Brain Research Quotes

“The desire to convince oneself that writing is at least as alive as life itself, was recently reflected by a New York Times report on brain-scan research which claims that as we read about action in novels the areas of the brain that would be responsible for such action in real life—those that respond to sound, smell, texture, movement, etc.—are activated by words. 'The brain, it seems,' writes the journalist, 'does not make much distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life: in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.'


What nonsense! As if reading about sex or violence in any way prepared us for the experience of its intensity.”
― Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books