A new study shows howbest horror filmsover the last 100 years influence the neuronal activity of the brain. The Finnish research team depicts this as a reaction to the manipulation of the images. Humans are fascinated by what scares us, be it skydiving, roller coasters, or true crime documentaries.
Neural activity and fright images
While in all films our heroes face a threat to their safety or happiness, in horror films there is a superhuman or supernatural threat that is not easy to explain or combat. The research team from the University of Turku, Finland, investigated why we are drawn to things like entertainment. The researchers first compiled the 100 best and scariest horror films of the past century and how people felt about them.
First, 72% of people report watching at least one horror movie every 6 months. The reasons for this were, in addition to feelings of fear, above all excitement. Watching horror movies was also an excuse to socialize. People perceived the horror, which was psychological in nature and based on real events, to be the scariest and far scarier than what they could actually see.
However, this latter distinction reflects two types of anxiety that people experience. On the one hand is the creeping foreboding that arises when you have the feeling that something is not right. We, on the other hand, get the instinctive reaction we have to the sudden appearance of a monster. This makes us jump out of our skin. This is what the lead investigator, Professor Lauri Nummenmaa from the Turku PET Center, claims.
Different forms of fear
In particular, the researchers wanted to know how the brain deals with fear in response to this complicated and ever-changing environment. The group had people watch a horror movie while they measured neural activity in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner.
During times when anxiety slowly increases, regions of the brain involved in visual and auditory perception become more active as the need to attend to cues of threat in the environment becomes more important. After a sudden shock, brain activity is more pronounced in regions. These are involved in processing emotions, assessing threats and making decisions, enabling rapid response.
However, these regions are in constant communication with sensory regions throughout the film, as if the latter are preparing response networks as a frightening event becomes increasingly likely. That's why our brains are constantly anticipating and preparing us to respond to threats. Horror films expertly use this to heighten our excitement, explains researcher Matthew Hudson.
You can do the studyherefind.
