Olaf Blanke. Portrait of the Swiss neuroscientist Olaf Blanke with a mannequin used in his experiments. Blank is director of the laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at the EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, and is in charge of research into out-of-body virtual reality. This research uses virtual reality to 'project' subjects into virtual bodies (avatars) or mannequins (seen here). The subject wears a virtual reality helmet, in which an image of the mannequin is projected. The person's body is then stimulated whilst simultaneously seeing the avatar receive the same treatment. After some time, the subject experiences the avatar's body as if it were their own and is able to interact within a virtual environment as if they were actually there. Such research is