According to neuropsychiatrist, this simple activity improves memory

With age, memory fades away. But how can we preserve it? Faced with this major issue, researchers have found many ways to help us retain our memory. One of the proposed solutions is an activity that can be beneficial to us: handwriting.

Easy to adopt, this daily habit is packed with memory-boosting properties. Leave your keyboard and pick up your pen.

Handwriting stimulates the brain

Neuropsychologists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) recruited twenty-four volunteers (children and young adults) who were tasked with writing fifteen words, sometimes by handwriting, sometimes by pictures (in these two cases by using a digital pen on a touch screen), sometimes by entry on a keyboard. Throughout the experiment their brain’s electrical activity was measured via electroencephalogram (EEG).

in the magazine frontier in psychology, Experts point to a synchronized activity of the theta band in parietal areas when producing letters by hand, as well as when drawing pictures (corresponding, according to existing literature, to brain activation patterns associated with learning and encoding new information).. .What has not been done was observed with typewriting.

Boost different types of memory

How does our memory work? According to Inserm, if each memory is unique, there would be five types of memories. Although they are interconnected, these specific memories involve different neural networks:

• Working (short-term) memory is at the center of the network.
• Semantic memory and episodic memory are two long-term conscious representation systems.
• Procedural memory allows unconscious automaticity.
• Perceptual memory is associated with different sensory modalities.

“We sometimes bring together all memories other than working memory under the general name of long-term memory,” explainsInserm. Furthermore, we often distinguish explicit memories (episodic and semantic) from implicit memories (procedural and perceptual). ,