Comics: Reading Between the Panels

A fascinating look at how comics engage our brains and the storytelling tendencies by using their particular mix of static and dynamic media. Comics, in a sense, are a combination of reading and fluid motion.

And the more simple the art is, the more that people can project themselves onto the characters (part of the reason that comics like XKCD, PhD Comics, and even Peanuts are so popular).

Great stuff from Alex Lockwood for Ph.Detours.

Source: youtube.com

thekidshouldseethis:

Our Story in 1 Minute:

A tapestry of footage tracing the cosmic and biological origins of our species, set to original music. 

So so, so many related videos to dive further into these quick clips from MelodySheep. From the archives: the Big Bang, the moon, atoms, evolution, dinosaurs, nature, animals, culture, architecture, technology and space.

via @mamagotcha.

If you missed this mind-blowing video over the weekend, do check it out, and check out the related videos above. It grabs you by the brain and the heart at the same time, and just reminds you how awesome the story of us really is.

The Neurochemistry of Empathy, Storytelling, and the Dramatic Arc, Animated

Why do some stories connect to our emotions better than others?

Paul Zak, a neuroscientist and behavioral researcher, uses a touching story of a happy young boy and his sad father to explain how storytelling intersects with the brain chemistry behind empathy and distress. The classical story arc, one of the cornerstones of how we weave our tales, actually stimulates specific and predictable regions of the brain and involves some of the neural chemicals we’ve grown to love (cortisol and oxytocin).

This is fascinating. Literature has taught us which story structures work best, and neuroscience illuminates just how our brains latch on to those. Why we connect one to the other so closely remains an open question for now …

(via Brain Pickings)

Source: brainpickings.org

Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters. Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life.

Researchers have long known that the “classical” language regions, like Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, are involved in how the brain interprets written words. What scientists have come to realize in the last few years is that narratives activate many other parts of our brains as well, suggesting why the experience of reading can feel so alive.

[…]

The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.

[…]


The novel, of course, is an unequaled medium for the exploration of human social and emotional life. And there is evidence that just as the brain responds to depictions of smells and textures and movements as if they were the real thing, so it treats the interactions among fictional characters as something like real-life social encounters.

We no longer have to just take iconic writers’ words on the power of fiction. The New York Times’ Annie Murphy Paul explores the neuroscience of your brain on fiction and how narratives offer a way to engage the brain’s capacity to map other people’s intentions, known in psychology as “theory of mind.”

(ᔥexplore-blog)

You Brain, On Fiction.

(via explore-blog)

Listen: Carl Zimmer on parasites, science, death, life, and writing

hanjeanwat:

Do yourself a favor and take the 25 minutes to listen to this. Science writer Carl Zimmer tells a moving personal story that will break your heart - and then unite science and life’s meaning. And there are parasite stories! AND he quotes Ovid. #swoon

The story is part of Story Collider, live science stories. I had the chance to see this one live. Check the schedule and see if the crew is coming to your city! Totally worth it.

Stories told by Carl Zimmer are instant reblogs, and this is no exception.