2024-01-28 04:00:00
If you are going to type in class or a lecture, you should try to go back to the old ways: a new study holds that writing by hand may improve brain function and the connection between nerve fibers, compared to typing. The research was conducted at the Norwegian University of Science and published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
The researchers recorded the brain activity of 36 university students. At the beginning of the experiment, the students were required to write words using a digital pen on a touch screen, or type the same words using a keyboard. When a word like “forest” or “hedgehog” appeared on a screen in front of them, they had 25 seconds to write or type the word over and over again. During the experiment, the subjects wore a helmet with 256 sensor electrodes that measure the brain waves and record the activity of the electrical signals, their location, and how parts of the brain communicate with each other.
The researchers found that when it comes to handwriting, which requires visual, graphic and motor activity, almost all areas of the brain were activated compared to typing, and that writing required communication between the cerebral cortices – visual, sensory and motor. In contrast, when typing, where the keys look identical to each other regardless of the letter, less brain activity was required in the visual and motor cortices.
“The brain is not challenged by pressing keys on a keyboard,” said the head of the research team Prof. Audrey van der Meer from the Department of Neuropsychology. “Only a few parts of the brain are active when typing, so there is no need for the brain to communicate between different areas.”
Previous research by the researchers, in children and young adults, similarly found that the brain is more active while writing by hand than while typing. Another 2017 study at Indiana University in the US indicated that handwriting can link visual and motor skills, which may help children better recognize letters.
“The findings of the new study are not surprising,” Dr. Lior Unger, deputy director of the neurosurgery department at the Sheba Medical Center, told Maariv. “Today we see children, including my own children, who cannot remember a phone number. The linguistic richness is poor due to the excessive use of emojis, as is the imagination. The number of neurons in our brain remains the same from childhood, but the connections between them and their function may degenerate from lack of use. Technology has moved us forward, and it is clear that we all type at work and in school, but typing does not produce the significant brain response that writing produces when examining functions such as attention, memory and creativity. That’s why I would recommend to those who want to increase the chance that study material will sink into the brain, to try and use their hand to write.”
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