Rewiring your brain
One of the first posts of this blog featured the effects of reading on emotional intelligence. The entry referenced Jessica Stillman’s article about how reading a variety of different authors and genres can make one more emphathetic. Stillman has once again reported on findings having to do with the positive benefits of reading. In a newsletter entitled “Inc.” (February 22, 2021), Stillman cites research done by Harvard professor Joseph Henrich. Henrich explains how reading actually rewires the brain.
Had I not delved into brain-based teaching strategies while still working as an educator, I might be a bit leery about such a claim. In a seminar at MIT in the early 2000’s, however, my own brain was enlightened by a lecture on the way people with dyslexia process the written word. In clinical tests, researchers have traced the neural pathways of readers who have a reading disability. When compared to those without dyslexia, the written word travels in their brains along a totally different path, a path that meanders through different parts of the brain before decoding into meaning for them. When this process can be viewed through brain imaging, one realizes the difficulty reading poses for some people.
It is, therefore, totally logical to me that reading a great deal can rewire the brain! Just look at people who are obsessive readers, people like Bill Gates and Barack Obama. They and others credit their success to their constant reading. The type of reading that accomplished intelligent people do is considered deep reading, and that type of reading can permanently rewire our brains.
A direct quote from the professor explains the changes:
This renovation has left you with a specialized area in your left ventral occipital temporal region, shifted facial recognition into your right hemisphere, reduced your inclination toward holistic visual processing, increased your verbal memory, and thickened your corpus callosum, which is the information highway that connect the left and right hemispheres of your brain.
Got that????? Suffice it to say that it isn’t necessarily that smart people read a lot, it’s that reading makes people smarter, able to think through coplex problems, imagine alternative paths and remember detailed scenarios. So carry on, fellow readers!