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  1. Reading a suspenseful literary text activates brain areas related to social cognition and predictive inference

    Stories can elicit powerful emotions. A key emotional response to narrative plots (e.g., novels, movies, etc.) is suspense. Suspense appears to build on basic aspects of human cognition such as processes of expectation, anticipation, and prediction.... more

     

    Stories can elicit powerful emotions. A key emotional response to narrative plots (e.g., novels, movies, etc.) is suspense. Suspense appears to build on basic aspects of human cognition such as processes of expectation, anticipation, and prediction. However, the neural processes underlying emotional experiences of suspense have not been previously investigated. We acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while participants read a suspenseful literary text (E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman") subdivided into short text passages. Individual ratings of experienced suspense obtained after each text passage were found to be related to activation in the medial frontal cortex, bilateral frontal regions (along the inferior frontal sulcus), lateral premotor cortex, as well as posterior temporal and temporo-parietal areas. The results indicate that the emotional experience of suspense depends on brain areas associated with social cognition and predictive inference.

     

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    Content information: free
    Source: CompaRe
    Language: English
    Media type: Article
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 800
    Collection: Max-Planck-Institut für empirische Ästhetik
    Subjects: Spannung; Literatur; Hoffmann, E. T. A.; Funktionelle Kernspintomografie; Präfrontaler Cortex; Erzähltechnik; Gefühl; Affekt
    Rights:

    creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    ;

    info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

  2. Towards a psychological construct of being moved

    The emotional state of being moved, though frequently referred to in both classical rhetoric and current language use, is far from established as a well-defined psychological construct. In a series of three studies, we investigated eliciting... more

     

    The emotional state of being moved, though frequently referred to in both classical rhetoric and current language use, is far from established as a well-defined psychological construct. In a series of three studies, we investigated eliciting scenarios, emotional ingredients, appraisal patterns, feeling qualities, and the affective signature of being moved and related emotional states. The great majority of the eliciting scenarios can be assigned to significant relationship and critical life events (especially death, birth, marriage, separation, and reunion). Sadness and joy turned out to be the two preeminent emotions involved in episodes of being moved. Both the sad and the joyful variants of being moved showed a coactivation of positive and negative affect and can thus be ranked among the mixed emotions. Moreover, being moved, while featuring only low-to-mid arousal levels, was experienced as an emotional state of high intensity; this applied to responses to fictional artworks no less than to own-life and other real, but media-represented, events. The most distinctive findings regarding cognitive appraisal dimensions were very low ratings for causation of the event by oneself and for having the power to change its outcome, along with very high ratings for appraisals of compatibility with social norms and self-ideals. Putting together the characteristics identified and discussed throughout the three studies, the paper ends with a sketch of a psychological construct of being moved.

     

    Export to reference management software
    Content information: free
    Source: CompaRe
    Language: English
    Media type: Article
    Format: Online
    DDC Categories: 800
    Collection: Max-Planck-Institut für empirische Ästhetik
    Subjects: Neurobiologie; Einfühlung; Trauer; Freude
    Rights:

    creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    ;

    info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess