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. —The Neuroscience of Your Brain On Fiction
Post was last modified on 18 Mar 2012 10:35 am
When I was working in radio news in the late 1980s, I took a lunch…
We’re drawn to activities that invite us to grow, by trying and trying again, because…
I had a great time playing Hastings in this audio adaptation of a classic Agatha…
On the White House website, there is no official record of about 80% of President…
This is what we have to look forward to, as a torrent of AI-generated slop…