Brain scans reveal how readers get the same thrill of film or real-life experience

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 22:15

A GOOD book is as thrilling as a hair-raising film and just as exciting as a real-life experience, according to new research.

Scientists have discovered that reading an action-packed story produces the same levels of excitement as watching it on screen, or even being there in person.

They discovered that the imagination is as powerful as sight and sound, and can trigger the same "thrill" emotions within the brain as if it was experiencing it first hand.

The study, by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, showed the same parts of the brain "lit-up" when reading or watching the same event.

Neuroscientists asked some participants to read and others to watch similar scenarios, and studied the effects on their brains.

Using MRI scans, they found their anterior insula and frontal operculum areas of the brain – known collectively as the IFO – were stimulated in the same way.

Dr Christian Keysers and his colleague Mbemba Jabbi said the research, which was published this week, was clear evidence of the power of thought.

Dr Keysers said: "We placed our participants in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner to measure their brain activity while we first showed our subject short movie clips of an actor sipping from a cup and then looking disgusted.

"Later on, we asked them to read and imagine short emotional scenarios – for instance, walking along a street, bumping into a reeking, drunken man, who then starts to retch, and realising that some of his vomit had ended up in your own mouth.

"Finally, we measured their brain activity while the participants tasted unpleasant solutions in the scanner.

"This is why books and movies work – they stimulate the area of the brain which is involved in what it really feels like to be disgusted."