A new study from the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and the University of São Paulo in Brazil, published in the journal Cortex, demonstrates how learning to read fundamentally changes how the brain responds to spoken language, even in the absence of written words. In short, “learning to read reshapes how the brain processes language,” according to the authors. This study is one of the first to show differences in brain activity with listening alone.
As people learn to read, they develop their phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds that comprise spoken words. Phonemic awareness is one of the foundational skills of science-based reading instruction. The current study shows that learning to read increases the reader’s sensitivity to these component sounds and improves how the brain processes spoken language as a result.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Jed Meltzer, indicates that “brain regions involved in analyzing the sounds of spoken language operate independently of meaning … reading is a fundamental skill that unlocks more sophisticated cognitive abilities that extend far beyond reading itself.”
The study’s participants came from two groups of older adults: those considered functionally illiterate and were only beginning to learn to read later in their lives, and those who were more educated and had been reading since childhood.
Both groups listened to a story and pressed a button whenever they heard a specific target word; the researchers measured their brain activity with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The story was presented partly in Portuguese, the participants’ native language, and partly in Japanese, an unfamiliar language. Both versions were recorded by a fluently bilingual teacher from São Paulo’s Japanese-Brazilian community.
While participants in both groups performed well when listening to their native language, both their performance and their brain activity patterns differed when listening to the Japanese material. Those who’d learned to read in childhood showed greater engagement of a key region in the right hemisphere of the brain during the task.
The brain’s left hemisphere is dominant for language processing, but the right hemisphere becomes more involved when tasks become more demanding. The authors say their findings suggest that this right-hemisphere recruitment reflects a learned skill acquired through reading. Therefore, they conclude, learning to read not only provides the obvious benefits of literacy, but also fundamentally shapes how the brain processes language in general and improves our ability to handle greater cognitive challenges.
Source:
na. (February 9, 2026). “The brain on books: How reading reshapes language processing.” Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. Retrieved from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-brain-reshapes-language.html.
