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Reading a Novel may trigger your brain
PTI: Reading a book may change your
brain : Scientists have found that reading a novel may change your
brain - for days after going through the book, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the Emory University have detected what may be
biological traces related to this feeling: Actual changes in the brain that
linger, at least for a few days, after reading a novel.
The study focused on the lingering neural effects of reading a
narrative. Twenty-one undergraduate students participated in the experiment,
which was conducted over 19 consecutive days.
All of the study subjects read the same novel, 'Pompeii' - a 2003
thriller by Robert Harris that is based on the real-life eruption of Mount
Vesuvius in ancient Italy.
For the first five days, the participants came in each morning
for a base-line fMRI scan of their brains in a resting state.
Then they were given nine sections of the novel, about 30 pages
each, over a nine-day period. They were asked to read the assigned section in
the evening, and come in the following morning.
After taking a quiz to ensure they had finished the assigned
reading, the participants underwent an fMRI scan of their brain in a
non-reading, resting state.
After completing all nine sections of the novel, the participants
returned for five more mornings to undergo additional scans in a resting state.
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.
"Even though the participants were not actually reading the novel
while they were in the scanner, they retained this heightened connectivity,"
said neuroscientist Gregory Berns, lead author of the study.
"We call that a 'shadow activity,' almost like a muscle memory,"
said Berns.
Heightened connectivity was also seen in the central sulcus of
the brain, the primary sensory motor region of the brain.
( Courtesy:
Indian Express )
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