Written By: Mayukha Kashyap
How the VWFA may be connected to language regions of the brain
Picture Source: https://www.eneuro.org/content/6/1/ENEURO.0425-17.2019
The brain is an intricate part of the human body. As time progresses, scientists learn more about how the brain works and its ability to communicate with the body. Part of what makes the brain, so complex is its many systems and regions. One of these regions is called the VWFA, or the visual word form area. The VWFA is located in the left fusiform gyrus and surrounding cortex part of the brain. Not much was known about the VWFA; scientists hypothesized that it had something to do with the brain’s language region but were unsure how big of a role it played. New research has shown that there is more to the VWFA than initially thought.
Understanding babies and their development is also something scientists are continually learning about. As babies grow older, their brain develops more, allowing them to process information better and more effectively. In fact, the human brain is not developed until a person is around 25 years old. At age 25, scientists discovered that the brain’s cognitive abilities have reached its max potential, allowing humans to make more rationalized decisions than when they were younger. Still, a fully developed brain does not directly correlate with how rational a person is. So why does this matter? People have often argued that having the legal adult age of 18 does not make sense as the brain has not fully developed. Yet research has shown that the brain is more complicated.
Scientists at Ohio State University have discovered that babies are born with the ability to read due to the VWFA. According to Zeynep Saygin, senior author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at The Ohio State University, the VWFA allows babies to have a sensitivity to visual words, even though they are unable to read or be exposed to language. The scientists discovered that the VWFA is “more connected functionally to the language network of the brain than it is to other areas” (Saygin, 2020). To prove their point, they analyzed the MRIs of 40 newborn babies with 40 adults. The VWFA is located next to a part of the visual cortex that allows humans to process faces. Saygin and his team believed that there would be no difference in this part of the brain between the adults and the newborns.
When analyzing the MRIs, they found that the VWFA was more connected to the brain’s language region than the visual part in both newborns and adults. This proved that similar to adults being able to read, in a way, newborns can as well. Because of the VWFA’s connection to the brain’s language region, newborns can process visual words without realizing it. In other words, they are “prewired to read.” Saygin believes this finding emphasizes the complexity of the brain and its interconnectedness. Different parts of the brain often develop into something unexpected, helping scientists understand how the human body works and the nervous system.
The team also found that the VWFA region of the brain changed as the newborns grew older. As they gain new experiences and learn new words, the VWFA adapts to account for these changes, explaining how children can read by a certain age. Saygin also believes more research needs to be done to understand the development of the fetal brain. "Knowing what this region is doing at this early age will tell us a bit more about how the human brain can develop the ability to read and what may go wrong," he says. Perhaps learning more about the VWFA can help explain disabilities such as dyslexia, a disability associated with the brain’s language region.
Sources:
Jin Li, David E. Osher, Heather A. Hansen, Zeynep M. Saygin. Innate connectivity patterns
drive the development of the visual word form area. Scientific Reports, 2020; 10 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41598-020-75015-7
Ohio State University. "Humans are born with brains 'prewired' to see words: Study finds
connections to language areas of the brain." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 October 2020.
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