What happens in our brains when we read? How did humans develop the ability to transform marks on a page into meaning and understanding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain<\/em> explores the evolution of reading from ancient civilizations to our digital present. Wolf reveals how the brain adapts to this invented skill, reshaping pathways as we learn to connect symbols with sounds and meanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Continue reading for an overview of this book that will make you look at a basic skill with new eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n What happens in our brains when we read? How did humans develop the ability to transform marks on a page into meaning, emotion, and understanding? These questions animate Maryanne Wolf\u2019s Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>She argues that, today, both reading and readers are changing as technology transforms what and how we read\u2014for better and for worse. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n From the ancient past to today, Wolf explains, reading and writing evolved from niche skills reserved for highly trained experts to widespread tools we all learn as children in school. They allow us to engage deeply with texts and ideas, developing our minds. But these abilities are at risk in the digital age, as the fast-paced and distracted experience of online reading<\/a> changes our brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology isn\u2019t going anywhere, though. So instead of fighting it, Wolf\u2014a cognitive neuroscientist who studies the reading brain in children and people with dyslexia\u2014says we should adapt to it. She argues that we can learn both how to engage thoroughly with complex texts (traditional reading) and<\/em> how to effectively process multiple streams of information (online reading). This way, we can benefit from both kinds of reading while mitigating tech\u2019s downsides<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this overview, we’ll detail Wolf\u2019s argument in three parts: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wolf opens by explaining that humans weren\u2019t born to read<\/strong>\u2014unlike with speech, we have no \u201creading genes.\u201d Rather, reading and writing are human inventions, and they\u2019re relatively new ones at that. We\u2019ll explain the origins and development of these inventions as well as how the brain changed to make them possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Wolf, the first \u201cwriting\u201d appeared in Mesopotamia around 8,000 BCE in the form of small clay tokens used for counting and recording goods. This was a major breakthrough: Ancient humans had begun using objects to visually symbolize real things.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The next leap came around 3,200 BCE, when the Sumerians developed cuneiform, an early writing system that used logographs<\/em> (symbols that represent ideas). These logographs could represent not just tangible objects but also abstractions, like myths or religious principles. Around the same time, the Egyptians innovated their system of hieroglyphs, which mixed logographs with phonograms<\/em>\u2014symbols that represent consonant sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These early writing systems were complex and difficult to learn. But this changed around 750 BCE, when the ancient Greeks invented their alphabet. Unlike previous systems, it was based on one crucial idea: All words are made of a limited set of individual sounds that could be represented by a small set of symbols<\/strong>. By pairing single sounds with single symbols (like a<\/em> for \u201cah\u201d and \u201cb\u201d for \u201cbuh\u201d), then arranging those symbols to match the sounds of spoken words, the alphabet made reading and writing much easier. More people became able to read and write, and today, the Western world still uses alphabets descended from this ancient Greek creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As people invented writing<\/a> systems and began to read, the human brain had to continuously adapt. Although it has no dedicated reading center, it does have neuroplasticity<\/a><\/em>\u2014the ability to rewire itself in response to experiences.<\/strong> For instance, when you learn a musical instrument, neuroplasticity makes it possible for you to develop \u201cmuscle memory\u201d and get good at making music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wolf describes three key steps of neuroplasticity that make reading possible: the brain\u2019s ability to create new circuits by connecting older regions, its capacity to develop specialized areas for recognizing patterns (like letters), and its talent for making these processes automatic through practice. So, when ancient humans learned to read, their brains did something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Different writing systems require slightly different adaptations in the brain. Readers of Chinese, for example, develop stronger visual memory circuits due to the language\u2019s character-based system, which requires memorization of thousands of complex visual symbols. In contrast, readers of Western alphabets develop stronger phonological (sound-processing) areas because alphabets rely on the connection between symbols and sounds. But all reading brains share a common pattern: They create new circuits by connecting and repurposing older brain structures<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, according to Wolf, the neuroscience of reading<\/a> reveals that our brains evolved not with fixed functions, but with the ability to change according to what we do. Reading is a remarkable example of this plasticity\u2014we literally changed our brains through cultural invention. This has implications for how we think about the future of reading in the digital age<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we\u2019ve covered the origins and evolution of reading, we\u2019ll explain how children learn<\/a> to read\u2014how their brains develop to acquire this invented system. This development further supports Wolf\u2019s idea that reading skills aren\u2019t innate. Studying how children learn to read<\/a> also reveals the diversity of how different brains work. Recognizing this diversity, we can understand how best to support children who struggle to learn reading and writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll detail the stages children go through as they learn reading and writing, and we\u2019ll discuss how children with dyslexia face unique reading challenges\u2014but also have unique strengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, each child undertakes a years-long journey to literacy. <\/strong>Neurotypical<\/em> children, or those with the thinking and learning skills that society expects, go through several stages of development, which we\u2019ll explore below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First comes infancy. <\/strong>Before a child encounters any written material, they hear words spoken aloud and read to them. During these early experiences, children develop essential foundations: understanding that pictures represent real things, learning that marks on a page carry meaning, and building basic vocabulary and language skills that will later support reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From ages one to five, <\/strong>children continue to develop key abilities that underpin reading and writing. Immersed in her native language(s), a child will keep learning<\/a> the speech sounds and vocabulary she needs to hear and speak\u2014imagine a toddler moving from babbling to trying for words, like \u201cmom\u201d or \u201cdad.\u201d Through being read to, she\u2019ll also start to develop an awareness of letters and their names. Ideally, she\u2019ll also learn to follow along with stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From ages five through seven, <\/strong>most children start or have already started reading. The emerging young reader will understand that letters represent sounds, and she\u2019ll start to sound out words based on that insight. As she gets better at this, she\u2019ll begin connecting simple words (like \u201cbut,\u201d \u201cand,\u201d or \u201cwas\u201d) to meanings and memorizing those connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At seven to nine years old, <\/strong>neurotypical children become more fluent readers. Continuing to grow and learn, the young reader can recognize more and more words automatically, which increases how fast she can read. She also comprehends more of what she reads, understanding not just the meanings of words but also what they mean when taken together in larger and larger chunks (paragraphs, chapters, books). And as she reads more, she expands her vocabulary, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During later childhood,<\/strong> children begin to read with greater ease. Having memorized enough words to follow and enjoy what she reads, the young reader begins to grasp the multiple possible meanings of words in different contexts (like how \u201cfly\u201d can mean the bug or what that bug does to zip around in the air, and \u201czip\u201d can describe that bug\u2019s motion or what you do to close your pants).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout adolescence and beyond, <\/strong>readers develop more advanced cognitive and critical thinking skills. By this point, the reader learns to recognize literary devices, like metaphor and irony. She\u2019ll also form increasingly sophisticated personal connections<\/a> to what she reads\u2014like seeing her own qualities in a protagonist, recognizing lessons from a book that she\u2019s experienced in her own life, or developing preferences for different styles and genres of writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout these stages, reading actively shapes the reader\u2019s brain. As the child reads and grows, her brain develops increasingly sophisticated circuits for processing written language. Eventually, she becomes a fluent, literate, adult reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Wolf emphasizes that this development isn\u2019t automatic\u2014it requires the right conditions and support.<\/strong> Children need exposure to books, explicit instruction in reading skills, and opportunities to practice. Environmental factors like poverty or limited access to books can make it much harder for children to learn to read, and this can have a devastating effect: Some children hear millions fewer words than their peers by age five, and this can slow their growth as readers for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Wolf, people who read throughout their lives are changed by what they read\u2014that is, deep engagement with good writing (like books) influences how we think and who we become.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is because reading allows us to share in the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of others\u2014in other words, to develop empathy. Authors leave behind a permanent impression of themselves, which rubs off on whoever reads their work. Wolf says this is positive: It expands our lives to include diverse experiences we could never have had, and it teaches us more about the people around us and the world we share with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond developing our empathy, lifelong reading also keeps us sharp<\/strong>. It gives us continued opportunities to think critically, analyze and learn from texts, draw connections to our own lives, and more. All of this, Wolf writes, contributes to our positive intellectual development<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not all children learn to read without difficulty. Wolf writes that dyslexia, the most common source of reading difficulties, is a complex condition with no single, clear cause.<\/strong> Instead, it results from a breakdown in one or more of the many circuits that make up the reading brain. For instance, it might manifest as difficulty connecting letters to sounds (such as b<\/em> and \u201cbuh\u201d) or trouble forming memories of words to enable fluent reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since dyslexia isn\u2019t a single condition but rather a spectrum of reading difficulties, it calls for varied solutions, too. Wolf says that reading support tailored to the specific difficulty a reader faces can change the course of the brain\u2019s development, creating more efficient neural pathways and potentially mitigating dyslexia\u2019s downsides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal of reading interventions isn\u2019t to \u201ccure\u201d dyslexia\u2014in fact, Wolf says that dyslexia is better thought of not as an illness but as a different organization of the brain<\/a><\/strong> that comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. Brain imaging shows that while people with dyslexia have weaker circuits for typical reading development, they often have stronger<\/em> circuits for visual and spatial thinking, which help with creativity, problem-solving, and big-picture inventiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The brain evolved over millennia to read and write, and each of us becomes literate over many years. But literacy is at risk, Wolf says\u2014in the digital age, the nature of reading has changed and it\u2019s changing our brains, too. We\u2019ll cover what these changes are and how Wolf recommends we handle the shift from traditional to digital reading and writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To illustrate the nature of this shift from written to digital literacy, Wolf calls back to ancient Greece. When the Greek alphabet began to spread, Socrates argued that reading and writing would weaken the distinct cognitive skills that oral culture encouraged. He thought that dead words on a page couldn\u2019t support proper thinking and the pursuit of knowledge as well as live oral communication did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, Socrates felt that literacy would change the way people thought. Though he focused on the potential negatives, he had the right idea: What we do changes the brain (neuroplasticity), so different ways of using language develop different abilities in us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While Socrates was right that literacy would bring changes, he didn\u2019t foresee its upsides. According to Wolf, literacy allowed humankind to develop a whole new range of cognitive skills. No longer needing to memorize everything we might want to think about, we could go beyond the thoughts we\u2019d been able to think before\u2014studies show that writing things down frees your mind up to think further ahead. This increased cognitive freedom gave us time to think more deeply, more critically, and more empathetically. It gave rise to the traditions of literature, scholarship, and intellectual rigor that we carry on today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our brains will change again as we shift from traditional reading and writing to digital, online reading and writing.<\/strong> And Wolf writes that if we mismanage this shift, we could lose the rich inheritance of thinking skills that traditional literacy gave us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How will the digital age change our brains and our thinking skills? Wolf isn\u2019t quite sure, but she writes about both potential upsides and downsides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Discussing upsides, Wolf writes that digital reading could promote strong associative thinking<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u2014the ability to make connections across many topics or themes. She also says that digital mediums offer accessibility features, like adjustable text size, read-aloud options, customized learning support, and interactive engagement with texts\u2014things not possible with an inert, physical book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite these potential upsides, Wolf worries that digital reading could have major downsides<\/strong>. Because the internet lets you quickly scan and bounce among many different streams of information, it conditions you to think in a different way. Moving swiftly from article to article or tweet to tweet, you take things in less deeply but more broadly. Able to access most any piece of information almost immediately, you don\u2019t stop as long to think or engage as critically with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that the internet encourages you to skim and bounce around quickly, Wolf says it might have these negative effects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These skills are precisely those that humankind developed through traditional literacy. To preserve them, we have to make sure we don\u2019t abandon deeper, slower, offline reading and writing altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOverview of Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Part 1: The Invention of Reading<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How We Invented Reading and Writing<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
How the Brain Adapted to Reading and Writing<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Part 2: Children and Reading<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How Neurotypical Children Learn to Read<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Reading and Intellectual Life<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
How Children With Dyslexia Learn to Read<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Part 3: Reading and the Digital Age<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
From Speech to Page to Screen<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Screen: Upsides and Downsides<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The Page and the Screen Can Coexist<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n