Typing offers speed and clarity, but a recent Norwegian study reveals that handwriting significantly boosts brain connectivity compared to typing.
The research published in Frontiers in Psychology by Norwegian University of Science and Technology aimed to see if handwriting had more benefits than typing. They enlisted 36 students to write in cursive with a digital pen or type the same words on a keyboard for 25 seconds.
The students were asked to wear a cap of EEG sensors on their heads to measure their brain waves. The EEG cap’s 256 electrodes attached to the scalp recorded the electrical signals of the students’ brains, including which brain cells were active and how parts of the brain communicate with each other.
The experiment found that writing by hand required communication between the brain’s visual, sensory, and motor cortices. The candidates who were made to write with the digital pen had to visualize letters, and then use their fine motor skills to control their movement while writing. There was no change when the participants typed. In the end, the study concluded that writing required more brain activity and aided a person’s ability to learn and memorize.
The co-author of this study, Audrey Van der Meer, a neuropsychology professor at the university, explained how writing can be more advantageous than typing. She said, “The involvement of fine and intricate hand movements in notetaking, in contrast with pressing keys on a keyboard that all require the same simple finger movement, may be more advantageous for learning.” She added, “The brain is not challenged very much when it’s pressing keys on a keyboard as opposed to when it’s forming those letters by hand.”
Audrey also added, “Our findings suggest that visual and movement information obtained through precisely controlled hand movements when using a pen contribute extensively to the brain’s connectivity patterns that promote learning,” as per the official press release. Although the participants used digital pens for handwriting, van der Meer explained that the results are expected to be the same when using a real pen on paper. She said, “We have shown that the differences in brain activity are related to the careful forming of the letters when writing by hand while making more use of the senses.”
In a recent development, the state of California has made it mandatory for sixth graders in public schools to learn to write in cursive, per BBC. At a time when the world is busy embracing digital technology, this move will be a welcome development for the practice of writing by hand.
