How Your Brain Hears A Story

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The study

• 2009 – Association of Psychological Science

Components of a story

• Time• References to temporal information• “immediately”

• Cause• Initiations of new causal chains• When something that happened was not caused by something

described previously

• Subject• When the subject of the text changes (character changes)

Components of a story, cont’d

• Space• Changes in the character’s spatial location• E.g. moving from one room to another

• Objects• Changes in characters’ interactions with objects• E.g. picking something up or putting something down

• Goal• When a character initiates a new goal

The Story

• Taken from the book One Boy’s Day

• Described the everyday activities of Raymond, a 7-year-old boy.• Getting up and eating breakfast• Playing with his friends• Performing an English lesson in school• Participating in a music lesson

The Findings

• Each component of the story initiated a neural reaction of the same nature as the physical manifestation of whatever action or concept presented in the narrative.• In other words, the readers experienced the characters’ feelings

and actions in much the same way as they would if they were the character themselves.

The Findings, cont’d

What does this mean?

• Your stories are more powerful than you think

• What you say–the stories you share–will leave a neurological impact on the person you’re speaking with

• Use the following:• Testimonials from patients themselves• Testimonials from your own work and life• Stories of transformation, birth, loss, epiphanies, etc.

• Focus on the strongest story components that you’d like your audience to experience• Time• Objects• Goal• Space

What I look forward to learning…

• Correlations with story components and mental states (i.e. happiness, sadness, excitement)

• How word choice within one particular story component affects the strength of the neurological reaction

• How long the effects of experiencing a story last

Questions/Comments

• Email us at bizpros@synduit.com

• Send in any ideas for topics!