Examining the role of narratives in neuroscience through a different lens – that of the reader – gives us a new perspective on the impact of reading for pleasure
Storytellers and their audiences have known for millennia that stories enhance emotional development and social cohesion.
However rigorous scientific methods have struggled to prove that school libraries, teacher librarians and school reading programs are helping young people develop academic, social and emotional skills.
Now neuroscience is delivering that proof.
By 2008 neuroscientists had recognised that regions of the brain collectively known as the Default Mode Network (DMN) and were responsible for the processes required in the comprehension of narratives.
Since then naturalistic stimuli, such as stories, have become a popular method for studying the relationship between the DMN and human cognition, inadvertently providing an abundance of evidence identifying the important role of stories in shaping human personality and behaviour.
Yet neuroscience rarely acknowledges the significance of narratives in this relationship, so valuable empirical evidence which supports the pivotal role of stories in child and adolescent development is at risk of being overlooked.
These pages re-examine the role of narratives in neuroscience through a different lens – giving readers a new perspective on the importance of reading for pleasure and introducing them to evidence from 21st century neuroscience which demonstrates:
- The impact of stories on social and emotional development.
- How stories create a growth mindset and safe learning environments, and improve decision making, teamwork, creativity and empathy.
- The role of daydreaming in comprehension.
- How educators can cultivate reading for pleasure amongst their students.
- The differing brain responses to fiction and factual accounts.
Most importantly, these pages show how neuroscience validates what lovers of stories have known instinctively since the dawn of civilisation – that reading fiction can have a beneficial effect on resilience and wellbeing in us all.
Watch…
ASLA Presentation May 2025 (Vimeo)
ASLA Presentation as PDF
References for the presentation
Read More…
Narratives in Neuroscience Part 1 – Introduction
Narratives in Neuroscience Part 2 – Highlights from the research
Narratives in Neuroscience Part 3 – Implications for Education
Read For Life 