The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.

Keith Oatley, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Toronto, proposed that reading produces a vivid simulation of reality; just as computer-simulations run on computers.”

Fiction — with its sensual details, imaginative metaphors and attentive descriptions of people and their actions — offers an especially rich replica of what may be, another’s life. Indeed, in one respect novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page — the opportunity to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings.

Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University in Canada, performed an analysis of 86 fMRI studies and concluded that there was substantial overlap in the brain networks used to understand stories and the networks used to navigate interactions with other individuals — in particular, interactions in which we’re trying to figure out the thoughts and feelings of others.. Scientists call this capacity of the brain to construct a map of other people’s intentions “theory of mind.”

Narratives offer a unique opportunity to engage this capacity, as we identify with characters’ longings and frustration, guess at their hidden motives, and track their encounters with friends and enemies, neighbors and lovers.

It is an exercise that hones our real-life social skills

, another body of research suggests. Dr. Oatley and Dr. Mar, in collaboration with several other scientists, reported in two studie that individuals who frequently read fiction seemed to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective. This relationship persisted even after the researchers accounted for the possibility that more empathetic individuals might prefer reading novels.

A 2010 study by Dr. Mar found a similar result in preschool-age children: the more stories they had read to them, the keener their theory of mind — an effect that was also produced by watching movies (but, curiously, not by watching television. Dr. Mar has conjectured that because children often watch TV alone, but go to the movies with their parents, they may experience more “parent-children conversations about mental states” when it comes to films.)

Fiction, Dr. Oatley notes, “is a particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively can be extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh a myriad of interactive instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life.”

These findings will affirm the experience of readers who have felt illuminated and instructed by a novel, who have found themselves comparing a plucky young woman to themselves, or a tiresome complainer to a freind or relative. Reading great literature, it has long been averred, enlarges and improves us as humanbeings. Brain science shows this claim is truer than we imagined.