{"id":256,"date":"2009-02-02T09:37:33","date_gmt":"2009-02-02T16:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=256"},"modified":"2009-02-02T09:37:33","modified_gmt":"2009-02-02T16:37:33","slug":"reading-as-virtual-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=256","title":{"rendered":"Reading as Virtual Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is interesting.\u00a0 Psychologists Nicole Speer and Jeffrey Zacks conducted a study of reading using <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Functional_magnetic_resonance_imaging\" target=\"_blank\">functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 Basically, these researchers used imaging technology to look at what our brains are doing while we read a story.\u00a0 They found that some of the same regions of the brain are active for the reader as would be active for someone actually experiencing the events in the text.\u00a0 In other words, our brains <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/player\/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&amp;t=1&amp;islist=false&amp;id=100109043&amp;m=100109013\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">create simulations<\/span><\/a> of what we&#8217;re reading, a virtual reality of our own making.<\/p>\n<p>Reading really <em>can<\/em> take you someplace else.\u00a0 And it lets you <em>experience<\/em> something you otherwise might not.\u00a0 In some cases (historical fiction, for example), a book is the closest we can get to the real thing.\u00a0 This is something librarians and teachers have been telling young readers for a long time.\u00a0 This is something familiar to anyone who has ever been brought to tears by a book, either of laughter or grief.\u00a0 Anyone who has ever been brought to their feet by a character&#8217;s triumph and victory.\u00a0 Anyone who has ever been reluctant to turn out the light and chills at strange noises in the dark.\u00a0 This is something that anyone who <em>reads<\/em> can relate to.<\/p>\n<p>These findings also suggest that reading about a fictional thing might actually <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/books\/2009\/jan\/30\/reading-nonpassive-causes-physical-simulation-reveals-new-study\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">prepare us for the real deal<\/span><\/a> should we ever encounter it, providing evidence for how profound and transformative the experience of reading can be, perhaps even altering the structure of our brains in a manner similar to the way a real experience would.<\/p>\n<p>Science has shown us that what we read really can become a part of who we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is interesting.\u00a0 Psychologists Nicole Speer and Jeffrey Zacks conducted a study of reading using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).\u00a0 Basically, these researchers used imaging technology to look at what our brains are doing while we read a story.\u00a0 They found that some of the same regions of the brain are active for the reader [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-literacy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mtjQ-48","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2018,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/2018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}