WEBVTT - Is the Human Brain Hardwired for Poetry?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff Works, Hey, brain stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogel bomb here. Whether it's Alfred Lord Tennyson's Ulysses

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<v Speaker 1>or Maya Angelou's Caged Bird, there's something about reading or

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<v Speaker 1>hearing a great poem that stimulates our minds, moving us

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<v Speaker 1>to ponder the world from new angles and from a

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<v Speaker 1>neuroscientific point of view. That's no accident. In recent years,

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<v Speaker 1>researchers have used fMRI I that's functional magnetic resonance imaging

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<v Speaker 1>and other sophisticated tools to study how the human brain

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<v Speaker 1>reacts to poetry. They've discovered, among other things, that the

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<v Speaker 1>brain seems to be wired to recognize the rhymes and

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<v Speaker 1>rhythms that poets use and to differentiate them from ordinary

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<v Speaker 1>speech or prose. They've also found that contemplating poetic imagery

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<v Speaker 1>and the multiple layers of meanings and poems activates specific

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<v Speaker 1>areas of the brain, some of the same areas that

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<v Speaker 1>help us to interpret our everyday reality. So I mentioned

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<v Speaker 1>that our brains seem wired to recognize poetry. Let's unpack that.

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<v Speaker 1>In a study pub lished in the journal Frontiers of Psychology,

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<v Speaker 1>researchers at the UK's Banger University read an assortment of

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<v Speaker 1>sentences to a group of Welsh speaking subjects. Some of

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<v Speaker 1>the sentences conformed to the intricate poetic construction rules of konkand,

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<v Speaker 1>a traditional form of Welsh poetry, while others did not

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<v Speaker 1>follow those rules. Although the subjects knew as little about

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<v Speaker 1>Koncanada as I know about pronouncing Welsh, they nevertheless categorized

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<v Speaker 1>as good the sentences that followed the rules as compared

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<v Speaker 1>to other sentences. The researchers also hooked up the subjects

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<v Speaker 1>to E e G devices and observed a distinctive burst

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<v Speaker 1>of electrical activity in the subject's brains that occurred in

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<v Speaker 1>the fraction of a second after hearing the last word

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<v Speaker 1>of a poetic line. We spoke with bang Or psychology

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<v Speaker 1>professor Gyum Cheery via email. They said, I believe that

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<v Speaker 1>our results argue for a profoundly intuitive origin of poetry.

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<v Speaker 1>Poetry appears to be built in. It's like a profound intuition.

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<v Speaker 1>Every human being is an unconscious poet. Poetry also seems

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<v Speaker 1>to affect specific areas of the brain, depending upon the

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<v Speaker 1>gree of emotion and the complexity of the language and ideas.

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<v Speaker 1>In a study published in in the Journal of Consciousness Studies.

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<v Speaker 1>Researchers at the UK's University of Exeter had participants lay

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<v Speaker 1>inside an f m R I scanner while they read

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<v Speaker 1>various texts on a screen. The selections ranged from deliberately

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<v Speaker 1>dull prose such as a section from a heating equipment

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<v Speaker 1>installation manual, to passages from novels to samples from various poems,

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<v Speaker 1>a few of which the subjects had identified as their favorites.

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<v Speaker 1>The subjects had to rate the texts on qualities such

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<v Speaker 1>as how much emotion they aroused and how literary or

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<v Speaker 1>difficult to contemplate they were. The researchers found that the

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<v Speaker 1>higher the degree of emotiveness that the subjects assigned to

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<v Speaker 1>a sample, the more activation the scans showed. In areas

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<v Speaker 1>on the right side of the brain, many of the

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<v Speaker 1>same ones identified in a two thousand one study as

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<v Speaker 1>being activated by music that moved listeners to feel chills

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<v Speaker 1>or shivers down their spines. The examples rated as more literary.

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<v Speaker 1>In contrast, lit up areas mostly on the left side

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<v Speaker 1>of the brain, including the basil ganglia, which are involved

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<v Speaker 1>both in regulating movement and processing challenging sentences. The subject's

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<v Speaker 1>favorite poems weakly activated a network in the brain associated

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<v Speaker 1>with reading, but strongly activated the inferior parietal lobes, an

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<v Speaker 1>area associated with recognition. Yet another recent experiment, detailed in

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<v Speaker 1>a article in the neuroscience journal Cortex, University of Liverpool

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<v Speaker 1>researchers used an fMRI I to scan the brains of

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<v Speaker 1>subjects while they read various passages of poetry and prose

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<v Speaker 1>in an effort to find what parts of the brain

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<v Speaker 1>were involved in literary awareness, the capacity to think about

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<v Speaker 1>and find meaning in a complex text. In half of

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<v Speaker 1>the examples, the final line was an unexpected twist that

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<v Speaker 1>Philip Davis, a professor and director of the school's Institute

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<v Speaker 1>of Psychology, Health and Society, refers to as an AHA moment.

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<v Speaker 1>One example William Wordsworth's poem She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways,

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<v Speaker 1>about a recluse who died in seclusion, in which the

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<v Speaker 1>narrator drops a hint that he may have been her

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<v Speaker 1>requited lover. The subjects rated the passages on how poetic

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<v Speaker 1>they seemed and whether or not the last lines led

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<v Speaker 1>them to reappraise the meaning a measure of literary awareness,

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<v Speaker 1>David said in an email. We believe that this is

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<v Speaker 1>the first f m R I that examines the unfolding

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<v Speaker 1>effects of moving from line to line and the consequences

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<v Speaker 1>in terms of what we call literary awareness as compared

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<v Speaker 1>to more automatic and literal minded processing of meaning. The

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<v Speaker 1>poetic work triggered different parts of the brain related to

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<v Speaker 1>non automatic processing of meaning, leading to increased lively activation

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<v Speaker 1>of mind and a simultaneous sense of psychological reward. But

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<v Speaker 1>the research also suggests that reading or listening to poetry

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<v Speaker 1>is useful for something besides just rousing our emotions and

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<v Speaker 1>stimulating our brains. I mean, coffee does that. It seems

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<v Speaker 1>that the same mental skills that we exercise and struggling

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<v Speaker 1>to understand t s. Eliott's The Love Song of j

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<v Speaker 1>Alfred proof Rock i e. Flexible thinking, and the ability

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<v Speaker 1>to ponder multiple meanings also help us to navigate unpredictable

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<v Speaker 1>events and make choices in our everyday lives. Davis said

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<v Speaker 1>the calling into activation of literary awareness may have a

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<v Speaker 1>significant effect in challenging our default mindset. He thinks, in

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<v Speaker 1>other words, that if more people read poetry and god

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<v Speaker 1>accustomed to pondering meaning quote, it would make a difference

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<v Speaker 1>to their capacity to think with more alertness to excite,

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<v Speaker 1>surprise and change. Sounds like a good excuse to revisit

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<v Speaker 1>some of your favorite authors or try a few new

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<v Speaker 1>ones now. Today's episode was written by Patrick Jake Tiger

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other topics that will excite, surprise and change,

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<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet has stuff works dot com.