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Haiku and the Brain — Update 2022

Haiku and the Brain is an interdisciplinary project, bringing together poets and neuro-/scientists to investigate the construction of meaning in the process of reading normative, 3-line English-language haiku (ELH) and monoku. We reported our activities to the haiku community of readers in Juxtapositions: A Journal of Haiku Research and Scholarship, and to the scientific community in the Journal of Eye Movement Research. The following are the main articles:

  • Nasemann, J., Geyer, T., Müller, H.J., Kacian, J., Liesefeld, H.R., & Pierides, S. (2022) “Oscillatory spindles during natural reading.” (Manuscript in preparation).
  • Geyer, T., Günther, F., Müller, H.J., Kacian, J., Liesefeld, H.R., & Pierides, S. (2020). “Reading English-language haiku: An eye-movement study of the ‘cut effect’.” Journal of Eye Movement Research 13 [Special Issue Eye Tracking and Visual Arts].
  • Geyer, T., Würschinger, Q., Kacian, J., Liesefeld, H.R., Müller, H.J., & Pierides, S. (2020). “Reading haiku: Semantic distance and the ‘cut effect’.” Juxtapositions: Research and Scholarship in Haiku 6.1.
  • Pierides, S., Geyer, T., Günther, F., Kacian, j., Liesefeld, H. R., and Müller H. J. (2019) “Knocking on the Doors of Perception.” Juxtapositions: Research and Scholarship in Haiku 5.1.
  • Pierides, S., Müller, H., Kacian, J., Günther, F., & Geyer, T. (2017). “Haiku and the brain: an exploratory study.” Juxtapositions: A Journal of Haiku Research and Scholarship 3.1.
  • Müller, H., Geyer, T., Günther, F., Kacian, J., & Pierides, S. (2017). “Reading English-language haiku: Processes of meaning construction revealed by eye movements.” Journal of Eye Movement Research 10.1.

We are now approaching a critical, exciting phase to which our earlier research has led. While waiting for the results of our current tests to become available, it seems a good time to take stock of where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and where we’ll go from here.
For a short review of our work to date please see here.

— Stella Pierides, for the Haiku and the Brain Team

Researchers: Thomas Geyer, Jim Kacian, Heinrich R. Liesefeld, Hermann J. Mueller, Jan Nasemann, Stella Pierides, Werner Seitz.

Previously: Franziska Guenther, Qurin Würschinger.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  3. This is fascinating work! I look forward to reading the results of your further research. It has made me think about my use of the cut in my own poetry, and my reading process in the poetry of others.

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