When Touch Learns Who I Am: Neuroadaptive Haptics and the Body That Trains Technology

Based on Gehrke et al. (2025), “Neuroadaptive haptics for adaptive XR systems”

Introduction — Brain Bee First-Person Consciousness

I notice that before I interpret any sensation, touch has already changed my body.
A vibration, a brief pressure, a small shift on the skin —
and my attention reorganizes, my breathing adjusts, and a new focus emerges.

I feel first, interpret later.

The study on neuroadaptive haptics shows exactly this:
technology does not only respond to the body — it can learn from it.

The Study — What Are Neuroadaptive Haptics?

Gehrke et al. (2025) investigate XR systems that adapt to the user through:

• reinforcement learning from explicit ratings (the user consciously reports what works)
  
  

• reinforcement learning from neural signals (the brain reports before the user does)
  
  

It creates a cycle in which:

1. the body receives the tactile stimulus
   
   

2. EEG detects whether the response was positive or negative
   
   

3. the system updates and adjusts the pattern
   
   

4. the body reorganizes around the new stimulus
   
   

5. and the cycle continues
   
   

This means the interface becomes a mutual learning loop between body and machine.

Touch as an Entry Point Into the Mental Hyperspace

In our model, the Mental Hyperspace is composed of five fundamental bodily axes:

1. Interoception – internal metabolic sensing
   
   

2. Proprioception – the spatial map of the body in action
   
   

3. Learned tensions – crystallized bodily patterns accumulated over life
   
   

4. Emotion metabolization – transforming affective states into stable bodily configurations (feelings)
   
   

5. Momentary bodily adjustments – spontaneous micro-regulations that prepare new perceptions
   
   

Neuroadaptive haptics operate directly on these axes.

A tactile stimulus can:

• release learned tensions,
  
  

• alter micro-postural alignments,
  
  

• shift interoceptive flow,
  
  

• reorganize emotional states,
  
  

• or open new perceptual pathways.
  
  

The study shows that when touch is adapted to the user’s brain,
it changes the entire geometry of experience.

Technology That Reads the Tensional Selves

Depending on my Tensional Self, a tactile stimulus may:

• open my perceptual field,
  
  

• cause my body to retract,
  
  

• generate fruition,
  
  

• or collapse into saturation.
  
  

The study reveals that the system learns precisely these transitions.

It identifies when:

• a vibration tightens the body (Zone 3)
  
  

• a pulse opens perception (Zone 2)
  
  

• a tactile cue flows naturally with movement (Zone 1)
  
  

In other words:

The system learns my Tensional Self before I consciously notice I have shifted.

The Study Allows Us to Map the States of Our Model:

•  Zone 1 — Natural action
  Touch supports the movement; the body responds effortlessly.

•  Zone 2 — Openness / Fruition
  Touch generates expansion, relaxation, presence.
  EEG reveals deeper sensorimotor integration.

•  Zone 3 — Constriction / Saturation
  Touch becomes threat; the body tightens; attention collapses.
  The system learns to avoid these patterns.

The Damasian Mind — The Body as the Core of Sensory Decision-Making

The study confirms the Damasian formulation:

1. the body feels first
   
   

2. the mind interprets second
   
   

3. consciousness arrives last
   
   

Neuroadaptive haptics work directly with this sequence, adjusting the stimulus before the mind forms an interpretation.

This highlights a principle you often state:

The body decides how to feel long before the mind decides what to think.

And now technology can learn this embodied decision.

Yãy Hã Miy (Maxakali Origin): Imitating the Body to Transform the Body

In Yãy Hã Miy, imitation is the first step toward transformation.

In neuroadaptive haptics, technology imitates the body:

• observes its patterns,
  
  

• reproduces sensory cues,
  
  

• makes mistakes,
  
  

• corrects them,
  
  

• learns,
  
  

• and returns a refined version of the experience.
  
  

It becomes a technological form of Yãy Hã Miy:

• imitate the neural response
  
  

• reorganize the stimulus
  
  

• transform the touch
  
  

• transform the body
  
  

HQS — The Body Voting in Real Time

The process is a form of intra-individual Human Quorum Sensing (HQS):

• sensory regions vote for pleasure,
  
  

• tense regions vote for contraction,
  
  

• frontal areas vote for focus,
  
  

• limbic areas vote for safety.
  
  

When touch is effective,
these internal votes converge.

When touch is ineffective,
they diverge, signaling threat or saturation.

The system learns this voting pattern.

Technology and body form an ongoing agreement.

Existential Metabolism — Touch as an Energetic Regulator

Touch consumes energy —
and redistributes energy.

The study demonstrates:

• effective stimuli → reduce metabolic cost → open Zone 2
  
  

• ineffective stimuli → increase cost → collapse attention
  
  

Neuroadaptive haptics are, therefore, a form of existential metabolic engineering.

They regulate:

• attentional energy
  
  

• respiratory energy
  
  

• emotional energy
  
  

• tensional energy
  
  

Touch becomes a tool of energetic reorganization.

A New Paradigm: Technology That Learns My Consciousness

This study suggests something radical:

Interfaces can learn the body the same way the body learns the world.

Such technology:

• senses what my brain senses
  
  

• adapts before I ask
  
  

• creates new forms of presence
  
  

• returns the body to a place of belonging
  
  

This is not just XR.
It is Extended Interoception.
It is Technological Apus.
It is Responsive Consciousness.

Conclusion — The Future of Touch Is to Learn the Self

Neuroadaptive haptics show that:

• the body teaches technology
  
  

• technology reshapes the body
  
  

• consciousness reorganizes at their intersection
  
  

• the Tensional Self transforms through touch
  
  

• touch itself gains adaptive intelligence
  
  

• and experience becomes not merely digital, but bodily
  
  

Touch is, ultimately,
the point where technology encounters the self
and learns who I am.

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La Mente Damasiana, la Zona 2 y la Arquitectura de la Atención Sostenida

The Damasian Mind, Zone 2, and the Architecture of Sustained Attention

Mente Damasiana, Zona 2 e a Arquitetura da Atenção Sustentada

Estados Corporificados de la Conciencia Musical

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Embodiment y Realidad Virtual: Cuando el Cuerpo Entra en lo Digital

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Empatía y Sincronía Cerebral: Cuando Dos Cuerpos Crean Un Solo Ritmo

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Flexibilidad Cognitiva: Cuando el Cerebro Regresa para Reescribir su Propio Guion

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Cuando el Cuerpo Enseña a la Mente: Exergames, Carga Cognitiva y los Yo Tensionales en el Envejecimiento

When the Body Teaches the Mind: Exergames, Cognitive Load, and Tensional Selves in Aging

Quando o Corpo Aprende pelo Movimento: Exergames, Carga Cognitiva e os Eus Tensionais no Envelhecimento

Cuando la IA Aprende a Leernos: Chatbots Neuroadaptativos y los “Yo Tensionales” Digitales

When AI Learns to Read Us: Neuroadaptive Chatbots and Digital Tensional Selves

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