The narrative mind: Neurocognitive insights into literary reading

Roel M. Willems

Radboud University Nijmegen & Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen

Abstract: 

Despite that narratives play an important role in our lives, the bulk of what we know about cognitive neuroscience does not concern narrative. Here I will present the outcome of several studies in which we measured on-line processing of literary narratives. Using a variety of techniques (e.g. fMRI, eyetracking) we investigated the influence of mental simulation during narrative comprehension, and participants’ sensitivity to style figures during reading. In general terms I will argue that the empirical study of narrative opens up possibilities for investigating seemingly distant topics such as mental simulation or prediction, in a much more ecologically valid manner than is usually done. Finally, I will show how neuroimaging data collected while participants engage with narratives have several advantages above more traditional kinds of neuroimaging experiments.

Read more: http://www.ru.nl/english/research/vm/healthy-brain/language/ 

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