It’s hard to find someone nowaways, who writes on paper. Maybe pupils in their first school years and grandma’s and grandpa’s above 80 years old. Actually they do the right thing by writing on paper, compared to the majority of us. Why? It seems that writing on paper stimulates our brain better than any other form of digital writing.

According to a small Japanese study, writing on paper is more useful because it contains more complex spatial and tangible information compared to digital paper, and leads to an improved memory.

The study showed that writing on paper increases blood flow in the specific brain areas, which are related to language and visualization, but also in the hippocampus – the brain area for learning, memory and navigation. Researchers believe that the increased brain flow for extra brain activities allows to remember information better and faster execution of memory tasks.

It is almost impossible to ask you to stop using digital forms of writing, based on the conclusions of this study. However, what you could do to enhance your memory is to personalize your digital documents, by e.g. highlighting, circling or adding virtual sticky notes, to mimic the spatial enrichment of writing on paper.

Curious? HERE is the source