Neuroscience and How We Read

Derek Hiebert: Well, welcome to another episode of Bronco Health Talk, the podcast for the College of Health Sciences here at Boise State University. My name is Derek, the marketing manager for the college, and I have here my co host, Sam Butler, who is one of our employees on the student media team and helps to produce the podcast. We also have Danya Lusk, who’s our senior communication specialist in the background, she helps with our production. 

And we’re so pleased to have our guest here today, Andriana Christofalos. The assistant professor for psychological science in the College of Arts and Sciences, who–as you’ve said, also teaches in neuroscience, which is great. So super excited to have you here today, as we’re going to talk about this topic of celebrations, seasonal events, and how our brains are involved in that. We have a lot of events coming up this spring, and even things like national days of remembrance, like Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Obviously, we have some–of the country has been celebrating Mardi Gras. 

Sam Butler: Yeah. 

Derek Hiebert: We have St. Patrick’s Day coming up. We’ve also got spring break for students. We’ve got Easter and all the things. So, we’re just excited to hear from our guest here on what kinds of things are–like the functions maybe and the different things that’s going on in the brain that even even emotionally are involved in that. But first, let’s start out. 

Sam Butler: Kind of how celebration impacts the brain and just how how it works in general.

Derek Hiebert: Right, absolutely. So can you tell us a little bit about your work with psychology and what classes you’re teaching this spring? 

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah, well, thank you for having me. So, I study the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support reading in skilled readers. And right now I’m teaching a cognitive psychology class. Cognitive psychology is an area of psychology that looks at how the mind processes information. So we cover topics like attention, memory, decision-making, language, perception. And, what’s really cool about teaching these classes is that all of those processes are important in reading.

So by studying reading, I get to study all of these processes at the same time. And when I describe the processes involved in reading, I like to describe using a metaphor. So reading is kind of like baking a cake and following a recipe. When you bake a cake, you need all the necessary ingredients–eggs, flour, whatever. And not only do those ingredients need to come together, they need to come together in just the right way. And if even one ingredient is slightly off, that can result in a totally different cake. So reading is very similar. It requires this precise coordination between multiple systems or multiple ingredients.

When you’re reading, you have to visually recognize the letters in a word. You have to visually recognize a word, and you have to remember what you just read and connect it with what you’re currently reading. You have to access word meanings, allocate attention during this whole process. And so when all those systems are running smoothly, everything’s going well, reading can feel sort of automatic and effortless. We kind of take for granted how complex reading is. But when even one of those systems or ingredients is disrupted, reading comprehension can be very difficult. So I studied that using eye tracking in my lab. And we record readers eye movements while they’re reading. 

Derek Hiebert: Interesting.

Sam Butler: Can you just run through like a quick explanation of how you do that?

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah…so…

Sam Butler: …If I was the person being studied. What would you do to prep me, and what would I be tested on? 

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah. So you would sit at a computer, and I would have the eye tracker in front of you. And this eye tracker has an infrared light that it shines into your eye, and it records the exact position of your eye while you’re reading text on a computer screen. And it does that by taking up to 1,000 samples of your exact eye position per second. So I can see exactly where your eye is, where you’re landing on a word. How long you’re looking at a word. And looking at your eye movements during reading can allow me to gain insight into what’s actually going on in the brain to support that reading process.

So if you encounter a difficult word, you might pause or fixate on it much longer than if you’re looking at an easy word. I can also see if you make backwards eye movements and go back to previously read text. And that indicates that you’re experiencing difficulty, and you need to engage in some reanalysis. 

Sam Butler: Are you looking at neurological signs as well or can you tell most of that just from the eye movement? 

Andriana Christofalos: So right now my work is primarily focused on eye-tracking studies, but I also have studies where I pair eye-tracking with EEG. So we can track the brain activity associated with each fixation that you make.

Some of my recent work with colleagues actually shows that readers with schizophrenia show reductions in this component. It’s called a P1 component. So they show reductions in amplitude of their P1 component, which indicates reduced visual processing efficiency. That is associated with making more refixations and reduced comprehension outcomes. 

Sam Butler: I guess it kind of relates–as we’re talking about neuroscience, what’s a big difference–I know they’re very intertwined but between neuroscience and psychology?

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah, that’s a really good question. So psychology asks, what does the mind do? How do we think, feel, understand, and remember? Whereas neuroscience asks, how does that all take place in the brain? How is that all physically possible? 

So a psychologist might look at something like memory and ask a question about how the processes are occurring. So how is something being stored in long-term memory so that you can retrieve it later? Whereas a neuroscientist might look at memory and answer the question of what brain areas are associated with memory? What patterns of activation are needed for that memory to be formed in the first place? 

A good analogy is psychology is studying the software, neuroscience is studying the hardware, and together they kind of explain the whole system. 

Derek Hiebert: Thank you for that. That’s helpful. In thinking through seasonal celebrations and events, you know, along with the emotions of excitement and maybe the various emotions we feel, how are those often processed in the brain? 

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah, when we celebrate something that’s emotionally meaningful or exciting, like our favorite team winning a big game or a friend’s birthday, getting an A on that really difficult exam, multiple brain systems are activated. First, there’s this rush of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that’s associated with motivation and feelings of reward. Dopamine sends signals to an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. This is often known as the pleasure center of the brain. So you get that rush of feeling rewarded and feeling motivated from these celebratory or positive events.

Another thing that’s happening is these dopamine signals are being sent to the prefrontal cortex. So that’s just right in the front of your brain. And this area is important for interpreting what that reward means. So assigning it meaning, what does this reward mean for my goals, my expectations, and my prior experiences? And another system that’s activated is associated with emotional processing. The amygdala is an area of the brain. It’s this almond shaped little structure in your brain that’s associated with emotion. And so when you experience something that’s emotionally significant, whether it’s positive or negative. The amygdala becomes active. And that can cause attention to sharpen, memory to strengthen. And that’s why when you experience an emotional event, when you remember it, that memory often feels very strong and very vivid. So you can kind of like replay it in your head. 

Sam Butler: Kind of moving back toward your research. Is any of-kind of the stuff you mentioned, studied in the reading?Or is it–are you studying mostly the comprehension aspect? 

Andriana Christofalos: So by studying eye track–by looking at eye movements, I’m able to look at the real-time processes that support reading. I could assess comprehension as well and I do in some of my studies. But it’s really important to not only see what the outcome of reading is. From how people are understanding a text but what is happening to support that comprehension.

Sam Butler: Okay.

Andriana Christofalos: One thing I’m interested in looking at next in my lab here at Boise State is the role of attention and conditions that impact attention.

Derek Hiebert: We talked about emotions a little bit in the previous question, but it’s just really fascinating the work that you’re doing with reading. Have you been able to study the effects on emotions when reading certain kinds of genres and texts? 

Andriana Christofalos: Oh, I have not personally.

Derek Hiebert: Just curious.

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah, that’s so cool. I have not personally looked at the interaction between emotions and these processes during reading, but I think that would be cool.

Derek Hiebert: Yeah. Interesting. I can ask this one, yeah, how does this social and community component play a part in this brain activity? You know, obviously, often during seasonal events and celebrations, we’re doing it usually in community or together with people versus alone. How do you see that playing a part? 

Andriana Christofalos: So we’re really social creatures. We crave the social interaction. So that sort of dopamine hit that we experience during a celebration or a positive event, that’s actually amplified when we’re celebrating around other people compared to when we’re doing it alone. That’s often known as the social amplification of reward. And this amplification happens because not only are you getting that increase in dopamine from the reward but dopamine is also increasing more from that social interaction. And another neurotransmitter comes into play which is oxytocin which is very important for bonding. The feeling of social connection and wellbeing. So you have more activity with those neurotransmitters. 

Sam Butler: And to kind of look at the other side, how do let downs…kind of affect the brain or kind of a sad moment in time?

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah, we’re social creatures, but we’re also prediction machines. We’re always trying to anticipate what’s gonna happen next before it happens. We see this a lot in reading. For example, when you’re reading a sentence, you often are trying to predict the next word before your eyes even land on it. When we anticipate something happening, like a really fun party later with our friends, our team, our favorite team winning a game, getting that really good grade on a really difficult exam, when that doesn’t happen, we experience this disappointment. Our brain actually registers what researchers call a prediction error, which is the difference, essentially, between what happened and what we expected to happen. And when this prediction error occurs, that dopamine reward that we would have gotten actually drops, leading to reductions in that rewarded feeling and feelings of motivation. 

Sam Butler: Do you know if that social amplification kind of helps or negates in the sense of a letdown as opposed to a celebration? 

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah like if you experience a letdown with others.

Sam Butler: Yeah, compared to by yourself.

Andriana Christofalos: I’m not as familiar with the research but I would assume that amplification would prevent dopamine from getting really low.

Sam Butler: For the better?

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah, you know when you’re alone experiencing a disappointment, it’s much worse than you know when your team loses. But you’re surrounded by all your friends.

Derek Hiebert: Okay. You know, to kind of wrap up this a little bit here, what–as we look at experiencing these celebrations and events, are there practical things that we can do to promote the health of our brains going into them? Or is it just something where, well, we’ll just kind of see what happens and go from there? Do you think there’s anything maybe in preparation for them that is healthy for our brains? 

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah. So before and after events, oftentimes sleep can be disrupted. You might stay up late–to stay at like an after party or something. So, it’s really important to prioritize a healthy amount of sleep and good quality sleep. When your sleep is disrupted, something that happens in the brain is your amygdala–that emotional part of the brain, that little almond structure, it becomes more reactive and that leads to difficulties with regulating your emotions. So you might react more negatively or more strongly to someone saying something than you normally would. Your prefrontal cortex functioning is also disrupted with lack of sleep. So that can impact your ability to make rational, healthy decisions, and pay attention to important things.

So prioritizing good sleep is really important. Another thing that sleep is super important for is strengthening or consolidating our memories. When we lack sleep, we’re less able to remember these positive experiences. So if you prioritize sleep, you’re more likely to remember the fun things that happened. 

Derek Hiebert: That’s good. You know, I was thinking back to that previous question with the let downs and maybe expectations. I know that this last Superbowl, my team was the one that ended up winning it, the team that I cheer for. Right? But there was–you know, I think all throughout their season and the playoffs and leading up to that big game, I was really trying to–try to write–at least keep my expectations in check. Right? Obviously one team has to lose that game. So, it could have easily been my team. And, in years past, I find myself…found myself too easily getting it–like emotionally wrapped up into that team. That if they don’t win, you know, it’s going to be a miserable day for me the next day. 

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah. 

Derek Hiebert: And I really tried to…I guess, keep those in check and realize, you know what, it’s okay if they lose, like they’ve had a great season or I’m just happy. And I’m just happy the day that they got here. I just wonder if–I mean, because I think hope, the hope that we feel for our team to win or something good to happen for them is a powerful motivator and community–you know, maybe as part of that dopamine. And that’s fun, I think to experience, but if it seems like having those expectations in check can also be helpful and healthy to not let the emotions just take over.  

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah, I think so. So I think, like what you said, it’s important to sort of be flexible about your expectations. Don’t necessarily lower them, but you know, think about the options, think about the possible outcomes. Yeah, and recent brain imaging studies actually show that the brain’s response to that let down or disappointment is proportional to your expectation. So if you have higher expectations, the bigger the let down.

But it’s not all bad. Something positive comes out of this, so we need to make a positive spin here. So in addition to–you know, dopamine lowering, feelings of disappointment, you’re feeling let down because the thing that you wanted to happen or expected to happen just didn’t,. You know, that party got canceled. Your team didn’t win. When expectations aren’t met, your brain also activates other systems that are involved in evaluating what happened and planning or adjusting your expectations for next time. And so this becomes a way for your brain to learn. It becomes a learning experience, so it’s not just disappointment. You’re getting something out of it. 

Derek Hiebert: That’s good. It kind of got me thinking a little bit about…maybe it sounds like there’s research out there that says it’s actually OK to feel disappointment. It’s OK to feel let down in some in some ways. 

Sam Butler: Kind of like the stages of grief almost, like kind of have to work through. 

Derek Hiebert: Yeah. Right. Right. And I mean, it almost seems like it’s healthy to have those to–to fuel those experiences of letdown, because it’s actually a more like realistic picture of life. If all we have is happy, happy, happy, dopamine, dopamine all the time. That’s–it’s actually unrealistic. 

Andriana Christofalos: Yeah. 

Derek Hiebert: So anyway…this is really good. I don’t–do you have any other…?

Sam Butler: I’ve got one last question…and this can be for you know younger people, teens, adults, older people. With all of your research on reading, what would–what is one thing that you’ve either like changed in your life or that you would say as a, you know teenager I would suggest? Or as an older adult I would suggest doing?

Andriana Christofalos: That’s a great question. So my research focuses primarily on adult readers. I focus on people who have already learned how to read, they’ve developed that skill. But something that has changed in the course of my experience with this research has been my perspective on reading. Oftentimes, people come out of high school, and they sort of think of their reading skill as being something that’s static. They sort of label themselves as, well, I’ve always just been a weak reader. I’ve never been good at reading. So that’s just how it is. I just have to live with this. But through my research, I’ve learned that reading is a skill that can be developed over time, that is practiced. You can improve upon it with practice. So, I think we need to abandon that mindset that someone is a blank reader. It’s not this static thing. 

Derek Hiebert: That’s good. Well, thank you so much for this helpful conversation today. 

Sam Butler: Yeah.

Derek Hiebert: There’s a lot of good insights here and thanks to everyone for listening. And this is another great episode of Bronco Health Talk. So thanks, Andriana.

Derek Hiebert: Thank you for having me. 

Sam Butler: Yeah, thank you.