Color-coded maps of the brain show the semantic similarities during listening (top) and reading (bottom).
Credit: Fatma Deniz

Too busy or lazy to read Melville’s Moby Dick or Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina? That’s OK. Whether you read the classics, or listen to them instead, the same cognitive and emotional parts of the brain are likely to be stimulated. And now, there’s a map to prove it.

UC Berkeley neuroscientists have created interactive maps that can predict where different categories of words activate the brain. Their latest map is focused on what happens in the brain when you read stories.

Opening the door to inner narratives

The findings, appearing today (Aug. 19) in the Journal of Neuroscience, provide further evidence that different people share similar semantic — or word-meaning — topography, opening yet another door to our inner thoughts and narratives. They also have practical implications for learning and for speech disorders, from dyslexia to aphasia.

“At a time when more people are absorbing information via audiobooks, podcasts and even audio texts, our study shows that, whether they’re listening to or reading the same materials, […]