Poetry or Music? Your Mind Doesn’t Mind

Groundbreaking research at the University of Exeter shows that reading poetry activates the same part of the brain as listening to music.

Read Shakespeare or blast some tunes? The Tab know what they’d choose…

The scientific findings, using state of the art functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, reveal that reading poetry triggers parts of the brain associated with memory and introspection.

Ever had the ‘shivers down your spine’ feeling? It’s because of an emotional response in the right side of your brain. Typically this was associated with listening to music but due to the recent study it can also be attributed to reading your favourite poetry.

Professor Adam Zeman, a cognitive neurologist from UoE Medical School, led the research. 13 volunteers read both prose and poetry whilst their brain activity was recorded. Professor Zeman says studies such as this will help “us to make psychological, biological, anatomical sense of art.”