sábado, 27 de noviembre de 2010

FIL GUADALAJARA

FIL GUADALAJARA



La Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara es la reunión editorial más importante de Iberoamérica y un extraordinario festival cultural. Fundada hace veinticuatro años por laUniversidad de Guadalajara, es una feria para profesionales en donde el público es bienvenido, lo que la distingue del resto de las principales ferias que se realizan en el mundo. Sin descuidar su vocación como un encuentro de negocios, la FIL fue concebida como un festival cultural en el que la literatura es la columna vertebral, con un programa en el que participan autores de todos los continentes y diferentes lenguas, así como un espacio para la discusión académica de los grandes temas que cruzan nuestra actualidad.

Durante los nueve días de la Feria, el público hace largas filas para escuchar a sus autores preferidos; la industria del libro convierte a Guadalajara en su corazón, y la ciudad se llena de música, arte, cine y teatro del país o región Invitado de honor; que este año es Castilla y León, cuna del español.

Fechas y horarios

Bienvenidos a la FIL...
Horarios para el público en general:
Días con horario exclusivo para profesionales:
Lugar:
27 y 28 de noviembre, 2, 3, 4 y 5 de diciembre, de 9:00 a 21:00 horas
29, 30 de noviembre y 1 de diciembre, de 9:00 a 17:00 horas
Centro de Exposiciones
Expo Guadalajara
Av. Mariano Otero, 1499
Col. Verde Valle
Guadalajara, Jalisco
 Más información sobre Guadalajara
29, 30 de noviembre y 1 de diciembre, de 17:00 a 21:00 horas

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The 'weird' world of techno's Ishino

Friday, Nov. 26, 2010

Takkyu Ishino
Wired in: DJ Takkyu Ishino hopes a recent dip in attendance could eventually lead to lower prices at clubs across Japan. ALEXIS WUILLAUME PHOTO

The 'weird' world of techno's Ishino

DJ and Denki Groove member talks about Tokyo's clubs and dance music's future


Special to The Japan Times
"Salarymen are fantastic," says DJ and producer Takkyu Ishino. "If there weren't so many of them doing their thing, then people like me would not be able to exist. If more people acted like me (outside the norm), then I wouldn't have had the life that I've had."
Ishino started producing music in the mid-1980s, inspired by such groups as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Kraftwerk. He then shot to fame in 1991 as a member of Denki Groove. The group's biggest hit, "Shangri-La," has sold more than half a million copies and is typical of their style: fun, slightly cheesy techno-pop. Perhaps the most telling sign of the group's ethos, however, was its decision to cover the pioneering synth-pop tune "Popcorn," made famous by Hot Butter in 1972. It's a song that's as likely to be heard at a kids' party as it is at an all-night club event.
Denki Groove are also known for the weird visuals they use at their concerts. The band often appears in elaborate and surreal costumes, like the time Ishino's bandmate Masanori "Pierre" Taki turned up at the Fuji Rock Festival dressed as Mount Fuji — complete with smoke billowing out from his head. It's a strategy reminiscent of the way bands such as YMO would give equal weight to both music and persona at their gigs.
"Denki Groove are a weird band. From the start, we were always weird," says Ishino while sitting in a plush Sony Music office that smells of acrid smoke. "All the members are weird. When weird people get together they do weird stuff. That's what we aimed to do when we first got together."
Interviewing Ishino can prove a challenge, as is often the case with Japanese celebrities. A seemingly impenetrable entourage of managers, executives and minders stand between him and the media. Despite this, meeting him is not an intimidating affair. It is pleasantly surprising to find a warm, down-to-Earth music lover rather than the stereotypical "star."
While the band are not hugely popular overseas, Ishino says the response they get from foreign audiences has been excellent.
"We've toured a lot around countries such as Slovenia, Poland and Germany," he says. "In those countries, 100 percent of the audience know they are coming to see a weird Japanese pop group and they are really up for it. The crowd is great and anything we do gets a massive reaction."
Away from Denki Groove, Ishino is known as a DJ who can control a crowd like few others in Japan can. There is, however, some disjoint between the light-hearted pop his band plays and the more serious techno he DJs.
"As a DJ, the Denki Groove style of music is not going to get people on the dance floor," he says. "If I play that sort of stuff, it's just going to turn people off, so I keep the Denki Groove side of things completely separate from my DJing. If people would dance to the poppier side of my music, I'm sure I would spin it more, but people won't so I need to think about that when at a club."
For nine years, Ishino's monthly Sterne night at Tokyo's club Womb and his annual arena event, Wire, have kept their focus on more traditional forms of techno, even as the genre continues to grow ever more diverse. Asked about how he picks lineups, which can seem repetitive, Ishino answers: "We aren't really into the styles that get hyped, as speed garage or electro clash have been in the past, so the events look like they always include the same people, but there are a lot of different types of music performed."
Whether this will succeed in the long term, though, is questionable. Ishino admits that Wire has seen about a 20 percent drop in ticket sales ("but 80 percent are still there"). Then again, clubs up and down the country are closing due to an inability to generate crowds and even the biggest clubs are reporting declines in attendance similar to that of Wire.
"In Japan, clubs are really expensive so the fall in crowds may be a good thing," Ishino says. "If the number of people clubbing continues to drop, then maybe clubs will cut their prices. The problem is, though, Japanese people don't drink as much at events as those in the West, so clubs here are balancing on a tightrope if they want to continue into the foreseeable future."
Ishino also believes the way that music is perceived and treated today is another problem that must be addressed. "These days, music is not as important as it was in the '80s. If a kid bought a record it was really important to them. Now buying songs is about on the same level as buying a carton of orange juice."
Despite this recent trend however, Ishino says he has little desire for a return to those days, arguing that perceiving Japan's bubble era in the '80s as a time when things were better is a mistake.
"The people back then were more optimistic," he says. "They thought that the good times were going to go on forever; they acted a lot more irresponsibly and without inhibition. But if the bubble had continued, people would have gone crazy. Now, though, people are too miserly. Both situations are crap."
This answer might be predictable from a man who has made his career playing left-of-center music for left-of-center crowds he describes as "probably a little odd. Not quite otaku (obsessives), but certainly different from the average person."
Asked who he would be if he wasn't making music, the DJ and producer says he doesn't know, but his job would not be the standard office one. "I never wanted to be a salaryman," he declares. "Or rather, I never thought I could be a salaryman, because their lifestyle looked tedious to me. My father was not a salaryman, he was in construction, so I never really understood, or took any interest in, what those people did."
Takkyu Ishino's Sterne event is held the first Friday of the month at Womb in Shibuya, Tokyo. For details, visit www.womb.co.jp.

El debate de la eutanasia no se ha agotado con la ley de muerte digna

SOCIEDAD / LEIRE PAJÍN

«El debate de la eutanasia no se ha agotado con la ley de muerte digna»

Ha pasado de ser la diputada más joven de la historia de la democracia a ministra tricéfala al frente de Sanidad, Política Social e Igualdad. A quien desconfíe de su valía le pide «tiempo»

Día 28/11/2010
ERNESTO AGUDO
Leire Pajín, en un momento de la entrevista en su despacho del ministerio
Apenas tiene año y medio para demostrar que su nombramiento servirá para mucho más que continuar el camino trazado por sus predecesores. La ley de muerte digna y las medidas sobre violencia de género aprobadas en el último Consejo de Ministros son solo una muestra de que también habrá tiempo para ideas nuevas.
—¿Era necesaria la ley de muerte digna? La ley de autonomía del paciente y el plan de cuidados paliativos ya recogen todos los derechos de los enfermos terminales.
—Prácticamente todas las comunidades autónomas tenían intención de legislar en esta materia. Necesitábamos una legislación estatal para garantizar los mismos derechos a todos los ciudadanos. Para dar seguridad a los profesionales que deben prestar los mejores tratamientos en los últimos días de vida y para respetar la voluntad de pacientes y familiares.
—¿Se abandona el debate de la eutanasia?
—No. No soy partidaria de abandonar ningún debate. Hay encuestas del CIS que han preguntado recientemente a los ciudadanos sobre este tema, con una abrumadora mayoría a favor de este debate, pero estamos hablando de cosas diferentes.
—¿Descarta una legislación que la autorice?
—Entre las prioridades legislativas del Gobierno están los cuidados paliativos y no está la eutanasia. Pero el debate no se ha agotado aquí, con la ley de muerte digna. El debate está en la sociedad y bienvenido sea.
—Fuera de declaraciones institucionales, su nombramiento no ha sido muy bien recibido por el colectivo médico. Véndales su proyecto.
—Ya me dirigí a ellos en mi toma de posesión. Dije de una forma muy clara que a los que no me conocían cómo trabajaba les pedía tiempo. Mi experiencia en este mes en el que me he reunido con ellos ha sido positiva. Ha habido una gran receptividad.
—Hoy (por el viernes) el alcalde de Valladolid vuelve a dedicarle atención. Dice que no tiene formación para ser ministra de Sanidad y ha pedido que comparen su currículum con el de sus homólogas europeas.
—El alcalde de Valladolid no me merece ni un segundo más de mi atención.Pero le diré que el ministro de Sanidad más valorado de este país ha sido Ernest Lluch y no era médico. No tengo más que decir.
—¿De verdad cree que se puede aprobar un pacto por la Sanidad?
—No solo lo pienso, sino que seguiré en ese empeño porque creo que tenemos muchas cosas en común que nos pueden llevar a él.
—Y entretanto ¿cómo se mantiene a flote el sistema sanitario? La Organización Mundial de la Salud dice que se despilfarra hasta el 40% del gasto sanitario.
—En ese informe, la OMS pone a España como ejemplo por tener un sistema que garantiza el acceso universal. En un momento de crisis, tenemos la obligación de racionalizar el gasto y todas las medidas van en esa dirección. Desde la monodosis para que un ciudadano no tenga que comprarse una caja de medicamentos cuando se le prescriben unas cuantas píldoras, hasta la llamada factura en la sombra para que todos sepan lo que cuesta ir al médico. Y también todas las medidas de ahorro farmacéutico. España ya ha reflexionado todo lo que dice la OMS y lo está incorporando a sus actuaciones.
—Estará conmigo en que la factura en la sombra es una cuestión simbólica y le recuerdo que el programa de monodosis fracasó en Galicia.
—No es lo mismo aplicar la monodosis en un territorio en concreto que en toda España a la vez, con todo un programa de acción. La factura en la sombra es simbólica pero es una medida que sensibiliza al ciudadano.
—La OMS también propone subir impuestos del tabaco, el alcohol y penalizar la comida más insana. ¿Apoyaría una medida similar?
—En estos momentos no está encima de la mesa subir más impuestos, pero ese debate no lo descarto y no me parece descabellado.
—Entraremos en un bar el 2 de enero y no habrá humo, ¿se lo cree?
—Si no me lo creyera no habría llevado a cabo esa ley, que además tiene un gran consenso parlamentario. Nuestra determinación es que no haya humo en los sitios cerrados.
—Pero las inspecciones para vigilar su cumplimiento quedarán en manos de las comunidades.
—Cada uno tiene sus competencias, pero el hecho de que tenga gran consenso parlamentario quiere decir que todos los partidos con independencia de donde gobernemos la cumpliremos. En segundo lugar, el Estado también tiene sus mecanismos para hacer cumplir la ley.
—Hay quien le augura un fracaso estrepitoso por ser tan radical.
—Quiero recordar que en otros países europeos se han puesto en marcha desde el principio normativas muy similares a la nuestra y no hubo ningún problema. Todos los estudios nos indican que tampoco habrá una repercusión económica negativa.
—Eso aún no se sabe.
—Eso es lo que ha ocurrido en otros países europeos. Todos tuvieron el mismo debate que nosotros. Hemos escuchado a los hosteleros pero una vez que se da un paso de salud pública no se puede dar marcha atrás.
—Primero era la ley que prohibía fumar en espacios cerrados y ahora se plantea prohibir fumar en la cola del cine. ¿Estamos sociológicamente preparados?
—No quiero debatir sobre algo que no se ha producido. Ni hablar sobre supuestos que confunden a la ciudadanía. Hoy la ley es muy razonable.
—Después de la del tabaco, ¿habrá una ley del alcohol?
—No está en cartera. Sí le digo que habrá más campañas de sensibilización en materia de alcohol y jóvenes.
—¿Tiene el Gobierno un plan B por si el Constitucional no avala la ley del aborto?
—El Gobierno ha desarrollado una ley que cree claramente constitucional, si no no la hubiera aprobado. El tribunal dictaminará lo que crea conveniente.
—¿Y si decidiera que no lo es?
—Ese supuesto no se ha producido.
—El año pasado vimos a los titulares de Educación y Sanidad muy preocupados por la educación sexual en los colegios. ¿Cómo se hará?
—Se ha impulsado ya, pero de forma desigual entre comunidades. Hay que decir que la responsabilidad no es solo de la escuela, también de la familia y de la sociedad.
—Como ciudadana ¿está satisfecha con la ley de dependencia?
—Soy muy consciente de que queda camino por recorrer. También de que ya hemos cubierto las necesidades de 650.000 personas en solo tres años, pero acabamos de poner un nuevo pilar del estado del bienestar.
—¿Cómo se recortarán los tiempos?
—Estamos haciendo todo lo que está en nuestra mano. Ahora evaluaremos la ley. Va a ser una gran oportunidad para debatir con las comunidades y mejorar los servicios.
—Era excepcional que las familias recibieran una ayuda por hacerse cargo de sus dependientes y ya casi es la norma.
—Eso debemos contrastarlo. Tenemos un modelo mixto y no creo que sea la mayoría. La evaluación nos permitirá saber si han funcionado bien las prestaciones.

¿Las ondas wifi dañan a los árboles?


¿Las ondas wifi dañan a los árboles?
Los debates sobre la influencia de las ondas emitidas por las antenas de telefonía móvil sobre la salud lleva años vivo sin que ningún estudio haya demostrado su nocividad.
FUENTE | El País Digital28/11/2010
Ahora, un grupo universitario holandés añade una nueva sospecha sobre, en este caso, las ondas wifi. Un equipo de la universidad de Wageningen ha sometido una veintena de fresnos a las emisiones de seis puntos wifi durante tres meses. Al término de este tiempo, los investigadores aseguran que las hojas más cercanas a las emisiones se habían secado y caído. La investigación se abrió después de que las autoridades municipales de la ciudad de Alphen aan den Rijn adviertieran desarrollos anormales de los árboles de la ciudad que no eran atribuíbles a virus o bacterias. Un fenómeno que según la citada universidad se detecta en el 70% de los árboles del país.

La réplica ha sido inmediata. Según la agencia holandesa de radicomunicaciones, los resultados obtenidos son prematuros ya que la repetición del experimento no ha conducido a las mismas conclusiones y que las investigaciones que atribuyen efectos nocivos a las ondas wifi se basan en experimentos donde se trabaja en concentraciones de emisiones que no se dan en la vida cotidiana. En la web de la universidad, según los medios holandeses, no hay ninguna referencia a la citada investigación lo que acrecienta las dudas sobre el respaldo científico que tiene la misma.

Un caballo de Troya contra el cáncer

ONCOLOGÍA
Un caballo de Troya contra el cáncer
21/10/2010

  • Células cancerosas en arteriola pulmonar

Desde hace años, se están diseñando nanopartículas que transporten medicamentos tóxicos a las células cancerosas. Los fármacos se transportan dentro de una envoltura con el fin de no afectar a los tejidos sanos y evitar el ataque del sistema inmunitario. Una vez alcanzado su objetivo, las nanopartículas liberan su carga y eliminan las células dañadas.

En la actualidad, después de numerosas investigaciones con cultivos celulares y animales, se hallan en fase de ensayo clínico en humanos casi una docena de fármacos a base de nanopartículas, la mayoría de ellos ideados para tratar o diagnosticar el cáncer. Otros compuestos se hallan en estudios preclínicos y están a punto de estudiarse en humanos. Aunque se necesitarán varios años para comprobar la inocuidad y eficacia de los compuestos, los científicos esperan obtener resultados positivos, lo que representaría un gran avance en la lucha contra el cáncer.

Hoy en día el cáncer suele tratarse con los mismos tratamientos drásticos que los oncólogos han utilizado desde hace decenios, como la cirugía, la irradiación y la quimioterapia. Muchas de las quimioterapias que se administran a los pacientes ejercen un efecto tóxico no sólo en las células cancerosas sino también en las células normales.

La nanomedicina tiene el potencial de cambiar esta situación. A diferencia de las medicinas tradicionales, los nuevos fármacos pueden diseñarse para llevar a cabo distintas funciones. Para tratar el cáncer, un fármaco debe ser soluble en agua para ser transportado por la circulación sanguínea; debe burlar la defensa de las células inmunitarias y evitar el aclaramiento renal o hepático; y por último, debe alcanzar su objetivo y eliminar las células cancerosas. Las medicinas tradicionales deben reunir todas esas propiedades en una sola molécula. En cambio, las nanomedicinas pueden dividir las distintas funciones entre diferentes componentes. La superficie de la partícula puede crearse de forma que sea soluble, resista al sistema inmunitario y alcance su objetivo, mientras que la carga de la partícula debe destruir las células cancerosas.


 

Potenciadores de la memoria

409 -OCTUBRE 2010


Apuntes - Potenciadores de la memoria López Aranda, M. F.

La pérdida de memoria afecta a la mayoría de las personas que padecen enfermedades neurológicas y neurodegenerativas. El elevado coste del tratamiento y el deterioro de la calidad de vida de los pacientes constituyen un grave problema social. El trastorno es, además, uno de los que más castiga a la población anciana, que ve mermada su autonomía.
En nuestro laboratorio de neurobiología, junto con Zafar U. Khan, J. F. López Téllez, I.Navarro y M. Masmudi Martín, hemos descubierto que la estimulación con la proteína RGS-14 (que participa en la regulación de la señalización intracelular) de la corteza visual secundaria V2, una diminuta región cerebral, puede mejorar la memoria.
Los experimentos se realizaron con ratas, cuya memoria se midió mediante la prueba de reconocimiento de objetos. Los múridos que sobreexpresaban la proteína inyectada en V2 retuvieron la información de un objeto durante meses; los animales control, en cambio, fueron incapaces de almacenar la misma información durante más de 45 minutos. Asimismo, los animales inyectados con RGS-14 almacenaron el triple de información que los no inyectados. Las ratas sometidas al tratamiento recordaron múltiples objetos; los animales sin tratar, sólo dos.
La importancia del hallazgo, publicado en Science en julio de 2009, radica en la repercusión social de sus aplicaciones. La proteína RGS-14 podría convertirse en un fármaco que remediase las deficiencias en la memoria de ancianos y pacientes con patologías neurológicas o neurodegenerativas.

El sueño mejora el aprendizaje

El sueño mejora el aprendizaje imprimir
19/11/2010Redacción
Los resultados de un nuevo estudio publicado recientemente en la revista Journal of Neurosciencemuestran que el sueño puede mejorar el aprendizaje.Los sujetos voluntarios del estudio aprendieron nuevas palabras por la noche y se evaluó su recuerdo inmediato antes de acostarse. Mientras dormían se registró su actividad cerebral. Por la mañana las pruebas llevadas a cabo mostraron que los participantes podían recordar y reconocer más palabras por la mañana que inmediatamente después de aprenderlas. Ea mejora no se observó en otro grupo de participantes que aprendieron las nuevas palabras sin dormir entre las dos pruebas.
Los datos sobre actividad cerebral recolectados de los voluntarios del grupo que durmió mostraron que el sueño profundo ayudaba a fortalecer el recuerdo de nuevas palabras. También se encontró que un tipo de actividad cerebral llamada husos de sueño desempeñaba un papel importante en la capacidad de recordar nuevas palabras. Cuantos más husos de sueño experimenta una persona durante el sueño, tendrá un mayor éxito recordando las nuevas palabras aprendidas.
[J Neurosci 2010]
Tamminen J, Payne JD, Stickgold R, Wamsley EJ y Gaskell MG
Palabras Clave: Aprendizaje. Husos de sueño. Sueño

Me he convertido....

Lince Iberico

In Cybertherapy, Avatars Assist With Healing

In Cybertherapy, Avatars Assist With Healing

Dave Chan for The New York Times
NOT QUITE REALITY Stéphane Bouchard, of University of Quebec in Ottawa, reacting with his very similar avatar.
Published: November 22, 2010
OTTAWA — His talk was going just fine until some members of the audience became noticeably restless. A ripple of impatience passed through the several dozen seated listeners, and a few seemed suddenly annoyed; then two men started to talk to each other, ignoring him altogether.
“When I saw that, I slowed down and then stopped what I was saying,” said the speaker, a 47-year-old public servant named Gary, who last year took part in an unusual study of social anxiety treatment at the University of Quebec.
The anxiety rose in his throat — What if I’m not making sense? What if I’m asked questions I can’t answer? — but subsided as his therapist, observing in the background, reminded him that the audience’s reaction might have nothing to do with him. And if a question stumped him, he could just say so: no one knows everything.

Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times
Arno Hartholt interacts with characters in a simulated Old-West saloon at U.S.C.

He relaxed and finished the talk, and the audience seemed to settle down. Then he removed a headset that had helped create an illusion that the audience was actually there, not just figures on a screen. “I just think it’s a fantastic idea to be able to experience situations where you know that the worst cannot happen,” he said. “You know that it’s controlled and gradual and yet feels somehow real.”
For more than a decade, a handful of therapists have been using virtual environments to help people to work through phobias, like a fear of heights or of public spaces. But now advances in artificial intelligence and computer modeling are allowing them to take on a wider array of complex social challenges and to gain insight into how people are affected by interactions with virtual humans — or by inhabiting avatars of themselves.
Researchers are populating digital worlds with autonomous, virtual humans that can evoke the same tensions as in real-life encounters. People with social anxiety are struck dumb when asked questions by a virtual stranger. Heavy drinkers feel strong urges to order something from a virtual bartender, while gamblers are drawn to sit down and join a group playing on virtual slot machines. And therapists can advise patients at the very moment those sensations are felt.
In a series of experiments, researchers have shown that people internalize these virtual experiences and their responses to them — with effects that carry over into real life.
The emerging field, called cybertherapy, now has annual conferences and a growing international following of therapists, researchers and others interested improving behavior through the use of simulations. The Canadian military has invested heavily in virtual-reality research; so has the United States Army, which has been spending about $4 million annually on programs with computer-generated agents, for training officers and treating post-traumatic stress reactions.
The trend has already generated a few critics, who see a possible downside along with benefits.

“Even if this approach works, there will be side effects that we can’t anticipate,” said Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and author of “You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto” (Knopf, 2010). “And in some scenarios I would worry about defining humans down: defining what’s normal based on what we can model in virtual environments.”
But most researchers say that virtual therapy is, and will remain, no more than a therapist’s tool, to be used only when it appears effective. “There’s a real and understandable distrust of technology as a shortcut for good clinical skills,” said Albert Rizzo, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, “but I think, deep down, most therapists will want any tool that can help them do their work, and they’ll be open to using virtual approaches.”
Virtual Humans, Real Therapy
“My abilities are somewhat limited,” says a female voice. “For example, I can speak and listen to what you say, but I can’t do any physical activity.”
In an office at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, a virtual woman named Angelina is addressing a college student from a computer screen.
Angelina looks to be about 30 or so, a pretty, athletic figure with an open, intelligent face framed by short black hair. Her eyes and expression, guided by video cameras and microphones, stay in sync with the student’s, as an empathetic therapist’s would. “What are some of the things you hate about yourself?” asks the voice.
The student stalls for a moment. “Well,” she says, in a video of the exchange, “I don’t like that I can be really quiet in social situations. Sometimes people take that as me being rude, but it’s just me being quiet.”
Angelina nods sympathetically and then asks another question, about what the student fears most.
Interacting with a virtual human programmed to be socially sensitive in this way is oddly liberating. The figures are clearly not human; some are balky with language, others mute. Many have a two-dimensional graphic-arts quality.
But the faces are mobile, blinking, alive, the body language and gestures seemingly natural; in some cases, the voice recognition and choice of replies are good enough to conduct a stiff but convincing conversation. The result is a living presence that is responsive but not judgmental.
In a recent study using this virtual confidant, researchers at U.S.C. have found that Angelina elicits from people the crucial first element in any therapy: self-disclosure. People with social anxiety confessed more of their personal flaws, fears and fantasies to virtual figures than to live therapists conducting video interviews, the study found.

Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times
SIMULATING WAR Josh Williams, left, and Andrew Smith, demonstrate a program at U.S.C. designed to help veterans.

The researchers are incorporating the techniques learned from Angelina into a virtual agent being developed for theArmy, called SimCoach. Guided by language-recognition software, SimCoach — there are several versions, male and female, young and older, white and black — appears on a computer screen and can conduct a rudimentary interview, gently probing for possible mental troubles.
Using SimCoach on a laptop, veterans and family members would anonymously ask about difficulties they’re having, whether due to post-traumatic stress or other strains of service.

Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times
NO COUCH REQUIRED Sin-hwa Kang demonstrates visual therapy at U.S.C.

“It does not give a diagnosis,” said Jonathan Gratch, a co-author of the Angelina study with Sin-Hwa Kang, also of U.S.C. “But the idea is that the SimCoach would ask people if they would like to see a therapist; and if so, could then guide them to someone in their area, depending on what it has learned.”
Once people are in treatment, therapists can use virtual technology to simulate threatening situations — and guide patients through them, gradually and incrementally, calibrating the intensity of the experience.
In person-to-person sessions to address anxieties or phobias, for instance, therapists may have patients do this in their imaginations. Revisit a dreaded experience — say, a rooftop party, for a person afraid of heights — while defusing the physical reactions to the memory in the office. Out in the world, patients then practice the same techniques, gradually increasing their exposure, beginning with modest heights, for instance, and working up.
Using virtual environments, therapists can run this entire drill in their offices. At theVirtual Reality Medical Center in San Diego, psychologists have treated hundreds of patients using gradual virtual exposure, for post-traumatic stress and agoraphobia, among other anxieties. At U.S.C., Dr. Rizzo has designed a program specifically for veterans of the Iraq war.
In one scenario, wearing a headset, the patient is in a virtual Humvee, motoring along a desert road toward a small Iraqi village. To the right is a passenger, another soldier; behind and above rides a gunner; in front is another Humvee. As the motorcade approaches the village, engines rumbling, there is a flurry of gunfire, and more. A roadside bomb goes off, bullets pierce the window — your fellow soldier on the right is wounded badly, now dying — all of it under control of the therapist.
“We can control the intensity of the experience, and then work on the patient’s response,” Dr. Rizzo said.
When it works, the therapy breaks the association between reminders of an upsetting experience and the racing heart, the flushing, the panic that the person has been struggling with.
Adding autonomous virtual humans to the landscape allows therapists to begin addressing some of the most complex problems of them all — social ones. In one continuing study at the University of California, Davis, for instance, researchers are trying to improve high-functioning autistic children’s ability to think and talk about themselves while paying attention to multiple peers.
The hope is similar for people with social anxiety: that practice interacting with a virtual boss, suspicious strangers or virtual partygoers who are staring as one enters the room will also lead to increased comfort, with the help of a therapist. “The figures themselves don’t even have to be especially realistic to evoke reactions,” said a psychologist, Stéphane Bouchard, who directs the cybertherapy program at the University of Quebec in Outaouais. “People with social anxiety, for example, will feel they are being judged by virtual humans who are simply watching them.”
In the pilot study that included Gary, the University of Quebec researchers tracked two groups of patients: one that received an hour of talk therapy once a week for 14 weeks and another that got talk therapy with a virtual component, practicing virtual interactions. Both groups showed improvement, faring much better than a comparison group put on a waiting list, preliminary results suggest. But those who got virtual therapy achieved the same gains without having to practice interactions in the real world, deliberately putting themselves in embarrassing situations or dreaded encounters. The researchers are now working to identify which people benefit most, and whether combining virtual and real-world experiences accelerates recovery.
My Avatar, Myself
The face in the mirror does not look familiar; it has a generic, computer-generated look. Yet it does appear to be staring out from a mirror. Lift a hand and up goes its hand. Nod, wave, smile, and it does the same, simultaneously. Now, look down at your own body: and there, through the virtual reality headset, are a torso, legs, clothes identical to those in the mirror.
In a matter of minutes, people placed in front of this virtual mirror identify strongly with their “body” and psychologically inhabit it, researchers at Stanford University have found. And by subtly altering elements of that embodied figure, the scientists have established a principle that is fundamental to therapy — that an experience in a virtual world can alter behavior in the real one.
“The remarkable thing is how little a virtual human has to do to produce fairly large effects on behavior,” said Jeremy Bailenson, director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford and the author, with James Blascovich, of the coming book “Infinite Reality” (HarperCollins 2011).
In one recent experiment , Dr. Bailenson and Nick Yee, now at the Palo Alto Research Center, had 50 college students enter a virtual environment and acquire a virtual body, an avatar. Each student then participated in a negotiation game with a member of the experimental team, who was introduced as another student.
But all the avatars were not created equal. Some were four inches taller than their human counterparts, and others were four inches shorter. The participants didn’t notice this alteration, but those made taller negotiated in the virtual game much more aggressively than those made shorter. A later study led by Dr. Yee found that this effect carried over into face-to-face negotiations after the virtual headsets were removed.
The researchers have demonstrated a similar effect in the case of attractiveness. In another experiment, they created generic avatars for some participants that were about 25 percent “more attractive” than average, based on features that the group had rated as attractive. Compared with study participants whose avatars were made 25 percent “less attractive,” the virtual beauties were more socially confident, standing closer in virtual conversation, revealing more about themselves — an effect that also seeped into social interactions after the headsets came off.
Again, no one noticed the manipulation; its effects were entirely subconscious.
The authors argue that the participants, in effect, psychologically internalized their virtual experience. “What we learn in one body is shared with other bodies we inhabit, whether virtual or physical,” they concluded.
It seems people will psychologically inhabit almost any virtual body if the cues are strong.In recent research a team led by Mel Slater, a computer scientist at the University of Barcelona, induced what it calls body-transfer illusion — showing that men will mentally take on the body of a woman, for instance, if that’s the body it appears they’re walking around in virtually. The experience is especially powerful, Dr. Slater said, when the men feel a touch (on a shoulder, in a recent study) at the same time the avatar is touched.
“You can see the possibilities already,” said Dr. Slater. “For example, you can put someone with a racial bias in the body of a person of another race.”
These kinds of findings have inspired a variety of simple experiments. Dropping a young man or woman into the virtual body of an elderly person does in fact increase sympathy for the other’s perspective, research suggests.
“This is to me the most exciting thing about using virtual environments for behavior change,” Dr. Bailenson said. “It’s not only that you can create these versions of reality; it’s that you can cross boundaries — that you can take risks, break things, do things you could not or would not do in real life.”
Mini-Me in Action
In the virtual studio at the University of Quebec, patients wearing a headset can have a short conversation with a diminutive, attentive virtual therapist. Except for slight stature, it is a ringer for Dr. Bouchard: the same open face, the same smile, the same pelt of dark hair around a bald pate.
“Mini-Me, we call it,” Dr. Bouchard said.
The hologramlike figure seems at first to be minding its own business, looking around, biding time. Then it approaches slowly, introduces itself and kindly asks a question, like some digital-age Socrates: “What is the best experience you’ve ever had?”
For now, Mini-Me cannot do much more than cock its head at the answer and nod, before programmers begin to guide the conversation; the scientists are adding more language-recognition software, to extend interactions. Yet Mini-Me offers a glimpse of where virtual humans are headed: three-dimensional forms that can be designed to resemble people in the real world.
“You could scan in a picture of your mother or your boss or someone else significant and, with some voice recording samples, use a system that would automatically and quickly recreate a virtual facsimile of that person,” said Dr. Rizzo of U.S.C., where programmers have set up an Old West bar scene, complete with a life-size, autonomous virtual bartender, a waitress and a bad guy. “Then, perhaps, we’d be able to stage interactions that might closely resemble those in a patient’s life to help work through challenging issues.”
Anyone could rehearse the dance of social interaction, tripping without consequence, until the steps feel just about right.
“The great thing about it,” said Gary, the civil servant, referring to his own virtual therapy, “is that you can do anything you want and just see what happens. You get to practice.”