If you are interested in participating in our research you can contact Dr Corinne Jola with your details and the subject heading 'Participant Enquiry'

Participants in our TMS study can click here to go to a password-protected questionnaire.

Research Methods

 

Our project is multidisciplinary and employs innovative and in-depth audience research techniques in interaction with neurophysiological research (TMS and fMRI) to address a series of research questions related to the issue of kinesthetic empathy.

Research using fMRI cannot investigate response to live performance, as subjects need to be lying in a scanner, and TMS cannot be used in a theatre context. Neurophysiological research cannot investigate the social context or the lived experience of spectators, about which we know very little, nor explore what meanings spectators attach to their responses.

Therefore in addition to the neurophysiological research we use a range of qualitative audience research techniques, including participatory workshops (where the audience members are self-reflective participants), semi-structured interviews (where participants can influence the parameters of discussions) and creative workshops (where participants will engage in creative writing and drawing/painting).

To facilitate comparison and interaction between the audience and neurophysiological research, we use the same criteria to define spectator categories. Some dance material is being developed for the research (see our Gallery) and the performances/recordings are used in the science experiments. Some subjects participate in both audience research and science parts of the study, and participants in the TMS study are also interviewed.