How Remedial Reading Class Changes Young Brains

Sure, you know all about gray matter. But its lesser # known counterpart white matter — the stuff that coordinates communication between regions of the brain — is coming on strong. The latest example is this paperEnergy saving lamppublished today in the journal Neuron.

Researchers found that kids who were weak readers fared poorly on a common measure of white matter in a key region of the brain. But after 100 hours of intensive reading instruction, the kids showed significant improvement in white matter (and in reading). Similar children who didn’t get the intensive instruction didn’t show improvement. The study included 47 weak readers and 25 strong readers, and the kids were between ages 8 and 12.

The study “demonstrates that theGrow lightconnections between areas involved in high level cognition can be improved by behavioral intervention,” Timothy Keller, the Carnegie MellonEnergy saving lampresearcher who led the study, told the Health Blog.

White matter is a comer in part because relatively new imaging techniques allow scientists to study it in living subjects. But, as with other kinds of brain imaging, these techniques don’t provide an entirely clear picture of what’s going on.

The improved outcomes in this study could have been the result of a few different types of changes in the brain; Keller et al. suggest that the extra reading lessons may have stimulated the growth of myelin, a substance that covers the long tails of nerve cells and is important in transmitting signals from cell to cell. (Myelin is also what makes white matter white.)

A better understanding of white matter — and what it has to do with the brain’sGrow lightability to communicate with itself — may have important ramifications that go beyond reading. White matter may also play a role in some neurological diseases, including autismEnergy saving lampand early-onset schizophrenia.