Picture this scene: A father reads a storybook to his young daughter, the girl seated in his lap and apparently fascinated by the illustrations of a bunny.

Picture the same scene, neuroscientist version: Brain scans show activity in the father’s primary visual cortex, extending to a specialized word recognition area, as he reads the text and glances at the drawings; in the child’s brain, only the primary visual cortex and regions involved in recognizing the illustrations are activated.