Neurocinematics: Watching a movie with your brain?!
Field of Research: Processing natural stimuli
Degree: Bachelor or Master
Project description: Watching a movie engages a wide range of regions across the brain. Interestingly, the structure of the movie is also reflected by our brains as previous studies could show that the change of scenes is detectable from the cortical activation patterns (Bertolero et al., 2017). In a fMRI study, the participants watched sections of a movie and had to evaluate the orientation of certain frames. The initial analysis revealed a network of cortical areas the distinguish between different elements of the movie (Mecklenbrauck & Schubotz, in review). Possible further analysis within the scope of a Bachelor or Master project can include but are not limited to investigating movie features, that are pivotal to the cognitive processing, examining memory processes during the revisiting of specific frames, or testing the effects of subject similarity on the comprehension of the movie (Hasson et al., 2008).
Tasks in the project: Data analysis
Timeframe: anytime
Supervisor(s): Falko Mecklenbrauck
Contact: f_meck01@uni-muenster.de
Key references
Baldassano, C., Chen, J., Zadbood, A., Pillow, J. W., Hasson, U., & Norman, K. A. (2017). Discovering event structure in continuous narrative perception and memory. Neuron, 95(3), 709-721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.06.041
Mecklenbrauck, F. & Schubotz, R. I. (2025, in review). Time Points or Plot Points – Are movies processed according to their temporal duration or their underlying content structure?
Hasson, U., Landesman, O., Knappmeyer, B., Vallines, I., Rubin, N., & Heeger, D. J. (2008). Neurocinematics: The neuroscience of film. Projections, 2(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.3167/proj.2008.020102