Ecological Resonance Is Reflected in Human Brain Activity

We designed an object interception task using virtual reality and mobile brain/body imaging to test two core hypotheses of ecological psychology and radical embodied cognitive (neuro)science: the ecological resonance hypothesis and the information-based control laws hypothesis. These two hypotheses define an alternative explanatory strategy that aims to understand the organization and control of behavior without appealing to internal models or representations of any kind. The ecological resonance hypothesis was evaluated in relation to the ecological variable known as tau (τ) or time-to-contact (TTC). Concurrently, the hypothesis of information-based control laws was investigated by examining the τ-coupling control law. The results of the study show ecological resonance to τ along with τ-coupling between stimulation, behavior, and neural activity, therefore offering support to both hypotheses.