New research published in journal pro swan There is evidence that reading comics on physical paper makes it easier for your brain to absorb and connect with story details than when reading on a digital tablet. The findings suggest that physical books provide stable spatial and tactile cues, reducing brain load when readers later try to recall complex plot points. This study provides new insights into how digital reading formats can subtly change human reading comprehension and memory.
Reading a book requires a series of complex mental tasks. Readers must decipher words, interpret pictures, and connect new information with information they already know. To do this efficiently, the human brain constructs what scientists call story schemas. A story schema is an internal mental framework that helps a person organize characters, timelines, and spatial relationships as the story unfolds.
The physical form of a book may play a hidden role in building this mental framework. Scientists suspect that physical paper provides reliable sensory anchors, such as the thickness of the pages on either side of the binding and the fixed position of text on the page. These physical anchors may help the brain map the story in physical space. When reading on a digital screen, these sensory anchors are almost non-existent because the screen physically remains the same and the text simply changes.
The authors of the current study wanted to know whether the cognitive effects of paper extended to reading visual stories. They chose Japanese manga, manga with a rich visual and narrative structure, to see how different reading mediums affect brain activity.
Kuniyoshi Sakai, a professor in the Department of Basic Science at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo, explains that this research was born out of questions from the industry. “This research project began with an inquiry from Coremix Co., Ltd., one of Japan’s major manga publishers, asking if we could scientifically investigate the value of paper books,” says Sakai. “As a neuroscientist who studies the human brain, specifically language function, I decided to compare brain activation when reading in print versus digitally.”
To conduct this experiment, the researchers had to overcome technical hurdles in measuring brain activity. Magnetic resonance imaging scanners use powerful magnets to track blood flow in the brain, providing a real-time map of neural activity.
“If you compare a paper book with an electronic tablet, the latter device’s scanner is a giant magnet, so you can’t bring it into the scanning room,” Sakai says. “So I came up with the idea of scanning the brain after reading a book on paper or a tablet. This was quite likely. And I was surprised at the correct results I got.”
Researchers recruited 25 right-handed college students whose native language was Japanese. The scientists used a popular comic book series in which each episode is divided into two parts. Half of these depict the exact same event from different perspectives of couples experiencing conflicting emotions. This unique format allowed scientists to test how well readers can integrate information across different perspectives.
Participants were randomly assigned to read the first half of a manga story on either a physical paper book or an electronic tablet. This reading was done in a regular room outside the scanning machine. Scientists have confirmed that the physical size of a paper book and a tablet are the same. I also used a light meter to match the brightness of the room light reflecting off the paper to the brightness of the backlight shining from the tablet.
After the first half, participants entered the scanner. Participants read the second half of the story while lying inside the machine and wearing special digital goggles. During this reading phase, participants periodically rated their empathy for the characters on a 4-point scale to ensure that they were actively involved in the plot.
Finally, while still in the scanner, participants answered multiple-choice questions about the story they had just completed. Scientists have divided these questions into two different categories. The first question was a question that could be answered by simply remembering the first half of the story. Set 2 included tougher questions that required the reader to combine details from both parts of the story.
Behavioral measurements showed that participants answered the questions with similar accuracy regardless of the medium they initially used. However, the response time depends on the original reading format. When answering the complex questions in set 2, participants who read the first half on a tablet took longer to answer than those who read on paper. Scientists noted that it takes more time to mentally piece together the first half of a story on a tablet.
Brain scans provided evidence consistent with these behavioral differences. As participants read the second half of the story, participants who started reading the story on paper showed decreased activity in the left lateral premotor cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. These specific left hemisphere regions are deeply involved in language processing and narrative integration. Lower activity in these areas suggests that the brain didn’t have to work as hard to understand new information.
Because readers of the paper had already built a solid mental foundation with the first half of the story, less mental effort was required to integrate the second half. In contrast, tablet readers showed much higher activation in these very same left frontal brain regions. When answering two complex questions, the tablet readers also showed increased activity in the right frontal region of the brain. Scientists explain that these right-sided areas function as an auxiliary nervous system when the brain is faced with difficult mental tasks.
“We found that both the left and right hemispheres, which primarily work for proper language functions and auxiliary roles during reading, are less active when reading on paper to better understand the content of manga compared to when reading digitally,” Sakai told Cypost. “These neuroscientific results are the first to show such an immediate effect of reading on paper, which will ultimately lead to changes in the brain.”
These right frontal activations were directly correlated to how accurately the tablet readers answered the questions. This indicates that tablet readers had to rely on excessive mental integration processes to achieve the same level of accuracy as paper readers. Scientists also noticed increased activity in an area of the brain called the right angular gyrus in tablet users. This region is associated with processing spatial relationships, suggesting that tablet readers had to work harder to reconstruct the visual layout of the comic panels in their heads.
As with all research, there are some limitations. This study specifically used visual narratives, and readers may wonder if plain text novels produce exactly the same brain patterns.
“If you read a novel or any other traditional text, you will get the same result because the storyline and context flow are basically the same,” Sakai says. “One of the key benefits of using manga stories is that they have a visual narrative and provide a wealth of pictorial information that makes the scenes easier to understand.”
Another factor is the physical differences in the devices themselves. Paper books reflect light from the room, but tablets used glowing backlights. Additionally, turning a physical page takes a fraction of the time it takes to tap a digital screen. This may subtly change your reading rhythm and give your brain extra time to process information.
Readers may misinterpret these results to mean that digital reading interferes with learning, but the correct answer rates show that tablet readers still understand the content. It just took more cognitive effort and time to reach that understanding. Paper formats tend to make the reading experience smoother by providing a consistent physical anchor for memory.
Future research could investigate these variables in more detail and extend them to other forms of media interaction. “We are currently investigating the effects of writing with a pen or keyboard using similar methods,” Sakai said. “This would be a natural next step for comparing paper and electronic devices.”
The study, “Paper Manga Reading and Digital Devices: Expected Effects on Core Brain and Supporting Integration Processes,” was written by Keita Umejima, Yuki Sunada, and Kuniyoshi Sakai.
