Read You Like a Book
When I read a book, I get so immersed in the lives of the characters, I find myself anxious and on edge even though I know Katniss’ and Peeta’s tragic romantic life have no bearing on my reality. The fact that characters fabricated from mere words can have this effect on us is pretty incredible. Roel Willems and Annabel Nijhof thought so too apparently, as 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). By analyzing the results, Willems and Nijhof determined that the subjects focused most on either the actions of characters or the feelings and intentions of 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. The opposite was true of the subjects that engaged more with the action of the story. This study provides neurological evidence that people have different strengths and preferences when it comes to reading.
Some implications of this study could be using the knowledge of how people engage with literature in the field of education. Now that we know people have distinct preferences with engagement in reading, it may be easier to get students more interested in literature in school if literature courses could be tailored to those needs. This research also offers further insights 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, adding to our understanding of not only how we read books, but also how we process written and oral stories.
-Jacqueline Rocheleau
Sournces:
Rapid agent restores pleasure-seeking ahead of other antidepressant action – Neuroscience News
