PH
Reading isn't simply recognizing printed words.
When a story describes actions and experiences, some of the brain systems associated with experiencing or understanding those events can become involved.
Researchers studying embodied cognition have investigated how language describing movement, sensation, and actions interacts with perceptual and motor processes.
This helps explain why detailed writing can feel surprisingly vivid despite consisting only of symbols printed on a page.
A novel doesn't physically provide rain, running footsteps, a warm room, or someone's facial E×ρréššion.
Your mind constructs much of that experience from language.
The author provides words; your brain helps build the world.
In that sense, every reader participates in producing the final experience of a story.
© Frontiers in Psychology