PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Comprehending comprehension

Researchers find brain activity related to individual differences in reading comprehension

2013-11-06
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Hilary Hurd Anyaso
h-anyaso@northwestern.edu
847-491-4887
Northwestern University
Comprehending comprehension Researchers find brain activity related to individual differences in reading comprehension EVANSTON, Ill. --- What makes a good reader? First, you have to know how to read the words on a page and understand them -- but there's a higher-level step to reading comprehension. You have to tie together the words over time, maintaining their order and meaning in your memory, so that you can understand phrases, sentences, paragraphs and extended texts.

Northwestern University researchers were interested in exploring the brain activity underlying this higher-level integration step. Through the use of an EEG to measure brainwaves, they were able to predict reading comprehension with almost 90 percent accuracy based on the brain activity differences between ordered and scrambled story texts.

Participants read two versions of a long text presented one word at a time on a computer monitor. One version was in the original order of the story, the other version was in a scrambled order. In each case, participants read the words in order to perform a word-finding task. However, only in the ordered version of the story were they also asked to comprehend the story in preparation for a comprehension test.

The researchers figured that for people who read each word in the ordered version of the story and tried to tie the words together to form a story but didn't comprehend the story well, their brain activity would not differ much between the two versions of the story. Good comprehenders, on the other hand, should show distinctly different brain activity when they were successfully tying together and remembering the story in the ordered version versus when the words were scrambled.

"We used a computational algorithm called a random-forest ensemble to identify neural activity that differentiated good from poor reading comprehenders. This activity was focused at EEG electrodes toward the front of the head," said Julia Mossbridge, lead author of the study and research associate in psychology at Northwestern.

Previous research in this area has examined the brain activity surrounding comprehension of sentences and short passages. Consequently, the most significant finding of the study, Mossbridge said, is that she and her colleagues have developed a method, using longer texts, to get to the integration process in reading comprehension.

"Individuals with reading comprehension deficits in the absence of other reading deficits are almost surely lacking in this higher-level integration skill of tying the words together and maintaining the integrated meaning over time," Mossbridge said. "We hope that our novel paradigm and the result showing the neural activity for differentiating good from poor comprehenders could potentially be used to help diagnose and eventually treat reading disorders."

In addition to Mossbridge, co-authors include Marcia Grabowecky, Ken A. Paller and Satoru Suzuki of Northwestern. The article "Neural activity tied to reading predicts individual differences in extended-text comprehension" will appear in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

INFORMATION:

NORTHWESTERN NEWS: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Research helps identify young people with type 1 diabetes at risk of heart and kidney disease

2013-11-06
Research helps identify young people with type 1 diabetes at risk of heart and kidney disease Screening could enable early intervention Using a simple urine test, researchers can now identify young people with type 1 diabetes at risk of heart and kidney ...

Big beats bolster solar cell efficiency

2013-11-06
Big beats bolster solar cell efficiency Playing pop and rock music improves the performance of solar cells, according to new research from scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London. The high frequencies and pitch ...

New report calls for sustained public endorsement and funding for human stem cell research

2013-11-06
New report calls for sustained public endorsement and funding for human stem cell research The European Science Foundation reports on the scientific and policy issues surrounding human stem cell research across Europe A strategic report from the European Science ...

Volume of nuclear waste could be reduced by 90 percent, says new research

2013-11-06
Volume of nuclear waste could be reduced by 90 percent, says new research The researchers, from the University of Sheffield's Faculty of Engineering, have shown that mixing plutonium-contaminated waste with blast furnace slag and turning it into glass ...

Discovered a mechanism that induces migration of tumor cells in liver cancer

2013-11-06
Discovered a mechanism that induces migration of tumor cells in liver cancer The findings will help to identify which patients benefit TGFb inhibitory therapy Researchers from the Biological clues of the invasive and metastatic phenotype group ...

Elsevier's Maturitas publishes position statement on fertility preservation

2013-11-06
Elsevier's Maturitas publishes position statement on fertility preservation Amsterdam, November 6, 2013 – Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the publication of a position statement ...

Personal reflection triggers increased brain activity during depressive episodes

2013-11-06
Personal reflection triggers increased brain activity during depressive episodes Research by the University of Liverpool has found that people experiencing depressive episodes display increased brain activity when they think about themselves. Using functional ...

Maintaining strength in ocean science requires greater collaboration, coordination, and integration

2013-11-06
Maintaining strength in ocean science requires greater collaboration, coordination, and integration Expert Panel Report on Canadian Ocean Science Ottawa (November 6, 2013) – A new expert panel report, by the Council of Canadian Academies, ...

Genetic aberration paves the way for new treatment of cancer disease

2013-11-06
Genetic aberration paves the way for new treatment of cancer disease 12-15 years of development and millions of dollars are typically the costs, when companies develop a new anti-cancer drug. Therefore all short cuts to a treatment are welcome. Researchers at ...

Long term results of EORTC trial for patients with resectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer

2013-11-06
Long term results of EORTC trial for patients with resectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer Long term results of the randomized phase III EORTC intergroup trial 40983 were recently reported in The Lancet Oncology. The observed 4.1% difference ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Novel treatment combination improves progression-free survival in metastatic, estrogen-receptor-positive HER-2-negative breast cancer

ESMO 2025: Trial results show belzutifan shrinks rare neuroendocrine tumors and improves symptoms in patients

ESMO 2025: Dual targeted therapy shows promise in previously treated advanced kidney cancer patients

New generation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) shows unprecedented promise in early-stage disease

Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for October 2025

Three science and technology leaders elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Jump Trading CSO Kevin Bowers elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Former Inscripta CEO Sri Kosaraju elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Citadel’s Jordan Chetty elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

McGill research flags Montreal snow dump, inactive landfills as major methane polluters

A lightweight and rapid bidirectional search algorithm

Eighty-five years of big tree history available in one place for the first time

MIT invents human brain model with six major cell types to enable personalized disease research, drug discovery

Health and economic air quality co-benefits of stringent climate policies

How immune cells deliver their deadly cargo

How the brain becomes a better listener: How focus enhances sound processing

Processed fats found in margarines unlikely to affect heart health

Scientists discover how leukemia cells evade treatment

Sandra Shi MD, MPH, named 2025 STAT Wunderkind

Treating liver disease with microscopic nanoparticles

Chemicals might be hitching a ride on nanoplastics to enter your skin

Pregnant patients with preexisting high cholesterol may have elevated CV risk

UC stroke experts discuss current and future use of AI tools in research and treatment

The Southern Ocean’s low-salinity water locked away CO2 for decades, but...

OHSU researchers develop functional eggs from human skin cells

Most users cannot identify AI bias, even in training data

Hurricane outages: Analysis details the where, and who, of increased future power cuts

Craters on surface of melanoma cells found to serve as sites for tumor killing

Research Spotlight: Mapping overlooked challenges in stroke recovery

Geographic and temporal patterns of screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer in the US

[Press-News.org] Comprehending comprehension
Researchers find brain activity related to individual differences in reading comprehension