Psychology
2012. Vol.3, No.6, 454-456
Published Online June 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.36064
454
The Play Was Always the Thing: Drama’s Effect on
Brain Function
Brian H. Hough1, Sigmund Hough2
1Marblehead High School, Marblehead, USA
2Department of Psych i atry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Received March 20th, 2012; revised April 17th, 2012; accepted May 16th, 2012
The brain is a mysterious canvas of actualized and unrealized possibilities. As Diane Ackerman notes,
“…each person carries around atop the body a complete universe in which trillions of sensations, thoughts,
and desires stream.” Brain science remains uncharted territory despite the significant efforts that have
been and are being realized to better understand brain and behavior. More than mere coincidence or hap-
penstance, plays like Shakespeare’s famous “Romeo and Juliet” with great storylines, brilliant costumes,
and emotional stimulation continue to survive for ages based upon pure artistic excellence that engages
the audience in a unique manner. There is a need to more fully understand how our brains process drama
and the manner in which like versus dislike are decided. Most important is the factor of longevity and
what makes the appealing quality of drama survive over years across cultural and generational shifts. To
speak to this question, drama has been shown to have impressive effects on brain activation but remains
conservative in highlighting potentially profound implications. Drama has advantageous benefits to health
as well as to essential activities such as learning and personal growth. Drama should not remain under-
rated in terms of its influence on brain function and the relationship between environment and brain.
Keywords: Art; Brain Function; Brain Stimulation; Drama; Shakespeare
The Brain
The brain is a mysterious canvas of actualized and unrealized
possibilities. As Diane Ackerman notes, “…each person carries
around atop the body a complete universe in which trillions of
sensations, thoughts, and desires stream.” Brain science re-
mains uncharted territory despite the significant efforts that
have been and are being realized to better understand brain and
behavior. More than mere coincidence or happenstance, plays
like Shakespeare’s famous “Romeo and Juliet” with great story-
lines, brilliant costumes, and emotional stimulation continue to
survive for ages based upon pure artistic excellence that en-
gages the audience in a unique manner. There is a need to more
fully understand how our brains process drama and the manner
in which like versus dislike are decided. Most important is the
factor of longevity and what makes the appealing quality of
drama survive over years across cultural and generational shifts.
To speak to this question, drama has been shown to have im-
pressive effects on brain activation but remains conservative in
highlighting potentially profound implications. Drama has ad-
vantageous benefits to health as well as to essential activities
such as learning and personal growth. Drama should not remain
underrated in terms of its influence on brain function and the
relationship between environment and brain.
Humans interact with each other, but the way in which each
individual interacts differs greatly. The way people live their
lives differs in this way as well. This is primarily due to a com-
bination of different brain compositions, personality traits and
cultural-environmental conditions. As Pinker (1997: p. 62) stated,
“Intelligence…is the ability to attain goals in the face of obsta-
cles by means of decisions based on rational (truth-obeying)
rules.” However, intelligence is different from thought as “Hu-
mans…emit a response to a stimulus either because it was ear-
lier paired with a reflexive trigger for that response…or be-
cause the response was rewarded in the presence of that stimu-
lus” (Pinker, 1997: p. 62). Stimuli trigger responses that include
action, non-action, covert, and overt behavior. As humans age
and therefore accumulate more life experiences, humans learn
how to more efficiently react to different stimuli under different
conditions. This is especially true with the prefrontal cortex.
This part of the brain deals with executive functioning and is
not fully developed until at least 21 years of age. Until then,
adolescents rely on “fight or flight” hormones and neurotrans-
mitters such as adrenaline and the amygdala (the emotional
control center of the brain) to react with their world, while
adults can more efficiently sort out stimuli.
Drama and the Brain
We know that stimuli can affect human behaviors. Steven
Pinker (1997: p. 62) illustrates how this condition occurs be-
cause “when shocked, refreshed, or just learning something,
neurons grow new dendritic branches, increasing their reach
and influence even more. The neurotransmitter travels from
neuron to neuron through the use of an axon and across a syn-
apse. As the axon’s tip grows, it senses its environment, getting
cues on which direction to turn. Somehow all that nosing
around, connecting, and networking orients personality, chisels
character.” Accordingly, this neurologic process contributes to
the shaping of cognitive and emotional thought. Drama is thus
entertaining and captivating because to act in a way different
from usual requires response to a novel set of stimuli. New

B. H. HOUGH, S. HOUGH
neurons and axon tips grow during this process of development
and adaptation. This process of becoming different is interest-
ing to the brain because of the inherent ability to make change
to serve a new purpose.
The Impact of Drama
At the University of Liverpool (2006), research has shown
that reading William Shakespeare’s works stimulates the brain.
Shakespeare’s works create functional shifts for the brain,
which “…[allow] the brain to understand what a word means
before [the brain] understands the function of the word within a
sentence… [This causes] …a sudden peak in brain activity and
forces the brain to work backwards in order to fully understand
what Shakespeare is trying to say.” This brain function does not
happen easily and due to this, the brain is affected greatly in an
effort to adapt to this new and exciting environment. Drama
represents to the brain a challenge which must be managed.
Shakespeare’s way of “…throwing odd words into seemingly
normal sentences, surprises the brain and catches it off guard in
a manner that produces a sudden burst of [positive] activity—a
sense of drama created out of the simplest of things” (Univer-
sity of Liverpool, 2006). This is paramount to the understand-
ing of how the mind works, relating back to Ackerman’s and
Pinker’s books. Through knowing what creates positive brain
waves in the brain, drama could act as a medium for alleviating
depression while allowing individuals to develop happy dispo-
sitions.
To keep the brain “fit” has become a cliché nowadays, as
businesses have attempted to mass-produce brain games/puz-
zles/activities that are advertised to keep the brain functioning
efficiently and clearly for longer periods of time than nature
would allow. However, Dave Munger (2007) argues that theater
and drama may be the best activity for brain health, while also
being enjoyable. In a trial involving 124 older adults (aged 60
to 86), all attended nine 90-minute sessions over a month,
where one group was assigned to participate in a theater work-
shop, one group studied visual art, and one group received no
training at all. Each group took an assortment of cognitive tests
at the beginning and end of each month. At the end of the trial,
the people who participated in theater workshops had a signifi-
cantly higher change in their scores from their pre-test to their
post-test. In the theater group, cognitive test scores testing
problem-solving increased the most significantly out of all three
of the groups, followed by cognitive tests in word recall, and
cognitive tests in psychological well-being. However, memory
span increased the most with visual arts, although both visual
arts and theater were significantly higher than the control group
without training. The author argues that their findings demon-
strate that theater training, even during a relatively short time,
can help prevent cognitive decline associated with aging. The
University of Liverpool’s experiment between people in theater
workshops, visual arts workshops, or not in any work- shops is
noteworthy because in such a short span of time (not more than
four weeks), test scores increased greatly due to participation in
theater. This research proposes that cognitive decline could be
significantly reduced if people are involved in theater or such
related activity. Theater could in turn minimize or reduce the
risk of brain related diseases since the brain is remaining
active and “fit”. In a 2004 study at Elmhurst College, a total of
124 participants aged 60 - 86 years were apportioned to one of
three groups: theater arts, non-content specific visual arts, or no
treatment. After 4 weeks, the adults in the theater arts group
improved significantly more than the no-treatment control
group in each of the four measures: word recall, memory,
problem solving, and psychological well-being. Adults in the
visual arts group showed smaller increases relative to the con-
trol group. Four months later, the theater group had retained
performance improvements across all measures. The authors
concluded that theater training, even over a short time period,
can help prevent cognitive decline associated with aging (Bell,
2012). The study suggests that cognitive gains may be found
from theater participation in as little time as four weeks which
is consistent with the study at the University of Liverpool. Due
to the creative qualities inherent in drama, the study goes on to
say that creative engagement may also improve the quality of
life for adults with Alzheimer's disease and other age-related
dementias.
Being active a nd physically fit may just be one of the factors
to promote a healthy brain, since “Tip-of-the-tongue memory is
more complicated than it seems. Remembering a word takes
two steps, pinpointing the word you want and then fetching the
sound code for the word” (Ackerman, p. 86). The memory is
carried through with the brain’s temporal lobe: “the lower lat-
eral lobe of the cerebral hemisphere, lying below the sylvian
(lateral) fissure and merging posteriorly with the occipital lobe”
(Loring, 1999). The temporal lobe is a critical structure of the
brain because the temporal lobe includes the hippocampus
which is involved with creating memories (Loring, 1999).
“That’s why Alzheimer’s, an illness that depletes the temporal
lobe, [which] begins slowly in a plague of forgetfulness… [and
later] attacking all forms of memory” is so devastating (Ac-
kerman, 2004: p. 86). Interestingly, the answer to combat this
condition may lie with elements inherent within drama and
theater. As Munger and the University of Liverpool have pre-
sented, drama may be the answer to stopping or slowing the
progressive nature of cognitive decline shown in malicious
brain diseases like Alzheimer Disease. Through using the brain
in a different way than the brain would be used normally, the
mind is forced to think and act abstractly. This abstraction cre-
ates positive brain waves through overcoming an obstacle,
while increasing brain activity and causing different parts of the
brain to be used together in unison. The brain and its functions
operate on a “use-it-or-lose-it” basis, and theater and drama
cause different parts of the brain to work together. Theater and
drama accordingly strengthen the temporal lobe functioning,
and potentially reversed or stabilized the effects of cognitive
decline and brain disease. There are even reports of utilizing
developmental drama for children with brain injury (Martin,
1977). Although this has not been proven, drama and theater
are promising steps towards achieving such a goal.
Evidence of drama’s dramatic effects on learning has been
especially shown in studies teaching impoverished children.
Jensen (2010) states that the arts are an often-neglected part of
the curriculum that can have a dramatic impact on student per-
formance, as drama teaches emotional intelligence that corre-
lates with higher grades, memorization and processing skills
and fosters social status and friends. UCLA professor, Dr.
James Catterall (Jensen, 2010) analyzed more than 25,000 stu-
dents and found that students participating in drama surpass
students who do not participate in drama, especially in the
fields of reading and mathematics. Also from the study, Dr.
Catterall found continued involvement in music and theater to
be highly correlated with success in mathematics and reading.

B. H. HOUGH, S. HOUGH
456
Furthermore, students from lower socioeconomic status who
received music lessons in grades 8 - 12 versus no music lessons
increased their math scores significantly as well as improving
reading, history, and geography by 40%.
Drama enhances student brains in a manner that sitting in a
classroom for six hours cannot provide students. The arts and
drama foster an environment for wanting to learn. Christopher
Andersen, also, speaks of “greater cognitive gains [with stu-
dents studying with drama] than students in a traditional class-
room environment,” (Andersen, 2004):
…these dramas do not sharply distinguish between actor and
audience; the learner is both participant and observer, playing
a role while interacting with others in role. The drama is facili-
tated by the classroom teacher, who builds on the actions and
reactions of students-in-role to change (or reframe) the imag-
ined context in order to create an episodic sequence of dra-
matic action.
An environment which fosters teaching and participation
with active learning along with first-hand experiences may
provide a more productive path for education. Information is
taken in, absorbed and encoded through more access points
with drama-infused education than learning through receiving
information by single methodology. Students, when studying
with drama, are constantly involved in their studies (just by the
nature of drama) and can therefore, possibly, outperform stu-
dents who study exclusively in a more traditional type of set-
ting. Education through drama removes a traditional-learning
block of academic routine structure and brings learning into a
physical realm that can be acted out to be made real to the stu-
dents. More senses are activated compared to the absorption of
knowledge in a classroom. The belief here is that when new
knowledge is generated from within an authentic milieu, learn-
ing is viewed as more genuine, dynamic and meaningful. Dra-
ma may be used as a motivational component to keep children
actively involved in their studies. Andersen (2004) later talks of
drama’s supportive approach, placing responsibility with the
students, over a traditional classroom’s leading approach, where
the teacher directs the students.
Conclusion
Through a synthesis of research articles and books on the
brain, drama, and theater, it is clear that drama affects the brain
to a greater degree than one would expect. Overall, drama
makes the brain think in a way that is different. Drama creates
positive feelings while strengthening the temporal lobe which
has been shown to be associated with slow cognitive decline in
some cases and a healthier brain is thus maintained for a longer
amount of time. Drama provides a disciplined, calm, and hard-
working atmosphere which promotes efficient study skills,
school success and good memory. In this way, drama cultivates
a healthy brain, also showing how the brain strengthens certain
brain functions in a use-it-or-lose-it manner. By using the full
capacity of the brain, the brain becomes active in more areas
and therefore takes longer to decay since more parts of the
brain are active. The acceptance of expressive modality into
psychotherapy as a means to enhance communication and psy-
chological change can be found in such works as McNiff’s
(McNiff, 1981). Drama therapy utilizes drama or theatre to
accomplish the therapeutic goals of emotion and The Arts and
Psychotherapy physical integration towards personal develop-
ment and dysfunctional symptom relief (Malchiodi, 2006).
Scheff opinioned that people seek and enjoy activities that al-
low them to symbolically re-experience their own agonizing
emotional experiences, which brings relief or closure on issues
(Scheff, 2001). There are even early reports that the Egyptians
encouraged people with mental illness to participate in artistic
activity (Fleshman & Fryrear, 1981). Revisiting a historical
precedence provides a perspective that we have been aware of
the relationship of drama and mental health functioning over
hundreds of years.
Still, there is a need for further investigation involving more
empirical studies to examine the claims of previously cited
investigations and studies. While we wait for additional evi-
dence-based analysis, the pure enjoyment that improves one’s
attitude and outlook on life is certainly compelling to continue
the play. The brain is the key to understanding the human uni-
verse, and decoding how the mind works would be ground-
breaking. We are nowhere near that achievement at this time,
but evidence has proven that there are hidden, potential benefits
to drama waiting to be discovered. Based upon the literature,
drama and theater highlight a bright path for understanding the
brain and all that the brain can do, and warrants further re-
search.
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