There’s a nascent science out there that tracks how movies affect the brains of audiences. Popularly referred to as neurocinema, it’s when scientists track brain activity and eye movement to see how certain scenes are affecting viewers. PBS Digital Studios released a video that explains the idea behind the science, the methodology of the studies, as well as some conjecture about what this could mean for the future of cinema.
Participants were shown clips from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and some footage of a dog in a park. Depending on what people were watching, varying amounts of their brains were engaged and eyes were tracking in similar spots. This could be the new way to market-test films to see if they are engaging enough of the audience in enough similar ways. Of course, the best results (from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and Alfred Hitchcock Presents) were from those selections where there was heightened emotion and under the direction of a strong filmmaker, whereas subjective mockumentary style comedy and the directionless park footage allowed viewers’ minds to wander.
It’s an interesting look at how, under the right direction or circumstances, films are able to elicit the same neural reactions across the board.