Brain Area Responsible for Identification With Fictional Characters Revealed by Anjanee Sharma on March 16, 2021 at 10:30 PM
Timothy Broom, lead author, said, When they think about a favorite fictional character, it appears similar in one part of the brain as when they are thinking about themselves.
The ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) in the brain shows increased activity when people think about themselves and close friends.
Researchers scanned the brains of 19 self-described fans of the Game of Thrones series with an fMRI while thinking about themselves, nine friends, and nine characters from the series.
An fMRI indirectly measures activity in various parts of the brain through small changes in blood flow. Participants were also asked to report which character they felt closest to and liked the most.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - If you count yourself among those who lose themselves in the lives of fictional characters, scientists now have a better idea of how that happens.
Researchers found that the more immersed people tend to get into becoming a fictional character, the more they use the same part of the brain to think about the character as they do to think about themselves. When they think about a favorite fictional character, it appears similar in one part of the brain as when they are thinking about themselves, said Timothy Broom, lead author of the study and doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.