Science News

Imagine you wake up one morning and can't read. Your eyes work, but the letters on the page have turned into squiggles. They make no sense. Now meet Howard Engel, a writer of detective stories, who has this condition, but amazingly, has found a way to trick his brain to almost read again

University of Toronto psychologist Keith Oatley presents data that seems to show that reading novels improves one’s ability to understand and empathize with others. He demonstrates using brain imaging, that the parts of the brain that are activated when reading stories are the same as those that we use in social interactions. So perhaps the next time you don’t see eye to eye with somebody, the two of you should dive into a good book.

Science writer Rita Carter tells the story of how modern neuroscience has revealed that reading, something most of us take for granted, unlocks remarkable powers. Carter explains how the classic novel Wuthering Heights allows us to step inside other minds and understand the world from different points of view, and she wonders whether the new digital revolution could threaten the values of classic reading.

Guinea baboon learned to recognize words from nonwords exhibiting human-like orthographic processing. 

Students rated their emotional states before and after reading each of the eight passages. Response times and error rates to comprehension questions showed that when individuals read stories written from the “you” perspective, they were not only more likely to connect emotionally with the passage, but they were also better able to remember spatial details about the physical environment described in the story.