<p>Good stories can put you in someone else's shoes, figuratively. Now is the time to see what a good novel may do to your brain.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Researchers at Emory University in Georgia, US, have detected what may be biological traces related to actual changes in the brain that linger, at least for a few days, after reading a novel.<br /><br />"Stories shape our lives and in some cases help define a person. We wanted to understand how stories get into your brain, and what they do to it," said neuroscientist Gregory Berns, director of Emory's Centre for Neuropolicy.<br /><br />The Emory study focused on the lingering neural effects of reading a narrative. Twenty-one Emory undergraduates participated in the experiment conducted over 19 consecutive days.The researchers chose the novel titled "Pompeii" - a 2003 thriller by Robert Harris based on the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius volcano in ancient Italy - for the experiment.<br /><br />The researchers chose the book due to its page-turning plot. "It depicts true events in a fictional and dramatic way. It was important to us that the book had a strong narrative line," said Berns.<br /><br />For the first five days, the participants came in each morning for a base-line functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan of their brains in a resting state, said the study published in the journal "Brain Connectivity".<br /><br />They were given nine sections of the novel, about 30 pages each, over a nine-day period to read the assigned section in the evening and come in the following morning.<br /><br />After finishing the assigned reading, the participants underwent an fMRI scan of their brain in a non-reading, resting state. <br /><br />After completing all nine sections of the novel, the participants returned for five more mornings to undergo additional scans in a resting state.<br /><br />The results showed heightened connectivity in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, on the mornings following the reading assignments, added the study.<br /><br />"Even though the participants were not actually reading the novel while they were in the scanner, they retained this heightened connectivity. We call that a 'shadow activity,' almost like a muscle memory," said co-author Kristina Blaine from the Centre for Neuropolicy.<br /><br />"The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist," said Berns.</p>
<p>Good stories can put you in someone else's shoes, figuratively. Now is the time to see what a good novel may do to your brain.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Researchers at Emory University in Georgia, US, have detected what may be biological traces related to actual changes in the brain that linger, at least for a few days, after reading a novel.<br /><br />"Stories shape our lives and in some cases help define a person. We wanted to understand how stories get into your brain, and what they do to it," said neuroscientist Gregory Berns, director of Emory's Centre for Neuropolicy.<br /><br />The Emory study focused on the lingering neural effects of reading a narrative. Twenty-one Emory undergraduates participated in the experiment conducted over 19 consecutive days.The researchers chose the novel titled "Pompeii" - a 2003 thriller by Robert Harris based on the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius volcano in ancient Italy - for the experiment.<br /><br />The researchers chose the book due to its page-turning plot. "It depicts true events in a fictional and dramatic way. It was important to us that the book had a strong narrative line," said Berns.<br /><br />For the first five days, the participants came in each morning for a base-line functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan of their brains in a resting state, said the study published in the journal "Brain Connectivity".<br /><br />They were given nine sections of the novel, about 30 pages each, over a nine-day period to read the assigned section in the evening and come in the following morning.<br /><br />After finishing the assigned reading, the participants underwent an fMRI scan of their brain in a non-reading, resting state. <br /><br />After completing all nine sections of the novel, the participants returned for five more mornings to undergo additional scans in a resting state.<br /><br />The results showed heightened connectivity in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, on the mornings following the reading assignments, added the study.<br /><br />"Even though the participants were not actually reading the novel while they were in the scanner, they retained this heightened connectivity. We call that a 'shadow activity,' almost like a muscle memory," said co-author Kristina Blaine from the Centre for Neuropolicy.<br /><br />"The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist," said Berns.</p>