title: Reading a suspenseful literary text activates brain areas related to social cognition and predictive inference.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Cluster "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lehne
authors.affiliation: Cluster "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.affiliation: Institut für Kunst- und Musikwissenschaft, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rohrmeier
authors.affiliation: Cluster "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Winfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Menninghaus
authors.affiliation: Cluster "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion (D. I. N. E.), Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Arthur M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.affiliation: Cluster "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koelsch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult