Methods of 'brainstorming' by training reading skills

When people start learning to read, it is also when the brain changes miraculously to reorganize and change itself, preparing to adapt to the newly acquired knowledge.

In a study published in Science Advances, scientists mobilized women in their 30s in India - a country with illiteracy rates of up to 39% - to participate in research for the purpose of understanding changes of areas in the brain when people read books.

In the beginning of the study, most volunteers could not read even a letter in the Hindu mother tongue. But after 6 months of practice, these volunteers achieved the same level as the first graders.

People with good reading skills often grasp the main idea very quickly.

The authors rate this as an amazing change that shows the adult's brain is very flexible. In particular, the researchers also discovered that the cortex, which is a part known for its ability to adapt very quickly to a new task, is in fact not the main area witnessing changes.

Instead, the changes take place strongly in structures deep within the brain such as the brain stem - the brain between the spine and hemisphere including the middle brain, bridge and medulla - and thalamus, small structure deep inside the brain has the function of transmitting sensory signals and controlling information.

As the reading skill improves, the refining ability of these structures is enhanced to accommodate new "tasks" . This explains why people with good reading skills often grasp the main idea very quickly.

The results of this study also open up suggestions for the treatment of dyslexia and difficulty in writing which are thought to be due to poorly functioning hippocampus .

The authors will also delve into this hypothesis to find a way to overcome the above traits in humans through training reading skills to improve the functioning of the thalamus.

The work was carried out by researchers from Max Planck Institute of Psychological Language Research (Germany) in collaboration with experts from Lucknow India Biological Drug Research Center and Hyderabad University.