The pen is mightier than the keyboard.
And as research shows, it can really get your neurons firing.
A 2024 study published at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), tracked brain activity of students taking notes. People who wrote by hand, showed increased activity in regions for movement, vision, sensory processing, and memory. This suggests handwriting strengthens these learning-critical brain connections. The same study also showed that when people took notes on the computer, not much thought was going into it. In fact, as the lead researcher explained, it’s almost easy to type down everything a lecturer says. It goes in through your ears and comes out through the fingertips. However, you don’t process the information.
On the other hand, when you take notes by hand, you’ll find it hard to write everything down. You need to actually concentrate on the incoming information, process, prioritise, consolidate it and relate it to what you learned before, the paper explains. This act of building onto existing knowledge makes it easier to stay engaged and grasp new concepts.
The essence: When you type, there is a simple movement of fingers involved in producing every letter. When you write by hand, you can really feel the difference of writing an A and B.
The brain learns in cursive
Typing might let your thoughts take flight, but that’s not always the best thing.
According to Aida Suhaimi, a Dubai-based clinical psychologist at Medcare Camali Jumeirah, there’s a significantly broader range and complexity of connections within the brain when you write, more so than tapping the keyboard. “Writing by hand increases electrical activity in a variety of interrelated brain regions that control movement, vision, sensory processing, and memory,” she explains. “Handwriting produces more complex brain connection patterns, which are critical for memory formation and encoding new information,” says Suhaimi.
People’s brains are far more engaged while writing by hand, than typing. Writing by hand helps people improve their visual and motor skills, allowing them to detect letters more accurately, she says. “The expertise and focus required to make letter forms while writing with a pen or pencil are high.”
Writing by hand increases electrical activity in a variety of interrelated brain regions that control movement, vision, sensory processing, and memory. Handwriting produces more complex brain connection patterns, which are critical for memory formation and encoding new information...
When you write, you are crafting a perceptual understanding of something and using your motor system to create it, says Nadia Khan, a Dubai-based neuropsychiatrist. This creation is fed into your brain’s visual system, where it’s processed again. This consolidates the connection between an action, the images or words associated with it. It’s like you are imagining something and then creating it. When you craft something from your imagination, by writing or drawing, this fuels your imagined concept, says Khan. And slowly, it stays in your memory.
How it boosts your memory
There's a simple, old-school trick to get those neurons firing again: Pick up a pen and paper.
Previous research has shown that when people are asked to write, draw or act out a word that they’re reading, they have to concentrate more on what they’re doing with the received information. According to the 2020 study, Drawing and memory: Using visual production to alleviate concreteness effects, published in US-based journal Psychonomic Bulletin And Review, once verbal information is transferred to a written form, it activates motor programs in the brain that create a specific sequence of hand motions.
As the research showed, handwriting requires more of the brain’s motor programs than typing. As the researcher noted, even when you’re writing the word ‘the’, the actual movements of the hand relate to the structures of the word to some extent.
The functioning of the RAS
As Suhaimi explains, the act of writing activates your reticular activating system (RAS) in the brain, a network of neurons. That’s a crucial component in the brain that’s responsible for attention, alertness and focusing on information filtering, and processing. “When you physically write things down, the RAS becomes more focused on digesting what you wrote. When you write your notes by hand, you gain a better conceptual grasp than when you type,” she says.
Handwriting is slower and more painstaking, making it harder to take verbal notes. “As a result, you must absorb and summarise the information in a way that is understandable to you. And so, handwriting itself is a mental activity that stimulates the brain that helps with focus, memory and information processing, which allows for better learning,” she explains.
A stress buster
Writing by hand calms your brain too.
According to Khan, the rhythmic motions of writing actually have potential cathartic effects on a person, and can be instructive in reducing stress and anxiety. It’s one reason why people are always told to journal: Apart from penning their thoughts down, the act of writing, forming letters, increases focus and self-expression. “You feel a sense of accomplishment and creativity. As a result, the personal connection to your thoughts through writing, creates a space for self-reflection and can promote emotional well-being too,” she says. It gives you the chance to calm and center yourself.
In conclusion, while typing has its advantages, research suggests that for deeper learning and memory retention, picking up a pen and paper is the smarter choice. The rhythmic motions of handwriting can even reduce stress and anxiety. So perhaps, consider ditching the keyboard and picking up a pen, once in a while.
