ABSTRACT
The human brain is not designed for reading (LC1 1 ). Humans have been reading and writing for only about 5,000 years; on an evolutionary scale, that is very little time for the development of a neural region specialized for the cultural invention of reading. Indeed, there is no single part of the brain that can be identified as “the part of the brain that does reading.” And yet, if you have picked up this book, chosen this chapter, and are comprehending this text, you have a brain that can read. How did that come about?
