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Fourteen years after the special issue on neuroscience and rhetoric in this journal (Neurorhetorics, vol. 40, no. 5), we turn back and look forward. We assess what has been accomplished in neurorhetorics in that time frame, examine what has changed in rhetorical studies and in the neurosciences, and offer suggestions for future research. Eight contributors detail the importance of neurorhetorics for their work and engage a range of topics. Those include neurodiversity, neuropolicy, neurogastronomy, and interdisciplinary collaborations, among others. Ultimately, the forum points toward the need for more critical cultural approaches in neurorhetorics, more policy discussions, new methodologies, and new philosophies that can stretch beyond the "neuro-" prefix and enroll insights from New Materialisms and Global Rhetorics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Il mio contributo intende mettere alla prova alcune delle nozioni operative proposte dalla neuroretorica applicandole a uno degli altri filoni di indagine privilegiati dalla narratologia – o meglio, dalle narratologie – del nuovo millennio: la traduzione intersemiotica e, in particolare, lo studio dalle mutevoli relazioni tra linguaggi iconici e linguaggi verbali. Rivolgendomi allo specifico ambito dell’adattamento cinematografico intendo quindi illustrare come l’annosa e spinosa questione della fedeltà possa essere meglio affrontata attraverso l’utilizzo di tali strumenti, nonché di alcune preziose nozioni che costituiscono il corollario teorico della neuronarratologia – la produttiva discrepanza tra script e frame; il concetto di embodied narration; l’interazione tra memoria episodica e memoria semantica – piuttosto che di una banale comparazione tra l’ipotesto e l’intertesto invariabilmente condotta a partire dal piano dell’enunciato. Da una simile premessa si potrebbe così affermare che il successo di un adattamento sia determinato non solo e non tanto dalla rielaborazione della medesima forma del contenuto in una differente materia dell’espressione, quanto piuttosto dalla capacità dell’autore secondo di ricreare analoghi «schemi di negoziazione della conoscenza» in diversi media: come nel caso delle trasposizioni filmiche di Lolita realizzate da Stanley Kubrick (1962) e da Adrian Lyne (1997), oggetto specifico del mio studio.The aim of my paper is to apply some of the insights from the so-called neurorhetoric to the field of intersemiotic translation, thus trying to establish a dialogue between two of the more stimulating theoretical developments of narratology – or, perhaps should I say, of narratologies – in the recent years. Focusing especially on cinematographic adaptation I wish to highlight how the often discussed issue of “fidelity” could be better addressed using analytic tools as the productive friction between script and frame, the concept of embodied narration, the interaction between episodic memory and semantic memory, rather than drawing an obvious comparison between the hypotext and the hypertext based mainly on content. More importantly, my intention is to demonstrate that in such cases the success of an adaptation is not determined by a proper transposition of the same content-form through different expression substances, but it depends on the second author’s skill in re-creating similar “knowledge negotiation schemes” across various mediums and devices. A few texts will be analysed in detail: Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, along with two of its best-known adaptations, directed by Stanley Kubrick (1962) and Adrian Lyne (1997).

Abstract Neurofeedback is a technology that allows users to observe, reflect, and learn from their brain wave activity. It is often used in conjunction with mindfulness to help people obtain a more open state of mind. While both neurofeedback and mindfulness have been employed in support of neoliberal goals, they can be used for more socially responsible ones. Specifically, when integrated with scholarship on listening, mindfulness and neurofeedback can enrich an open listening pedagogy. Open listening can be understood as a narrative fusion of horizons (Ivor Goodson & Scherto Gill, 2011). This fusion occurs when two people's narrative horizons, consisting of a set of narratives and standpoints, come together while preserving the multiplicity, fluidity, complexity, and intersectionality of each. Interdisciplinary scholarship, including neurological and biological perspectives, shows that a listener's embodied dynamics, specifically fear and attachment, contribute to closed listening, in which the listener tries to preserve the stability and fixity of their own narratives. An open listening pedagogy that incorporates mindfulness and neurofeedback responds to the need for interdisciplinary understandings of the body-social relationships that are part of closed listening. Neurofeedback and mindfulness further help students practice ways of relating to their bodies that are conducive to open listening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuro-realism is a widely cited concept describing a textual phenomenon in popular science news wherein brain research uncritically validates or invalidates the “realness” of particular beliefs or practices. Currently, no research on neuro-realism examines the variable rhetorical roles of such statements, that is, how they support specialized arguments or enhance social functions across genres of public communication. This article details the nuances of neuro-realism, arguing that neuro-realism is much more than a singular textual phenomenon but a flexible rhetorical vehicle manifesting in at least three forms: commonsense, judicial, and rational. Each form serves a larger argumentative purpose, and each can be consistently linked to a popular news subgenre, illuminating how neuro-realism’s stunning lack of criticality proves permissible and reproducible in popular science publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay extends efforts to facilitate emotional–material frameworks of rhetoric informed by strides in rhetorical and biological studies respectively. Specifically, I examine Edwin Black’s theory of exhortation in light of neurological theories of affect, emotion contagion, and embodiment. I argue Black’s theory offers a prescient precursor to emotional–material rhetoric but also demands revision in light of recent advances in neuroscience. I present two claims. First, I argue emotionally grounded rhetoric can exhort emotional–discursive connections and preference judgments absent the need to convert emotional experiences into formal beliefs. Second, I argue physiological indicators are at least as important as verbal discourse in facilitating emotional exhortation. Finally, I conclude with some theoretical implications for the emotional–material study of rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]