Reading Interdependency

How much someone is able to accomplish in the world boils down to how good their reading and comprehension skills are. Reading is important because helps with mental simulation, exercises the brain and develops empathy.

Firstly, reading aids mental stimulation. Through a study done by a neuroscientist named Stanislas Dehaene, he showed that reading has an extensive impact on the brain. Dehaene took a sample of people and split them into three groups. The first group were people that learned to read from an early age, the second group learned to read at an adult age, and the third group were people that couldn't read. Dehaene had the subjects perform oral, written language and visual tasks and measured their brain functions with a fMRI that measures the blood flow in the brain during cognitive activities. Dehaene noticed that the occipital lobe was enhanced in the subjects that read. As this lobe is the area in the brain that processes visual information, …show more content…
Reading is a form of visual exercise, and this stimulation exercises the occipital lobe which in turn, helps with imagination and creativity. Along with the occipital lobe, the parietal lobe is also important when reading. The parietal lobe converts letters into words and words into thoughts. As expected, this lobe was enhanced and stimulated in the subjects that read. The parietal lobe also assists with reading comprehension and increases writing skills. These lobes also work with the temporal lobe and Wernicke’s area. Wernicke’s area located in the temporal lobe and is where written and spoken speech is processed. This gives us the ability to comprehend and understand what we read. Dehane’s study