NEUROPOETICS AS A COGNITIVE RESEARCH AREA: NEUROIMAGING AND EYETRACKING IN STUDIES OF POETRY RECEPTION AND GENERATION

The review discusses a representative set of studies within the new trend in cognitive research known as neuropoetics. Basic premises of this research area are traced, among which of special interest are guiding principles and research questions touched upon in cognitive poetics, a previous attempt to investigate poetry at the junction with science disciplines. A brief overview of neuroimaging methods is provided, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography with registration of event-related potentials (ERP) of the human brain. Studies into neural correlates to the perception of classical British poetry using these methods are discussed, including some attempts to test specific hypotheses about “functional shifts” in William Shakespeareʼs works. As an example of investigating how cultural practices influence the human brain, neuroimaging studies into how reading fiction and poetry impacts the brain correlates of perceiving poetic texts are addressed. A complementary research area involves a local set of experiments studying neural correlates of lyrical improvisation. Last but not least, a number of studies using eyetracking and pupillometry in poetry reading are analyzed. Some results of comparative studies of prose and poetry reading are outlined, together with eyetracking experiments probing into the reception of certain literary techniques (enjambment) and versification elements (rhyme). Some possible prospects for research are proposed.