Movies may be able to synchronize brains in a room or a theater, according to a recent study.
Researchers from Aalto University in Finland developed a method fast enough to observe immediate changes in the function of the brain even when watching a movie. They found that Human brains react to a movie immediately in a way similar to brains of other people, according to a recent study.
Scientists said that using moving images made it 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.
They found that viewing a movie creates multilevel changes in the brain function. 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," researcher Kaisu Lankinen said in a statement. "These similar kinds or synchronized 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."
Lankinen added that the result imply that the contents of the movie affected certain brain functions of the subjects in a similar manner. There was a notable correlation between the brain signals created by films in all test participants.
Prior studies in the field have mainly been based on functional magnetic resonance imaging. However, researchers said that given the superior temporal resolution, within milliseconds, magnetoencephalography is able to provide more complete picture of the fast brain processes. With the help of magnetoencephalography and new analysis methods, investigation of significantly faster brain processes is possible and it enables detection of brain activity in frequencies higher than before.
