Reading Novels Modifies Brain Connectivity: Study

Does a novel shape your thinking? If researchers at Emory University are to be believed, then yes.

The researchers found that reading novels can actually change the brain connectivity, at least for few days.

"Stories shape our lives and in some cases help define a person," neuroscientist Gregory Berns, lead author of the study and the director of Emory University's Center for Neuropolicy, explaine, according to the Washington Post. "We want to understand how stories get into your brain, and what they do to it."

For the study, Berns and the research team examined the brains of 21 Emory undergraduates for 19 consecutive days. The participants were told to read the novel "Pompeii," a 2003 Robert Harris thriller that is based on the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ancient Italy.

The researchers said they chose the book as it has a page-turning story. "It depicts true events in a fictional and dramatic way," Berns said, according to the Telegraph. "It was important to us that the book had a strong narrative line."

The brains of the participants were fMRI scanned in the resting state for first five mornings. They were given nine sections of the novel, about 30 pages each, over a nine-day period.

The researchers asked the participants to read the assigned sections in the evening. Next morning they were questioned about the sections to make sure they read it. After this they underwent an fMRI scan of their brain in a non-reading, resting state.

After they completed reading all the nine sections of the novel, the participants were told to come back for five more mornings and underwent additional scans in a resting state.

The study results showed that the left temporal cortex, the brain region associated with receptivity for language, had increased connectivity.

"Even though the participants were not actually reading the novel while they were in the scanner, they retained this heightened connectivity," Berns said, reported Futurity. "We call that a 'shadow activity,' almost like a muscle memory."

The study is published in the journal Brain Connectivity.