Community Update (11/1/26)

Wellness

Nourish Your Immune System This Fall

Central Library, November 5 at 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Discover how the delicious flavors of the autumn harvest can be transformed into nutritious meals that help support a healthy immune system and prepare your body for the winter months ahead. Join Arlington County dietitian Elana Sullivan as she discusses the role of nutrient-dense foods in maintaining immune health and overall wellness. The program will also feature a live cooking demonstration with simple, seasonal recipes and practical tips you can easily recreate at home. At the Arlington Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy Street, Auditorium. All welcome; registration requested, but not required. 

Must-read — for Brain Health?

By Joan M Smith

Scientists have known that getting lost in an engaging novel can reap cognitive rewards.  Now, researchers are able to shed more light on the “why” and “how” reading affects us.  A recent article by April Rubin on the Medscape Online report gives us lots of insight gleaned from researchers who are studying this very phenomenon.

A new report in Psychological Medicine cites a researcher, Barbara Sahakian, PhD, of Cambridge, England. She states that for children and teens, reading is linked to improved attention, executive function, and mental health. In adults, reading for pleasure lowers stress and loneliness and increases empathy and cognitive function.  Reading, therefore, is seen as “an accessible and low-cost protective factor across the life-span”. One study found that even a brief 6-minute reading session can reduce stress levels by 68%!

Researchers examined neuroimaging data which suggest that reading is associated with structural and functional differences in brain areas that support executive control, emotional regulation, and social cognition. And while social, cultural and economic factors do influence outcomes, sustained reading can help anyone grow in ways “that allow them to take fuller advantage of life experiences” reports Ms. Rubin.

So, reading for the brain is like exercise for the body! Dr. Sahakian points out that the neural circuitry involved in reading preserves function in one area of the brain that becomes damaged from Alzheimer’s disease. So, keeping the brain “neuroplastic” relies on continuous mental challenge. Researchers said that some activities such as crossword puzzles eventually hit a plateau because they become formulaic, however reading continuously challenges cognition and increases brain plasticity because it involves ongoing learning.

As for social isolation, which is linked to mental health and/or dementia issues, reading can “significantly buffer those feelings of loneliness, and joining a book club amplifies that protective effect” according to all the data Ms. Rubin has found.

Neuroimaging has added important data to research findings. It was found that “the default mode network — a brain region active during rest and complex thought –responds to distinct elements of a story. The medial temporal lobe subnetwork (of the brain) lights up during vivid, sensory descriptions, while the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex subnetwork activates during passages heavy on social interactions and abstract themes” (reports Dr. Sahakian). While that is indeed a lot of anatomical terms to take in, the fact that it is possible to trace such varied neural activity in the brain while the subject reads a novel, is quite stunning to me.

Brain activation in areas of visual word recognition, language processing, and attentional control was noted with reading. Early readers had fewer problems with inattention because they were constantly activating that area of the brain. This may explain why those children with ADHD who were early readers had less inattention problems.

But while reading changes function, it also changes the physical brain, increasing both white matter for increased connectivity and grey matter which adds volume to brain capacity. Wow! And while proving causation (that reading causes all these changes in function and structure) is very difficult, the proven correlation is strong and significant enough to not be merely coincidence.

This research review only covered reading printed pages of novels, and did not include e-books, online reading, or non-fiction. It did point out that the advantages cited did not occur with audiobooks however.