Take a look at this impossible figure.
Much like the work of the artist M.C. Escher
this shows an object that seems to be three dimensional
but cannot actually exist off the screen.
On the other hand, this is a possible object.
It could exist in real life.
In 2001, researchers performed
a unique experiment with images like this.
They asked people with and without dyslexia
to identify which drawings were impossible.
The people with dyslexia proved significantly faster
at recognizing the impossible figures.
The researchers linked dyslexia
with a particular global visual spatial ability...
to process a whole image versus focusing on it part by part.
This study was just one of several over the past few decades
that hinted at something many dyslexic people
have only anecdotally known.
Though they had difficulty with reading and writing...
they repeatedly found enhanced cognitive strengths
in other areas.
I have this kind of like model in my head.
I can spin it around in my head
and see ways of deconstructing and flipping it around
with a lot of these.
It’s the entire puzzle rather than just the piece of it.
It brings another layer of thinking
and thinking outside the box and the blues.
-Was it the blue... -Blue sky thinking?
Blue sky thinking!
That doesn't make me superhuman
it’s just like how my brain structure is.
Around 20% of the US population
has been diagnosed with dyslexia
and their difficulties all trace back...
to here.
The dyslexic brain is structured differently
in a way that can create specific challenges...
but can also create specific advantages.
In terms of human evolution
the brain isn't naturally wired to read.
There's not one specific region for reading
like there is for sleeping or engaging our fear response.
Reading is an invention.
It is invention that's only 6000 years old.
While there is so much
we still don't understand about the human brain...
over the past few decades, a clearer picture
of how we read has emerged.
When we're young, we're activating
both hemispheres of our brains heavily...
expending energy to learn how to read.
But for fluent readers, the brain streamlines
more activation to structures in the left hemisphere...
like this region known as the visual word form area...
which helps us recognize letters and words.
And this region, key to mapping letters to sounds
called phonological awareness.
For example, breaking up the word cat into the sounds...
cuh, ah, and tuh.
And there's Broca's area, which among other things
helps with comprehension to understand what words actually mean.
Activated areas linked together with white matter.
There are neural pathways
that turn into a complicated highway network
that allows fluent readers
to process a word within milliseconds.
But in the dyslexic brain, these highways
and activated areas can look a lot different.
Research using brain scans of dyslexic readers
showed that there was less activation
in these areas of the left hemisphere...
suggesting there's often a pathway disruption in these systems
that help maps sounds to letters and decode words.
But people with dyslexia
also consistently showed overactivation
in the brain's right hemisphere when reading.
And that makes it more laborious.
This could mean that while dyslexic people
may have trouble recognizing words and sounds...
they're working even harder to compensate elsewhere.
The pathway disruptions can also come
with challenges in grammar, retrieving math facts
working memory, among other things too.
Or often with dyslexia, neural pathways
are not disrupted, but just slowed down.
But I'm sort of mildly dyslexic.
My challenge is more with numbers.
Reading out loud.
In class, you're stricken with panic.
And then all the words start floating.
You just you just can't read the words.
Everyone else would be on to doing the exercise.
And I’d be still trying to read the instructions.
Exactly how people experience dyslexia varies greatly.
It has no bearing on an individual's intelligence...
but today it's commonly labeled
a hereditary neurobiological learning disability.
Research has found explicit support and instruction
in areas like phonology, syntax, and spelling
can lead to success for dyslexic learners.
But the reading brain is only part of the picture.
Years of research has started corroborating the idea
that dyslexic people are prone to advantages
including high level reasoning, problem solving
spatial processing, episodic memory, and creativity.
Because I have the full picture in my head
sometimes I can make association
between things that they don't appear to be relevant.
We shake it up a bit if we kind of get people to think...
you know, “Oh, I didn't think of that.”
Being able to recall stories.
You know, recall images.
I'll meet somebody
and I will stop them on the street and be like
“We know each other” and they will have no idea.
I'm going to show you what a dyslexic high schooler did.
I was floored.
Gobsmacked, because he was drawing
from memory upside down.
There are specific areas of strength in the right hemisphere...
that seem very much to be at play...
with individuals with dyslexia.
While most functions do use both hemispheres of our brains...
the right hemisphere is typically associated with skills
like spatial abilities and visual imagery.
In a study similar to the one with impossible figures...
dyslexic people were better able
to identify letters in their periphery than other readers.
Another study compared the abilities
of college students with and without dyslexia
to memorize blurred images.
Students with dyslexia significantly outperformed.
And in 2022, researchers at University of Strathclyde
and University of Cambridge concluded that
that many people with dyslexia
are specialized in exploring the unknown.
And they suggested that because of how prevalent
dyslexia is in the population, the form of cognition plays
an essential role in enabling humans to adapt...
especially through collaboration between different kinds of people.
These new ways of thinking about dyslexia
are part of a wider movement to embrace neurodiversity...
the idea that brains are simply wired differently
and that these natural variations don't mean they're lacking.
Stigma, misconceptions, and a core lack of understanding dyslexia
are still rampant.
But the more we can learn about differently, organized brains
the better we can teach, collaborate with, and empower them.
And ultimately change the way we see dyslexia.
This constellation of strengths...
and weaknesses that go hand in hand.
You can imagine how much better
a child will feel when they know this is not a curse.
This is not a disease.
This is just a different organization in the brain.