The neural and cognitive basis of expository text comprehension

As science and technology rapidly progress, it becomes increasingly important to understand how individuals comprehend expository technical texts that explain these advances. This study examined differences in individual readers’ technical comprehension performance and differences among texts, using...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	NPJ science of learning Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 21
Main Authors:	Keller, Timothy A., Mason, Robert A., Legg, Aliza E., Just, Marcel Adam
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 21-03-2024 Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio
Subjects:	631/378/2649 631/378/2649/1594 631/477/2811 Biomedical and Life Sciences Brain Brain research Cognition & reasoning Cognitive ability Cortex (parietal) Design Educational Technology Frontal gyrus Knowledge Life Sciences Mathematical Models of Cognitive Processes and Neural Networks Medical imaging Memory Neurobiology Neuroimaging Neuropsychology Neurosciences Parietal lobe Prefrontal cortex Prior Learning Reading comprehension Recall (Psychology) Semantics Skills
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Summary:	As science and technology rapidly progress, it becomes increasingly important to understand how individuals comprehend expository technical texts that explain these advances. This study examined differences in individual readers’ technical comprehension performance and differences among texts, using functional brain imaging to measure regional brain activity while students read passages on technical topics and then took a comprehension test. Better comprehension of the technical passages was related to higher activation in regions of the left inferior frontal gyrus, left superior parietal lobe, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral hippocampus. These areas are associated with the construction of a mental model of the passage and with the integration of new and prior knowledge in memory. Poorer comprehension of the passages was related to greater activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus, areas involved in autobiographical and episodic memory retrieval. More comprehensible passages elicited more brain activation associated with establishing links among different types of information in the text and activation associated with establishing conceptual coherence within the text representation. These findings converge with previous behavioral research in their implications for teaching technical learners to become better comprehenders and for improving the structure of instructional texts, to facilitate scientific and technological comprehension.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2056-7936 2056-7936
DOI:	10.1038/s41539-024-00232-y