Skilled reading requires years of practice associating visual symbols with speech sounds. Over the course of the learning process, this association becomes effortless and automatic. Here we test whether automatic activation of spoken-language circuits in response to visual words is a hallmark of skilled reading. Magnetoencephalography was used to measure word-selective responses under multiple cognitive tasks (N = 42, 7–12 years of age). Even when attention was drawn away from the words by performing an attention-demanding fixation task, strong word-selective responses were found in a language region (i.e., superior temporal gyrus) starting at ~300 ms after stimulus onset. Critically, this automatic word-selective response was indicative of reading skill: the magnitude of word-selective responses correlated with individual reading skill. Our results suggest that automatic recruitment of spoken-language circuits is a hallmark of skilled reading; with practice, reading becomes effortless as the brain learns to automatically translate letters into sounds and meaning.

熟练的阅读需要多年的练习，将视觉符号与语音联系起来。在学习过程中，这种关联变得毫不费力和自动。在这里，我们测试响应视觉单词的口语电路的自动激活是否是熟练阅读的标志。脑磁图用于测量多项认知任务（N = 42, 7-12 岁）下的单词选择性反应。即使通过执行要求注意力的固定任务将注意力从单词上移开，在刺激开始后约 300 ms 开始，在语言区域（即颞上回）中发现了强烈的单词选择性反应。至关重要的是，这种自动的单词选择反应表明了阅读技巧：单词选择反应的大小与个人阅读技巧相关。我们的研究结果表明，口语回路的自动招募是熟练阅读的标志。通过练习，阅读变得毫不费力，因为大脑学会了自动将字母翻译成声音和意义。