Neurocinematics: The Neuroscience of Film

Abstract

This article describes a new method for assessing the effect of a given film on viewers' brain activity. Brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during free viewing of films, and inter-subject correlation analysis (ISC) was used to assess similarities in the spatiotemporal responses across viewers' brains during movie watching. Our results demonstrate that some films can exert considerable control over brain activity and eye movements. However, this was not the case for all types of motion picture sequences, and the level of control over viewers' brain activity differed as a function of movie content, editing, and directing style. We propose that ISC may be useful to film studies by providing a quantitative neuroscientific assessment of the impact of different styles of filmmaking on viewers' brains, and a valuable method for the film industry to better assess its products. Finally, we suggest that this method brings together two separate and largely unrelated disciplines, cognitive neuroscience and film studies, and may open the way for a new interdisciplinary field of "neurocinematic" studies.

Emerging methods for conceptual modelling in neuroimaging

“…There is an increased use of "naturalistic" and "ecologically valid" tasks, which try to engage participants and elicit brain activity in a more realistic way, e.g. through the use of film (Hasson et al 2008) or stories (Brennan et al 2012). These paradigms also enable more realistic and comprehensive models of language processing: for instance Wehbe et al (2014a) combines data-driven learning of temporal profiles in fMRI, cross-subject adaptive learning, and multi-strata modelling of word, sentence and narrative level representations and their interaction.…”

The Aesthetic Stance: On the conditions and consequences of becoming a beholder

“…34 Hasson et al (2008). 35 This also challenges the idea of universality in Ramachandron's visual attractor based principles.…”

Cognitive Literary Studies: Current Themes and New Directions

“…Furthermore, neuroimaging research is helping us understand the neural underpinnings of reading stories (see Ferstl and von Cramon 2007; Ferstl, Rinck, and von Cramon 2005;Xu et al 2005;Yarkoni, Speer, and Zacks 2008;Speer et al 2009)5 and viewing films (see Hasson et al 2004Hasson et al , 2008 Kauppi et al 2010; Zacks et al 2010). Additionally, the fMRI research on theory of mind (see Mar and Oatley 2011), an important line of inquiry in the field of social cognitive neuroscience, often makes use of stories and cartoons as part…”

“…She examines the neural substrates of the absence or presence of a writer's muses: writer's block and the drive to write. Aaron Mishara, a neuropsychologist, follows a similar path by looking at how the writing process and literary texts can help to elucidate cognitive and neural mechanisms (this volume), while Irving Massey in The Neural Imagination (2009) focuses on the contributions of neuroscience to aesthetics by offering a comparison between neuroscien tific and humanistic approaches to the study of the arts.Furthermore, neuroimaging research is helping us understand the neural underpinnings of reading stories (see Ferstl and von Cramon 2007; Ferstl, Rinck, and von Cramon 2005;Xu et al 2005;Yarkoni, Speer, and Zacks 2008;Speer et al 2009)5 and viewing films (see Hasson et al 2004Hasson et al , 2008 Kauppi et al 2010; Zacks et al 2010). Additionally, the fMRI research on theory of mind (see Mar and Oatley 2011), an important line of inquiry in the field of social cognitive neuroscience, often makes use of stories and cartoons as part…”