A bit of old William Shakespeare could be just the thing to get your
brain tuned up.
Academics at Liverpool University found that reading the works of the
Bard and other classical writers had a beneficial effect on the mind,
by catching the reader's attention and triggering moments of
self-reflection.
Using scanners, they monitored the brain activity of
volunteers as they read pieces by Shakespeare, Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot
and others. They then ''translated'' the texts into more
''straightforward'', modern language and again monitored the readers'
brains as they read the words. Scans showed that the more
''challenging'' prose and poetry set off far more electrical activity in
the brain.
Scientists were able to study the brain activity as readers responded
to each word and noticed how it ''lit up'' as they encountered unusual
words, surprising phrases or difficult sentence structure.
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This ''lighting up'' of the mind lasted longer than the
initial electrical spark, shifting the brain to a higher gear and
encouraging further reading.
Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study with the
university's magnetic resonance centre, will tell a conference this
week: ''Serious literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain. The
research shows the power of literature to shift mental pathways, to
create new thoughts, shapes and connections in the young and the staid
alike.''
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