects, emotions, empathy, and embodied cognition. Our group, which includes students from diverse academic backgrounds, actively constructs bridges between art and science, theory and empirics, design and academic inquiry, and basic and applied research.

We strongly believe that the research of motion pictures and immersive media should be profoundly and continuously informed by cognitive neuroscience. On the other hand, we posit that basic and applied research in cognitive neuroscience could substantially benefit from a nuanced scrutiny of motion picture aesthetics and experiential aspects of film, television, and virtual and augmented reality. Our group takes an active part in this interdisciplinary dialogue, employing research methods that include functional magnetic resonance imaging, encephalography, eye tracking, and physiological and behavioral measurements. The lab is integrated in the Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.