Emerson once wrote in his Journals, "In good writing, words become one with things."
It turns out to be true of all writing.
Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have discovered that, when you read, a tiny portion of your brain behind your left ear sees the words not as strings of letters or symbols, but as pictures.
The neurons in that part of your brain store words in their entirety, as if there were a little dictionary inside your skull.
When you look at a word you know, your brain instantly sees a picture.
Your spongy little dictionary (called the "visual word form area") works precisely like the miniature photo album located in the opposite side of your brain, behind your right ear.
In that part of your brain (called the "fusiform face area"), pictures of people's faces are stored.
The researchers also discovered that students with reading disabilities can improve their skill by learning words as visual objects, instead of struggling with phonics and spelling.