ajessica

The Neuroscience of Your Brain on Fiction (New York Times)

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:57:02 -0500

The Neuroscience of Your Brain on Fiction (New York Times):

via The New York Times:

Amid the squawks and pings of our digital devices, the old-fashioned virtues of reading novels can seem faded, even futile. But new support for the value of fiction is arriving from an unexpected quarter: neuroscience.

Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters. Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life.

Researchers have long known that the “classical” language regions, like Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, are involved in how the brain interprets written words. What scientists have come to realize in the last few years is that narratives activate many other parts of our brains as well, suggesting why the experience of reading can feel so alive. Words like “lavender,” “cinnamon” and “soap,” for example, elicit a response not only from the language-processing areas of our brains, but also those devoted to dealing with smells.

In a 2006 study published in the journal NeuroImage, researchers in Spain asked participants to read words with strong odor associations, along with neutral words, while their brains were being scanned by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. When subjects looked at the Spanish words for “perfume” and “coffee,” their primary olfactory cortex lit up; when they saw the words that mean “chair” and “key,” this region remained dark.

The way the brain handles metaphors has also received extensive study; some scientists have contended that figures of speech like “a rough day” are so familiar that they are treated simply as words and no more. Last month, however, a team of researchers from Emory University reported in Brain & Language that when subjects in their laboratory read a metaphor involving texture, the sensory cortex, responsible for perceiving texture through touch, became active. Metaphors like “The singer had a velvet voice” and “He had leathery hands” roused the sensory cortex, while phrases matched for meaning, like “The singer had a pleasing voice” and “He had strong hands,” did not.

Researchers have discovered that words describing motion also stimulate regions of the brain distinct from language-processing areas. In a study led by the cognitive scientist Véronique Boulenger, of the Laboratory of Language Dynamics in France, the brains of participants were scanned as they read sentences like “John grasped the object” and “Pablo kicked the ball.” The scans revealed activity in the motor cortex, which coordinates the body’s movements. What’s more, this activity was concentrated in one part of the motor cortex when the movement described was arm-related and in another part when the movement concerned the leg.

The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Keith Oatley, an emeritus professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto (and a published novelist), has proposed that reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that “runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.” Fiction — with its redolent details, imaginative metaphors and attentive descriptions of people and their actions — offers an especially rich replica. Indeed, in one respect novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page: the opportunity to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings.

The novel, of course, is an unequaled medium for the exploration of human social and emotional life. And there is evidence that just as the brain responds to depictions of smells and textures and movements as if they were the real thing, so it treats the interactions among fictional characters as something like real-life social encounters.

Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University in Canada, performed an analysis of 86 fMRI studies, published last year in the Annual Review of Psychology, and concluded that there was substantial overlap in the brain networks used to understand stories and the networks used to navigate interactions with other individuals — in particular, interactions in which we’re trying to figure out the thoughts and feelings of others. Scientists call this capacity of the brain to construct a map of other people’s intentions “theory of mind.” Narratives offer a unique opportunity to engage this capacity, as we identify with characters’ longings and frustrations, guess at their hidden motives and track their encounters with friends and enemies, neighbors and lovers.

It is an exercise that hones our real-life social skills, another body of research suggests. Dr. Oatley and Dr. Mar, in collaboration with several other scientists, reported in two studies, published in 2006 and 2009, that individuals who frequently read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective. This relationship persisted even after the researchers accounted for the possibility that more empathetic individuals might prefer reading novels. A 2010 study by Dr. Mar found a similar result in preschool-age children: the more stories they had read to them, the keener their theory of mind — an effect that was also produced by watching movies but, curiously, not by watching television. (Dr. Mar has conjectured that because children often watch TV alone, but go to the movies with their parents, they may experience more “parent-children conversations about mental states” when it comes to films.)

Fiction, Dr. Oatley notes, “is a particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively is extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh up myriad interacting instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life.”

These findings will affirm the experience of readers who have felt illuminated and instructed by a novel, who have found themselves comparing a plucky young woman to Elizabeth Bennet or a tiresome pedant to Edward Casaubon. Reading great literature, it has long been averred, enlarges and improves us as human beings. Brain science shows this claim is truer than we imagined.

Annie Murphy Paul is the author, most recently, of “Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives.”

Photo

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:31:26 -0600

Photo

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:31:04 -0600

theotherjen: It’s the best day of the year! TREAT YO SELF

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:19:37 -0600

theotherjen:

It’s the best day of the year!

TREAT YO SELF

keebs: fuckyeahdisneysongs: fuckyeahdisneysongs: Come Little...

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:02:50 -0500

keebs:

fuckyeahdisneysongs:

fuckyeahdisneysongs:

Come Little Children - Hocus Pocus

We might fail at driving in the snow, here in the south. Also, I...

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:36:00 -0600

We might fail at driving in the snow, here in the south.

Also, I had the day off work (yay working at a school!) and wanted to take the time to get some research done for a paper at the campus library. I got kicked out and told to go home b/c campus was closing. Campus hasn’t been closed in like 7 years.

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell Old videos are old

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:12:04 -0500

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell

Old videos are old

sudden wave of exhaustion.

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:47:47 -0500

fishy:

I’m just dying for a nap… but no can do. Dinner with friends in half an hour (they feed me every few weeks; it’s nice), and then the gym in time for Lost. But, god, what I wouldn’t do to just curl up in bed right now. I’m so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Don’t do it! I gave in to the temptation yesterday and what was suppoused to be 30 minute nap ended up being a 5 hour sleep D:

theres an onion draw bitch - lauren

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:30:03 -0500

theres an onion draw bitch - lauren

a guy at the bar was talking about tumblr so i had to tumbl...

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:37:37 -0500

a guy at the bar was talking about tumblr so i had to tumbl something

spoonybard: ajessica: 3lbs to go. I DIDNT SEE THIS AT FIRST OMG...

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:00:56 -0600

spoonybard:

ajessica:

3lbs to go.

I DIDNT SEE THIS AT FIRST OMG OMG OMG OMG

If you come to cville soon you can has some.

thedailywhat: KC Green. KC Green is good stuff

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:57:46 -0600

thedailywhat:

KC Green.

KC Green is good stuff

stalk: Best book ever? Yes!

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:53:04 -0600

stalk:

Best book ever?

Yes!

indierawk: The Clash - Rudie Can’t Fail.(unfailingly brought to...

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:28:59 -0600

indierawk:

The Clash - Rudie Can’t Fail.
(unfailingly brought to you by: ramblinginsomniac)

The Clash never fails to get an auto-reblog. Conversely, Rudy Huxtable can’t fail her geometry class otherwise Dr. Cliff Huxtable will slap her.

hawque: Help me decide my dinner: I could do corn dogs, mac ‘n cheese, ham sandwiches or pb&j....

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:39:33 -0600

hawque:

Help me decide my dinner: I could do corn dogs, mac ‘n cheese, ham sandwiches or pb&j. Everything else is take to work for lunch food.

Corndogs AND mac ‘n cheese

The windows are all open

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:33:14 -0600

and a storm is rolling in. I absolutely love this kind of weather.

3lbs to go.

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:28:35 -0600

3lbs to go.

:D

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:26:12 -0600

Yesterday the principal at the school I work at asked me to come in early today to have a talk. I knew it wasn’t going to be anything bad, but I found myself worrying a little b/c I do have a temp job and the county is doing major budget cuts everywhere. Instead it turns out that my class yesterday had a great evaluation/observation and that he was really proud of me and the teacher I work under. He also said that he had gone ahead and set the foundation for both of us to get rehired next year. It was great hearing that. I really don’t want to go back to 35 hours a week at my other job and now it’s looking like I won’t have to.

reactorboy: robot-heart: via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov Up until...

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:42:06 -0600

reactorboy:

robot-heart:

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Up until about a year ago, I had recurring nightmares about tornadoes. This probably has something to do with the fact that I grew up in tornado alley, and that growing up, my family was forced into an interior closet at least once each spring because of nasty weather. It probably also has something to do with the fact that I am terrified of anything I can’t control.

Same here, growing up I had terrible nightmares about tornadoes. Ranging from one where the sky was filled with a few dozen tornadoes and we were driving in the family car trying to dodge them, to the worst one where a tornado was half-way through ripping apart my home and I was in a struggle trying to keep my Blanky - the tornado had hands and we were in a tug-of-war. I still remember waking from that one so scared that I couldn’t get any screams for my parents out of my mouth.

I love tornado weather. The way the sky turns green is just so neat. I like watching little funnels form in the clouds. I should probably be more worried about them. I’ve seen first hand the aftermath of what they can do, but, they just don’t bother me. I can’t prevent them, so I see little point in giving them much thought besides knowing where I need to go if one is headed in my direction.

I wish whatever was wrong with my throat would either get better or get worse. Better would mean an...

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:34:58 -0600

I wish whatever was wrong with my throat would either get better or get worse. Better would mean an end to the level of pain that could be described as “annoying and irritating.” Worse would mean that I’d be more motivated to go to the doctor and get a stronger drug than Aleve and gargling salt water.

Stop being swollen right lymphnode. You’ve been like that since Saturday morning. It’s annoying :|

I blame the kingpins, jack and cokes, and flaming dr peppers I drank Friday night.