As book lovers, we can all appreciate that reading a novel can help inspire and stimulate thinking, but now there is science available to actually prove it.
In a new report from Emory University, researchers revealed that reading a novel heightens the reader’s level of brain activity and these neurological changes last for at least five days after reading. Reading has an effect on muscle memory in the brain, the same way that exercise does on the body.
The Guardian has the story: “The changes were registered in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, as well as the the primary sensory motor region of the brain. Neurons of this region have been associated with tricking the mind into thinking it is doing something it is not, a phenomenon known as grounded cognition – for example, just thinking about running, can activate the neurons associated with the physical act of running.”