Ccaps Blog

New scientific research shows that our ability to spell could be directly related to our genes and not to our level of education or willingness to study.

A gene called KIAA0319 (they could have come up with a more creative name, don’t you think?) which lies on chromosome 6 of our DNA (just in case you were curious), is proving to be directly responsible for our ability to comprehend words and reproduce them, i.e. our ability to read and spell.

According to Tony Monaco, a scientist at the Wellcome Centre Trust for Human Genetics, Oxford University, our ability to spell lies partly in our DNA. “Around 60 percent of the variation in the ability to spell lies in our genes,” he says.

Spelling and reading are the most complex tasks that our brain undergoes. Reason being is that reading and writing are relatively new inventions. “It was invented only 5,000 years ago. It is piggybacked on to our linguistic ability, which was invented 30,000-40,000 years ago,” says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University Medical School. “The consequence is that many people fail to read or spell.”

Everyone carries the gene KIAA0319 but what scientists are discovering is that 15% of people have a slight variation in the make-up of this gene. This variation can lead to severe problems such as dyslexia, or less severe cases such as poor reading and spelling. According to Professor Monaco, this gene is responsible for guiding brain cells into the cortex. When not working properly, brain cells get lost, end up in the wrong place and hinder our ability to process information. This occurs in the womb so it seems it is decided at birth how well we will spell.

According to Professor Stein, there are two processes that take place when we spell a word. First, the brain has to process what the word looks like, and second, it has to process how the word sounds. This visual and phonetic information is then fed into our lexicon (our mental dictionary) which is located in the angular gyrus just above our ear. This area processes info, tells us how to spell the word and then zips that information over to the part of our brain that controls movement so that we can write the word. Whoo, I’m exhausted already, no wonder spelling is so much work for our brains.

The brain’s spelling circuitry is usually located on the side of the brain that controls speech and writing. For right handed people, this should be the left side of the brain. For left handed people, this should be the right side of the brain.

Scientists also say that irregular words require quite a bit more brain power depending on the type of learner that we are. A visual learner has far more trouble spelling irregular words. Phonetic learners can spell irregular words easier because they translate words into sounds.

Yet to Dr Silvia Paracchini, from the Wellcome Trust Centre, “this is clearly only part of the jigsaw puzzle that explains why some people have poorer reading ability than others or develop dyslexia. There are likely to be many other contributing factors, but our research provides some valuable clues.”

More brainy info at http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2008/081001.html

Posted in 09/27/2009 at 2.08 pm.
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