ABSTRACT
Neuroscience researchers study the brain, a shorthand signifi er for the complex suite of anatomical structures and biological processes that allow neurologically endowed organisms to effectively regulate body states and negotiate environments. A reader of this volume may well wonder what such research could possibly say about reading comprehension. Upon further refl ection, however, granting that language comprehension is a demonstrated capability of a particular species of biological organism, one that inhabits and negotiates, among other environments, symbolic environments of its own devising, a reader may wish to consider what empirical research on the biological processes underlying symbol use and language development might contribute to a comprehensive discussion of the nature of reading comprehension and its social augmentation.
