Inside out, the movie from a neuroscientific perspective
With a strong scientific basis, Disney manages to portray "Inside Out" (From the back) the relevance of emotions in memory, decision making and behavior, as well as in the depths of what defines who we are, our personality.
How to forget the wonderful portrait of a life as a couple as illustrated in "UP". With his emphasis on the small and the details, he manages to express in a very accurate way the vicissitudes of life and love between two people. This success of Pixar is also reflected in his latest work "Del Reverso / Inside out".
Upside down, the argument
Riley's father accepts a new job in San Francisco so he moves from the cold and familiarity of Minnesota to a warm and foreign city where pizza carries broccoli and houses do not have as much space for gardens. "Upside down", using as a canvas the brain of Riley, an 11-year-old girl, illustrating in a very didactic and successful way how five primary emotions collaborate in developing her personality.
The age of 11 years is key since it is in this moment in which there is a change of protagonism in the emotional predominance where the joy stops being the emotion of greater presence and gives way to more complex emotions.
The complexity of the protagonists
The protagonists of "Del Revers" are the personification and interaction of the 5 emotions of joy, sadness, anger, fear and displeasure in the "mind control center" of Riley. These characters live with Riley as she navigates a new city and evolves before a sea of emotions such as being new at school, missing an established life that will never be again, being jealous of being replaced, losing friendships, etc. .
The story of the movie
The story behind the film originated in 2009 when Pete Docter, director of the film, began to notice a strong change in the personality of his daughter. As a result of this, Docter consulted with several experts in psychology and neurology to develop a story that explained the emotional behavior responsible for these changes. After doing a lot of research Docter and the screenwriter Michael Arndt got a successful and faithful script to the scientific reality of the emotional world. Since the time of Darwin the existence of primary emotions has been studied and in a generic way six emotions are accepted as basic since they can be observed in multiple cultures and geographic areas, however isolated and small they may be and show the same pattern of expression non verbal. These are: anger, fear, displeasure, joy, sadness and surprise. Surprise does not appear in the film, however this absence does not affect the ingenuity of the script.
From an evolutionary point of view, basic emotions seek to perpetuate the species. It is the combination of these basic emotions where the rest of human emotions arise. At the beginning of Riley's life there is only "joy" and it is she who helps to create the first memory, a memory of joy of the feeling of protection and security to be with their parents. Joy is essential for survival, marking as important that which gives us protection and acceptance. The second emotion that reaches the control center is sadness. While sadness may seem at first sight as impractical, as illustrated in the film, it ends up being the heroine of the control center and helps Riley mature. Then fear appears, the one in charge of being cautious and taking a minute or two to think before acting, like checking if a path is safe or if a fruit is poisonous. The next emotion in appearing is disgust, whose origin is in the avoidance of contact with organisms that cause disease, in the choice of a future partner and the establishment of morality. Finally, there is the fury that highlights the existence of a problem, an injustice and moves to seek a solution.
A neuroscientific perspective
The human brain reaches 90% of adult size at 6 years of age, but it still has a long way to go. Neuroimaging studies show that the adolescent brain is not the same as that of an older child or a half-grown adult brain. The adolescent brain is unique and is characterized by its constant mutability and multiple inter-regional connections. The limbic system, the one in charge of emotions, intensifies during puberty. On the contrary, the pre-frontal cortex, the one in charge of impulse control, does not mature until the age of 25.
These neuronal changes at puberty also reflect changes in personality or "self-concept". Illustrated in a simple and very graphic way, Riley's personality is composed of basic memories: his love for family, hockey, his funny side, his best friend and honesty. These basic memories are modified throughout the film in such a way that his personality is redefined and even evolves increasing his level of complexity and introspection.
During puberty and adolescence there is a redefinition of who we are, it is a moment of knowledge and restoration of what we care about. Likewise, it is in this era where the capacity for abstract reasoning begins. The concepts we handle cease to be so one-dimensional and situations cease to be black and white. The nuances appear and all this can be very confusing. The same emotions begin to merge into complex feelings that we often do not know how to define. Another didactic success of this film is its portrait of this process.
The nature of emotions
It is only natural to think that Riley's brain is governed by emotions, indeed, at 11 years of age, it is in the emotional center where most decisions and thoughts originate. Given the new situation of a move to a new city, the limbic system is the one who takes center stage in the situation. Very in line with many scientific studies, it is at this age where the different basic emotions acquire greater prominence. The film makes a successful sketch of how joy tries to make up for all tension or problem, but their efforts are not always fruitful. It is here that the phenomenon of emotional memory is illustrated. Although a memory can be encoded as positive, that does not mean that by remembering it, this valence can not change when it is now associated with a feeling of nostalgia, loss and mourning.
Disney also exposes correctly as during the dream, the memories and experiences lived during the day become consolidated in the long-term memory. A memory is created and stabilized in a matter of seconds. But it is during the periods of sleep that these are enriched and integrated into the interlacing of memories that we already have. Not all memories are remembered on equal terms. There are a multitude of factors that facilitate the memory and access to different memories, among them is the affection.
Towards the end of the film, sadness takes center stage to be the one who gets Riley to accept his need for family support and recognize his feelings before overwhelming changes. It is in sadness that a large part of our human social nature is found. It is the innate way our being has to ask for help or support from others. His expression encompasses a wide range of non-verbal possibilities and nonetheless very effective, such as crying, sighing, drooping eyes, frowning eyebrows, or shrugging the shoulders and back forward. As a result of this moment a new central memory is created on the family. A sad and happy memory, a fusion that in pain there is understanding and love, that the family is in the good and the bad and that the acceptance and security that defined the family before it still stands, although sometimes it means the inevitability of accepting difficult situations as an unwanted move.
At the end of the film, a year later in Riley's life, it is appreciated how the control center table has changed, how puberty has arrived and how emotions have to adapt to this new system. This very accurate metaphor of what is the gradual development of the pre-frontal area is seen in the confusion and clumsy behavior of the emotions when acting.
While the mind is extremely complex and its operation is still a mystery in many ways, "Del Revers" manages to explain in a funny and endearing way the functioning of memory and emotions. Educational on many levels, "Del Revers" is a film for both adults and children, offering an insight on how memories and emotions play a great role in forming a large part of who we are.
Maite Balda Aspiazu. Psychologist and Master in Cognitive Neurosciences
