Researchers have suggested that reading a novel can trigger actual measurable changes in the brain that could remain for at least five days after reading. Lead author and the director of Emory’s Center for Neuropolicy Gregory Berns’ study focused on the lingering neural effects of reading a narrative. Twenty-one Emory undergraduates participated in the experiment which was conducted over 19 consecutive days. All of the study subjects read the same novel Pompeii a 2003 thriller by Robert Harris that is based on the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ancient Italy. The researchers chose the book due to its page-turning
