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Monday 10 January 2022

Scientific Studies on the Benefits of Reading

The fact that reading is useful is perceived by many as an axiom, but there are many blank spots in this statement. First, it’s not so obvious at all, because measuring the “usefulness” of reading is very difficult. Most of the conclusions about the beneficial effects of reading on humans are actually based on theoretical assumptions than actual scientific research. Distrustful citizens, in turn, notice that reading fiction does not train any skills that are important in real life, does not provide important information, and if it develops anything, it’s only imagination. There are even people who argue that reading is not only not useful, but, on the contrary, can do harm, since it “tears” a person away from reality, plunging him into imaginary worlds, and thereby makes him less socially adapted. So the benefits of reading are by no means obvious.


The second important question is the quality of the reading. Intuitively, we assume that reading the complete works of Daria Dontsova will bring you less benefit than Chekhov's shortest story. But confirming this turns out to be even more difficult than reading in general. In this post, we tried to bring together the latest research by scientists regarding the benefits that people can get from reading fiction. The selection was compiled on the basis of media materials, only those materials were selected where there is an indication of the organization that conducted the research, and at least some description of the experimental method.

Today a Reader Tomorrow a Leader

Let's start with poetry. Scientists at the University of Liverpool measured the brain activity of subjects while they read poems by Shakespeare, Eliot and other famous poets. It was revealed that reading poetry leads the brain into a state of heightened excitement, which persists even after reading is stopped. The zones associated with autobiographical memory became especially active. Additionally, scholars retell the content of the poems “in their own words”. So, reading these retellings had almost no effect on brain activity.

Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on 12 students who read 30 pages of Robert Harris's historical thriller Pompeii every day. The scans showed that reading caused increased activity in the left temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex associated with speech and cognitive abilities in the central gyrus, which is responsible for sensorimotor responses. Moreover, the excitement persisted in these areas even after a while after reading the book. Scientists have also found that readers experience the experience of "body semantization" when, in the process of thinking about an action, the configuration of interneuronal connections begins to repeat their configuration at the time of the action. For example, thoughts about swimming can lead to the formation of the same interneuronal connections,

Experts from the University of Oxford also used MRI and found that when reading a person, the same parts of the brain are activated, as when observing the scenes described in the book live. A professor at the University of Oxford, John Stein, claims: we are so "getting used" to what is happening that the brain reacts to the book in the same way as if we actually participated in what is described. In other words, the statement: “The reader lives thousands of lives” is not far from the truth.

And in 2008, researchers at Duke University found that reading could be used to treat obesity. They examined 30 obese girls between the ages of 9 and 13. One of them was offered to read the novel “Salvage Lake” - about a girl with excess weight and low self-esteem who is trying to lose weight. The second group read a book where there was no such character, and the third did not read anything at all. As a result, the decrease in body mass index in the first group was almost two times higher than the results of the second and third groups. Scientists linked this to the effect of reading on girls' motivation. The benefits of reading specific literature have been confirmed in other studies.

A team of scientists (mainly from France) led by Stanislas Dehaene compared the brain activity (using the same MRI) of illiterate people, people who learned to read in adulthood and “ordinary”, literate people from childhood. It turned out that in a literate person, when recognizing text, the visual area of ​​the cerebral cortex begins to work much more intensively, the areas responsible for processing sound information are activated, and several other brain centers are simultaneously turned on. But not only this characterizes the work of the “literate brain” - even with the perception of only oral information, a literate person begins to work more intensively than an illiterate one, the phonological area starts to work and several other zones are turned on.

Researchers at Stanford University asked a group of PhDs in literature to read Jane Austin's novel while inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. And in different ways. At first, they read "just like that", and then they were asked to focus on analyzing the text, as if they needed to give a talk at a scientific conference. Analytical, detailed reading has been found to require a certain complex cognitive function that is usually not involved. In the transition from reading "for pleasure" to "analytical" reading, there is a sharp change in the types of nervous activity of the brain and the nature of blood circulation in the brain.


Reading is when people install new programs in their brains.

Neurophysiologist David Lewis and colleagues have conducted a study on how different types of activity can help relieve stress. A group of volunteers was put into a state of stress, and then offered to relieve this stress using one method or another. It turned out that reading is the most effective anti-stress. Six minutes of reading was enough to relax the muscles and normalize the heart rate. Reading has bypassed methods such as listening to music, drinking tea, and walking.

The American researcher Robert Wilson and a group of scientists have been observing a group of almost three hundred elderly people (an average of about 89 years) for 6 years. And after the death of the subjects, their brains were examined for pathological changes. It turned out that people who read more than average throughout their lives were 32% less likely to have memory problems, while people who did not read at all lose memory 48% faster than those who devote an average amount of time to this activity. ...


Now let's move on to some unexpected research. Contrary to popular belief, staff at the University of Toulouse have proven that reading while eating is not only not harmful, but, on the contrary, is beneficial! For those people who do not part with a book at the table, food is absorbed much better than those who watch TV. During reading, a person chews food more slowly, as a result of which food enters the stomach in a more crushed form and is well saturated with digestive juices.

Reading is good for constipation

Scientists at the Nyurberg Academy of Moral and Physical Health came to an even more exotic conclusion. It turns out it's helpful to read on the toilet. Especially for those who suffer from constipation. The text distracts the reader from his own experiences, and an exciting plot has a beneficial effect on the contraction of the intestinal walls, so the researchers recommend leaving detective stories and spy novels in the toilet.

But out of competition were sexologists from the laboratory of ejaculatory pathology at the hospital of St. Patrick. These guys have found that reading can be beneficial ... yes, during sex! It turned out that reading math books during intercourse helps to prolong sexual intercourse. To tell the truth, I will not dare to use this valuable advice, but if someone tries - write in the comments what happened.

Well, the greatest benefit from reading was revealed not by scientists at all, but by the police of Novosibirsk. In February last year, such an incident occurred in the city. A longtime "friend" of the girl, apparently decided to forcibly return her location and, threatening with a pistol, tried to drag her into his car. A friend of the girl who happened to be nearby decided to interfere and received a bullet directly in the chest. However, the bullet got stuck in the pages of the book, which was in the guy's breast pocket, which escaped with a bruise as a result.
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