Manga reading on paper vs. digital devices: Prospective effects on core and supportive integration processes in the brain.
Overview
Abstract
Reading on paper reportedly improves story comprehension compared to its digital version, although the underlying neuroscientific mechanisms remain unclear. We used a format of Japanese manga stories as visual narratives told in halves, each of which depicted the same events from the different perspectives of two protagonists. We examined how the medium used to read the first halves, either on a paper book (Paper preparatory condition) or on an electronic tablet (Tablet preparatory condition), facilitated reading of the second halves for the memorized stories, which they read on an electronic display with continuous empathy ratings. Magnetic resonance scanning was conducted during the latter reading and during answering two sets of questions: Set 1 that could be answered after reading the first half alone, and Set 2 that required comprehension from both halves. Behavioral results showed prospective effects of reading manga stories on a paper book or an electronic tablet, such that the response times were prolonged in Set 2 for the Tablet condition. By comparing the results of Sets 1 and 2 with correct answers for each story, we found significant response time differences for the Tablet condition alone. Moreover, for the Paper condition, activations in the left frontal regions significantly decreased while reading the second halves, and those in the right frontal regions also decreased in Set 1. Furthermore, core left frontal activations were highest in Set 2 for the Tablet condition, while supportive right frontal activations correlated with individual accuracy rates in Set 2 for the Tablet condition, indicating that excessive integration processes support improved performances required by correct answers. The present results demonstrate stronger prospective effects of reading on paper books, such that linguistic and narrative-structural integration processes are facilitated and led to saved excessive activations.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Code
No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.
neuropowertools.org/neuropower/neuropowerstart
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Data
Datasets cited
Data Availability
The minimal data set of behavioral and functional imaging files are available: Umejima, Keita. 2026. “Manga Dataset.” OSF. March 6. osf.io/
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Versions
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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 3 authors, 11 MeSH terms, 2 funders, 30 references.
Cite
This paper
Umejima, K., Sunada, Y., & Sakai, K. L. (2026). Manga reading on paper vs. digital devices: Prospective effects on core and supportive integration processes in the brain. PloS one, 21(6), e0349778. https://
BibTeX
@article{umejima2026mang
author = {Umejima, Keita and Sunada, Yuki and Sakai, Kuniyoshi L.},
title = {{Manga reading on paper vs. digital devices: Prospective effects on core and supportive integration processes in the brain}},
journal = {PloS one},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
volume = {21},
number = {6},
pages = {e0349778},
publisher = {PLOS},
issn = {1932-6203},
doi = {10.1371/
url = {https://
pmid = {42234622},
pmcid = {PMC13232794}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Umejima, Keita
AU - Sunada, Yuki
AU - Sakai, Kuniyoshi L.
TI - Manga reading on paper vs. digital devices: Prospective effects on core and supportive integration processes in the brain
T2 - PloS one
J2 - PLoS One
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 21
IS - 6
SP - e0349778
SN - 1932-6203
PB - PLOS
DO - 10.1371/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
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