Why we can read and write, scientists discover brain is prewired for seeing words

A 'word' is what sets a human apart from other animals. It is called the “visual word form area” and it is connected to the language network of the brain. According to the research paper published in the Nature, the scientists analysed brain scans of newborns to identify the “fertile ground” in the brain where “sensitivity to visual words” develops even before any exposure to language. Previous understanding was that among pre-literate individuals, the VWFA was no different from other portions of the visual cortex part of the brain that recognises faces and other shapes, scenes etc. The researchers have said a deeper study of the VWFA of brain may help understand the condition of dyslexia -- a learning disorder in which children find it difficult to read owing to difficulty in identifying letters, speech sound and their relation to a picture representing letters.