A new study suggests that whenever someone watches a movie, the viewer’s brain performs a complex function.
The researchers reported that brain scans showed that regions in 24 different brain networks are active during the movie, depending on what the movie is about and how difficult or easy it is to understand it scene by scene.
There are networks in the brain called executive control networks. These are the areas that are involved in planning, problem-solving and prioritizing information. These networks are activated when the film’s content is more difficult or ambiguous to understand. But during more easily understandable scenes, the brain starts to function in other specific areas.
Dr. Reza Rajmehr, lead researcher and research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that executive control domains are usually activated during difficult tasks when it is more difficult to understand things on a cognitive basis.
He said that when the film scenes are easy to understand, for example if there is a clear conversation taking place, the language-related areas of the brain are active. But in scenes where there is context, meaning and ambiguity in the meaning of the scenes, more cognitive activation is required and so the brain switches to using general executive control domains.
