Summary: Study reports audiovisual editing causes an increase in activity in visual processing areas, while continuous and orderly editing produces more cognitive processing activity.
Source: UAB.
According to a study conducted by the UAB and the UPO, scene changes diminish a spectator’s blink rate, producing an increase in attention. The results of the study demonstrate that a dynamic and chaotic audiovisual editing causes more activity in the visual processing areas, while continuous and orderly editing produces more cognitive processing activity..
Scene changes inhibit a spectator’s blink rate, thus increasing their attention. It also produces a flow of brain activities from the occipital lobe towards the frontal lobe. These are the conclusions reached by researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Pablo de Olavide University, Sevilla. The study, recently publishd in the journal Neuroscience, deals with what happens after the scene changes from a triple approach: frequency in blinking, electric activity in the brain and functional connectivity associated with the brain.
The research also concluded that the editing style influences a spectator’s perception. Scene changes presented in a dynamic and chaotic style, such as video-clips, produce more activity in the visual processing areas when compared to more continuous and orderly scene changes. Likewise, the activity in frontal areas in charge of more complex processes is superior when the editing style is more continuous and orderly.
After analysing brain synchronisation associated with scene changes, researchers concluded that the active brain networks are more intence after a scene change than before. From the point of view of synchronisation, there is no difference associated with the editing style.
Previous studies conducted by the same team had demonstrated that the editing style affected the blink rate of spectators. In this new paper, researchers conducted a detailed analysis of what occurs in the immediate second after a scene changes according to the editing style.
Participating in the research were professionals from Ràdio Televisió Espanyola (RTVE), coordinated by the Institut RTVE. The research was developed by Celia Andreu-Sánchez and Miguel Ángel Martín-Pascual from the Neuro-Com Group of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and by Agnès Gruart and José María Delgado-García from the Neuroscience Unit of the Pablo de Olavide University, Sevilla.
Source: Celia Andreu-Sánchez – UAB
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Neuro-Com (UAB) and Neuroscience Unit (UPO).
Original Research: Abstract for “Chaotic and Fast Audiovisuals Increase Attentional Scope but Decrease Conscious Processing” by Celia Andreu-Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Martín-Pascual, Agnès Gruart, and José María Delgado-Garcíacin Neuroscience. Published October 24 2018.
doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.10.025
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]UAB”Dynamic Audiovisuals Increase Spectator Attention, But Inhibit Conscious Processing.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 12 November 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/conscious-proccessing-audiovisual-attention-10181/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]UAB(2018, November 12). Dynamic Audiovisuals Increase Spectator Attention, But Inhibit Conscious Processing. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved November 12, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/conscious-proccessing-audiovisual-attention-10181/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]UAB”Dynamic Audiovisuals Increase Spectator Attention, But Inhibit Conscious Processing.” https://neurosciencenews.com/conscious-proccessing-audiovisual-attention-10181/ (accessed November 12, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Abstract
Chaotic and Fast Audiovisuals Increase Attentional Scope but Decrease Conscious Processing
Audiovisual cuts involve spatial, temporal, and action narrative leaps. They can even change the meaning of the narrative through film editing. Many cuts are not consciously perceived, others are, just as we perceive or not the changes in real events. In this paper, we analyze the effects of cuts and different editing styles on 36 subjects, using electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques and the projection of stimuli with different audiovisual style of edition but the same narrative. Eyeblinks, event-related potentials (ERPs), EEG spectral power and disturbances, and the functional and effective connectivity before and after the cuts were analyzed. Cuts decreased blink frequency in the first second following them. Cuts also caused an increase of the alpha rhythm, with a cortical evolution from visual toward rostral areas. There were marked differences between a video-clip editing style, with greater activities evoked in visual areas, and the classic continuous style of editing, which presented greater activities in the frontal zones. This was reflected by differences in the theta rhythm between 200 and 400 ms, in visual and frontal zones, and can be connected to the different demands that each style of edition makes on working memory and conscious processing after cutting. Also, at the time of cuts, the causality between visual, somatosensory, and frontal networks is altered in any editing style. Our findings suggest that cuts affect media perception and chaotic and fast audiovisuals increase attentional scope but decrease conscious processing.
