newsminer.com

“Mindless Reading” is the ironic title of one of my files of potential column fodder, but instead of escapist fiction titles, it contains articles on the brain’s involvement in reading. So much brain activity is required that even reading a cereal box is mindlessness’ diametric opposite.

A 2004 article from Science News, for example, describes how reading action verbs stimulates the motor cortex. Author Bruce Bower describes the motor cortex as “a strip of neural tissue that runs ear-to-ear along the brain’s surface” which “orchestrates most voluntary movement.”

Brains scans have revealed that silently reading action verbs, like “kick,” cause high rates of blood flow to the parts of the motor cortex that control the muscles required for kicking. This doesn’t mean reading a bunch of action verbs will replace actual physical workouts, but there’s a lot to be said for exercising your brain.

Another Science News article from last August, this by Janet Raloff, tells how a lifetime of regular reading promotes development of “cognitive reserves,” defined as “better or more resilient neural connections in the brain.”

Raloff cites a report by the Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology’s Margit Bleeker, who compared lead-smelter workers who were readers with those who weren’t. Bleeker found that people who read for pleasure, solved puzzles or did similar intellectual exercise “performed 2.5 times as well on tests of memory, attention, and concentration” than those who didn’t.

“The brain is like a muscle,” Raloff surmises, “exercising it strengthens it and makes it better able to counter the ravages of disease and poisoning.”

“Understanding the Brain and Reading,” found at www.sedl.org/reading/topics/brainreading.html, is an excellent online article describing how manifold areas of the brain are involved in reading.

“Right now, as you read this passage of text,” the article states, “your occipital cortex is very active, processing all of the visual information you are encountering—the words, the letters, and the features of the letters.

The frontal lobe of your neocortex is engaged in processing the meaning of the text you’re reading—the meanings of the words, the sentences and the big picture, and it is working to relate what you’re reading with what you already know.”

“Surprisingly, your temporal lobe is also active right now, processing all the ‘sounds’ associated with reading—even though you’re reading silently to yourself, the areas of the brain that process speech sounds are active just like they would be if you were listening to somebody speak … “What seems to be happening is that the brain is analyzing text at three major levels—the visual features of the words and letters, the phonological representation of those words, and the meanings of the words.”

Reading requires an amazing amount of mental activity, but fortunately it can also be extremely pleasurable. The more you read, the sharper your abilities become to comprehend and express yourself, and that can be critical in later life.

“The Nun Study,” carried out by Dr. David Snowdon in 2001, found the future potential of Alzheimer’s occurring in young nuns could be predicted by studying how well they read and wrote.

An online article about it (http://childrensbooks.suite101.com/article.cfm/prevents_alzheimersread_to_kids) says “The key that reveals a person’s potential resistance to Alzheimer’s is revealed by a person’s ability to write with a high level of idea density. Idea density relies on vocabulary and reading comprehension.”

FreeRice.com, one of the most elegant uses of the Internet I’ve encountered, is a wonderful way to work on the vocabulary part of the equation.

FreeRice.com is a simple but addictive vocabulary-building game where a target word is matched with one of four other words that’s most similar in meaning. Every time you match correctly, the equivalent in cash of twenty grains of rice is donated by the site’s advertisers. FreeRice is completely non-profit, and their simple dual goals are to “provide English vocabulary to everyone for free,” and “help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.”

Difficulty ranges from beginning English on up, and as FreeRice states, “Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.”