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Neural Oscillations Track Subjective and Pupillary Arousal During Naturalistic Movie Viewing
Magdalena Camenzind1,2, Melanni Nanni-Zepeda1,2, Anna P Giron3,4
1Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
The European Journal of Neuroscience
|May 12, 2026
Summary
This study reveals how emotional arousal dynamically influences brain activity during movie watching. Pupillary responses track sensory input, while subjective arousal reflects deeper cognitive processing and memory recall.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psychology
Background:
- Emotional experiences during media consumption are dynamic and moment-to-moment.
- Previous research utilized fMRI to map emotional fluctuations, but real-time oscillatory dynamics during naturalistic viewing are less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the real-time neural dynamics of emotional arousal during naturalistic movie viewing.
- To differentiate the neural correlates of pupillary and subjective arousal signals.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG), subjective arousal annotations, and pupil diameter were recorded from 25 adults watching a film.
- Inter-subject correlation (ISC) analyses were used to link arousal signals with neural activity.
- Neural networks correlating with pupillary and subjective arousal were mapped.
Main Results:
- Pupillary and subjective arousal showed synchronized behavioral and physiological patterns.
- Both arousal measures correlated with decreased low-frequency power in occipitoparietal regions, indicating sensory gain control.
- High arousal correlated with precuneus desynchronization, suggesting episodic memory retrieval.
- Subjective arousal was linked to semantic networks and theta activity, while pupillary arousal reflected acoustic features.
Conclusions:
- Pupillary arousal primarily reflects bottom-up sensory intensity.
- Subjective arousal captures active cognitive integration, including memory updating and semantic processing.
- Emotional arousal acts as a dynamic control signal coordinating sensory, memory, and evaluative brain networks.
