YOUR BRAIN ON NARRATION

Abstract

The study of the brain mechanisms involved in narrative production and comprehension has made significant progress in the last decade. The paper reviews some of the available evidence, focusing on functional imaging studies aimed to assess brain activity in normal subjects, while they listen to narratives or watching movies. The complex brain networks engaged by these complex tasks extend beyond the classical language areas, by involving the right hemisphere and hippocampal structures. These results provide initial insights into the mechanisms involved in narrative cohesion, situation model construction and distinction/integration of narrative elements.

Keywords

• narration
• functional brain imaging
• hippocampus