How Movies Control Your Brain

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Neuroscience is being used in Hollywood to measure and predict audience reactions. Could your brain direct an Oscar winner?

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References:

Music by Podington Bear:

[danielcox]

This is very interesting. Especially with VR headsets slowly gaining wide adoption, it may be possible in the future that movies will not only respond to our brains stimulation, but also that the viewer will actually see the events through the eyes of the characters. Even more interesting is the idea of movies and video games merging to provide a realistic simulation of a movie. The future is truly exciting

[HASpicer]

I'm a video producer and film maker. This is 100% true, we think in ways to control our audience on a psychology level from color, lighting, camera angles, sounds, and editing.

[ComteEquity]

Absolutely fascinating video. Although I think the researchers may be over stating their case when they say "Our results demonstrate that some films can exert considerable control over brain activity and eye movements.". However I would argue that the activity is a combination of neural functions working at once: mirror neurons simulating activity, affective systems estimating arousal levels (reward, threat) and other systems following narrative. Also eye movements should be roughly the same, particularly when a director prompts an individual to a feature, usually with movement or light. Rather than being controlled these systems are all assessing the environment they are observing, thats what the brain does everyday for everything its just films are designed to be more mentally arousing.

Oh and the differences between say Psycho and Curb Your Enthusiasm in terms of activity can be accounted for by the fact that the later is comedy and therefore more conceptual and less visually based.

Your video is an excellent review of the journal article though.

[lcscrts]

that description of future movies really describes what reality in fact is

[FYTJ]

Oh dear God. Do we really want advertisements to become more effective and emotionally engaging?

[williammanhire]

i really love this channel! it just maybe the best psychology show on YouTube

[-grey]

What were the demographics of the study?
I wonder if there is a novelty resistance response to cinematic immersion. Particularly, if younger more media savvy generations are easier or harder to captivate.

[womacks]

a couple of years off, I know, but - The audio seems very different here (muted?) compared to other videos.

[refreshdaemon]

I glanced at the references and it seems like cursory research since the second publication is the only one that I could find a direct figure of the number of participants (5) in the study. Given the tiny and probably highly limited demographic of the sample size, I'm guessing that the extrapolation made can only be guessed at of only the those that share the subject's demographics. I know I've seen research that people of significantly different cultural backgrounds (East vs. West) often look at images differently, so I'm curious what a larger cross-cultural study might find. Perhaps we might be able to learn what kinds of imagery will impact different demographics in different ways and learn a little more about how different environments can shape our perceptions--and entertainment interests--differently.

[rynnuniko]

Is the music from 0:55 to 1:00 from Michael Jackson's dangerous while he performed the inlaid moonwalk part?

[jorgeenriquelleras]

thanks this will help me a lot with my homework

[CheckItOutHOODREVIEWS]

Knowing this makes probably will result in me being a better film reviewer.

[Rseyo]

All I know is that my brain is happy everytime I watch braincraft. ^_^

My picks for Oscar would be The Imitation Game and Theory of Everything. ^_^

[warrenscott]

If the movie "It" was trying to control me into fear, "it" failed. I watched it from 12 AM to 2 something and I felt like the movie was trying to insult my intelligence. I have never seen anything on TV that made me feel threatened or personally engaged in the show. That's why my go-to TV genre is comedy - it comes from an objective standpoint (if it is truly funny.) I think I'm too logical for movies (or anything) to control my brain. Since I have Asperger's syndrome, I literally need a completely logical path when learning. Combine an eidetic memory with natural ability (almost requirement) to identify logical fallacies, and you get someone who is very hard to manipulate, and pretty stubborn at times.

[FNHot]

A movie where you direct the story/action .... wow! ... Oh wait, we have those, they're called video games.

[willemvandebeek]

Birdman, Birdman, Birdman... but probably won't win the best picture, because that Oscar usually tends to go to feel-good movies. :-/

On interactive movies; I don't think it won't happen. I watch movies to see the perspective/message of the director and I wouldn't want my thoughts to influence that. Gaming however is starting to become a new artform of storytelling, where I can see this kind of interactivity flourish much better.

[guberization]

Did they do any studies of people watching porn? Are those becoming more interactive as well? Can we control the outcomes in those?

[DhruvGuptaDG]

Did anyone notice the pronunciation of "advertisements"?

[alicomando]

I thought of the science of making movies from long time

It feels like Someone Reads Our Mind

[InsomniacJohn]

Fantastic idea. However I don't see people hooked up to mri do choose the scary or loving moments. It would cost billions to shoot unless it was cgi movies (which would take twenty years to develop the quick response to Develop an scenario to every individual. Or it would be brain scans to forecast better movies until the time where tech' would come around to that desire. It's better not knowing. Shows brilliant by the way

John