The Role of Theory of Mind and Empathy in Film Narrative Comprehension

我们如何理解和分享不同角色的经历来遵循电影情节？我们怎么能认同我们以前从未经历过的情况呢？当观看一部电影时，观众不仅必须感知屏幕上正在发生的事情，而且他们还必须从他们所看到的东西中找到意义。与我们解释现实世界中的社会信息的方式类似，我们系统地将心理状态(信念、欲望、意图和情绪)归因于电影角色，这些心理状态通过一种被称为心理理论(Tom)的过程引导他们以某种方式行事。在这样做的过程中，我们经常沉浸在他们的生活和故事中，认同和同情角色的情感经历。考察关于电影认知的社会认知的核心过程，即移情和心理理论，有两个基本原理。第一个理论目标是把电影作为研究对象。具体地说，这个博士项目旨在(A)了解这些心理过程如何有助于我们对复杂的视觉叙事的理解，以及(B)确定电影导演使用哪些电影元素和技术来增强电影叙事--包括人物的意图、信仰和情感--以及它引起观众同理心反应的能力。为了探索这一点，我们将结合行为和功能神经成像方法，包括EEG和fNIRS，在正常参与者中。第二个更具翻译性的目标认为，电影是一种强大而独特的方法，可以解决长期存在的关于心理理论障碍和自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)等疾病的共情问题。与通常使用的社会认知评估任务不同，通常需要参与者从静态的、无背景的图像中识别精神状态，而电影需要以一种动态的方式随着时间的推移推断和更新这些信息，类似于现实生活中的情况。由于其自然主义的社会性，电影认知可以帮助阐明ASD受损的特定社会认知过程。

How do we understand and share the experiences of different characters to follow a movie plot? How can we identify with situations that we have never lived before? When watching a film, viewers must not only perceive whatever is happening on the screen but they must also make sense out of what they are seeing. Similar to how we interpret social information from the real world, we systematically attribute mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions and emotions) to movie characters that lead them to behave in a certain manner through a process known as Theory of Mind (ToM). In doing so, we often immerse ourselves in their lives and stories, identifying and empathising with the characters' emotional experiences. The rationale for examining the core processes of social cognition, i.e. empathy and ToM, regarding film cognition is twofold. A first theoretical objective considers film as the object of study. Specifically, this PhD project aims to (a) understand how these psychological processes contribute to our understanding of complex visual narratives and (b) to identify which cinematographic elements and techniques film directors use to enhance movie narratives -including characters' intentions, beliefs and emotions- and its power to elicit empathetic responses in viewers. To explore this, we will combine behavioural and functional neuroimaging methods, including EEG and fNIRS, in normal participants. A second more translational objective considers film as a powerful and unique method to address long-standing questions regarding the impairment of ToM and empathy in disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD). In contrast to commonly-used sociocognitive assessment tasks that require participants to recognise mental states from static, decontextualized images, cinema requires inferring and updating these in a dynamic way over time, similar to real-life situations. Because of its naturalistic social nature, film cognition could help elucidate the specific sociocognitive processes impaired in ASD.