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News & ArtsThursday, January 29, 2009
Books Neuroscience Sez: Reading Is Awesome!
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Scientists have used MRI scans to confirm what Reading Rainbow has been saying for years. Reading really does transport you:
Nicole Speer, lead author of this study, says findings demonstrate that reading is by no means a passive exercise. Rather, readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative. Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences. These data are then run through mental simulations using brain regions that closely mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities.
This is fairly huge.
1
There's some great stuff coming out about the brain being stimulated through imagination. This sorta reminds me of mirror neurons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neur…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neur…
6
What's really cool is that reading is something we have to train our brains to do; it's not an innate ability like language. When we teach a kid to read, we are hacking their brain to rewire huge swaths of it permanently, to perform a function it wasn't designed for.
There's a lot of debate about whether the sort of ADHD-style skimming most people do now of electronic "print" (email, blog posts, texting) is anything like reading, as far as benefits go...
There's a lot of debate about whether the sort of ADHD-style skimming most people do now of electronic "print" (email, blog posts, texting) is anything like reading, as far as benefits go...
9
Maybe that Walsch guy really does have an excuse, after all.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
11
Not to get all Mudede on you or anything, but we're always experiencing a mental simulation. Seeing as how our consciousness springs from our brains, not from something external. So. Not surprising. Not even particularly new; we've known about the powers of mental rehearsal for a while. But still cool! :D
13
@10 - hmm, well we did discover the avian-human flu connection through a grant proposal, so maybe the pr0n industry can get by without bailouts if they just use this instead ...
16
This isn't science it's phrenology. Once again fMRI hits the news because it has pictures of the brain. Psychology has known for years (via behavioral data that was actually science cause it was falsifiable) that people bring in personal knowledge when reading and that they simulate all sorts of stuff. The data in no way demonstrate that "reading really does transport you" and there is no fucking way this "is fairly huge." All it shows is that the brain is involved in reading, and depending on what you are reading, different parts of the brain are involved. No shit. It's a con for journalists who don't understand the science, write it up like it's something huge, and then get used to pad CVs (ooooh my research is buzz-worthy).
17
I've always thought something similar. I'd guess it's why most people prefer to watch movies to reading fiction - they'd rather not deal with themselves sometimes.
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