The speed and complexity of your handwriting could be an indicator of your brain health, according to a recent study.
That’s what scientists discovered after a group of older adults completed a series of writing tasks, ranging in difficulty.
When it came to the most complex task – writing a sentence that was being dictated to them – scientists found a strong link between handwriting speed and style, and cognitive impairment.
“Writing is not just a motor activity; it’s a window into the brain,” said senior author Dr Ana Rita Matias, assistant professor at the University of Évora, in Portugal.
“We found that older adults with cognitive impairment displayed distinct patterns in the timing and organisation of their handwriting movements.”
Handwriting involves several cognitive processes, including motor control, interpreting sensory information – whether heard or read – and organising movement on a page.
But, because it’s such a cognitively demanding task, scientists like Matias believe it could be used as a marker of cognitive decline as we age.
“Timing and stroke organisation are closely linked to how the brain plans and executes actions, which depends on working memory and executive controls,” explained Matias.
“As these cognitive systems decline, writing becomes slower, more fragmented, and less coordinated.”
This study involved 58 care-home residents, aged 62 to 92, among whom 38 had previously been diagnosed with some form of cognitive impairment.
These participants performed two types of tasks using a digital pen and tablet.
The first was simply pen control, where the adults were given 20 seconds to draw either 10 horizontal lines or at least 10 dots. These tests didn’t show a strong link with cognitive impairment, perhaps because they were too simplistic.
But then the scientists asked participants to copy down a sentence from a card and write a complicated sentence as it was being dictated to them.
This time, the scientists saw clear differences – particularly for the complex dictation exercise. Specifically, three predictors stood out: vertical size of the letters, when the participants started writing, and how long it took them to complete the task.
“Dictation tasks are more sensitive because they require the brain to do multiple things at once: listen, process language, convert sounds into written form, and coordinate movement,” said Matias.
And what they were writing mattered, too. Matias added: “A longer, less predictable, or linguistically demanding sentence places a greater strain on cognitive resources.”
The team hopes that writing tasks could serve as a practical, cost-effective and non-invasive method for detecting cognitive decline.
However, more research is needed before it’s brought into doctors’ offices, such as longer-term studies with larger and more diverse populations.
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