Forking cinematic paths to the self: Neurocinematically informed model of empathy in motion pictures

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Abstract

This article reviews significant developments in affective neuroscience suggesting a refinement of the contemporary theoretical discourse on cinematic empathy. Accumulating evidence in the field points to a philogenetic-ontogenetic-neural boundary separating empathic processes driven by either cognitive or somato-visceral representations of others. Additional evidence suggests that these processes are linked with parasympathetically driven mitigation and proactive sympathetic arousal. It presents empirical findings from a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) film viewing study, which are in line with this theoretical distinction. The findings are discussed in a proposed cinematographic framework of a general dichotomy between eso (inward-directed) and para (side by side with) - dramatic cinematic factors impinging on visceral representations of real-time occurrences or cognitive representations of another's mind, respectively. It demonstrates the significance of this dichotomy in elucidating the unsettling emotional experience elicited by Michael Haneke's Amour.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)89-114
Number of pages26
JournalProjections
Volume8
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2014

Keywords

  • Cinema
  • Embodied simulation
  • Empathy
  • FMRI
  • Neurocinematics
  • Theory of mind

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