New Delhi:
In adulthood, when a completely illiterate person learns to read and write, there is a change in human brain and it reorganises itself significantly.
The findings were based on women from rural areas in India. the findings showed that learning process resulted in re-organisation that extends to deep brain structures in thalamus and brainstem.
The researchers told that some parts of our visual system such as faces get engaged in translating letters into language.
“Until now it was assumed that these changes are limited to the outer layer of the brain, the cortex, which is known to adapt quickly to new challenges,” said lead author Falk Huettig from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
Parts of brainstem- colliculi superiors and the pulvinar located in thalamus adapt the timing of their activity patterns according to those of the virtual cortex as observed by the researchers.
“These deep structures in the thalamus and brainstem help our visual cortex to filter important information from the flood of visual input even before we consciously perceive it,” added Michael Skeide, scientific researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS).
Interestingly, it seems that more the signal timings between the two brain regions are aligned, the better the reading capabilities.
