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The number of people reading for entertainment is continuously declining. Fifty percent of UK adults 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 been a reader, despite According Research by Reading Agency,
But what are its implications? Will people's preference for video rather than text affect our brains or our evolution as a species? What type of brain structure do good readers actually have? My new studyPublished in NeuroImage, revealed.
I analyzed open source data from over 1,000 participants and found that readers with different abilities had different characteristics in their brain anatomy.
The structure of two areas in the left hemisphere, which is important for language, was different in people who were good at reading.
One was the anterior part of the temporal lobe. The left temporal pole helps to combine and categorize different types of meaningful information. like gathering the meaning of a word LegThis brain area connects visual, sensory, and motor information Explaining how legs look, feel, and move,
The second was Heschl's gyrus, a fold on the upper temporal lobe that hosts the auditory cortex (the cortex is the outermost layer of the brain). Better reading ability was associated with a larger anterior part of the temporal lobe in the left hemisphere compared to the right. It makes sense that having a larger area of the brain devoted to meaning makes it easier to understand words and, therefore, easier to read.
What may seem less intuitive is that the auditory cortex would be related to reading. Isn't reading primarily a visual skill? Not only. To associate letters with speech sounds, we first need to be aware of the sounds of language. it phonemic awareness there is one well established pioneer For children's reading development.
A thin left Heschl's gyrus has previously been related to dyslexia, which This includes severe reading difficultiesMy research shows that this variation in cortical thickness does not draw a simple dividing line between people with and without dyslexia. Instead, it extends to larger populations, in which a thicker auditory cortex correlates with more efficient reading.
why size matters
Is thicker always better? When it comes to cortical structure, no, not necessarily. We know that most people have more myelin in their auditory cortex in their left hemisphere. Myelin is a fatty substance that acts as an insulator for nerve fibers. It increases nerve communication speed and can also separate the columns of brain cells from each other. nerve column considered functional In the form of small processing units.
Their increased separation and intensified communication in the left hemisphere may be thought to enable the fast, hierarchical processing required for language. We need to know whether a speaker uses the category D Or Tea while saying Dear Or tears Instead of locating the exact point where the vocal folds begin to vibrate.