Neuropharmacology

Biography

Biography: Dario Furnari

Abstract

The penisone of the manychannels for transformingthoughtsintowrittenwords. Handwritingactsas a "memorypropeller". For example, whenyou are at the supermarket, the simpleact of writingkeeps the productsyoureallyneed in yourmind; or whensomeoneatschoolwas a shrewdknowsthatveryoftentherewas no need to use the sheetspreparedbefore a classassignment to copy becausetheyrememberedeverythingthatwaswritten. Thismemorywouldhavefailedif the ticket to copy hadbeenwritten or bettertyped on the keyboard. The lattercharacterizes the work of manypeople and yet, eventoday, childrenmaketheir first experiences of writing with a pen or pencil. Butisitreally out of fashion? Todaywehave the opportunity to writeourthoughts in other ways, "keyboard, tablet, touch screen", and even the signature, once the test par excellence of ouridentity, isfaced with the competition of our " Fingerprints". Indeed, in some American schools the writing, replaced by the PC, is no longerincluded in the didacticplans; according to some scientists and promoters of thisevent, thismethodwould facilitate children'slearning and improvecreativity.

So, what can we do? Fortunately, we come to the real "scientificresearch" based on realscientificprotocols for the progress of science and not for some advertising promotion.

A team of researcherscoordinated by the Psychologist Sandra Sulzenbruck of the LeibnizInstitute in Dortmund hypothesizesthathandwritingfacilitates and stimulates "fine motorskills". The researchconsists of a comparison with some right-handedpeoplewhowrite a lot with the keyboard and other right-handedpeoplewhoinsteadmakemuch use of paper and pen. Bothgroupswereasked to carry out a battery of skilltests, changing the use of the hand.

Researchhasshownthat "technology" takeslonger to do the exercisesbutonlywhenthey use the right; itisevidentthattheseindividuals are notused to a precise coordination of movements.

The mostseriouseffect, however, concernsaboveall the cognitive sphere. According to the French neuro-scientistMariekeLongcam, bothchildren and adultsfinditeasier to learn new signs of writing, or a new language, whentheyreproducethem "by hand" instead of the PC.

During the experiment some participantspracticedwriting the letters by hand, the others with a special keyboard. After the trial, afterseveral weeks, the researchersverified the successes of learning; result: thosewhohadwrittenfreehandweremuchbetter, astheywereable to distinguish with greaterprecision the graphicgestures, learned in the previouslesson, from othersimilarbutreversedcharacters.

In ouralphabet the reversedletters are the "b - d - p - q"; and itisprecisely on theselettersthatchildrenencountertheirowndifficultiesespeciallyifthey are dyslexic. Alsowritetheseletters to one

keyboarddoesnotchangeanything from the motorpoint of view; sinceeverygraphicsign, for example take the "s", has a particularmovement of the body, different from the act of typing on a keyboard.

From the neurophysiologicalpoint of view, usingfMRI (functionalmagneticresonanceimaging) itispossible to visualize the graphs of brain activity.

Still in the experiment, eachparticipantwhohadtried to writegraphicsigns by hand, hadmemorizedcertainmovementsassociated with eachgraph-motorsign. Whentheytried to remember, the tomographshowed an increase in neuronalactivity in the leftBroca area, in the anteriorintraparietal area and in the leftpremotordorsalcortex; allareasdedicated to the mentaldevelopment of an action. Thus, increasedmotorinvolvementimpliesbetter "synapticplasticity" on learning, a more stable connection in memory and a betterrepetition of information.

Now, whenwas the last time youused the pen? Would Manzoni or Dante havewrittentheirworksanywayiftheyhadhad a personal computer available?

Thinkpeoplethink.