Psychologists at Ohio State University have found that people from birth have neurons that are better equipped than other cells to process letter information. This means that you have an innate predisposition to reading and writing.
As it turned out , the human brain from birth has a specialized area of the visual cortex, which is aimed at the visual perception of word forms and patterns in the form of letters. Previously it was assumed that this zone, called the VWFA, is only for people who can read and write. For all others, it is in an inactive phase. To study it, scientists examined 40 newborns under one week old and 40 adults aged 26 to 36 years.
Research has found that VWFA is associated with the language network of the brain in infants. For a detailed study of VWFA, scientists have launched two projects: Human Connectome Project - for adults, Developing Human Connectome Project - for babies. They performed fMRI scans of the brains of participants in both groups and compared the results.
Experts have discovered a much closer connection between the VWFA and the Wernicke area and Broca centerthan with other areas in the visual cortex. Broca's area is responsible for the reproduction of speech, and Wernicke - for the process of assimilation and understanding. So, it was Wernicke's center that showed a closer connection with VWFA - both in infants and adults. The electrical signals of nerve cells from the zone indicate that the child is able to recognize word forms even before he learns them.
Jin Li et al. / Scientific Reports, 2020
In this area, scientists still have many questions to be answered. For example, it is not known when exactly the neural connections in VWFA are laid, what influences this process, how it occurs. It is unclear whether training affects the strengthening of this bond.
Elissa L. Newport et al. / PNAS, 2020
By the way, scientists have clarified in relative detail the nuances of the dominance of one of the cerebral hemispheres. So, according to researchers from Georgetown University, the dominant of the left hemisphere is formed due to a decrease in the activity of the right, the activity of the left does not change. At the same time, small children from birth use both hemispheres to understand speech.
