Reading Literature
The brain is one of the most complex organs in the human body. Until recently, scientists have known very little about how the brain works. With today’s technology scientists have been able to figure out how the brain works; through this research, they have found that the brain is affected by reading in a peculiar way. Most actions activate a specific part of the brain; for example, listening to music will activate the part of the auditory region of the brain. According to Annie Murphy Paul, scientists have found that reading words associated with smells not only activate the language-processing portion of the brain, but also the area that interprets different smells. Knowing this, it seems there is little to know distinction …show more content…
In the article “Your Brain On Fiction,” Annie Murphy Paul claims, “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.” She derives this statement from a study done in Spain where researchers used an fMRI machine to examine brain activity when certain words or phrases were said. In this study, they noticed that the same areas of the brain which activate when actually interacting with one of the five senses also activates when it sees sensory words. Paul quotes Keith Oatley, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, who exclaims that reading is a simulation. One example of reading helping to enrich the mind is found in the documentary Why Reading Matters. Tom is a guy who never saw any point in reading. He did not think that it was productive; he thought he could always find a better use of his time. One day, however, he started to read, and reading has had a dramatic impact on his life. He ended up becoming an award-winning teen writer (Why Reading Matters). Like Tom, reading has inspired many people’s imagination and creativity to …show more content…
According to Martha C. Nussbaum in her article “Education for Profit, Education for Freedom” one “ability of the citizen” is “narrative imagination.” Narrative imagination sounds like imagination derived from reading a narrative of some sort. She describes it as “the ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a person different from oneself, to be an intelligent reader of that person’s story, and to understand the emotions and wishes and desires that someone so placed might have.” So this is not actually dealing with reading books, rather it is about reading and understanding people. Not surprisingly, reading literature can help with this “ability.” Fiction helps open the minds to other people’s viewpoints (Why Reading Matters) because reading produces a simulation in the brain of what it would be like to be in that book (Paul). Dr. Oatley and Dr. Mar worked with other scientists in a study that found that “individuals who frequently read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective” (Paul). This is almost exactly what Nussbaum described as “narrative imagination.” Therefore, by reading one can strengthen their social skills which in turn makes them a better
The brain is one of the most complex organs in the human body. Until recently, scientists have known very little about how the brain works. With today’s technology scientists have been able to figure out how the brain works; through this research, they have found that the brain is affected by reading in a peculiar way. Most actions activate a specific part of the brain; for example, listening to music will activate the part of the auditory region of the brain. According to Annie Murphy Paul, scientists have found that reading words associated with smells not only activate the language-processing portion of the brain, but also the area that interprets different smells. Knowing this, it seems there is little to know distinction …show more content…
In the article “Your Brain On Fiction,” Annie Murphy Paul claims, “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.” She derives this statement from a study done in Spain where researchers used an fMRI machine to examine brain activity when certain words or phrases were said. In this study, they noticed that the same areas of the brain which activate when actually interacting with one of the five senses also activates when it sees sensory words. Paul quotes Keith Oatley, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, who exclaims that reading is a simulation. One example of reading helping to enrich the mind is found in the documentary Why Reading Matters. Tom is a guy who never saw any point in reading. He did not think that it was productive; he thought he could always find a better use of his time. One day, however, he started to read, and reading has had a dramatic impact on his life. He ended up becoming an award-winning teen writer (Why Reading Matters). Like Tom, reading has inspired many people’s imagination and creativity to …show more content…
According to Martha C. Nussbaum in her article “Education for Profit, Education for Freedom” one “ability of the citizen” is “narrative imagination.” Narrative imagination sounds like imagination derived from reading a narrative of some sort. She describes it as “the ability to think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a person different from oneself, to be an intelligent reader of that person’s story, and to understand the emotions and wishes and desires that someone so placed might have.” So this is not actually dealing with reading books, rather it is about reading and understanding people. Not surprisingly, reading literature can help with this “ability.” Fiction helps open the minds to other people’s viewpoints (Why Reading Matters) because reading produces a simulation in the brain of what it would be like to be in that book (Paul). Dr. Oatley and Dr. Mar worked with other scientists in a study that found that “individuals who frequently read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective” (Paul). This is almost exactly what Nussbaum described as “narrative imagination.” Therefore, by reading one can strengthen their social skills which in turn makes them a better