article_snippet: During tests, brain scans revealed the new words appear as shapes rather than a group of letters in what researchers behind Study have dubbed a 'visual dictionary.'
article_snippet: Brain scans revealed neurons respond differently to real words compared to so-called 'nonsense' words in what's been dubbed 'visual dictionary' The study, carried out at Georgetown University Medical Centre, suggests brain is 'holistically tuned' to recognise complete words, according to researchers behind the study.
article_snippet: Lead author Dr Maximilian Riesenhuber from the Laboratory for Computational Cognitive Neuroscience said: 'We are not recognising words by quickly spelling them out or identifying parts of words, as some researchers have suggested. '
article_snippet: The researchers said this shows the brain is 'holistically tuned' to recognise complete words, and may also provide insights into how to help people with reading disabilities.
article_snippet: Co-author Dr Laurie Glezer said: 'This study is the first of This study kind to show how neurons change neurons tuning with learning words, demonstrating the brain's plasticity.'
article_snippet: The researchers said This study shows how the brain associated with learning processes words, but may also provide insights into how to help people with reading disabilities.
article_snippet: Co-author Dr Laurie Glezer said: 'For people who cannot learn words by phonetically spelling them out - which is the usual method for teaching reading - learning the whole word as a visual object may be a good strategy.'
article_snippet: Following a previous study carried out by the team published in 2009, The researchers were contacted by a number of people who had experienced reading difficulties and teachers helping people with reading difficulties, all saying that learning word as visual objects had helped a great deal.
article_snippet: a previous study carried out by the team published in 2009 showed the existence of a neural representation for whole written real words - also known as an orthographic lexicon.
article_snippet: The latest research now shows how novel words can become incorporated after learning into this lexicon.
highlights_snippet: Study said this shows the brain is 'tuned' to recognise complete words .
  
highlights_snippet: Researchers have dubbed this mechanism the brain's 'visual dictionary'
  It may help develop new ways of teaching people with reading disabilities .