Why do Hitchcock's movies thrill?

New York, July 27: If the movies by filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, nicknamed "The Master of Suspense," made your palms sweat and pulse race, there is a scientific reason for this. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered how his movies affect audiences' brains. They measured brain activity while people watched clips from Hitchcock and other suspenseful films. During high suspense moments, the brain narrows what people see and focuses their attention on the story. During less suspenseful moments of the film clips, viewers devote more attention to their surroundings. "Many people have a feeling that we get lost in the story while watching a good movie and that the theatre disappears around us," said Matt Bezdek, post-doctoral psychology researcher who led the study. "Now we have brain evidence to support the idea that people are figuratively transported into the narrative," he added.