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Does reading actually change the brain? | Futurity


Does reading actually change the brain Futurity

Source: http://www.futurity.org/reading-novels-l...

After reading a novel, actual changes linger in the brain, at least for a few days, report researchers.

Their findings, that reading a novel may cause changes in resting-state connectivity of the brain that persist, appear in the journal Brain Connectivity.

“Stories shape our lives and in some cases help define a person,” says neuroscientist Gregory Berns, lead author of the study and the director of Emory University’s Center for Neuropolicy. “We want to understand how stories get into your brain, and what they do to it.”

Stashed in: Interconnectedness!, Change, Brain, Awesome, Stories, Books!, life, science, books, Books, Books, Self Improvement, Brain, Neuroscience

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yay books

Stories bounce around our brains like pinballs off bumpers in pinball machines.

Waiting in traffic causes actual changes in the brain. 

A simple  paper cut causes neuro immunological changes for up to 48 hours. 

Writing this post changes the brain. 

The story is not that the brain changes, is that people are unwilling to accept that everything they do causes physical and psychological changes that are constantly changing the system.   

Every action has reactions.

Anything that uses the brain changes the brain.

I suppose then, the question is how do you use your brain to invoke the kind of changes you want to make for yourself:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/04/229190837/want-to-read-others-thoughts-try-reading-literary-fiction

The brain is an intricate feedback loop: It can be used to improve itself!

Does anything actually NOT change the brain?

Arguably a lot of the garbage television I watch just lulls my brain into a state of stasis.

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