A few years back, I wrote about the power of handwriting for learning and later explored how it sharpens critical thinking. I even shared Isaac Asimov's wonderful quote: "Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers." Back then, I was making the case that writing by hand beats typing for understanding and retention. But here's something I didn't fully appreciate at the time: this simple daily practice might actually be protecting my brain and potentially extending my healthy years.
I still keep my morning ritual. Before diving into work, I pull out my small Moleskine and scribble down my top three tasks for the day, along with a few lines about what I'm grateful for. During the day, notes accumulate about calls, ideas, random thoughts that need capturing. By evening, there's the hansei, my reflection on whether I actually accomplished what I set out to do. It's decidedly low-tech in our cloud-synced world, and I've often wondered if I'm just being stubborn about clinging to pen and paper.
Turns out, I might be doing my aging brain a bigger favor than I realized.
The Aging Brain Needs More Than Crossword Puzzles
A study published in February 2025 in the journal Life titled The Neuroscience Behind Writing: Handwriting vs. Typing analyzed 30 neuroimaging studies comparing handwriting and typing. The researchers, led by Giuseppe Marano and colleagues at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, pulled together findings from fMRI, EEG, and other brain imaging technologies to understand what's really happening upstairs when we write versus type.
The pattern that emerged was striking: writing by hand forces the brain to work considerably harder. It requires coordinating fine motor skills, processing tactile feedback from pen and paper, and maintaining spatial awareness of each letter's formation. Typing, by contrast, involves repetitive finger movements that require far less cognitive effort.
But why does that matter for those of us worried about keeping our minds sharp as we age?
The brain's plasticity (its ability to form new neural connections and adapt) isn't static throughout life. In childhood, neural circuits are highly flexible, allowing for rapid learning. As we move into adulthood, the brain becomes more structurally stable, making new skill acquisition more challenging. This doesn't mean we stop learning, but it does mean we need to be more intentional about activities that stimulate our brains.
Here's where handwriting becomes interesting. The cognitive demands of forming letters, coordinating vision with movement, and integrating multiple sensory streams could help stimulate neuroplasticity. While the researchers are careful not to claim that handwriting prevents cognitive decline, the evidence points toward something meaningful: activities that engage broader networks of brain regions may help maintain neural connectivity that supports cognitive health.
How Your Brain Lights Up Differently
The neuroimaging reveals something fascinating about the different ways our brains engage with these two forms of writing. When you write by hand, you're activating a complex network:
The sensorimotor cortex processes the tactile feedback of pen on paper and controls the intricate finger movements. The visual cortex tracks the emerging letters. The parietal lobe handles visuospatial integration, essentially coordinating where your hand is in space with what you're trying to create. Language areas like Broca's region encode the orthographic (spelling) representation. The cerebellum refines and smooths the motor movements.
That's a lot of neural real estate getting a workout from something as simple as writing a grocery list.
Typing activates some overlapping regions, particularly for visual processing and language. But it relies more heavily on procedural memory (remembering where keys are located) and repetitive motor patterns. The prefrontal cortex handles the decision-making and attention required, but overall, it's a narrower slice of brain activity.
The researchers found that handwriting produces what they call "more elaborate" brain connectivity patterns, particularly in theta and alpha frequency bands. These frequencies are associated with memory formation and encoding new information. When you type, those widespread connectivity patterns simply don't appear.
The Memory Connection
I mentioned in my earlier post a study showing that college students who took notes by hand performed better on conceptual questions than those who typed. They also retained information better a week later. The new research helps explain why: the slower, more effortful process of handwriting forces deeper engagement with material.
When you write by hand, you're creating what neuroscientists call an "encoding effect." The physical act of forming each letter, combined with the slower pace that forces you to paraphrase rather than transcribe verbatim, leads to better retention. Your brain is building stronger memory traces because multiple systems are working together: motor, sensory, visual, and linguistic.
Multiple studies have now confirmed that people remember information better when they write it by hand. A Norwegian University study using high-density EEG found increased connectivity across brain regions linked to visual processing, motor control, and memory during handwriting, but not during typing. The cognitive load of handwriting, rather than being a bug, turns out to be a feature.
The Aging Advantage
For those of us in our 60s and beyond, the implications get more interesting. Several studies referenced in the review examined how handwriting abilities change with normal aging. One machine learning study found that stroke size progressively declines in healthy older adults, reflecting the natural aging process affecting motor control. But here's the key: handwriting requires the activation of widespread brain networks, and maintaining those networks through regular use may help preserve cognitive function.
The review notes that cognitive activity can enhance brain structure and function, potentially building cognitive reserve. That reserve matters as we age. Think of it like this: if your brain has more robust connections and greater flexibility from years of engaging in cognitively demanding tasks, you may have more buffer when age-related changes begin.
Handwriting engages regions particularly vulnerable in dementia: motor control areas, visuospatial processing networks, and memory circuits. The coordinated visual, spatial, and motor integration required for complex writing might help keep these networks active and robust.
It's Not About Abandoning Technology
I'm not suggesting we all toss our laptops into the ocean and return to quill pens. I wrote the first draft of this on a computer (though I'll admit, I sketched the outline by hand first). Typing has clear advantages: speed, searchability, easy editing, and the ability to share instantly. For long-form writing, extended brainstorming, or collaborative work, the keyboard makes sense.
The research suggests it's about finding the right tool for the task. When learning new material, taking notes in a lecture, working through complex problems, or trying to deeply process information, handwriting offers cognitive benefits that typing can't match. For quick communication, drafting emails, or producing content that needs to be digital anyway, typing is obviously the practical choice.
What strikes me most is that we're making educational choices, particularly for children, without fully understanding these trade-offs. The review points out that if children aren't exposed to handwriting early on, they may not develop the precise hand movements and neural pathways that support not just writing, but a range of fine motor skills. The absence of handwriting practice could affect everything from manual dexterity to how the brain processes language and reading.
My Morning Practice in a New Light
Looking at my daily Moleskine routine through this lens, I realize it's not just about focus and gratitude. Every morning when I write out my top three tasks, when I jot down notes during calls, when I reflect at day's end, I'm essentially running a workout program for my brain's motor, sensory, and cognitive networks.
The slowness that sometimes frustrates me (especially when ideas are flowing faster than my hand can capture them) is actually part of the benefit. That deliberate pace forces deeper processing. The physical connection between my thoughts and the ink appearing on paper engages my brain in ways that tapping keys simply doesn't.
And if there's even a chance that maintaining this practice helps preserve my cognitive function and build resilience against age-related decline, that seems like an awfully good return on investment for 10 minutes a morning with a pen.
The researchers caution that they're not prescribing specific handwriting activities for cognitive health. The evidence isn't definitive enough to make clinical recommendations. But the synthesis of findings points toward something practical: incorporating regular handwriting into daily routines may offer benefits beyond what typing provides, particularly for maintaining cognitive function as we age.
For me, that's reason enough to keep my low-tech morning ritual going. My pen-and-paper notebook isn't going anywhere. If anything, I might start using it more often throughout the day. Not because I'm anti-technology, but because I'm pro-brain health. And right now, the science suggests that the humble act of putting pen to paper might be one of the simplest things we can do to give our aging brains a fighting chance.