Immersive Neuroscience Lab

Vision 

Led by Dr. Gal Raz, the Immersive Neuroscience Lab develops digital media and audiovisual brain-computer interfaces for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in neurology, rehabilitation, and psychiatry. Located within the Sagol Brain Institute, our interdisciplinary team investigates how movies, gaming, and XR (VR/AR/MR) shape human perception, emotion, and embodied cognition. By bridging media design with advanced neuroscientific methods—including fMRI, EEG, and eye-tracking—we translate theoretical insights into applied research that redefines the human experience in immersive environments.

Funding

2022
Funder Research fund in the field of insurance at the Association of Insurance Companies in Israel
Title Development of brain-computer interface in virtual reality for neurorehabilitation of traumatic brain injury
Budget ~$54,000
Co-PI Alexis Mitepunkt

2024
Funder The Ela Kodesz Institute for Technologies in Healthcare
Title Advancing Neurorehabilitation through Gamified Motor Challenge and Reinforcement in Virtual Reality
Budget ~$21,500
Co-PIs Alexis Mitepunkt, Sigal Portnoy

2024
Funder Ichilov Sprouting Program
Title Enhancing Ambidextrous Skills in Sports through Virtual Reality Gamification
Budget ~$27,000
Co-PI Alexis Mitepunkt

2025
Funder Israeli Science Foundation
Title Next-Level Motor Learning: Enhancing learning Transfer through the Strategic Manipulation of Gamified VR Mechanics via Predictive Coding
Budget ~$255,000
Co-PIs Alexis Mitepunkt, Sigal Portnoy

2025
Funder Israel's Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology
Title Immersive Brain-Computer-Interface for Personalized Neuromodulation in Unilateral Upper Limb Recovery
Budget ~$155,000
Co-PIs Alexis Mitepunkt, Sigal Portnoy

Research – List of active research

● The Neuroscience of Point-of-View Editing and Cinematic Engagement
● Gamified Virtual Reality Interfaces for Motor Rehabilitation in Hemiparaesis
● Brain-Computer Interface for Addressing Learned Non-use in Hemiparaesis
● Immersive Imagery-Based Neurofeedback Training for Stress Resilience
● XTics - A Gamified Tool for Intervention in Tic Disorders

From The Press

● XTics - a gamified intervention for tic disorders developed by our group - Kan 11, April 2025 (Hebrew)
● Gamified Virtual Reality for Rehabilitation - Ynet, December 2024 (Hebrew)
● Empathies, Brain, and the Moving Image - Workshop Program, March 2023
● Neurocinematics - Globes, March 2015 (Hebrew); Page 1, Page 2

Highlight Publications

Lerner, Yulia*, Gal Raz*, Miki Bloch, Michael Krasnoshtein, Michal Tevet, Talma Hendler, Oren Tene. "Empathy-related abnormalities among women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder: clinical and functional magnetic resonance imaging study". BJPsych Open 10.5 (2024):e138.

Rotstein, Michael S.*, Sharon Zimmerman‐Brenner*, Shiri Davidovitch, Yael Ben‐Haim, Yuval Koryto, Romi Sion, Einat Rubinstein, Meshi Djerassi, Nitzan Lubiniaker, Tammy Pilowsky Peleg, Tamar Steinberg, Yael Leitner, Gal Raz. "Gamified Closed‐Loop Intervention Enhances Tic Suppression in Children: A Randomized Trial." Movement Disorders (2024) 39: 1310-1322.

Raz, Gal, Shiri Davidovitch, Mor Halevi, Maya Zuckerman, Yael Ben‐Haim, Yuval Koryto, Tamar Steinberg, Yael Leitner, and Michael S. Rotstein. "Impact of movie and video game elements on tic manifestation in children." European Journal of Neurology31.2 (2024): e16120.

Raz, Gal. "Rage against the Empathy Machine Revisited: The Ethics of the Empathic Affordances of Virtual Reality" . Convergence (2022). Preprint link.

Shany, Ofir, Ayam Greental, Gadi Gilam, Daniella Perry, Maya Bleich-Cohen, Moran Ovadia, Avihay Cohen, Gal Raz. "Somatic engagement alters subsequent neurobehavioral correlates of affective mentalizing." Human brain mapping 42.18 (2021): 5846-5861.‏

Fuhrman, Orly, Anabel Eckerling, Naama Friedmann, Ricardo Tarrasch*, Gal Raz*. "The Moving Learner: Object manipulation in virtual reality improves vocabulary learning." Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (2020): 1–12.

Sar-el, Roy, Haggai Sharon, Nitzan Lubianiker, Talma Hendler* and Gal Raz*. "Inducing a functional-pharmacological coupling in the human brain to achieve improved drug effect." Frontiers in Neuroscience-Neuropharmacology 14 (2020): 1036.

Raz, Gal Guy Gurevitch, Tom Vaknin, Araz Aazamy, Iddo Gefen, Stanislaw Grunstein, Gal Azouri, and Noam Goldway. "Electroencephalographic evidence for the involvement of mirror-neuron and error-monitoring related processes in virtual body ownership." NeuroImage (2019): 116351

Raz, Gal, Giancarlo Valente, Michele Svanera, Sergio Benini, and András Bálint Kovács. "A robust neural fingerprint of cinematic shot-scale." Projections 13, no. 3 (2019): 23-52.

Svanera, Michele, Mattia Savardi, Sergio Benini, Alberto Signoroni, Gal Raz, Talma Hendler, Lars Muckli, Rainer Goebel, and Giancarlo Valente. “Transfer learning of deep neural network representations for fMRI decoding.” Journal of Neuroscience Methods328 (2019): 108319.

Raz, Gal. "Virtual reality as an emerging art medium and its immersive affordances." In Noël Shawn Carroll, Laura Di Summa-Knoop, and T.;Loht (editors) The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures, pp. 995-1014. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019.

Hendler, Talma*, Gal Raz*, Solnik Shimrit, Yael Jacob, Roseman Leor, Madah Wahid, Kremer Ilana. Kupchik Mariana, Kotler Moshe, Bleich-cohen Maya. "Social affective context reveals altered network dynamics in schizophrenia patients." Translational psychiatry 8, no. 1 (2018): 29.

Raz, Gal, Michele Svanera, Neomi Singer, Gadi Gilam, Maya Bleich Cohen, Tamar Lin, Roee Admon, Tal Gonen, Avner Thaler, Roni Y. Granot, Rainer Goebel, Sergio Benini, Giancarlo Valente. "Robust inter-subject audiovisual decoding in functional magnetic resonance imaging using high-dimensional regression." NeuroImage 163 (2017): 244-263.

Abraham, Eyal, Gal Raz, Orna Zagoory-Sharon, and Ruth Feldman. "Empathy Networks in the Parental Brain and their Long-Term Effects on Children's Stress Reactivity and Behavior Adaptation." Neuropsychologia (2017).

Young, Christina B., Gal Raz, Daphne Everaerd, Christian F. Beckmann, Indira Tendolkar, Talma Hendler, Guillén Fernández, and Erno J. Hermans. "Dynamic shifts in large-scale brain network balance as a function of arousal." Journal of Neuroscience37.2 (2017): 281-290.

Cohen, Avihay, Nimrod J. Keynan, Gilan Jackont, Nilli Green, Iris Rashap, Ofir Shany, Fred Charles, Marc Cavazza, Talma Hendler, Gal Raz. "Multimodal virtual scenario enhances neurofeedback learning." Frontiers in Robotics and AI 3 (2016): 52.

Raz, Gal*, Lavi Shpigelman*, Yael Jacob, Tal Gonen, Yoav Benjamini, and Talma Hendler. "Psychophysiological whole‐brain network clustering based on connectivity dynamics analysis in naturalistic conditions." Human brain mapping 37.12 (2016): 4654-4672.

Raz, Gal*, Alexandra Touroutoglou*, Gadi Gilam, Christine Wilson-Mendenhall, Tamar Lin, Tal Gonen, Yael Jacob, Shir Atzil, Roee Admon, Adi Maron-Katz, Talma Hendler*, Lisa Feldman Barrett*. "Functional connectivity dynamics during film viewing reveal common networks for different emotional experiences." Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 16.4 (2016): 709-723.

Raz, Gal, and Talma Hendler. "Forking cinematic paths to the self: neurocinematically informed model of empathy in motion pictures." Projections 8.2 (2014): 89-114.

Raz, Gal, Yael Jacob, Tal Gonen, Yonatan Winetraub, Eyal Soreq, Tamar Flash, and Talma Hendler. "Cry for her or cry with her: context-dependent dissociation of two modes of cinematic empathy reflected in network cohesion dynamics." Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 9.1 (2013): 30-38.

Raz, Gal, Yonatan Winetraub, Yael Jacob, Sivan Kinreich, Adi Maron-Katz, Galit Shaham, Ilana Podlipsky, Gadi Gilam, Eyal Soreq, Talma Hendler, "Portraying emotions at their unfolding: a multilayered approach for probing dynamics of neural networks." Neuroimage 60.2 (2012): 1448-1461.

Jablonka, Eva, and Gal Raz. "Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: prevalence, mechanisms, and implications for the study of heredity and evolution." The Quarterly review of biology 84.2 (2009): 131-176.

Raz, Gal. "Actuality of Banality: Eyal Sivan's The specialist in context." Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 24.1 (2005): 4-21.

* - equal contribution