Reading is a recent cognitive ability

Abstract

Reading a script written in alphabetic characters is a cognitive ability that the human brain achieved rather recently, around 3500 yrs ago. For learning the correspondence between graphemes and speech sounds the brain activates a functional network connecting visual, acoustic and language areas and, at the same time, ‘recycles’ a neural structure that becomes the area where letters and words are identified. Current research is concerned with the possible influence of digital reading on the various aspects of cognition mostly related to reading.