An Understanding of Language-Processing with Audiobooks
When I read a book such as the one about the romantic life of Peeta and Katniss, I delve into the lives of the characters so much that I worry about myself because I relate myself to the characters’ fantastical lives. All readers face this and that is incredible. Neuroscientists like Roel Willems and Annabel Nijhof would completely agree. In fact, they recently published a study revealing the neurological effects of listening to audiobooks.
In the experiment, researchers had the subjects listen to chapters of several different audiobooks and recorded their neurological responses using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). According to the results, the subjects focused mostly on either the actions of characters or the feelings and intentions of the characters. In the subjects that reported to prefer empathizing with the characters more, the fMRIs showed heightened activity in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, whereas those that reported enjoying the action aspect of the story more had elevated activity in the motor cortex. Interestingly enough, the subjects that showed higher activation of the anterior medial prefrontal cortex displayed lower activation of the motor cortex when listening to the action parts of the stories. On the contrary, the subjects that engaged more with the actions of the story were applicable. This study provides neurological evidence that people relatively have different strengths and preferences when it comes to reading.
These findings imply this study could be used to know how people engage with literature. If we master what literature people prefer, we might be able to turn literature into a very fun activity. This research also offers further understanding on how we process language. As stated above, it shows that when listening to narration some people focus more on empathizing aspects while others focus more on the action-packed plot. Not only this teaches how we read books, but also how we process written and oral stories.
Source:
The Mentioned Experiment: http://neurosciencenews.com/literature-neuroimaging-psychology-1748/
