Speech and language therapists work with a range of people with different disorders – some are present from birth such as dyslexia and some are caused by injury to the brain such as a stroke.
As therapists we have a knowledge of which areas of the brain are related to different aspects of language such as speech and understanding language but new research is allowing much more detailed analysis of the complex nature of communication, including how we read.
The BBC has reported on a story that details how researchers used Harry Potter to reveal that magic that happens inside our brain as we read.
They scanned the brains of people reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and were able to work out which areas of the brain were being used.
The team identified parts of the brain responsible for parsing sentences, determining the meaning of words and and understanding characters relationships.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s Machine Learning Department performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of eight people as they read a chapter of a Potter book.
They then analysed the scans, cubic millimeter by cubic millimeter, for every four-word segment of that chapter.
The result was the first integrated computational model of reading, identifying which parts of the brain are responsible for such sub processes as parsing sentences, determining the meaning of words and understanding relationships between characters.
‘At first, we were sceptical of whether this would work at all,’ Tom Mitchell of CMU said.
Analysing multiple sub processes of the brain at the same time is unprecedented in cognitive neuroscience.
‘But it turned out amazingly well and now we have these wonderful brain maps that describe where in the brain you’re thinking about a wide variety of things.’
The research, published in the online journal PLOS ONE, was able to predict fMRI activity for novel text passages with sufficient accuracy to tell which of two different passages a person was reading with 74 percent accuracy.
Leila Wehbe and Mitchell said the model is still inexact, but might someday be useful in studying and diagnosing reading disorders, such as dyslexia, or to track the recovery of patients whose speech was impacted by a stroke.
It also might be used by educators to identify what might be giving a student trouble when learning a foreign language.
‘If I’m having trouble learning a new language, I may have a hard time figuring out exactly what I don’t get,’ Mitchell said.
‘When I can’t understand a sentence, I can’t articulate what it is I don’t understand.
‘But a brain scan might show that the region of my brain responsible for grammar isn’t activating properly, or perhaps instead I’m not understanding the individual words.’
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon and elsewhere have used fMRI scans to identify activation patterns associated with particular words or phrases or even emotions.
But these have always been tightly controlled experiments, with only one variable analysed at a time.
The experiments were unnatural, usually involving only single words or phrases, but the slow pace of fMRI — one scan every two seconds — made other approaches seem unfeasible.
The team devised a technique in which people see one word of a passage every half second — or four words for every two-second fMRI scan.
For each word, they identified 195 detailed features — everything from the number of letters in the word to its part of speech.
They then used a machine learning algorithm to analyse the activation of each cubic centimeter of the brain for each four-word segment.
Bit by bit, the algorithm was able to associate certain features with certain regions of the brain, Wehbe said.
‘The test subjects read Chapter 9 of Sorcerer’s Stone, which is about Harry’s first flying lesson,’ she noted. ‘It turns out that movement of the characters — such as when they are flying their brooms — is associated with activation in the same brain region that we use to perceive other people’s motion. Similarly, the characters in the story are associated with activation in the same brain region we use to process other people’s intentions.’
Exactly how the brain creates these neural encodings is still a mystery, they said, but it is the beginning of understanding what the brain is doing when a person reads.
‘It’s sort of like a DNA fingerprint — you may not understand all aspects of DNA’s function, but it guides you in understanding cell function or development,’ Mitchell said. ‘This model of reading initially is that kind of a fingerprint.’
How they did it
The team devised a technique in which people see one word of a passage every half second — or four words for every two-second fMRI scan.
For each word, they identified 195 detailed features — everything from the number of letters in the word to its part of speech.
They then used a machine learning algorithm to analyse the activation of each cubic centimeter of the brain for each four-word segment.
Bit by bit, the algorithm was able to associate certain features with certain regions of the brain, Wehbe said.
The benefits of reading to young children.
The BBC also recently reported on another study which claims that children whose parents frequently read with them in their first year of school are still showing the benefit when they are 15.
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development analysis examined the long-term impact of parental support on literacy. Discounting social differences, the study found children with early support remained ahead in reading.
It found a strong link between teenage reading skills and early parental help.
Talking together
The OECD analysis, based on teenagers in 14 developed countries, found that active parental involvement at the beginning of school was a significant trigger for developing children’s reading skills that would carry through until they were teenagers.
On average, teenagers whose parents had helped with reading at the beginning of school were six months ahead in reading levels at the age of 15.
The report says that parents did not have to be particularly well-educated themselves for this impact to be achieved.
What was important was that parents read books regularly with their children – such as several times a week – and that they talked about what they were reading together.
This parental involvement overrode other social disadvantages and in some countries could represent more than a year’s advantage in reading levels at the age of 15 compared with children whose parents rarely read books with them.
The study, which draws on data from the international Programme for International Student Assessment tests, also found a link between teenagers’ reading skills and continued engagement with their parents.
Everyday family get-togethers, where parents and children talk, could influence school performance, says the research.
“Eating main meals together around the table and spending time just talking with one’s children are also associated with significantly better student reading performance in school,” says the OECD report.
Read more: The Daily Mail article on the Harry Potter – Muggle Magic
For more information go to: www.bbc.co.uk
Written by Rachel Harrison, speech and language therapist, on behalf of Integrated Treatment Services. www.integratedtreatmentservices.co.uk