Redalyc.Dehaene, Stanislas. Reading in the Brain. USA: Penguin Group
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Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies E-ISSN: 2175-8026 [email protected] Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Brasil Achy Almeida, Fabiana Vanessa; Marchese Winfield, Claudia Dehaene, Stanislas. Reading in the Brain. USA: Penguin group, 2010. Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, núm. 63, julio-diciembre, 2012, pp. 215-233 Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianópolis, Brasil Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=478348701009 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative REVIEWS/RESENHAS of cognitive neuroscience with a particular interest in language and number processing, and he is the http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175- author of several books on the topic, 8026.2012n63p215 such as “The Number sense”. He is a Dehaene, Stanislas. Reading in the professor of Experimental Cognitive Brain. USA: Penguin Group, 2010. Psychology at the Collège de France, and the director of the Cognitive by Fabiana Vanessa Achy Almeida, Neuroimaging Unit in Saclay, and Claudia Marchese Winfield France. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Reading in the brain works at different levels; including up-to- The art of reading has fascinated date scientific information, and researchers from different fields reviews of significant studies in the of interest as it is considered a field of neuroscience and cognitive paramount aspect of human psychology, expressing them in development. Now not only language that is not too specialized, researchers, but lay readers may and also with suggestions for further benefit from a contemporary and well- readings. Dehaene includes useful informed publication on cognitive illustrations, examples, explanations neuropsychology, Reading in the and interesting metaphors that brain, by Stanislas Dehaene. The capture complex processes in easier basic premise of the book lies on the to read language. Unfortunately, the assumption that cerebral plasticity illustrations in this issue are in black yields an adaptive process of our and white, although the author neuronal circuits to operationalize sometimes refers to colored parts cultural and educational inventions in them. As a whole, these textual such as reading and writing, which strategies make the book accessible are characteristic of the society we to a wide readership. belong to. Nevertheless, Dehaene does not Stanislas Dehaene is a well- minimize the complexity of reading, established researcher in the field which he accurately depicts as Ilha do Desterro Florianópolis nº 63 p. 215- 242 jul/dez 2012 216 Reviews/Resenhas cognitive activity involving several that compare our brain to a tabula subprocesses, of a vastly parallel rasa, which would be shaped nature, which interact as reading by environment, culture and takes place in the human brain. The experience. In fact, according to author points out that neuroscience research findings the author argues research has offered findings that brain architecture is similar from brain imaging enabling the across human beings regardless of identification of the brain areas their culture. In response to those involved in reading, although still views, Dehaene proposes a theory controversial. These findings, in of neurocortical interactions, in turn, have helped to establish a new other words, the neuronal recycling theory of reading, whose main claim hypothesis. rests on the notion that neuronal networks in the human brain are Although the author also considers “recycled for reading”. According how literacy has affected the brain, to Dehaene, this new theory can he claims that evolution works cause a dramatic change to our on a random path, therefore the understanding of the human brain, plasticity view of the brain as its involvement in reading and other being constructed by our previous complex cognitive activities. experiences and environment is seen as too simplistic. Actually, Moreover, he states that the author states that the period in neuroscientific data offerwhich human beings have been able contributions to pedagogy and to read and have developed reading pedagogical actions for reading is not long enough to warrant the problems such as dyslexia. For argument that our brain has evolved instance, by challenging literacy via reading – this is what the author approaches such as the “whole calls the “reading paradox”. word” approach, and confirming that the systematic use of the phonics In response to this paradox, approach benefits the learner to Dehaene claims that neuroscience a greater extent. And, in the near findings indicate that the adult brain future, neuroscientific findings presents circuits that are specialized about how the “brain learns to read” in recognition of writing. Yet, the could inform literacy teaching. brain has evolved over millions of years, and reading only appeared a Dehaene refutes the empiricist view few thousand years ago, which leads and the social sciences perspective the author to suggest that the human Ilha do Desterro nº 63, p. 215-242, Florianópolis, jul/dez 2012 217 brain may have specialized cortical is presented, in the tradition of mechanisms that are attracted scientific research reports, whereby to written input. On one hand, knowledge acquisition is seen as our brains apparently have pre- cyclic and continuous. representations, which are used to help us deal with our environment Dehaene starts chapter 1, How do we and with variable situations, and read?, explaining some fundamentals there is flexibility in the brain in of the functioning of reading by this sense. On the other hand, there discussing the specificities of the are constraints, in the sense that the organ responsible for receiving pre-representations are minimally visual input – the eye. The author altered to meet new demands – describes how the retina deals with limited to those circuits that are visual information, stressing the amenable to change. role of the fovea that contains high- resolution cells and is located in the All in all, the discussions developed center of the retina. Thus, Dehaene about the implementation of emphasizes that eye-movement in reading processes in the brain are reading is characterized by fixations well-developed throughout the and saccades, which, ultimately, book. The organization of the book affects reading gaze and time. facilitates and guides reading about this complex theme as is divided The anatomical aspect of reading into an introduction, eight chapters, is subsequently related to the and a conclusion. It also contains reading processes of decoding author’s notes, the bibliography, the and encoding, which are seen as index and figure credits all presented simultaneous processes. The author at the end of the book, thus not emphasizes the issue of “invariance” distracting the audience from their in processing of written input, that reading. However, not all references is, letter recognition is not affected are listed in the bibliography, either by varying letter shapes or sizes, in the useful general sources or in the apparently; we recognize letter detailed references, unfortunately. common traits, and these are the Each chapter is structured with “invariants” in letter and in word a brief introduction followed recognition. by headings and subheadings that Dehaene uses when posing The key to understanding how the questions to orient reading. More human brain deals with invariance information on further research may reside in the hierarchical 218 Reviews/Resenhas organization of decoding He further explains that encodings subprocesses of reading in each realized by neurons in the primary letter, grapheme, phoneme, in visual form area are progressively morpheme recognition and the recoded to be finally related to a use of affixes in word formation. mental lexicon, as if the input could Dehaene’s hypothesis is: “every find its mental address in a the mental written word is probably encoded lexicon. In addition, the author by a hierarchical tree in which discusses two possible routes for letters are grouped into larger size word recognition, the phonological units, which are themselves grouped route and the direct lexical route, into syllables and words” (p. 22). which are subsequently presented According to Dehaene, we naturally in chapter 2, where the author focus on morphemes in word explains that those routes represent recognition processes, i.e. we focus the dual-mode model. According to on finding meaning, but we move the author, the phonological route through levels of representation to refers to the mechanism via which get to meaning. we relate form to sound, letter to sound, grapheme to phoneme, while Having said that, Dehaene the direct lexical route refers to the analyzes the neural behavior in mechanism we have for associating dealing with this hierarchical written input to its meaning. meaning searching process, and Dehaene acknowledges that there he claims that we have neurons is a consensus regarding the dual- with a specific function as abstract mode model, apparently both letter detectors. In order for such routes may function simultaneously, abstraction process to be carried working in parallel. out, there is a filtering mechanism consisted of a feature detector In sum, in chapter 1 Dehaene