Reading Shakespeare has dramatic effect on human brain

[Dover]

Shakespeare uses a linguistic technique known as functional shift that involves, for example using a noun to serve as a verb. Researchers found that this technique allows the brain to understand what a word means before it understands the function of the word within a sentence. This process causes a sudden peak in brain activity and forces the brain to work backwards in order to fully understand what Shakespeare is trying to say.

Professor Philip Davis, from the University's School of English, said: "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.

Professor Neil Roberts, from the University's Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre, (MARIARC), explains: "The effect on the brain is a bit like a magic trick; we know what the trick means but not how it happened. Instead of being confused by this in a negative sense, the brain is positively excited. The brain signature is relatively uneventful when we understand the meaning of a word but when the word changes the grammar of the whole sentence, brain readings suddenly peak. The brain is then forced to retrace its thinking process in order to understand what it is supposed to make of this unusual word." ..cont'd

http://www.physorg.com/news85664210.html

[Fridays Child]

1. I never would have suspicioned that.

:P

[ashling]

2. cool

[pansypoo53219]

3. well, as a dislexic

i always found him easy as pie.
algebra too. shit algebra is so easy.

[EFerrari]

18. Me, too. Poetry and Algebra!

:toast:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Methinks this is quite fascinating

Seeing how many words and phrases we use now came from Shakespeare, an excitement to the brain makes sense.

[Igel]

7. But as soon as the words are lexicalized and

just become part of a person's lexical competence, the effect should stop.

I wonder how verbal context and lexical competition effects affect the results.

[Peace Patriot]

5. That's the mind-boggle of Master Shakespar I always used to video. n/t

[freeplessinseattle]

6. Proof that * did not read "3 Shakespeares" or any at all!

Though maybe someone did suggest to him that it would be a good idea, they might have suspected what this study shows and tried to help improve *'s brain somehow.

[DarkTirade]

8. Unless you read one of his comedies.

Then the effect is less dramatic and more comedic.
Oh... wait... that's not what you're talking about, is it... :)

[The Witch]

9. When I studied history of English-

and we saw how the language came together over the years, Shakespeare was unique in his impact on the language. He changed it and opened up those possibilities for cross-referencing separate metaphors and functions in a really unique way. Others have done it - Whitman is a prime example - but nobody did it like Shakespeare did.

How interesting to see the scientific effects of such things.

[Dover]

10. Shakespeare would make mincemeat of the Rovian word games

flung out like so much slop from their propaganda machine.

The only ones manipulated or enticed by their word games are other reptiles.

[file83]

17. I think Bushisms (Bush saying unpredictable gibberish) has a similar effect...

maybe that explains why he won in 2004 - some people's brains get excited by the challenge of understanding the gibberish coming out of Bush's mouth - so their brains like him.

[bleever]

11. I feel inquisitized.

Perhaps I will find myself intelligenced as this plays out in me.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

12. very cool!

kick! and R

[rman]

13. that's neat

No doubt public speakers can learn a thing or two from this.

[HereSince1628]

14. I suspect for many the heightened brain activity leads to exhaustion

and may be one of the reasons why Shakespeare's play have such a dramatic ability to make readers abandon them for the little yellow and black striped books.

The response of interest to novelty has long been considered to be a bell-shaped curve.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. The best way to study Shakespeare is to watch

his plays being performed, rather than reading them. After all, that is the context in which they were to be experienced. With top-rate actors, the experience is sublime; but you can still get a notion of the power of the pieces by simply reading the play aloud in class-at least that's how we did it when I was in high school in the 60s. But then again, I never abandoned the Bard for those little yellow and black striped books.

[depakid]

16. I'm curious as to what effect iambic pentameter might have

It's not your usual sentence structure... and takes a bit of getting used to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. I believe that any sort of dense and enriched linguistic input

sharpens mental and expressive skills.

One of the major differences between good writers and poor writers is that good writers read the works of other good writers, while poor writers read clichéd crap or, more likely, nothing at all.

[Nevernose]

20. Yes, but "The Tragedy of Coriolanus" sucks ass

I wonder what would happen if a human being were exposed to one of his many GOOD plays?

[brothers in science]

21. the brain is positively excited...

I've always felt the same way reading Shakespeare! Glad to hear it's now a scientific fact! :-)