Handwriting involves a sequence of strokes to create letters and requires motor adaptation to control pen movements within spatial limits. The brain network that supports handwriting is well known, but researchers still don't fully understand how its parts function in the motor control of handwriting as a skill. In a new study, researchers from University of Poitiers, France, explore how the complexity of motor sequences and spatial limitations affect the brain networks used in handwriting. They recorded brain activity from 25 adult participants while they wrote (using ink pen on paper) in an MRI scanner. The participants were all right-handed and reported normal hearing and normal or corrected-to-normal vision. In the experiment, the researchers altered two aspects of handwriting: sequential, such as the order of strokes, and motor adaptation, such as the visual and spatial control of pen movements.
Their analysis showed that two different brain networks were activated based on which component was being changed in the experiment. They found that the motor adaptation aspect depends on the cortico-cerebellar loop, the neural circuit connecting the neocortex and the cerebellum, known for facilitating coordinated motor and nonmotor functions. They also found that the sequential aspect of handwriting involves both the cortico-cerebellar loop and the cortico-striatal loop, which is the neural circuit connecting the cortex, striatum, and thalamus, known for modulating and refining cortical signals and is particiularly relevant to movement disorders such as Parkinson's and mental disorders of control such as ADHD and OCD. The researchers suggest that this study enhances our understanding of the neural processes involved in learning and producing handwriting, especially in developing brains.
StepUp Note
Handwriting is a “neural network” skill. This research reminds us how children need to learn both the movement (letter form) skills of writing and the language (words, spelling and sentences) skills that turn handwriting into a tool for new learning. StepUp's Listen, Talk and Write exercises address both the movement skills we need for writing letters, and the movement fluency we need for fluent writing of words and sentences. Fluency turns the skill of handwriting into a tool for new learning.
Note by Nancy W Rowe, MS, CCC/A