Author: Tamir, Diana I.; Bricker, Andrew B.; Dodell-Feder, David; Mitchell, Jason P.
Description: Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals’ social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants read literary passages that differed along two dimensions: (i) vivid vs abstract and (ii) social vs non-social. Analyses revealed distinct subnetworks of the default network respond to the two dimensions of interest: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded preferentially to vivid passages, with or without social content; the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) subnetwork responded preferentially to passages with social and abstract content. Analyses also demonstrated that participants who read fiction most often also showed the strongest social cognition performance. Finally, mediation analysis showed that activity in the dmPFC subnetwork in response to the social content mediated this relation, suggesting that the simulation of social content in fiction plays a role in fiction’s ability to enhance readers’ social cognition.
Subject headings: Adult; Brain; Female; Functional Neuroimaging; Humans; Imagination; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Nerve Net; Reading; Social Perception; Theory of Mind; Young Adult; Default network; Fiction; Functional MRI; Simulation
Publication year: 2016
Journal or book title: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Volume: 11
Issue: 2
Pages: 215-224
Find the full text: https://www.strategian.com/fulltext/Tamir2016.pdf
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Serial number: 4154