MINI REVIEW article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1569170
This article is part of the Research TopicNeurological Mechanisms of Empathy for DistressView all 6 articles
The Science of Story Characters: A Neuroimaging Perspective on Antagonists in Narrative Engagement
Provisionally accepted
- 1Doctoral School, Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Valencia, Spain
- 2Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Valencia, Spain
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Understanding how humans perceive and engage with fictional charactersparticularly antagonists-provides critical insight into narrative comprehension and moral cognition. This systematic review explores the neural mechanisms underlying character perception and moral evaluation of antagonists in narratives. Findings from fMRI studies indicate that the default mode network (DMN), particularly the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), plays a key role in moral and emotional evaluations of characters. Neural synchronization in regions such as the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and ACC suggests that character relatability influences brain activity. Despite valuable insights, limitations include demographic diversity and variations in experimental paradigms. Future research should adopt more ecologically valid approaches and diverse samples to enhance generalizability. This review underscores the importance of interdisciplinary perspectives in understanding narrative engagement.
Keywords: narrative perception, Character engagement, fMRI, Default Mode Network, Moral cognition, Empathy
Received: 31 Jan 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yar, Moret-Tatay and Esteve. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Carmen Moret-Tatay, Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Valencia, Spain
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