Work

Reading Stories Activates Neural Representations of Visual and Motor Experiences

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: To understand and remember stories, readers integrate their knowledge of the world with information in the text. Here we present functional neuroimaging evidence that neural systems track changes in the situation described by a story. Different brain regions track different aspects of a story, such as a character's physical location or current goals. Some of these regions mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities. These results support the view that readers understand a story by simulating the events in the story world and updating their simulation when features of that world change.

Source: Psychological Science

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02397.x

Authors: Nicole K. Speer, Jeremy R. Reynolds, Khena M. Swallow, Jeffrey M. Zacks

Institution: Washington University in St. Louis

Language: English

Topic: Action Observation and Synchronization

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health

Award: Neural Architecture of Event Comprehension