THIS ITEM IS republished by The conversation under a Creative Commons License.
The number of people reading for fun seems to be steadily declining. Fifty percent of adults in the UK say they do not read regularly (up from 42 percent in 2015), and almost one in four young people aged 16 to 24 say they have never read Reading Agency research.
But what are the effects? Will preferring video over text impact our brains or our development as a species? What brain structure do good readers actually have? My new studypublished in NeuroImage, found out.
I analyzed open source data from more than 1,000 participants and found that readers of different abilities had different characteristics in brain anatomy.
The structure of two regions in the left hemisphere that are crucial for language was different in people who could read well.
One of these was the anterior part of the temporal lobe. The left temporal pole helps assign and categorize different types of meaningful information. To put together the meaning of a word, e.g legThis brain region links visual, sensory and motor information convey how legs look, feel and move.
The other was Heschl’s gyrus, a fold in the upper temporal lobe that houses the auditory cortex (the cortex is the outermost layer of the brain). Better reading ability was associated with a larger anterior portion of the temporal lobe in the left hemisphere compared to the right. It makes sense that it is easier to understand and thus read words when a larger area of the brain is responsible for meaning.
What seems less intuitive is that the auditory cortex is related to reading. Isn’t reading primarily a visual skill? Not only. In order to associate letters with speech sounds, we must first be aware of the sounds of language. The phonological awareness is a established precursor contribute to children’s reading development.
A thinner left Heschl’s gyrus has previously been linked to dyslexia involves severe reading difficulties. My research shows that this variation in cortical thickness does not draw a simple dividing line between people with and without dyslexia. Rather, it affects the larger population, where a thicker auditory cortex is associated with better reading ability.
Why size matters
Is thicker always better? When it comes to cortical structure, no, not necessarily. We know that in most people the auditory cortex has more myelin in the left hemisphere. Myelin is a fatty substance that acts as an insulator for nerve fibers. It increases the speed of neural communication and can also isolate rows of brain cells from each other. Neural columns They are assumed to work as small processing units.
Their increasing isolation and rapid communication in the left hemisphere are thought to enable the rapid, categorical processing necessary for language. We need to know whether a speaker uses the category D or T when you say Darling or tear instead of identifying the exact point at which the vocal folds begin to vibrate.
