ABSTRACT
Narratives are fundamental to human behavior. As humans, we spend a substantial part of our awake time being engaged in narratives, and narrative experiences can be extremely rewarding and informative. Some even argue that our very experience of life is narrative, making narrative processing a crucial part of our identity as individuals and as communities. However, experimental research with narratives and hence understanding the underlying behavioral and biological principles is still a young and developing field. This chapter reviews our current knowledge of the neuroarchitecture of narrative processing and aesthetic responses to narratives and explains connections and interactions with other cognitive systems and mechanisms. Moreover, current controversial topics, challenges, future directions, and possible applications are introduced that cover topics such as the interface of narrative and social cognition; the blurred borders between fact and fiction; the importance of decolonization of the discipline; and differences between individuals, stories, genres, situational motivation, and reading goals.
