Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] Digital reading is a complex cognitive process, whose internal mechanisms may be revealed by these works of the cognitive neuroscience. A systematic review of these works may help understand the mental processes and cognitive functions of digital reading deeply and provide a reference for future research. [Design/Methodology] From the perspective of the cognitive neuroscience, 247 digital reading works at home and abroad were collected. Based on existing cognitive theories, a framework model of digital reading cognitive mechanism was proposed and applied to study these collected literatures. [Findings/Conclusion] The cognitive process of digital reading consists four stages: attention attraction, recognition focus, association reasoning and learning construction. The application of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Event-Related Potentials, and Eye Tracking may help understand reading brain's working mechanism. Although current studies have proposed applicable methods on analyzing digital reading cognitive processes and neural indicators of digital reading, there is a lack of systematic study on the influence of sensory interaction, functional interactions between brain area and communication interaction factors. [Originality/Value] The work provides a picture of the digital reading cognitive mechanism from the cognitive process to neurological foundations, and analyzes the basic context and shortcomings of existing studies, which may help people understand the cognitive process of digital reading and figure out the direction of future research.

Key words: Digital reading, Cognitive mechanism, Mental process, Cognitive neuroscience