Fact vs fiction—how paratextual information shapes our reading processes
Open accessAbstract
Our life is full of stories: some of them depict real-life events and were reported, e.g. in the daily news or in autobiographies, whereas other stories, as often presented to us in movies and novels, are fictional. However, we have only little insights in the neurocognitive processes underlying the reading of factual as compared to fictional contents. We investigated the neurocognitive effects of reading short narratives, labeled to be either factual or fictional. Reading in a factual mode engaged an activation pattern suggesting an action-based reconstruction of the events depicted in a story. This process seems to be past-oriented and leads to shorter reaction times at the behavioral level. In contrast, the brain activation patterns corresponding to reading fiction seem to reflect a constructive simulation of what might have happened. This is in line with studies on imagination of possible past or future events.
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Fictional narratives may enhance individuals' capacity for perspective-taking, a phenomenon closely linked to the brain's mechanisms for constructing and comprehending narrative contexts.
“Moreover, fictional narratives may enhance individuals’ capacity for perspective-taking, a phenomenon closely linked to the brain’s mechanisms for constructing and comprehending narrative contexts (38).”
From Recent developments in bibliotherapy for adolescent depression (2025) · cites this paper as [38]
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- Authors
- Altmann, U., Bohrn, I. C., Lubrich, O., Menninghaus, W., & Jacobs, A. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Bern (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Altmann, Ulrike
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-09-29
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 22-29
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC3871725
- OpenAlex
- W2163608125
- Cited by
- 146
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 124.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Keywords
- narrative reading, narrative comprehension, reaction time, brain activation patterns
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Brain, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Imagination, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Oxygen, Reading, Semantics, Narration
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