What happens in the brain when you read?

 

 

Phan, Vincent. “ What Really Happens to Your Brain When You Read .”  1000Libraries Magazine , publication date. Accessed 10/12/2018.  https://magazine.1000libraries.com/what-really-happens-to-your-brain-when-you-read/ When we read, not just one process, but several, are activated simultaneously, making reading a complex and rich cognitive activity. First, there are the perceptual components: we recognize visual shapes, letters, and letter combinations, which activates areas in the occipital lobes of the brain responsible for visual processing. Then, we must decode those shapes into mental sounds or phonemes, even if we read silently, which involves areas associated with phonological awareness. From there, semantic processing emerges: we understand what words mean, how they connect to each other within a sentence, and how that sentence fits into what we know about the world and what we have previously read. Reading activates a network of brain regions. These include: Areas of the left hemisphere linked to language (such as Broca's area, angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus) to understand meaning, grammatical structure, and relationships between words. Visual areas that transform what we see into linguistic units. Regions of the cerebellum, which until recently were thought to be involved only in motor control, have now been observed to also participate in decoding visual into phonetic, as well as in some aspects of semantics—that is, we don't just 'read with our eyes' but there is also coordination with parts of the brain related to speech, emotion, and planning. Frequent reading also appears to strengthen the connections between these areas (the "white matter" that connects different brain regions), allowing for a more fluid flow of information between vision, language, memory, and semantic processing. Reading modes Reading is not the same whether we read aloud or silently. When we read aloud, additional regions related to speech production, motor coordination of the muscles involved in pronunciation, and auditory areas are activated, as we "hear" our own words internally. Silent reading, on the other hand, tends to rely more on internal comprehension circuits, mental visualization, and the use of working memory, and may involve less motor effort but more cognitive and semantic concentration. Long-term effects Reading a novel for days on end can generate measurable changes in how the brain is wired even when it's at rest. That is, we're not just activating certain regions while reading, but that activity can "reorganize" brain networks so that comprehension, imagination, empathy, and memory improve or become more efficient. Furthermore, reading frequently improves fluency, decoding speed, and word recognition, which reduces cognitive effort and allows more mental resources to be dedicated to reflection, analysis, and interpretation. It also contributes to enriching vocabulary and prior knowledge, making it increasingly easier to understand new and more complex texts.