Reading And Your Brain

As  children, we were asked to read because "you need to, to become someone in life" Parents, teachers and librarians have expressed their opinions on the many benefits of books, but has anyone ever told us what reading does to our brain? 

Well, let me say this... It is surprising to find out exactly what happens in our heads when we open a book.

Reading is perhaps one of the best hobbies in the world...and maybe the healthiest. Whether you're reading fiction or nonfiction, a newspaper or a poem, reading is not only educational and informative, it's entertaining and relaxing, too. 

And, although it is still a widely unexplored area, several researches on reading has shown us its many benefits.

Through the years, researchers have confirmed that reading is a stress-reducing activity that can lower your heart rate and blood pressure. It's been proven to improve people's memories, increase brain power, and even enhance empathic skills but how exactly does reading do all that? 

Like so many other things, it starts with the brain. It may not feel like it, but when we are looking at words on the page, our brain is running on several simultaneous processes... from word analysis to vocalization and visualization.

Below are five ways reading affects your brain...

1. It heightens brain connectivity.

It's not uncommon for people to say that a book has changed their life, but did you know reading a novel can actually change the brain? 

Some researchers have found that reading a narrative can cause changes in the brain, not only while participating in the activity but in resting-state connectivity, too. What does that mean?

According to the study, when we read, the connection between the left temporal cortex of the brain — the area associated with language reception — is heightened. What's more, that heightened activity continues for several days following reading.

2. It puts readers in the characters' shoes, figuratively and biologically.

According to the same study, reading not only heightens the connectivity in the temporal cortex, but it also increases activity in the central sulcus of the brain, or region responsible for primary sensory motor activity. 

When we read, neurons in this area of the brain activate to create a sensation of not just reading about the action in the book, but experiencing the sensations it is describing.

3. It rewires the brain and creates new white matter. To improve communication within your brain, open a book. Reading exercises, for instance,  in children can alter brain tissue in positive ways. 

In 2009, scientists Timothy Keller and Marcel Just uncovered evidence that intense reading improvement instructions in young children actually causes the brain to physically rewire itself. In doing so, the brain creates more white matter which improves communication within the brain. 

The results suggest that reading deficits in children can point to specific problems in the brain's circuits that can be treated and improved with reading.

4. It increases the capacity of your working memory. Reading is the best kind of workout for your brain for so many reasons. Chief among them is the ability to improve memory, but how exactly does absorbing written information increase your brain's capacity for memory?

 Reading involves several brain functions, including visual and auditory processes, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, and more. According to research, reading, unlike watching or listening to media, gives the brain more time to stop, think, process, and imagine the narrative in front of us. This increased mental activity helps to keep our memory sharp. 

Reading and processing what is written, from the letters to the words to the sentences to the stories themselves, boosts brain activity.

5. It expands a reader's attention span. Another side effect of this incredible brain workout is that it increases attention spans, too. Because of the sequential narrative style of most books...a beginning, middle, and end... reading encourages the brain to think similarly in sequence, and thus we spend more time on building a story rather than rushing through each detail. 

When we read a novel for instance,  we read linearly, rather than sporadically jumping from page to page, and slowly think about the information in front of us. This exercise of taking time to process the narrative, to think about the complex layers of the story and how they fit together, actually increases the capacity for longer attention spans, especially in children.