Does Shakespeare stimulate brain activity?

December 18, 2006

By trying to decipher what he was saying:

“The brain reacts to reading a phrase such as’he godded me’ from the tragedy of Coriolanus, in a similar way to putting a jigsaw puzzle together. If it is easy to see which pieces slot together you become bored of the game, but if the pieces don’t appear to fit, when we know they should, the brain becomes excited. By throwing odd words into seemingly normal sentences, Shakespeare surprises the brain and catches it off guard in a manner that produces a sudden burst of activity – a sense of drama created out of the simplest of things.”

Experts believe that this heightened brain activity may be one of the reasons why Shakespeare’s plays have such a dramatic impact on their readers.



Related posts:

  1. Brain surgery in a day
  2. Does mountain climbing damage the brain?
  3. Brain MRIs and crime
  4. Scheduled for knee surgery, had a brain operation instead
  5. A foot grows inside a baby’s brain
  6. Brain scans to measure the effectiveness of Super Bowl ads
  7. Brothers and a brain injury


KevinMD.com on Facebook


  Follow on Twitter   Subscribe



Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post: A doctor sues his former lawyer . . .

Next post: "Business ethics are fundamentally incompatible with traditional medical ethics"

Site Meter