The Effects Of Reading On The Brain
Reading is a stimulating activity for the brain, which can provide short- and long-term benefits, such as reducing stress, improving sleep quality, increasing vocabulary and memory, and is even associated with increased intelligence. However, few are aware of the effects of reading on the brain.
In general, reading is understood as the process of decoding a set of characters that ultimately lead to a meaning. From the research point of view, it is interesting to know all the small mechanisms that are activated at the same time, in order to identify all the steps. All this so that it can be of help to people with learning problems.
Until recently, finding out in real time what mechanisms occurred in the brain during reading would have been nearly impossible. Nowadays, however, thanks to functional magnetic resonance and other techniques, neuroscience allows us to see brain activity engaged in an activity. Furthermore, on a global level, neuroscience is interested in knowing the relationship between reading and cognition, emotion, learning and cognitive performance. But what exactly are the effects of reading on the brain? We talk about it in detail in the next few lines.
From words to meaning: the effects of reading on the brain
When faced with a printed word, the left posterior area of the brain, which allows for phonological and spelling coding, is activated in just 400 milliseconds. If we already know the word, the morphological, syntactic and semantic identification occurs immediately.
Morphological recognition is the basic mechanism by which, thanks to the activation of the left frontal areas of the brain, we recognize the letters that form a word and, therefore, we identify it. In turn, syntactic recognition recognizes whether it is a noun or a verb and whether it refers to the past, present or future. In this way, relationships between words are created or recognized.
These mechanisms affect different areas of the brain, in a parallel and interconnected way. Taking into account what has just been described, when we see a word, the visual cortex is activated and transfers it to the angular gyrus.
At this point, it becomes a phonetic representation that is sent to the anterior fusiform gyrus, thus passing to the temporal and frontal regions, such as the Wernicke area, where the meaning and understanding of words is accessed. And it is here that information on meaning and morphological identification is found again in the inferior anterior frontal gyrus to integrate.
Text comprehension
Once you understand the words being read, it’s time to analyze the semantic and syntactic relationships between them. For example, the order of words, tenses, complements, information on the subject …
Syntactic processing appears to occur in the anterior and left anterior temporal lobes. Then, it moves to the lower left turn for thematic and syntactic processing, more closely linked to the subject-verb interaction, as well as for the evaluation of the semantic intention of the complete sentence.
At the same time, mechanisms are put in place that detect the effects of inconsistencies or novelties related to the inferior frontal cortex. In this case, when we read incongruous sentences there is a greater activation of this area than when we read something coherent.
Understanding what we read is also linked to memory, as we turn to our experience to access wider meanings. For example, some temporal regions of the brain are particularly activated when we read information about people and tools.
In this sense, a research group from South Carolina and California conducted a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging and found that words evoke connections with the real world. That is, they activate the same areas that they would activate if they really experienced them. For example, words whose meaning was related to something manipulable caused the activation of the areas related to the planning and execution of tasks and the motor areas involved.
Emotional and cognitive processing among the effects of reading on the brain
Emotions are the result of a cognitive mechanism that takes place mainly in the limbic system. In this area is the hypothalamus, a region of the brain involved in memory and learning. That’s why emotion is key to consolidating new information.
During reading, the emotion activates the attentional networks, there are in fact specific mechanisms for the emotional lexicon. It has been observed that reading emotionally charged words, such as those with an erotic or vulgar background, cause an increase in attention span, compared to neutral words. The emotionally stimulating stories therefore also favor the activation of motivational and attentional networks.
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior dorsal cingulate cortex are activated during reading, as the mechanisms of attention, planning, association and monitoring of information are activated.
Finally, the prefrontal cortex is activated to integrate all information, while the anterior cingulate remains alert and focused on reading in a more literal way.
