Understanding the relationship between reading and the brain
Posted on 15 May 2009
They have discovered that an area of the brain associated with speech motor control becomes active far earlier in the reading process than was previously thought.
If we are right, this research is a useful step forward in understanding how the brain processes words
Dr Piers Cornelissen
The finding challenges conventional understanding of the events that takes place in the brain of a person when they are reading. It suggests that reading a word triggers a series of parallel processes in different parts of the brain, rather than a single sequence of events.
Scientists hope that constructing a much clearer picture of which parts of the brain are associated with the component processes of reading, together with when they become active, could improve the way literacy is taught and assist in developing treatments for people who have lost the ability to read after suffering brain injuries.
Dr Piers Cornelissen, from the University of York, conducted the research with Professor Morten Kringelbach (Oxford), Dr Ian Holliday (Aston) and Dr Peter Hansen (Birmingham).
Dr Cornelissen, from the Department of Psychology, said: “If we are right, this research is a useful step forward in understanding how the brain processes words. In particular, it supports the theory that the brain has two reading pathways, one that translates words into meaning and another that turns words into sounds.”
The research, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, has been published in the scientific journal PLoS one.
An imaging technique known as magnetoencephalography which allows brain activity to be measured to the millisecond, was used to monitor people as they completed the experimental task.
Each person was asked to watch a cross on a screen and press a button when the colour changed. At the same time they were shown a mixture of words, strings of consonants and faces.
The researchers found that part of the brain known as the inferior frontal gyrus, associated with speech, responded much more strongly to written words than to strings of consonants or to faces.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The research, “Activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus in the first 200 ms of reading: evidence from magnetoencephalography (MEG)”, is available online at the PLoS ONE website at http://plosone.org/doi/pone.0005359.
- The Department of Psychology was ranked among the top in the country in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Find out more about the department at http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/psych/.
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