Towards Empathic Neurofeedback for Interactive Storytelling

Interactive Narrative is a form of digital entertainment based on AI techniques which support narrative generation and user interaction. Despite recent progress in the field, there is still a lack of unified models integrating narrative generation, user response and interaction. This paper addresses this issue by revisiting existing Interactive Narrative paradigms, granting explicit status to users' disposition towards story characters. We introduce a novel Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) design, which attempts to capture empathy for the main character in a way that is compatible with filmic theories of emotion. Results from two experimental studies with a fully-implemented system demonstrate the effectiveness of a neurofeedback-based approach, showing that subjects can successfully modulate their emotional support for a character who is confronted with challenging situations. A preliminary fMRI analysis also shows activation during user interaction, in regions of the brain associated with emotional control.