Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators’ offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects’ adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects’ state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction.

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RÉSUMÉ -Théâtre et (psychology-oncology, art, communication…). So it appears with regard to the obtained results and which will be briefly presented in this text that the theater, far from being that a simple tool of entertainment can participate and to contribute, as Aristote envisaged, to the wellbeing and to the evolution of the city. This text is so, in its way a plea for the active interdisciplinarity. Keywords: Theater. Cognitive Neurosciences. Psychology. Principle of Emergentist Adhesion. Neuroaesthetics. RESUMO -O Teatro e o Princípio de Adesão Emergentista -A recente descoberta de um fenômeno psicológico e neurocognitivo no Laboratoire d'Imagerie et de NeurosciencesCogntivies (Hospital de Estrasburgo) mostra o quanto a aliança entre arte e ciências pode ser uma via de pesquisa das mais fecundas e inesperadas. As aplicações desse estudo sobre o princípio de adesão emergentista são inúmeras (psico-oncologia, arte, comunicação). Assim, os resultados obtidos e que serão brevemente apresentados neste texto demonstram que o teatro, longe de ser somente um simples veículo de entretenimento, pode, como pensava Aristóteles, participar e contribuir ao bem estar e à evolução da comunidade. Este texto constitui, da sua maneira, um pleito pela interdisciplinaridade ativa. Palavras-chave: Teatro. Neurociências Cognitivas. Psicologia. Princípio de Adesão Emergentista. Neuroestética.

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Une récente découverte en psychologie, le principe d’adhésion émergentiste, offre des perspectives inattendues et prometteuses dans le domaine de l’éducation et de la transmission des savoirs. L’auteur présente les éléments techniques et phénoménologiques qui ont permis, dans le cadre d’une expérience en neuro-esthétique, de mettre à jour ce principe psychologique qui pourra s’avérer être un outil fondamental dans le cadre de la neuro-éducation et, plus concrètement, dans la réflexion sur l’évolution nécessaire que doit vivre aujourd’hui la transmission scolaire des savoirs. Dans un second temps, nous réfléchirons à l’élaboration et à l’utilisation de la « mise en scène pédagogique » en se fondant sur les découvertes liées au principe d’adhésion émergentiste. C’est ainsi les premiers pas encourageants, stimulants et prometteurs dans une étude en psychologie expérimentale et en neuro-éducation que propose cet article.