Neuroscience of Reading and its Implications for Education

Post by Kulpreet Cheema

Literacy and Reading

In today's text-reliant society, reading and writing skills are critical to our ability to understand and engage with the world around us. Reading is a process of decoding text to acquire meaning, and while we often engage in it effortlessly and unconsciously, it is a psychologically complex process with various underlying components.

How does reading work in the brain?

The process of reading involves language-specific neural processes that include verbal and text processing, comprehension, and vocabulary. Additionally, general processes like working memory and attention interact with one another to derive meaning from text. Difficulties with any of these processes can cause challenges in reading and writing. For example, in a reading-based disorder like dyslexia, individuals struggle to process a word's distinct sounds and connect them with letters and words. This leads to incorrect decoding at the word level and ultimately results in comprehension breakdown.

While reading can often feel effortless, it is an evolutionarily recent skill to emerge relative to speaking. Therefore, there are no specialized brain regions for reading. Instead, reading re-purposes brain regions intended for other processes. The neural circuitry of reading has been investigated for decades with neuroimaging technologies, with two common technologies being functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

fMRI measures changes in blood oxygenation to localize the brain areas involved whilst someone is engaged in a cognitive task. This is possible because neurons in an activated brain region require (and are delivered) more oxygen, and oxygenated blood has different magnetic properties than deoxygenated blood, so activated regions can be detected using the powerful magnets of an MRI scanner.

Cortical brain areas activated by reading are interspersed throughout the brain, and connected with white matter tracts. These tracts enable communication between the brain regions to coordinate the various sub-processes involved in reading and can be identified with another neuroimaging methodology, DTI. DTI leverages the same MRI scanner as fMRI but instead of blood oxygenation, measures the movement of water molecules within white matter tracts to identify the integrity of the tracts. Since white matter tracts are fibrous, lots of unimpeded diffusion of water in the direction of the fibers indicates the tract is intact or well formed.

What circuitry is involved in reading?

Using converging evidence from both fMRI and DTI studies, researchers have mapped the neural network responsible for skilled reading. This network comprises three major components: the anterior network situated around the inferior frontal gyrus, the temporo-parietal region, consisting of supramarginal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus, and the occipito-temporal region, including fusiform gyrus and inferior/middle temporal gyrus. These areas leverage white matter pathways to communicate with each other and accomplish the reading process. Using DTI, various reading-based white matter tracts have been identified, including arcuate fasciculus (connecting temporal areas to inferior frontal region) and inferior longitudinal fasciculus (connecting anterior temporal to occipital regions).

How can we apply neuroscience findings to education?

While we’ve gained significant consensus on the neural basis of reading, leveraging this knowledge to enhance literacy teaching and learning requires further exploration. One field of study that seeks to translate the neuroscience findings about learning to educational practices and policy is known as Educational Neuroscience. This emerging field was initially established with several neuroimaging studies investigating the neural basis of both skilled and disordered reading. As one example, research investigating dyslexia used neuroimaging techniques to reveal disrupted functional activity and structural integrity of neural circuitry important for reading. When individuals with dyslexia read words, researchers identified reduced activity in the superior temporal gyrus, providing evidence for dylexia’s neurobiological basis. Evidence for reduced brain activity in brain regions responsible for sound processing in dyslexia led to interventions that targeted sound awareness that normalized brain activity and had a downstream positive impact on reading behavior. However, such successes are few and far between, with most neuroscience studies merely corroborating behavioral findings, rather than innovating toward new therapeutic measures. In the future, further investigations are needed to explore how neuroscience can better inform the improvement of reading skills. One promising avenue is the use of neuroimaging to identify pre-reading individuals at risk of developing dyslexia, allowing for timely intervention and positive remediation effects.

Looking to the future

In conclusion, neuroscience of reading and its application in educational settings could provide critical clues that inform interventions and help foster literacy. To address the challenges associated with reading difficulties, educators, psychologists, and neuroscientists must collaborate to design and implement effective programs and services. By unraveling the complexities of the reading process and harnessing the potential of educational neuroscience, we can empower individuals to become proficient readers, unlocking a world of knowledge and opportunities.

References +

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