--- title: Research Shows Reading Harry Potter Provides Clues to Brain Activity description: Scientists have identified the magic going on inside our brains while we read canonical: https://time.com/3609523/harry-potter-brain-reading-carnegie-mellon-university/ author: Naina Bajekal article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-28T16:47:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:53.150Z og:title: Research Shows Reading Harry Potter Provides Clues to Brain Activity og:description: Scientists have identified the magic going on inside our brains while we read og:url: https://time.com/3609523/harry-potter-brain-reading-carnegie-mellon-university/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4d4265f818d7eb1/69869df3e8524bb5e06041f2/301386_full1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Harry Potter og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Research Shows Reading Harry Potter Provides Clues to Brain Activity twitter:description: Scientists have identified the magic going on inside our brains while we read twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4d4265f818d7eb1/69869df3e8524bb5e06041f2/301386_full1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Reading Harry Potter Provides Clues to Brain Activity  by [Naina Bajekal](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/)  ## Naina Bajekal Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME. Nov 28, 2014 4:47 PM UTC  HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, Daniel Radcliffe, 2001 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, Daniel Radcliffe, 2001Warner Bros.  by [Naina Bajekal](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/)  ## Naina Bajekal Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME. Nov 28, 2014 4:47 PM UTC Scientists have been using _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_ to work out what happens in different parts of the brain when people read and connect words with the ideas behind them. Researchers from [Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pennsylvania](http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2014/november/november26%5Fcomputationalreadingmodel.html) performed scans on the brains of eight people as they read the ninth chapter of the first book in J.K. Rowling’s famous series. Leila Wehbe, a graduate student who conducted much of the research, [told CMU’s News site](http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2014/november/november26%5Fcomputationalreadingmodel.html) that the chapter is about Harry’s first flying lesson. “It turns out that movement of the characters — such as when they are flying their brooms — is associated with activation in the same brain region that we use to perceive other people’s motion,” she said. Scientists said their research could eventually reveal what’s happening in the brains of people who struggle to read and people with dyslexia. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3609523/harry-potter-brain-reading-carnegie-mellon-university/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3609523/harry-potter-brain-reading-carnegie-mellon-university/"},"headline":"Reading Harry Potter Provides Clues to Brain Activity","datePublished":"2014-11-28T16:47:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:53.150Z","description":"Researchers have identified the magic going on inside our brains while we read","url":"https://time.com/3609523/harry-potter-brain-reading-carnegie-mellon-university/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Psychology","Harry Potter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4d4265f818d7eb1/69869df3e8524bb5e06041f2/301386_full1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Naina Bajekal","jobTitle":"Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4d4265f818d7eb1/69869df3e8524bb5e06041f2/301386_full1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Harry Potter","caption":"Harry Potter","creditText":"Warner Bros.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3609523/harry-potter-brain-reading-carnegie-mellon-university/","name":"Reading Harry Potter Provides Clues to Brain Activity"}}]}] ```