A new study shows that, when a person reads, two distinct brain networks become activated and work hand-in-hand to offer a more integrated and complex understanding of individual words.
Neuroscience of Reading
According to Neuroscience News, the collaboration of these two networks enables people to get a higher-order meaning of the words. The paper was included in the PNAS journal.
Oscar Woolnough, P.h.D., the study's first author and a postdoctoral research fellow from the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, notes that the study enables a better understanding of how the different hubs work together in the language network of the brain. It sheds light on how these networks interact and collaborate to foster comprehension of complex sentences.
Dr. Woolnough adds that the brain is interestingly interconnected. Hence, for individuals to comprehend language, there is a need for dynamic and rapid processes to sequentially occur in several brain regions.
To identify the exact interactions and roles of brain regions that are involved during reading, the researchers from UTHealth Houston executed recordings from patients whose brains had surgically placed electrodes for localizing epilepsy. The patients were tasked with reading three sentence forms. As they did so, their neural activity was gauged.
The patients had to read typical sentences, "Jabberwocky" sentences (which were based on the "Jabberwocky" poem of Lewis Carroll, which contained proper syntax and grammar but nonsensical words), and a list of words, including nonsense ones.
Read also: Neuroscience Behind Mother Tongue: One's Native Language Affects Brain Wiring, Study Says
Collaboration of Two Distinct Brain Networks
Based on their recordings, they were able to pinpoint two distinct brain networks that play key roles during reading. One of these networks involves a part of the frontal lobe, which transmits signals all the way to the temporal lobe. It demonstrates progressive activation when someone construes complex meanings along a sentence's length.
The other network covers a different region in the temporal lobe that transmits signals to a part of the frontal lobe. This enables the understanding of a sentence's context, which, in turn, fosters better processing and comprehension of the words that follow.
Nitin Tandon, M.D., the study's senior author and a professor and chair ad terim at the medical school's department, notes that brain-implanted electrodes offer distinct insight regarding the human mind's inner workings. Their study sheds light on how most processes do not just involve one particular region. Rather than this, they are best comprehended as being temporal states in which several distinct brain areas meet through brief yet vital interactions.
By knowing more about the neuroscience of reading, researchers will learn more about how the brain works when a person has dyslexia. Ultimately, they are hopeful that their findings will help lead to novel treatments for the reading condition.
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