Baltic NeuroCine konverents

The 3rd International Baltic NeuroCine conference 2026

Dates: Friday April 24th and Saturday April 25th, 2026

Location: Tallinn University, Estonia

Cognitive neuroscience studies have provided evidence for the plasticity of the brain’s functional networks in the cases of professional expertise, such as with dancers [1], musicians [2], and filmmakers [3]. During their professional practice, filmmakers are argued to develop a type of embodied, enactive authorship [4,5]. Such perceptual professionalisation [6] builds on experiential heuristics and tacit skills learned by doing, in concert with practical filmmaking conventions passed from experienced filmmakers to novices. However, until recent years, cognitive studies on the creative processes of professional filmmakers have been almost non-existent. While longitudinal studies on films have generated knowledge on narrative structures [7], studies on creative processes of film editors are still rare [8,9]. Examinations of embodied practices of film sound designers are equally rare, with only a few studies examining the artist’s work [10]. Similarly, studies on cinematographers have focused on mainly the technical means of image generation, while the embodied processes of cinematographers in action have only recently been taken into focus in cognitive film studies [11,12].

The 3rd International Baltic NeuroCine conference 2026 encourages presenters who are hands-on filmmakers, screenwriters, sound designers, cinematographers, set designers, directors, actors, among others, as well as film scholars, psychologists, and neuroscientists with a focus on the cognitive processes of creative practices. We trust that the benefits of interdisciplinary studies on tacit skills and experiential heuristics of filmmaking are not limited to the film community but extend beyond it into other domains of creativity and development of professional expertise.