Why description?

Read it; feel it

Read the words coffee, camphor or eucalyptus, and the part of your brain most closely related to the sense of smell responds. Read the words bingo, button or bayonette, and they don’t.

The words you choose not only have the power to change your readers’ minds. They can also change their brains, according to new neurological research.

“Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters,” reports Annie Murphy Paul in “Your Brain on Fiction” for The New York Times. “Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life.”

Paul reports on new studies that show how words make us smell scents, feel textures, experience action — even understand others better.

1. The nose knows.

In 2006, researchers in Spain used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine to scan participants’ brains. Then they asked participants to read words describing odors — rancid, resin and oregano, for instance — as well as scent-neutral words, like circle, short and sketch.

When participants read the words describing odors, their primary olfactory cortex — the part of the brain most closely associated with the sense of smell — lit up. When they read the neutral words, this region remained dark.

Bottom line: Readers have a physical response to sensual description. Want to make your readers’ brains light up? Use descriptive language.

Smell what I say

2. Feel the burn.

Three researchers at Emory University used fMRI scans on subjects who read phrases involving texture.

When the subjects read textural metaphors — Life is a bumpy road, for instance, or He is a smooth talker — the sensory cortex, which is responsible for perceiving texture through touch, became active. When they read neutral phrases with the same meaning — Life is a challenging road or He is persuasive — the sensory cortex remained dark.

Look and feel
These texture metaphors lit up the sensory cortex …	… While these literal phrases did not
She drove a hard bargain	She drove a good bargain
That man is oily	That man is untrustworthy
Life is a bumpy road	Life is a challenging road
He is a smooth talker	He is persuasive
This steak is rubbery	This steak is overcooked
He had leathery hands	He had strong hands
She is a bit rough around the edges	She is a bit impolite
He fluffed his lines	He forgot his lines
He is a smooth operator	He is a suave guy
She has a bubbly personality	She has a lively personality
The logic was fuzzy	The logic was vague
She gritted her teeth	She ground her teeth
She decided to rough it	She decided to go without
She is sharp-witted	She is quick-witted
It was a hairy situation	It was a precarious situation
This soda is flat	This soda lacks taste
The wind is sharp	The wind is cold
The operation went smoothly	The operation went successfully
She has steel nerves	She is very calm
That book is full of fluff	That book is full of nonsense
His step was springy	His step was energized
She gave a slick performance	She gave a stellar performance
The clouds were fleecy	The clouds were white
His voice was silky	His voice was calm
His eyes went fuzzy	His eyes went blurry
The punch is spiked	The punch is alcoholic
She bristled with anger	She shouted with anger
He is wet behind the ears	He is a naïve person
He is on a slippery slope	He is getting out of control
She is soft-hearted	She is kind-hearted
He is a greasy politician	He is a corrupt politician
He has an uneven temper	He has an uncertain temper
His face was stony	His face was stoic
He has a slimy personality	He has a deceitful personality
The movie made her mushy	The movie made her cry
His manners are coarse	His manners are rude
She is a bit edgy	She is a bit nervous
He was a crusty old man	He was an irritable old man
She has a dry sense of humor	She has an odd sense of humor
She had a rough day	She had a bad day
He is a softie	He is a pushover
The singer had a velvet voice	The singer had a pleasing voice
He was a slippery customer	He was an awkward customer
His skin prickled with anticipation	His skin went cold with anticipation
She asked a pointed question	She asked a relevant question
She has an abrasive personality	She has an unpleasant personality
Her voice was scratchy	Her voice was hoarse
The criticism was blunt	The criticism was straightforward
The book was mushy	The book was sentimental
He had a rugged face	He had a manly face
It was a polished performance	It was a flawless performance
Her voice was grating	Her voice was harsh
She looked sleek	She looked stylish
His voice was gravelly	His voice was low

3. And … action!

Cognitive scientist Véronique Boulenger of the Laboratory of Language Dynamics in France studied how people’s brains reacted to phrases conveying motion.

When subjects read action verbs like write and throw, their motor cortexes — the part of the brain that coordinates the body’s movements — lit up. When they read nouns like mill and cliff, their motor cortexes stayed dark.

Even more interesting, one part of the motor cortex lit up when subjects read about arm movement, while a different part did when they read about leg action.

4. In character

Just as the brain treats descriptions of physical sensations and action as if they were real, it also treats written interactions among people as if they were real social encounters.

Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University in Canada, analyzed 86 fMRI studies published last year in the Annual Review of Psychology. His conclusion: As we practice understanding people when we read, we become better at understanding them in reality.

Narratives, Paul writes, help us “identify with subjects’ longings and frustrations, guess at their hidden motives and track their encounters with friends and enemies, neighbors and lovers.”

Virtual reality

Bottom line?

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

Keith Oatley, an emeritus professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto and a published novelist, agrees.

Reading, he told Paul, is a reality simulator that “runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.”

For writers, that means that the words you choose aren’t just words. They can also be things, experiences — even emotions. Choose them well.

___

Sources: Annie Murphy Paul, “Your Brain on Fiction,” The New York Times, March 17, 2012

Julio González, Alfonso Barros-Loscertales, Friedemann Pulvermuller, Vanessa Meseguer,  Ana Sanjuán, Vicente Belloch,  and Cesar Avila, “Reading ‘cinnamon’ activates olfactory brain regions,” NeuroImage, May 2006

Simon Lacey, Randall Stilla and K. Sathian, “Metaphorically feeling: Comprehending textural metaphors activates somatosensory cortex,” Brain & Language, Vol. 120, Issue 3, March 2012, pp. 416–421

Véronique Boulenger, Beata Y. Silber, Alice C. Roy, Yves Paulignan, Marc Jeannerod and Tatjana A. Nazir, “Subliminal display of action words interferes with motor planning: A combined EEG and kinematic study,” Journal of Physiology-Paris, Vol. 102, Issues 1–3, January-May 2008, pp. 130-136

Raymond A. Mar, “The Neural Bases of Social Cognition and Story Comprehension,” Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 3, 2011, pp. 103-134