Watching movies synchronises viewers' brains

When we watch a movie, our brains react to it immediately in a way similar to brains of other people, scientists have found.

When we watch a movie, our brains react to it immediately in a way similar to brains of other people, scientists have found.

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have developed a method fast enough to observe immediate changes in the function of the brain even when watching a movie.

Researchers said by employing movies it was possible to investigate the function of the human brain in experimental conditions that are close to natural.

Traditionally, in neuroscience research, simple stimuli, such as checkerboard patterns or single images, have been used.

Viewing a movie creates multilevel changes in the brain function. Despite the complexity of the stimulus, the elicited brain activity patterns show remarkable similarities across different people - even at the time scale of fractions of seconds.

"The analysis revealed important similarities between brain signals of different people during movie viewing," said researcher Kaisu Lankinen.

"These similar kinds or synchronised signals were found in brain areas that are connected with the early-stage processing of visual stimuli, detection of movement and persons, motor coordination and cognitive functions.

"The results imply that the contents of the movie affected certain brain functions of the subjects in a similar manner," Lankinen said.

So far, studies in this field have mainly been based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, given the superior temporal resolution, within milliseconds, magnetoencephalography (MEG) is able to provide more complete picture of the fast brain processes.

With the help of MEG and new analysis methods, investigation of significantly faster brain processes is possible and it enables detection of brain activity in frequencies higher than before.

In the new analysis, brain imaging was combined with machine-learning methodology, with which signals of a similar form were mined from the brain data.

6 Horror Movie Sets That Were Actually Haunted

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Jennifer Carpenter, the actress who played the titular character in 2005 film "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," reports that her radio would turn itself on in the middle of the night several times while filming the movie. Not only that, but it would also play a section of a Pearl Jam song that recited, "I'm still alive," over and over again. We hope this is just a case of faulty electronics, because that is seriously eerie.

The Omen

Possibly one of the most cursed movie sets ever, cast and crew involved in the original 1976 "The Omen" were plagued with mishaps. Executive producer Mace Neufeld and actor Gregory Peck were both on planes that were struck by lightning (on different occasions). An animal handler was eaten alive by lions and one set location was bombed by the Irish Republican Army. The curse continued after filming stopped; a special effects artist was in a car crash that decapitated his passenger in a manner similar to a character's death in the movie.

Rosemary's Baby

A year after "Rosemary's Baby" was released in 1968, Charles Manson and his crew murdered director Roman Polanski's wife — she was eight months pregnant at the time. That wasn't the only unusual incident surrounding the movie; star Mia Farrow was served with divorce papers while on set. Later, musical score creator Krzysztof Komeda was in a tragic accident (though the details of the event are still debated) that led to brain damage and ultimately death. Producer William Castle was also admitted to the hospital for kidney failure, and it is said that as he was being admitted he cried out, "Rosemary, for God's sake, drop the knife!"

The Exorcist

A studio fire destroyed all the initial sets of the MacNeil residence, which had to be rebuilt. The fire occurred when no one was on set, and has never been fully explained — but it set production back six weeks. A priest was brought in multiple to times to bless filming locations to relieve cast members' fears. Actor Jack MacGowran died of complications from the flu just shy of the films release. Eight other deaths have also been linked to cast and crew involved with the movie.

The Amityville Horror

A few weeks before filming started on the 2005 remake of "The Amityville Horror," a dead body washed up on shore near the set. Even more creepily, actor Ryan Reynolds reported that several crew members began waking up at 3:15 a.m. every night, just like Reynolds' character in the film, who would wake up sensing strange presences in the house. In addition, the real life Kathy Lutz died while the remake was being filmed in 2004.

Poltergeist

Four actors died over the six-year course that it took to film and release the Poltergeist trilogy, and it's rumored that sets were consistently plagued with strange activity. Child star of the series Heather O'Rourke died of cardiac and septic shock just four months before the release of "Poltergeist III." Actor Will Sampson, also a Native American shaman, supposedly blessed the set before dying just a year later of post-operative kidney failure. Many traced the curse on set back to the fact that real human bones had been used as props in the first movie, particularly in the infamous pool scene.

While many have refuted these alleged movie set curses, it's hard to deny that something weird was going on on these six movie sets. Maybe it was just the nervousness of the cast and crew, or maybe the demons that everybody was talking about in the movies were unhappy about being revealed. Either way, you can count us out of filming the next demonic possession movie...

And before I forget, enjoy this naughty pic of the day!



Stay tuned!