Differentiating types of cinematographic shot changes by cut through an EEG power spectral analysis

Films are composed of different sequentially ordered shots limited by cuts, which bound the last frame of the outcoming shot and the first frame of the incoming shot. In turn, film editing is known to impact its aesthetics, and has been widely studied in film theory. The objective of this research was to locate and identify neuronal response patterns that make it possible to differentiate between specific types of shot changes by cut. The analysis was conducted on the neuronal rhythms of the electroencephalogram (EEG) by means of an EEG power spectral analysis. This enabled us to identify changes in neuronal excitation and inhibition based on the type of shot changes by cut. Specifically, we compared the neuronal records to locate the time windows for each electrode and frequency range exhibiting differences for various types of shot changes by cut. We combined this method with the permutation test and Spearman correlation to determine when the time windows for each electrode by frequency band are reacting to the cut event in a correlated manner among the different films. This analysis revealed that the neuronal responses to the cut depend on the variation between shots, rather than solely on the new input. Secondly, the findings allowed us to differentiate between shot changes according to the variation of the shot scale and changes due to the filming angle, or the absence thereof (i.e., cut on axis). The results expand our understanding of viewers’ neurological sensitivity to and comprehension of an important film feature.