Is it likely that parts of the brain have evolved specifically to support the reading process?

It is not likely that any part of the brain evolved
specifically to support reading. Identifying which parts (or structures) of the brain
support specific mental processes is a challenge, in part because any mental process
typically depends on several different brain structures, and because each brain
structure typically supports different functions. But in many cases it is possible to
get insights into the evolution of some brain function, such as visual perception or
memory consolidation, by studying the brains and behaviors of other species, such as
monkeys and rats, and piecing together what we know about the evolutionary history of
these species. Typically, brain structures emerge as adaptations to a novel evolutionary
pressure over hundreds of thousands or even millions of
years.

Neuroscientists have identified a region
of the human brain that seems to be particularly apt to identifying written words. It is
called, not surprisingly, the "visual word form area", and it is located in the
underside of the brain's left hemisphere (the left ventral temporal lobe). However, this
region also seems to participate in the processing of other kinds of visual stimuli, and
it is difficult to say to what extent it is really specialized for identifying words,
and not any familiar complex visual pattern. What we do know, is that writing only
appeared in human history within the last ten thousand years or so, and until relatively
recently, was restricted to just a select few members of the human species. Therefore,
reading has not been an evolutionarily relevant force (i.e., a selective pressure) for
long enough to have caused changes in the genetic blueprint of the brain. Another
compelling argument against there being any parts of the brain that evolved specifically
for reading is the fact that the ancestors of modern Native-Americans and Australian
Aborigines, among many other ethnicities, never -- ever -- developed any form of
writing, but a Native-American or Aborigine child can learn to read as easily as a child
whose ancestry has been reading and writing for millennia.