How the Art of Storytelling Alters Memory Formation

A person’s storytelling can be so captivating that the details linger long after they’re told. What is it that makes these stories so memorable? Research suggests that the hippocampus plays a key role in turning experiences into lasting memories. But could the way one tells a story affect how the audience remembers it?

Psychologist Signy Sheldon from McGill University aimed to find this out. She and her colleagues spun narratives that described everyday events and created two versions that focused on either conceptual or perceptual details. In their study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, they found that listening to different storytelling styles activated distinct memory networks in the brain.¹ These findings can inform researchers how to tailor information to different people to improve memory.

To test whether storytelling strategies influence memory, the researchers played audio recordings to 35 healthy young adults: three narratives called “Going to a Restaurant,” “Taking a Flight,” and “Getting Groceries.” Each story contained central story details as well as peripheral elaborative details, which focused on either perceptual—something experienced by the five senses—or conceptual—related thoughts or emotions to a central detail—statements.

In the first scenario, for instance, a perceptual detail could describe the smell of air freshener dangling on the rear-view mirror of a car on the way to a restaurant. Meanwhile, a conceptual detail would be that, upon being seated, the narrator was pleasantly surprised to discover the patio was located on the rooftop.

First, the participants listened to an audio recording that consisted of only the central details to familiarize them with the content. Then, the researchers played the scenarios with different versions, such as a conceptual restaurant and a perceptual flight, and used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity. Afterwards, the team tasked the participants to recount the story and scored them based on how many details they remembered.

Using the fMRI data, the researchers mapped the functional connections between the hippocampus and other brain areas under different narrative conditions. Conceptual narratives were associated with anterior hippocampal connectivity to regions within the default mode network (DMN), a brain region implicated in processing self-related and emotional information. On the other hand, perceptual narratives showed stronger hippocampal connectivity with temporal regions and areas outside the DMN implicated in memory performance.

These findings suggest that storytelling styles, whether more conceptual or perceptual, change how the hippocampus connects with distinct brain regions to create memories. So, the next time someone is telling a story, remember that the details really do make a difference.