{"id":93,"date":"2014-01-14T12:20:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T12:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/samuelmuggington.com\/wordpress\/?p=93"},"modified":"2014-01-14T17:04:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T17:04:58","slug":"does-reading-fiction-help-your-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/samuelmuggington.com\/wordpress\/?p=93","title":{"rendered":"Does reading fiction help your brain?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently a flurry of articles came out that purport to describe how reading fiction improves the brain.<\/p>\n

Brain Function “Boosted For Days After Reading a Novel”<\/a> from slashdot<\/p>\n

Your brain on fiction from the New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

It would be great if it was possible to measure “brain function” in a simple way and to be able to show that reading a novel causes an improvement in “brain function”. \u00a0Unfortunately reality is not this simple. \u00a0When one is reading a novel time passes. \u00a0Over time, a multitude of intervening variables might influence the dependent variable\/s in question.<\/p>\n

These studies are a perfect example of the limits of science<\/a>. \u00a0Certain phenomena are too complex to fit neatly into a hypothesis or controlled experiment. \u00a0It is obvious to anyone who spends time reading good fiction that it is relaxing and beneficial in many ways. \u00a0For one thing, reading requires a person to carve a substantial amount of time out of each day and this alone might account for some of the benefits from reading.<\/p>\n

In any event, why does there have to be a scientific explanation for something so pleasurable and so human? \u00a0Why do we need to pick it apart and dissect it? \u00a0However, if studies like this do encourage more people to read deeply then that is fine.<\/p>\n

The magic of literature and the other arts is that they are mysterious. \u00a0There are some things in this universe that scientists will never poke, prod or measure. \u00a0Muses are one of these.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently a flurry of articles came out that purport to describe how reading fiction improves the brain. Brain Function “Boosted For Days After Reading a Novel” from slashdot Your brain on fiction from the New York Times It would be great if it was possible to measure “brain function” in a simple way and to … Continue reading Does reading fiction help your brain?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-science"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes reading fiction help your brain? - Samuel Muggington's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/samuelmuggington.com\/wordpress\/?p=93\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does reading fiction help your brain? - Samuel Muggington's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently a flurry of articles came out that purport to describe how reading fiction improves the brain. 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