Play-Persona: Modeling Player Behaviour in Computer Games

Candace Pert is the neuroscientist that discovered the opiate receptor in the human brain and
initiated the research that eventually found endorphins. Later in her career she set out to study the
migrations of amino acid chains in the human body and eventually found herself investigating the
interplay between memory and emotions and how this generates memorable, iconic experiences.
Her research shows that there is an unequivocal relation between emotions and peptide molecules;
furthermore she showed that receptors for this particular neurotransmitter protein are concentrated
in the hippocampus area of the brain but are present everywhere in our organism. She also claims
that the peptide network holds the key to locate memories and mood states. “Strong emotions are
the variable that makes us bother to remember things” [25]. Pert's answer to the mind/body,
psychology/physiology debate is that an emotion happens simultaneously in the mind and the
body. According to Pert it is through the peptides that emotions can originate both in the head and
in body. “Our every move, function and thought is influenced by our emotions because it is the
peptides (or information substances) which bring the messages to all our body cells” [24]. Her
research went as far as providing proof that emotions exist in a very concrete form; she calls
peptide proteins and their receptors “biological correlates” of emotions. These molecules come into
contact with our body on a regular basis and can influence its working enormously: according to
specific emotional states, moods and feelings, different peptides are released (there are
approximately around one hundred types) and different messages are sent throughout the body.
“Every second, a massive information exchange is happening in your body. Imagine each of these
messenger systems possessing a specific tone, humming a signature tune, rising and falling,
waxing and waning, binding and unbinding, and if we could hear this body music with our ears,
then the sum of these sounds would be the music that we call the emotion” [24]. Pert's concept of
“mobile brain” includes a biological reason as to why different people experience the same event
differently. “The term mobile brain is an apt description of the psychosomatic network through
which intelligent information travels from one system to another” [24]. It relates to our past
experiences and strong, emotionally tagged memories. Basically our past affects the types of
peptides and receptors found around the body. We explore the world and receive input through our
senses, while the mind unconsciously retrieves tagged memories that are associated with the input
information.
This concept of emotionally tagged memories bound to input information introduces us to
Damasio’s work. Antonio Damasio, neurologist, tries to bridge the dichotomy mind/body regarding
emotions by using sensate and mnemonic perception. According to Damasio, emotional processes
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