LES DIMENSIONS DE LA PRESENCE – The Brain of Presence

THE DIMENSIONS OF PRESENCE

THE DIMENSIONS OF THE BRAIN OF PRESENCE

Social neuroscience explores the biological and neural mechanisms that underlie our behaviors and social relationships—from empathy to cooperation, from attachment to competition. At the heart of this field, a dominant model has emerged: the Social Brain, defined as the set of brain regions involved in social cognition. This model has profoundly transformed neuroscience by showing that our emotions, decisions, and behaviors depend on others. But it starts from an implicit presupposition: sociality begins with interaction—understanding others, interpreting their intentions, communicating, cooperating.

The project The Brain of Presence starts from a question that this model leaves open: what if sociality began before the interaction itself?

Because even before perceiving, interpreting, or cooperating, the brain is already answering a more fundamental question:

1. The biological and evolutionary dimension

What if presence were a property of living things?

Sensitivity to the presence of others predates the brain itself. Some bacteria detect the density of their fellow bacteria and collectively modify their behavior in response—this is quorum sensing, described by Bonnie Bassler and her colleagues, which constitutes one of the oldest forms of response to the presence of others. Similar mechanisms are found in insects, fish, birds, and mammals. In humans, James Coan demonstrated with Social Baseline Theory that the brain treats the presence of others as its default operating condition: being alone is energetically costly, being accompanied is economical. The brain did not invent sensitivity to presence—it inherited it and developed it to an unprecedented level of complexity.

Memory and presence

2. The phenomenological dimension

Before being an object of scientific study, presence is an experience. Some people soothe us; others sharpen our vigilance. We don't think the same way when alone or when observed—an effect documented as early as 1898 by Norman Triplett, and revisited since under the name of social facilitation. But presence isn't always perceptible: more often than not, it's sensed. A noise in the next room, a glimpsed figure, the vague feeling of being observed without being certain—these ordinary situations, where presence remains uncertain, are perhaps more revealing than those where it's immediately apparent. But the phenomenology of presence goes further: Maurice Merleau-Ponty sensed that the perception of others is not an intellectual inference, but an immediate, bodily, pre-reflective grasp. And some absences continue to have an effect long after the other person has left—something that the clinical study of grief and trauma illustrates every day. This dimension explores how presence changes the human experience itself.

3. The developmental dimension

The human brain never develops in isolation. From the very first moments of life, it is built within a world populated by faces, voices, gazes, and presences. John Bowlby's work on attachment, extended by that of Mary Ainsworth, Allan Schore, and numerous researchers in developmental neuroscience, demonstrates that the quality of early presences directly contributes to the organization of the nervous system, stress regulation, the development of emotional and social skills, and the construction of a sense of self. Studies of children in Romanian orphanages have provided a tragic demonstration of the effects that the absence of a stable human presence can have on a developing brain. Conversely, a sufficiently attentive, predictable, and reassuring presence constitutes the environment in which the child gradually learns to feel safe, to understand themselves, and to understand others. Exploring this dimension means exploring how the human brain is built through presence.

4. The clinical dimension

Presence not only contributes to development—its absence, inconsistency, or threatening nature leaves lasting traces. Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory offers a framework for understanding how the nervous system constantly assesses the safety or danger of others' presence—a process he calls neuroception.

This continuous evaluation can malfunction in several ways. The system may undervalue a signal of presence that is nonetheless real—a clue to understanding certain experiences of derealization. Conversely, it may overvalue an insufficient signal—a clue to hypervigilance and certain persecutory experiences. Or it may apply a chronically biased weighting, as in social anxiety. These avenues are not a separate development from the theoretical model; they are its direct clinical extension.

Trauma, anxiety, depression, and dissociation can be reinterpreted as disruptions in these systems of presence detection and response. This interpretation opens up concrete therapeutic perspectives: from EMDR to somatic approaches, it is often the conditions of presence within the therapeutic relationship that make transformation possible.

5. The civilizational dimension

Human beings have never been so connected. And yet, John Cacioppo devoted a significant portion of his research to demonstrating that subjective loneliness—distinct from objective isolation—constitutes a health risk factor comparable to smoking. Digital technologies, telepresence, and artificial intelligence are profoundly altering the conditions under which we meet, learn, and care for one another. Humanoid robots elicit neural responses similar to those induced by human presence—with real effects on cognition and behavior, as shown by CNRS research on robotic social facilitation. Understanding presence thus becomes a way to interpret the most decisive transformations in our societies.

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MANIFEST

THE BIRTH OF AN IDEA

THE SOCIAL BRAIN

THE DIMENSIONS OF PRESENCE

PHENOMENOLOGICAL DIMENSION

BIOLOGICAL DIMENSION

DEVELOPMENTAL DIMENSION

CLINICAL DIMENSION

CIVILIZATIONAL DIMENSION