Headquarters, the hippocampus and memory formation: Of course it is simplified for the film, but the core elements are there.
Rather, Headquarters fits much more into the role of the limbic system (brain system thought to regulate emotions). Headquarters instead seems to play a much more modulatory role in Riley, coloring her experiences with emotions, remembering events, recalling events, and inputting emotions into the control panel that then dictates how Riley reacts. In the film, everything is not reliant on Headquarters and Riley can still operate without constant input from Headquarters. I do not think Headquarters was meant to be consciousness. While I do agree Headquarters in the movie does not do a good job at portraying what consciousness likely is, which current research tells us is likely a very distributed process involving many brain regions rather than a central “headquarters”. Steven Novella interprets in his blog post that Headquarters is suppose to be the seat of consciousness and goes on to say why this would not be the case. Enough of the plot, lets dive into the science.ĭr. The little long term memory workers sometimes send up to Headquarters a memory of an annoying chewing gum commercial which gets inadvertently replayed over and over in Riley’s mind. These faded memories are sent to the huge central pit where they eventually turn to dust. Faded memories are shown as grey spheres with little shine relative to robust memories. Little workers depicted as blobs monitor the long term memory reserves and decommission faded memories.
They are sucked out using a vacuum tube and sent out to the book shelves. Each night, when Riley falls asleep, memories are sent out of Headquarters to long term storage. Memories of the events of the day come into headquarters as they happen and are stored there for a short time. Memories could also be called up to Headquarters and replayed to Riley’s consciousness. Any of the five main Emotions or other workers in the brain could pick up a memory sphere and replay it. Memories were depicted as spheres tinted a different color depending on their emotional context (above picture, left wall yellow memories are for Joy, blue for Sadness, etc). Image courtesy of Disney/Pixar.Īs a memory researcher, the portrayal of memories and how they were handled was very interesting. They range from when she was a little child and scored her first goal in hockey by slipping on the ice and accidentally hitting the puck into the goal past her goal keeping father (Riley loves hockey from this moment on) to memories of Honesty and Family. These islands are powered by Core Memories from Headquarters memories so powerful and profound that they shape Riley’s personality. Radiating out of headquarters, attached by what look like glass tubes, are Islands of Core Values floating above the pit. These emotions and control board reside in “Headquarters”, a fancy bubble looking room high above a deep, dark pit surrounded by a never ending plain of book shelf looking things for long term memory storage. With time the control board became more complex, with dozens of button, nobs, switches, dials, and even a socket for screwing in idea light bulbs (seen in the below picture). The control board began as a single button when Riley was a baby, and depending on which emotion touched it, that was the emotion Riley felt. Though there are many emotions, Inside Out settled on the five main emotions of Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger.Įach emotion was its own animated character that could take influence of Riley via a control board. The film centers around five main Emotions in her brain which react to the world around her. The movie follows a young girl named Riley from the day she is born till she is 12 years old. There is a great interview with Dacher Keltner about Inside Out on. This comes as no surprise as the film consulted with two well known psychologists, Paul Ekman and Dacher Keltner while making the film.
I thought the movie was great and accurately ( though not perfect) portrayed much of how the brain functions. The film captivated many complex neuroscience topics and conveyed them for easy understanding for a general audience. Watching the film through the lens of a neuroscientist was very enjoyable. Inside Out is Disney Pixar’s latest film and is already making headlines, with a nearly perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Neuroscience of Disney Pixar’s Inside Out Warning: Minor spoilers if you have not yet seen the movie! Summary of Inside Out:
0 kommentar(er)
