and being absolutely traumatised when Mufasa - spoiler alert - gets killed by the stampede.

That had a massive profound effect on me

and showed me, like, how much a 2D cinema screen can make you feel so much.

We did a screening of Get Out in 2017.

At the end of the film, there was this massive, rapturous applause in the cinema.

It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

That is such a special and unique thing that only exists in cinemas.

I think that human beings are supposed to go to cinema.

I think it's intrinsic to who we are.

It's something about coming together.

Be around a fire or in front of a cinema screen is just fundamental to what it means to be human.

In the very earliest days of cinema, you would go to see films in really quite strange spaces,

the archways under railway stations, in markets, in shops, often at fairgrounds.

So it was quite a transient thing.

So in the 1920s, the numbers really start to go up.

There's heating, comfortable seats,

you start to buy ice cream.

Suddenly, this is quite a nice thing to go and do.

In Britain during the Second World War, cinemas were closed...

...and then promptly reopened due to a public outcry.

People would risk life and limb to go and see films.

So you would have air raid sirens going off, fire wardens kind of announcing bombs coming,

and people would still sit in the cinema.

So, what happens to us when we're at the cinema?

I think stories are one of the things that makes us fundamentally human.

And as a neuroscientist, I've always been interested in how people experience stories.

How do these stories affect people when they're in audiences?

Professor Joe Devlin's team carried out an experiment to measure exactly how we respond to watching films in groups.

Fifty-one people came together to watch the 2019 adaptation of Aladdin.

We had people in the cinema watching this film.

Then we also had people in my lab at UCL watching the film by themselves.

Participants wore biometric sensors that measured their heart rate, electrodermal activity and body temperature.

What we found is that when you're watching with an audience

there's much stronger emotional reactions than when you're watching it alone.

Participants' heartbeats began to synchronise and match the narrative of the film - rising and falling with the exciting and emotional moments in the plot.

When Jasmine and Aladdin kiss for the first time that is the spike in electrodermal activity in the signal,

and electrodermal activity is the strongest indicator of emotional engagement.

Although they were sitting still, for third of the film participants' heart rates entered the "healthy heart rate zone"

- the equivalent of 40 minutes of low-intensity exercise.

Going to the cinema is also good for our minds.

I went to a screening of Singin' in the Rain,

and I remember sitting, going into that screening feeling really quite miserable.

And the film came on.

And by halfway through, I just felt absolutely elevated and so lifted out of myself.

And it's that feeling and it's that moment that I always come back to.

Most of the time when you leave the cinema, I feel, you know, changed in a way,

whether it's challenged or whether I feel empowered

or whether I feel kind of like energised.

There's a feeling that it evokes.

Studies have shown we are 33% more focused when watching on the big screen vs small screen.

You're scrolling through your phone, you've got the radio, you've got the TV.

You're constantly being shouted at by different voices.

And unless you can immerse yourself in that one story,

you're not going to be transported in the way that cinema intends to transport you.

The lights go out, my phone's off and I'm just so focused on what I'm watching.

Going to the cinema is good for the community

We live in quite an individualistic culture

and I think whenever we can come together,

whether it's a music concert, whether it's a boxing match or whatever,

there's almost this ability to move as one, to think as one, to feel as one.

One of the great powers of cinema is that it's the means by which we tell each other about ourselves

and it's a means by which we develop our empathy muscle

which is like crucial to becoming better people and making the world a better place.

When we cry during films, our brains release oxytocin, a hormone associated with feelings of empathy and compassion.

I remember seeing Black Panther and just the energy in there...

You're in a room full of strangers, but all of you are going through the exact same experience at the same time.

And I think there's a kind of sacred bond there.

But not everyone's been able to enjoy the experience of going to the cinema,

and that's not just due to rising ticket prices.

Cinemas haven't always been totally accessible to everyone.

And that's a really important thing for us to think about in terms of people's wellbeing.

Decades ago, cinemas were not necessarily wheelchair accessible.

Now, there are laws in place that mean they certainly should be.

There are also initiatives such as baby and autism-friendly screenings that are helping to make cinema-going accessible to more people.

But now that audiences can access the latest films, games, and even VR directly from their homes, do we still need cinemas?

Covid really reminded us of how much we need each other,

of how much we are social animals,

and of how it is different watching a film on your own, on your laptop

than going to the cinema and watching it in darkness surrounded by strangers

who are miraculously experiencing the same thing as you at the same time.

I suppose that at some point they might be superseded by an even cooler way to give us a story, 3D holograms or something.

But the idea that we would stop getting together as audiences to watch a story as a group,

I can't see that ever disappearing as long as there are humans.

Cinema is the place where humans go to be reminded of what it is to be human.