Catch Them By the Tale

Storytelling Rewires Your Brain and Helps Build Community

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF STORYTELLING

Julie M. Rosenzweig, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.Portland State University

Presentation: Catch Them by the Tale: Storytelling Rewires Your Brain and Helps Build Community

Public Library Association13th Annual Conference

Portland, ORMarch 27, 2010

TWO HALVES OF THE WHOLELeft-hemisphere: • logical • cause/effect reasoning• verbal processing (language)• sequential• plans and structures• controls feelings

Right-hemisphere: • attachment processes• non-linear • intense emotion• body sense• social• images, themes, patterns

CORPUS CALLOSUM•Connective body between hemispheres, 200 million nerve fibers.•Transfers information between left and right (interhemipsheric communication).

AMYGDALA “almond”

• Temporal lobes

• Major affective activities, especially fear--fight or flight, self-preservation

• Connected important brain centers, including the neocortex and visual cortex.

• Receives information first, tells you how you feel

• Autism: social behavior interpretation

• Depression

• PTSD

HIPPOCAMPUS“seahorse”

• Temporal lobes • Learning and memory• Converts short term to

permanent memory• Affected by estrogen. • Key structure in

Alzheimer's dementia. • If mood symptoms are

severe, trauma- hippocampus shrinks.

• Makes new neurons.

PREFRONTAL CORTEX (PFC)

• Executive functions (dorsolateral frontal cortex) – Planning– Reasoning – Problem solving

• Moral & social cognitions– Delays/inhibits immediate

reaction to stimuli (orbitofrontal cortex)

– Forecast consequences of current actions on future goals

• Fast thinking• Long-term memories• Injuries create impairment to

social abilities

IMPLICIT MEMORY • Amygdala, right brain

primary• Present at birth• Pre-verbal• Mental models • Encodes emotions,

behavioral patterns, learned habits, perceptions

• Conscious attention not required for encoding

• Recall void of internal sensation remembering

• When activated strong feelings/body sensations

 

EXPLICIT MEMORY• Hippocampus, left brain

primary• Middle of second year• Requires conscious

attention for encoding• Autobiographical: sense of

self & time• Factual• Recall includes internal

sensation of remembering• Sense of self in the past• Creates narratives

Fig. 19-7 - Long-term storage of implicit memory for sensitization involves changes shown in Fig. 19-6 plus changes in protein synthesis that result in formation of new synaptic connections. (Kandel, ER, JH Schwartz and TM Jessell (2000) Principles of Neural Science. New York: McGraw-Hill.)

BRAIN PLASTICITY• The ability of the brain to change

throughout life (rewire).

• Development, injury, trauma.

• Reorganizes: new synaptic connections, new neural pathways.

• New learning creates change.

• Change is environmentally dependent.

• Learning does not have to be within our conscious awareness.

STORYTELLING• “An emergent language of the heart”

(Rudolf Steiner Institute).• Intrinsic and basic form of human

communication. • Telling of stories in an integral and

essential part of the human experience (NSMA).

• Story-telling-story-listening is a multifaceted relationship.

STORIES• Every culture creates stories to make

sense of their world.

• Stories sustain connection between generations.

• Stories pass on wisdom, beliefs, & values.

• Stories can be cautionary tales or inspirational legends.

THE NARRATIVE SELF• We live within and through stories.

– cultural, familial, public, private, invited, intrusive, known, unknown

• Stories facilitate sense-making.

• Stories have are about the past, the present, and the anticipated future.

“Narratives allow us to travel back and forth in time, to create imaginary or alternative realities, to re-interpret the past…because narratives extend the ‘temporary horizon’, they are crucial to the development of a ‘self’, an autobiographical self”(Dautenhahn, 2002).

STORIES &THE RELATIONAL BRAIN• The brain is relational and social.

• Stories are relational. – early attachment experiences--basic blueprint for future

relationships.

• Narrative capacity allows formation & negotiation of social relationships. – empathy, mirror neurons

• “Pre-verbal transactions in narrative format bootstrap a child’s development of social competence and social understanding” (Dautenhahn, 2002).

• Narratives help us cope through providing meaning to interpersonal relationships.

STORY AND MEMORY“Through stories memory is kept alive.”

“Memory anticipates the future.” (Siegel)

• Memories are neural patterns in the brain.• Current neural patterns are matched with prior patterns.• Stories create predictability in our lives.• Memory links present, future, past• Meaning making takes places when the emotional story

is narrated.• Mean making takes place through neural integration. • Coherent narrative.

STORY LISTENING

Story-listeners:• Link plot, sequence, characters to their own

experiences (transactional relationship). • Attribute motivates to characters, experiencing

empathy for them. • Develop a relationship with the teller and the

characters. • Have a shared social-emotional experience with

co-listeners.

POSSIBILITIESStorytelling activities…• Promotes social-emotional development. • Increases empathic capacity. • Enhances meaning-making ability.• Engages learning more effectively. • Creates critical neuro-integration of emotional

intelligence and cognitive abilities. • Develops listening skills.• Supports autobiographical coherence.

CHANGE A BRAINCHANGE A FUTURE

Traditional Storytelling

And now for And now for something something completely completely differentdifferent

Storytelling with CHILDREN:

Build time into storytimes for adults to tell stories to children

Use Story Starters as part of children’s programs

Offer craft programs that support telling stories

Storytelling with TEENS:

Host Poetry Slams or DIY storytelling night for teens

Use ice breakers at Teen Council and book group meetings

Pay attention to local school projects

Digital storytelling

Storytelling with ADULTS:

Host DIY storytelling nights with a centralized theme

Use ice breakers at book group meetings

Host a Moth-style StorySlam http://www.themoth.org/storyslams

Storytelling and the COMMUNITY:

Language exchange groups

Local community organizations

Community Justice

Physical and Mental Health

Storytelling and the COMMUNITY:

Language exchange groups

Local community organizations

Community Justice

Physical and Mental Health

Feeling inspired?

What has worked?

What would you like to try?