WEBVTT

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Clicking on this video
activated circuits in your brain

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that took thousands of years to develop
the ones required for reading.

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We think of language as natural
and reading is written language,

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so it must be natural. But it isn't.

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It isn't natural at all.

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Scientific studies indicate
that a neurotypical brain is born

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with the circuitry that allows
our eyes to see

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and our vocal cords
to produce sounds,

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but it doesn't innately have
the ability to read.

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From an evolutionary time scale,
our brain hasn't had enough time

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to develop a dedicated reading brain.

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And so to build
a reading brain network,

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we co-opt parts of the brain involved
in vision and auditory processing,

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and language
and attention and affect.

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The Sumerian cuneiform symbols
are thought to be one

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of the earliest writing systems
in the world,

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dating back to around 3300 BC.

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Around the same time, though, Egyptians
started developing their hieroglyphics.

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Symbols evolved over time.

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The more we read and wrote,
the more sophisticated

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they became becoming the letters
and characters we recognise today.

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Scientists now know
that reading activates the brain

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so that letters and words become
associated with sounds and meanings.

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Reading is really
a whole brain process.

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It involves activation
and all four lobes of the cortex.

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The process of developing
a reading brain alters everything

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from brain activity to brain
structure and brain connectivity.

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And the language we read
also shapes our brain.

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Chinese characters, for instance, are
an example of the logographic system.

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Each object or idea is represented by
a symbol rather than

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by a set of letters of the alphabet.

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Research indicates that learning
logographic writing systems activates
different areas of the brain

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than learning an alphabet-based
language like English.

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The areas involved in visual memory and
visual association do more of the work.

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This theory was corroborated
after scientists studied

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a bilingual patient
who knew both Chinese and English.

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The man suffered a massive stroke,
which affected some areas of his brain,

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including his ability
to read Chinese,

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but astonishingly, his proficiency
in English remained intact.

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It's a beautiful

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example of how the brain circuit
reflects the requirements of Chinese,

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which inevitably means more
visual memory and visual processing

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of those beautifully intricate
symbols or characters.

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Whatever the language,
reading not only impacts the brain,

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but it also affects us
on a physical level.

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We might feel in our guts the
nervousness or the pain of a character.

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And I mean that not only like I feel it
inside me, but I mean that literally.

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Like the anterior insula, which is
responsible for gastromotoric

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movement for feelings
of nausea and pain and discomfort

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is also the part of the brain
that's associated with

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many of the empathic processes.

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And the brain is very adaptable.

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Evidence suggests
that it's already changing
as a result of new technologies.

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Reading on a phone or tablet
is generally passive scrolling,

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often interrupted by messages
and alerts.

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When we read on screens,
we tend to skim,

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and when we skim, we're more
susceptible to misinformation.

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We need to support individuals

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in being able to think critically
about the things that they're reading,

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because that's fundamental to
a democracy is our ability to analyse

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and think deeply about the information
that's that we're consuming.

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Some academic research even suggests
that children who use cell phones

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from an early age perform worse
in school later in life.

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At eight years of age, the amount
of digital exposure predicted

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their attentional executive function
processing and academic performance.

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And it's a negative.
The more digital, the worse academic.

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If you can imagine if that brain
is constantly being distracted

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and hyper stimulated,
you're going to have them not able

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to really move from one stimulus
to the next

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without a desire for ever quicker
intervals between stimuli.

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So then you have kids going offline
and saying they're bored.

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It's a relatively new field
of research,

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and some studies suggest
that monitored

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and education-focused screen time
can be beneficial to children.

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For parents concerned
about navigating the digital world,

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the advice is to go back to basics.

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The antidote to all that's happening
is the simplest, most beautiful one,

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and that is to have
our children immersed

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in reading and have a reading life.

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Our parents
and teachers all have to help,

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you know, they have to model,
they have to read to their child.

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They have to love it themselves.

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And this is likely to have benefits
beyond the individual reader.

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The power of deep reading is
really fundamental to our humanity.

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When we read deeply, we change
our brains and we change who we are.

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And that process of changing
the minds and hearts of individuals

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changes society and allows us to
build bigger, more beautiful futures.