Neuroscience and Narrative

Abstract

The narrative template is the form into which consciousness populates its memories and assembles a coherent self. A specific brain circuit exists to create and comprehend story. This circuit generates simulations or small stories, mostly about the important people in our lives and about ourselves. A salience network helps us switch between story brain and central-executive function or task mode, in which we get things done. Memory is not stored accurately but more as a skeletal framework with gaps to which we add generic detail upon recall. At each recall, the memory changes in accordance with the demands of the situation in which we find ourselves and is re-stored in that modification. A simple narrative structure characterizes the activity of the default mode in which characters interact sequentially with beliefs and intents (theory of mind) to produce outcomes that are more or less desirable to us. People are fundamentally narrative, whether or not they are conscious of the stories they generate. Memory is fundamentally flawed with gaps that are filled at recall to fit the needs of the situation for which our story is being told. Life may be

A Three-Fold Integrated Perspective on Healthy Development: An Opinion Paper

“…Moving toward the center of the sphere means moving from the more projective dimension of the Narrative Self, related mostly to default mode network activity [ 39 , 40 ], to Minimal Self, in which we are more connected to the present through the body. Being present to oneself is a necessary condition for enhancing awareness of emotions and the ability to regulate them [ 41 ].…”

Abstracts and Their Mysterious In-Betweens: Attuning to the Lacuna of Scholarly Communications

“…Furthermore, The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine (Charon et al, 2017) and contributions from medical sociologists such as Arthur Frank (1995) have been foundational to the discourse. In addressing these and other writings from intersectional perspectives throughout (e.g., Green, 2011; Holmes, 2015; Mehl-Madrona & Mainguy, 2014), the fields of climate change, health, narrative medicine, and the medical humanities can work together on behalf of one of the largest equity challenges for humanity yet to come. By turning to narrative medicine and the medical humanities, we can resituate abstract and faceless exigencies with face-to-face encounters with the individuals whom climate change affects.…”