Many will remember at least one treasured book, which seriously influenced their lives. Today, researchers have found "traces" of reading at the biological level. It turns out that some changes in the brain can persist for several days after reading. Such studies were first published in the journal Brain Connectivity.
"The stories create a virtual experience that is quite real for our brain," says Gregory Burns. - "And we want to understand how the text penetrates our brain, and what exactly it does to it."
Christina Blaine and Brandon Pie worked with Burns. They are all employees of the Emory University Center for Neuropolicy Research Center.
The experiment was attended by 25 graduates of Emory University. The experiment itself lasted more than a month. A team of researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to recognize connections in the brain that resulted from reading. Pay attention, we studied connections that have already arisen, and not those that arise in the process of reading. This is the uniqueness of the study.
For the study of the chosen novel "Pompeii", the author - Robert Harris. The reason is an exciting and dramatic plot. In short, we are talking about a city in ancient Italy (Pompey), and about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on it. The main character was outside the city of Pompeii.
He watched the fall of the city from afar. He wanted to return to the city in order to save the woman he loved, but there was no chance. With every minute Vulcan spewed lava more mercilessly. The novel describes a historical fact, - events that occurred several millennia ago. True, the hero himself and his story are fictional.
The first thing the scientists did was to scan the brain of the participants in the experiment in a calm state — before they began to read. The novel was divided into parts - approximately 9 parts of 30 pages. Every nine days the participant was given a new part. He read it in the evening, and the next morning came to the laboratory, so that scientists could scan his brain.
Each time, scientists conducted a quick test to check whether the subjects actually read the text. Then they used MRI to find traces of reading.
The largest number of new compounds was recorded in the left side of the temporal lobe of the brain. This is the area that is responsible for the perception of the language. "Despite the fact that the subjects did not read the text when they were scanned, some parts of the brain continued to be active," says Burns. “We call it shadow activity, it works like muscle memory.”
An increased number of connections was also recorded in the central part of the brain, - in the main sensory-motor plot. The person seemed to feel something even when there were no external stimuli. This phenomenon is well known in the field of sports, when, for example, visualization of running activates the parts of the brain that are responsible for running. That is, the brain is sure that the person is moving. Such visualization is an indispensable part of the training of some athletes.
"Such changes in neurons suggest that the human brain is literally experiencing the same sensations as the main character, for example, running, jumping and even touching," Burns states It turns out that the expression "to be in someone's skin" is not as figurative as it seems.
The most interesting thing is that such "virtual" activity is not just an immediate reaction to the stimulus, but what remains in the brain. That is, a book can literally change a person from the inside.
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