A study finds the effect of media professionalism on cognitive neurodynamics

Professionalism in any field requires long-term experience and training. In recent decades, studies have shown that the professionalism of athletes and artists creates differences in brain behavior while performing tasks related to their field of knowledge.

To find out the effects of media professionalism in the brain, a research team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ​​the Instituto Ràdio Televisió Espanyola and the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville conducted a study published in Boundaries in Systems Ignorance in which audio-visual content was provided to a group of media professionals and a control group, with the aims of recording and analyzing brain activity. The study covers what happens to professionals in audio-visual when looking at media work, using a three-pronged approach: eye level, brain electrical activity and functional connectivity.

Researchers argued that audio-visual cuts have a greater impact on media professionals, generating a decrease in their eye level, while not affecting non-audio cues. professionals in the same way when they look at those cuts. They also found that the experience of media professionals has a greater effect on brain rhythm in the somatosensory region immediately after cutting. Non-media professionals, however, point to Granger’s very diverse reason for connection compared to their professional peers in the media, whose connection is much more precise in the visual, somatomotor and visual cortex. face areas.

Videos and other audio-visual content are filled with cuts that artificially separate documentary content. Movies can have dozens or hundreds of cuts and yet the audience is not aware of them. Previous studies conducted by the same team of researchers have shown that vision cuts affect the management of the viewer’s attention. In this study, researchers aimed to find out how this effect differs among media professionals. The experience gained through years of producing and working with media content has a long-term impact on how professionals process those content. As society produces and consumes more and more of these types of content, there is interest in discovering what impact the visual perception of these content has on brain activity.

Dr. Celia Andreu-Sánchez, the lead researcher of this study and a member of the Neuro-Com Group at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ​​believes that the results may be of interest to neuro-scientists, since “you know that spending many hours with media working as a professional not only affects visual comprehension, but also brain rhythms as the rhythm about, no doubt of great interest. science.These results include a tool with a very important tool: observatories.We know that working and consuming these content professionally influences behavior the brain, therefore, it seems plausible that the design of consumption strategies for videos may be relevant in several areas of neuro-scientific study “.

Dr. Miguel Ángel Martín-Pascual, of the Instituto Radio Televisión Española and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ​​is also the author of this research published in Boundaries in Systems Ignorance, believing that these results are of paramount importance in the field of professional audiovisual production.

Knowledge of the impact of audiovisual professionalism on its professionals is critical to the development of long-term strategies related to the occupational health of this organization “.

Miguel Ángel Martín-Pascual, Instituto Radio Televisión Española and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

José María Delgado, a researcher at the Department of Neuroscience at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, points out that “this study and others of a similar nature by both of our organizations reveal the extent of unconscious processing. occur in the brain (especially in the non-media) professional group) while watching videos and movies, especially when the material is edited to include very short scenes. However, in some way this unconscious processing can affect, for example, our emotional state: although we do not fully see every scene in the video as a show aggressive interactions, we can detect them from an emotional perspective ”.

This study was developed by the Neuro-Com Research Group of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ​​the Instituto Radio Televisión Española and the Department of Neuroscience of the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville. It was made under the framework of public grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Andalusian Regional Government.