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As observational results show, when we write with a pen, neural connections are formed that contribute to learning and good memory. However, if we use a computer and keyboard, they will not appear.

36 students participated in the study. First, scientists recorded the electrical activity in their brains as they wrote certain words by hand. Then they typed the same words on the keyboard. The process was monitored by 256 electroencephalography sensors.

Appeared for different ways to reproduce text Activity in the parietal and central regions of the brain is very differentIt is responsible for memory, openness to learning, attention, and the ability to perceive language. Brain interaction patterns when writing by hand were much more complex than when typing on a keyboard. The results show that visual and proprioceptive (i.e., the sense of one’s body’s position in space) spatiotemporal patterns achieved through the coordination of hand movements during pen use make an important contribution to the patterns of brain interaction that facilitate learning.

At the same time, judging by the range of activity in the brain, the main role in the effect of using paper and pencil is not played by the work of specific muscles, but sum of all factors. Alpha band connections recorded during handwriting are associated with long-term memory, and theta band connections are associated with working memory and the ability to perceive new information.

As people increasingly write by hand and use digital devices to do so, it has become imperative to study its effects on the human brain. Scientists call for children to learn to write by hand at school from an early age, in order to create neural connection patterns that provide the brain with optimal conditions for all subsequent learning.