Reading Physical Books May Be Easier on the Brain

Your brain may be working harder than you think when you read on a device rather than an old-school book. A small study out of the University of Tokyo, published in PLOS ONE, found that college students who read manga on paper later pulled story details together more quickly—and with less brain effort—than those who read the first half on a tablet, reports PsyPost. Accuracy on plot questions was the same across groups, but tablet readers took longer on complex questions that required combining information from both halves of the story.

Brain scans backed that up: Readers who started on paper showed lower activation in key language and integration areas in the left frontal lobe, suggesting their story "map" was more solid and easier to use, per Neuroscience News. Tablet readers showed higher activity in those regions plus additional right-brain areas tied to heavy mental lifting and spatial processing, indicating they had to work harder to reconstruct events and panel layouts. Lead researcher Kuniyoshi L. Sakai says the tactile and spatial cues of a physical book—page thickness, fixed layout—likely act as anchors that support memory. The team now plans to test whether similar differences appear when people write with a pen versus type on a keyboard.