TY - JOUR
T1 - Fringe dwelling in autobiographical memory
T2 - Writers' perspectives
AU - Prendergast, Julia
AU - Hecq, Dominique
AU - Michael, Rose
AU - Munoz, Gabriella
AU - van Loon, Julienne
AU - WEBB, Jen
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - This essay includes collated contributions from practising writers, participants in a Creative Writing|Neuroimaging Exploratory Study, Ideasthetic Imagining – Mapping the Brain’s Microstates Using Magnetoencephalography (MEG), conducted at Swinburne University (2023, Melbourne, Australia). The study investigates neural activity in participants’ brains while undertaking a creative writing workshop. Participants write imaginatively from short and long-term memory. The research team utilises MEG neuroimaging technology to determine where and how the brain is processing information at distinct stages of the workshop. The creative writing workshop at the heart of the study involves imaginative approaches to life writing, transforming unresolved memories through creative practice. As participants engage in the workshop, the research team measures activity in target regions of the brain. The researchers then analyse the interaction between distinct regions of the brain at various stages. The following essay gathers the voices of the experimental group (practising writers), asking them to reflect upon their experience of writing a long-term memory, as they experienced it at the time and, subsequently, from a perspective other than their own. In this exercise, particular regions of the brain are activated (to a far greater extent) in the experimental group (practising writers) as opposed to the control group (non- writers).
AB - This essay includes collated contributions from practising writers, participants in a Creative Writing|Neuroimaging Exploratory Study, Ideasthetic Imagining – Mapping the Brain’s Microstates Using Magnetoencephalography (MEG), conducted at Swinburne University (2023, Melbourne, Australia). The study investigates neural activity in participants’ brains while undertaking a creative writing workshop. Participants write imaginatively from short and long-term memory. The research team utilises MEG neuroimaging technology to determine where and how the brain is processing information at distinct stages of the workshop. The creative writing workshop at the heart of the study involves imaginative approaches to life writing, transforming unresolved memories through creative practice. As participants engage in the workshop, the research team measures activity in target regions of the brain. The researchers then analyse the interaction between distinct regions of the brain at various stages. The following essay gathers the voices of the experimental group (practising writers), asking them to reflect upon their experience of writing a long-term memory, as they experienced it at the time and, subsequently, from a perspective other than their own. In this exercise, particular regions of the brain are activated (to a far greater extent) in the experimental group (practising writers) as opposed to the control group (non- writers).
KW - creative writing
KW - memory
KW - imagination
KW - Ideasthesia
U2 - 10.52086/001c.129332
DO - 10.52086/001c.129332
M3 - Article
SN - 1327-9556
VL - 29
SP - 1
EP - 24
JO - TEXT: JOURNAL OF WRITING AND WRITING COURSES
JF - TEXT: JOURNAL OF WRITING AND WRITING COURSES
IS - Sp Iss 74
M1 - 1
ER -