This article Republished from conversation under Creative Commons License.
The number of people who read as a hobby seems to be steadily decreasing. According to research by the Reading Agency, 50% of UK adults say they don’t read regularly (up from 42% in 2015), and almost one in four young people aged 16 to 24 say they don’t read books regularly. answered that they had never read books.
But what are the implications? Does the fact that people prefer video over text affect our brains and our evolution as a species? What do good readers actually do? Do they have brain structures? My new research published in NeuroImage finds out.
I analyzed open source data from over 1,000 participants and found that readers of different abilities have different characteristics in their brain anatomy.
The structure of two areas of the left hemisphere important for language was different in people who were good at reading.
One was in the anterior temporal lobe. The left temporal pole helps us associate and categorize different types of meaningful information. Assemble the meanings of words such as: legthis brain region connects visual, sensory, and motor information that tells how your feet look, feel, and move.
The other is Heschl’s gyrus, a fold in the superior 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 temporal lobe in the left hemisphere compared to the right hemisphere. It stands to reason that the larger the area of the brain that specializes in meaning, the easier it is to understand and therefore read words.
What may seem counterintuitive is that the auditory cortex is associated with reading. Isn’t reading primarily a visual skill? It’s much more than that. To combine letters and sounds, you first need to be aware of the sounds of the language. this phonological awareness is established as a pioneer in children’s reading development.
Thinning of the left Heschl’s gyrus has previously been associated with dyslexia, which is associated with severe reading difficulties. According to my research, this change in cortical thickness does not simply differentiate people with and without dyslexia. Instead, it is widespread in larger populations, where thicker auditory cortex correlates with more proficient reading.
Why size matters
Is thicker always better? When it comes to cortical structures, this is not necessarily the case. It has been found that most people have more myelin in the auditory cortex in the left hemisphere. Myelin is a fatty substance that acts as insulation for nerve fibers. It can also increase the speed of nerve conduction and insulate columns of brain cells from each other. Neural columns are thought to function as small processing units.
Increased isolation and rapid communication in the left hemisphere are thought to enable the fast category processing required for language. I need to know if the speaker is using that category d or t when to say dear or tear Rather than detecting the exact point at which the vocal cords begin to vibrate,
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