{"id":24941,"date":"2026-09-15T10:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T06:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=24941"},"modified":"2026-09-15T10:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T06:39:22","slug":"why-is-reading-books-the-best-therapy-for-our-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/why-is-reading-books-the-best-therapy-for-our-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Reading Books the Best Therapy for Our Brain?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to a new review published in the authoritative scientific journal <em>Psychological Medicine<\/em>, regularly reading books for pleasure has a direct, measurable impact on brain function and anatomical structure. Observations using neuroimaging methods, including functional and structural MRI scans, indicate that the reading process increases gray matter volume in the brain and strengthens white-matter neural connections involved in language processing, emotional self-regulation, and executive functions.<\/p>\n<p>A large-scale analysis of data from more than 10,000 young people revealed a clear causal link between developing a reading habit early in life and having a higher cognitive reserve. According to the study, children and adolescents who regularly read fiction or nonfiction show significantly better attention and working-memory performance, experience fewer emotional and behavioral problems, and spend considerably less time in front of screens. Reading also appears to strengthen not only verbal abilities but mathematical reasoning, as both processes rely on similar neurocognitive mechanisms.<\/p>\n<p>The therapeutic and protective effects of reading are particularly evident among older adults. A five-year follow-up of nearly 5,500 people over the age of 55 confirmed that mental activity \u2014 particularly regularly reading books and newspapers \u2014 significantly slows the rate of age-related cognitive decline. According to the data, people who maintain this habit have a 33% lower risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p>Clinical observations have also suggested that reading fiction is one of the fastest and most effective natural ways to reduce stress: neuroscientific measurements indicate that shifting attention to a fictional text for just five minutes a day can reduce stress levels in the body by 20%. The researchers conclude that reading is not merely a tool for acquiring knowledge \u2014 it acts as an active neuroplastic stimulus that may help protect the brain against aging and degenerative processes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/psychological-medicine\/article\/reading-and-associations-with-brain-health-cognition-wellbeing-and-mental-health\/1A3565FA61831A975813113DE1AB2B09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b data-path-to-node=\"4\" data-index-in-node=\"30\">Psychological Medicine<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a new review published in the authoritative scientific journal Psychological Medicine, regularly reading books for pleasure has a direct, measurable impact on brain function and anatomical structure. Observations using neuroimaging methods, including functional and structural MRI scans, indicate that the reading process increases gray matter volume in the brain and strengthens white-matter neural [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1631,1594,1665,1587,1657],"tags":[7095],"class_list":["post-24941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-neurology","category-news","category-public-health","category-research","category-science","tag-reading-books"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24946,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24941\/revisions\/24946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}