Writing by hand may be better for brain connections

About the episode

Many people are now accustomed to writing notes, messages to others, agenda items, shopping lists and mind games on their phone or laptop.

But researchers think we may have to go back to that a bit. Writing by hand will be much better for both our memory and language skills.

In this Norwegian study, they were able to control brain connections and brain activity while comparing the two writing styles. They saw that more complex patterns emerged when writing by hand than when writing.

An activity related to storing and processing information. Something important to learn and remember new things.

Well, it's a study conducted on a limited group of university students. Participants also wrote with a stylus on a touch screen and wrote with one finger. You can definitely say something about that. Although the researchers expect that typing on the touch screen will not make any difference.

Of course, it doesn't make sense that the hand movements we use when writing require more from our brains than the writing movements. Curls and loops instead of clicking keys.

These differences in brain activity may also explain why children learning to write and read on a tablet have more difficulty distinguishing between reversed letters such as the lowercase “b” and “d.” They simply did not feel it in their fingers.

So. Take that pen out of the closet again. I would say at the very least make your next shopping list manually.

Read more about the research here: Writing by hand may increase brain connectivity more than typing on a keyboard