Whether reading Chinese characters or French words written alphabetically, the same areas light up in our brains, an insight that could inform learning strategies for literacy
Reading Chinese characters involves the same brain regions as used when reading French. Image: pzechner / Alamy
Learning to read Chinese might seem daunting to Westerners used to an alphabetic script, but brain scans of French and Chinese native speakers show that people harness the same brain centers for reading across cultures. The findings are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Reading involves two neural systems: one that recognizes the shape of the word and a second that assesses the physical movements used to make the marks on a page, says study leader Stanislas Dehaene, a cognitive neuroscientist the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
But it has been unclear whether the brain networks responsible for reading are universal or culturally distinct. Previous studies have suggested that alphabetic writing systems (such as French) and logographic ones (such as Chinese, in which single characters represent entire words) writing systems might engage different networks in the brain.
To explore this question, Dehaene and his colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity in Chinese and French people while they read their native languages.
The researchers found that both Chinese and French people use the visual and gestural systems while reading their native language, but with different emphases that reflect the different demands of each language.
?Rather than focusing on ear and eye in reading, the authors rightly point out that hand and eye are critical players,? says Uta Frith, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London. ?This could lead into novel directions ? for instance, it might provide answers why many people with dyslexia also have very poor handwriting and not just poor spelling.?
Understanding how the brain decodes symbols during reading ? using both visual and motor centers ? might also inform learning strategies for general literacy, and ways to attune them to children or adults.
Subliminal images
There is evidence that for all languages, reading activates a shape-recognition region in the brain?s posterior left hemisphere ? the visual word-forming area (VWFA). But some research has indicated that readers of Chinese ? which places great emphasis on the order and direction of writing strokes ? also use other brain networks involved in the motor skills that are engaged for writing.
Motor processing is universally used for writing and involves a brain region known as Exner?s area. The researchers postulated that this region is also activated in reading to interpret the gestures assumed to have gone into making the marks.
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