Posts tagged movies
Articles and news from the latest research reports.
This Is Your Brain On Movies: Neuroscientists Weigh In On The Brain Science of Cinema
In movies, we explore landscapes far removed from our day-to-day lives. Whether experiencing the fantastical adventures of Star Wars or the dramatic throes of The English Patient, movies demand that our brains engage in a complex firing of neurons and cognitive processes. We enter into manipulated worlds where musical scores enhance feeling; where cinematography clues us into details we’d normally gloss over; where, like omniscient beings, we voyeuristically peek into others’ lives and minds; and where we can travel from Marrakech to Mars without ever having left our seat. Movies reflect reality, yet are anything but.
“Movies are highly complex, multidimensional stimuli,” said Uri Hasson, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Princeton University. “Some areas of the brain analyze sound bites, some analyze word context, some the sentence content, music, emotional aspect, color or motion.” Just as many people must come together to work on different elements of a movie’s script, score, visuals or costumes, he explained, so many areas of the brain must also be engaged in processing those disparate elements.
The relatively new field of neurocinematic studies seeks to untangle our neurological experience of film and, in doing so, learn not only the mechanisms behind movie watching but also how movies might teach us more about ourselves.
Schizophrenia in Movies: Don’t Believe Everything You See
FRIDAY, July 13 (HealthDay News) — Movies often stereotype people with schizophrenia as being violent and unpredictable, says a researcher who claims Hollywood dispenses misinformation about symptoms, causes and treatment of this mental illness.
Hollywood portrayals are often inaccurate, misleading, study shows.
For the study, published in the July issue of Psychiatric Services, Patricia Owen of the psychology department at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, reviewed 41 English-language films released between 1990 and 2010 that featured at least one main character with schizophrenia.
Owen found that 83 percent of those characters were portrayed as dangerous or violent to others or themselves. Almost one-third engaged in homicidal behavior, and one-quarter committed suicide, the researcher said.
According to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, the risk of violence is small among people with schizophrenia. But suicide risk is higher than average. About 10 percent, mostly young men, do kill themselves, the agency notes.
Delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, and disorganized speech or thought were displayed by most of the characters, the study author pointed out in a news release from the American Psychiatric Association.
But much more common symptoms of schizophrenia — such as flat affect, lack of speech and lack of motivation — were seen much less frequently.
Although schizophrenia incidence is nearly equal among women and men, almost 80 percent of the characters with schizophrenia were male, the study found.
The review noted, however, the movies did get some characterizations of schizophrenia right. Specifically, about half of the characters had low socioeconomic status, which is consistent with data on the illness. Moreover, about half of the movies depicted or alluded to the use of medication to treat the mental illness. Psychotherapy and group therapy were not portrayed often.
Owen suggested that more research is needed to understand how films influence public perceptions about schizophrenia, and to determine how to increase empathy and understanding.
Films featuring a character with schizophrenia include A Beautiful Mind and Donnie Darko.
Source: DoctorsLounge