Mirror and Mentalizing Systems: Fluctuating Activation During Narrative Engagement as a Function of Trait Empathy and Production Techniques

• In Event: Narrative Processing

Abstract

This study is part of a larger research project that examines narrative engagement as a dynamic process unfolding over time. The audience is not always experiencing the narrative world through the eyes of a character, but instead alternates between identification and spectatorship. In the realm of human cognition, this entails fluctuating activation between the mirror and mentalizing systems. This study will utilize fMRI technology, and examine fluctuations between the mirror and mentalizing systems as a function of trait empathy components, varying camera angles, and what skilled filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock termed ‘disparities of knowledge’ between the audience and story characters.

Author

• James G Collier, The Ohio State University