The motor and sensory cortices, as well as the frontal cortex are all engaged during story creation and processing. These networks are nurtured and solidified by feelings of anticipation of the story's resolution, involving the input of your brain's form of candy, dopamine.
Stories make it easier for our brains to store data for later retrieval. Emotions are a signal to the brain that whatever we are experiencing is important. As a result, the brain pays much more attention and stores the information that is charged with emotion into deeper parts such as the cerebellum.
Summary: A new brain imaging study shows that the hippocampus is the brain's storyteller, connecting separate, distant events into a single narrative. People love stories. We find it easier to remember events when they are part of an overarching narrative.
Stories talk in images, engaging our right brain and triggering our imagination, allowing us to 'see' new worlds and new ways of being. Through the imagination, we become participants in a story. We can step into someone else's shoes, see differently, and increase our empathy for others.
The act of telling stories helps us connect to others, make meaning, organize our lives into a coherent narrative and immerse ourselves in others' tales. While we share stories, we are also improving our mental health and well-being.
When we are being told a story, things change dramatically. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too. If someone tells us about how delicious certain foods were, our sensory cortex lights up.
Stories appeal to our senses and our emotions, not only drawing our attention more easily, but also leaving an impact on us as audiences. This makes storytelling powerful in delivering any message. If you deliver a story right, as evidenced throughout history, it might last a lifetime.
The psychological response to the three neurochemicals—cortisol, oxytocin, and dopamine—that govern great storytelling also influence how we learn, what we believe, what actions we take, and how we interact with others.
To produce Dopamine you need to tell a story that piques interest with a hook or twist. Do this with an interesting question, suspenseful statement, cliffhanger, or plot twist – especially during the beginning of your story.
There are three hormones that are elevated by storytelling – dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins. Understanding more about these hormones helps us understand why storytelling works.
In children, storytelling provides many psychological and educational benefits, such as enhanced imagination to help visualize spoken words, improved vocabulary, and more refined communication skills.
Memories are stored in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, shown in red in this computer illustration. Photo Researchers, Inc. Microscopic nerve cells, (stained green) are connected in dense networks that encode information. Photo Researchers, Inc.
Jennifer Aaker, a marketing professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business says that neuroscience studies show that our brains are wired to better remember stories more than data, facts, and figures.
ave discovered that storytelling triggers a chemical reaction in the human brain that creates emotional responses and action. When people get wrapped up in a story, their brains produce a neurochemical called oxytocin that makes them want to act like the people in the story.
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values.
Listen to their stories and listen again. Stories are a powerful therapeutic tool that open a unique window to the inner and outer worlds of children and young people. Stories facilitate greater connection to self and to others, and open up new means of self-expression and meaning making.
Receptors in our brain react to the words we hear or read and our brains either compel us to the story or warn us against it. This is the science of storytelling and knowing how to use it to induce emotion through stories is a great skill.
The power of story is the most important tool in your arsenal. If done well and done correctly, the power of a great story can have a massive effect on the audience and define you as an influencer. It can inspire, enliven and create instant rapport. It can move an audience to take action and it can change lives.
It creates trust and connects us as social and emotional beings. Oxytocin is incredibly important to storytelling because, as we know, stories change our behavior. When our brains encounter a good story, oxytocin is released, causing us to feel empathy.
When you listen to a story, your brain waves actually start to synchronize with those of the storyteller. And reading a narrative activates brain regions involved in deciphering or imagining a person's motives and perspective, research has found.
Storytelling increases oxytocin and positive emotions and decreases cortisol and pain in hospitalized children.
Truly great stories aren't just entertaining; they are emotional journeys that leave their viewers/readers changed in some way, however large or small. In order to accomplish this, the plot must be engineered to contribute organically and integrally to a theme.
Storytellers get excited about their story- Sharing information with enthusiasm can transform the experience an audience has. Great storytellers get past their fears and anxieties and get excited about their story. They get lost in the story and forget about their personal fears and concerns.