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Suspenseful movies shed light on aging and memory

Published on: Nov 05, 2025

Brock University researchers are using Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Bang! You’re Dead to uncover how aging brains process events and form memories. In the Campbell Neurocognitive Aging Lab, participants aged 18 to 88 watch the suspenseful short while their brain activity is recorded using fMRI and EEG. Professor Karen Campbell, Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging, explains that movies provide a more natural and continuous way to study brain responses than traditional lab tasks.

Their first study, published in Communications Biology, found that the brain moves through distinct neural states as events unfold, but in older adults, these states last longer and shift less sharply — suggesting both a richer grasp of context and potential confusion about event timing.

A second study, in Cerebral Cortex, led by PhD researcher Sarah Henderson in collaboration with Radboud Universiteit, linked these neural state changes to memory performance. Using EEG while participants watched the film, the team found differences in how younger and older adults recalled the sequence of events. Together, the studies show how cinematic storytelling can reveal new insights into the aging brain’s unique rhythm of perception and memory.

Source: https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2025/10/suspenseful-movies-shed-light-on-aging-and-memory/

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