Natural Born Readers

Lee Hadden writes “The New Scientist for July 5, 2003, has an interesting article by
Stanislas Dehaene, “Natural Born Readers,” pages 30-33.

“Reading presents a real paradox to neurobiologists. It was only
invented a few thousand years ago, so there has not really been enough time
for our brains to evolve specialized ways to do it. How do brain circuits
produced by millions of years of evolution in a world without written words
adapt to the specific challenges of reading? We know we have to learn the
skill- each language or script comes with its own unique patterns and
rules- but how does the brain learn to read?”

Read more about it at the New Scientist, with a subscription.