Personality traits modulate the neural responses to handwriting processing.

Handwriting is a vital skill for everyday human activities. It has a wealth of information about writers' characteristics and can hint toward underlying neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, autism, dyslexia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Many previous studies have reported a link between personality and individual differences in handwriting, but the evidence for the relationship tends to be anecdotal in nature. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined whether the association between personality traits and handwriting was instantiated at the neural level. Results showed that the personality trait of conscientiousness modulated brain activation in the left premotor cortex and right inferior/middle frontal gyrus, which may reflect the impact of personality on orthography-to-grapheme transformation and executive control involved in handwriting. Such correlations were not observed in symbol-drawing or word-reading tasks, suggesting the specificity of the link between conscientiousness and handwriting in these regions. Moreover, using a connectome-based predictive modeling approach, we found that individuals' conscientiousness scores could be predicted based on handwriting-related functional brain networks, suggesting that the influence of personality on handwriting may occur within a broader network. Our findings provide neural evidence for the link between personality and handwriting processing, extending our understanding of the nature of individual differences in handwriting.

Cognitive-neural effects of brush writing of chinese characters: cortical excitation of theta rhythm.

Chinese calligraphy has been scientifically investigated within the contexts and principles of psychology, cognitive science, and the cognitive neuroscience. On the basis of vast amount of research in the last 30 years, we have developed a cybernetic theory of handwriting and calligraphy to account for the intricate interactions of several psychological dimensions involved in the dynamic act of graphic production. Central to this system of writing are the role of sensory, bio-, cognitive, and neurofeedback mechanisms for the initiation, guidance, and regulation of the writing motions vis-a-vis visual-geometric variations of Chinese characters. This experiment provided the first evidence of cortical excitation in EEG theta wave as a neural hub that integrates information coming from changes in the practitioner's body, emotions, and cognition. In addition, it has also confirmed neurofeedback as an essential component of the cybernetic theory of handwriting and calligraphy.

Cognitive effects of calligraphy therapy for older people: a randomized controlled trial in Hong Kong.

BACKGROUND: This pilot study investigated the effects of calligraphy therapy on cognitive function in older Hong Kong Chinese people with mild cognitive impairment. METHODS: A single-blind, randomized controlled trial was carried out in a sample of 31 adults aged 65 years or older with mild cognitive impairment. They were randomly assigned to receive either intensive calligraphy training led by a trained research assistant for eight weeks (calligraphy group, n = 14) or no calligraphy treatment (control group, n = 17). Participants' cognitive function was assessed by the Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (CMMSE) before and after calligraphy treatment. Repeated measures analysis of variance and paired samples t-tests were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: A significant interaction effect of time and intervention was detected [F (1, 29) = 9.11, P = 0.005, η(2) = 0.24]. The calligraphy group was found to have a prominent increase in CMMSE global score, and scores in the cognitive areas of orientation, attention, and calculation after two months (ΔM = 2.36, P < 0.01), whereas their counterparts in the control group experienced a decline in CMMSE score (ΔM = -0.41, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Calligraphy therapy was effective for enhancing cognitive function in older people with mild cognitive impairment and should be incorporated as part of routine programs in both community and residential care settings.

The effects of Chinese calligraphy handwriting and relaxation training in Chinese Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma patients: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Chinese calligraphy handwriting is the practice of traditional Chinese brush writing, researches found calligraphy had therapeutic effects on certain diseases, some authors argued that calligraphy might have relaxation effect. OBJECTIVES: This study was to compare the effects of calligraphy handwriting with those of progressive muscle relaxation and imagery training in Chinese Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma patients. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: This study was a randomized controlled trial. Two hundred and eighty-seven Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma patients were approached, ninety (31%) patients were recruited and randomized to one of the three treatment groups: progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery training group, Calligraphy handwriting group, or a Control group. Seventy-nine (87.8%) completed all of the outcome measures. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary treatment outcome was the changes of physiological arousal parameters measured by pre- and post-treatment differences of heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate. The secondary outcomes included: modified Chinese version of Symptom Distress Scale, Profile of Mood State-Short Form, and Karnofsky Performance Status measured at baseline, during treatment (after the 2-week intervention), post-treatment (after the 4-week intervention) and after a 2-week follow-up. Effectiveness was tested by repeated measure ANOVA analyses. SETTING: Cancer centre of a major university hospital in Guangdong, China. RESULTS: Results showed that both of calligraphy and relaxation training demonstrated slow-down effects on physiological arousal parameters. Moreover, calligraphy practice gradually lowered participants' systolic blood pressure (simple main effect of time at pre-treatment measure, p=.007) and respiration rate (p=.000) at pre- and post-treatment measures as the intervention proceeded, though with a smaller effect size as compared to relaxation. Both of calligraphy and relaxation training had certain symptom relief and mood improvement effects in NPC patients. Relaxation was effective in relieving symptom of insomnia (p=.042) and improving mood disturbance, calligraphy elevated level of concentration (p=.032) and improved mood disturbance. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to the effects of relaxation training, calligraphy demonstrated a gradually build-up physiological slow-down, and associated with heightened concentration and improved mood disturbance. Calligraphy offered a promising approach to improved health in cancer patients.

Cognitive facilitation associated with Chinese brush handwriting: the case of symmetric and asymmetric Chinese characters.

Chinese calligraphic handwriting involves a process of visual spatial structuring of the characters as well as the motor control of the brush to follow specific character configurations through a projection of the cognitive images of the character. Previous research has shown that Chinese calligraphic handwriting facilitates perceptual and cognitive abilities. Reading Chinese characters with geometric features also facilitates cognitive processing. This study investigated Chinese calligraphic handwriting effect on cognitive facilitation measured by responses to asymmetric and asymmetric Chinese characters. 11 participants performed Chinese calligraphic handwriting for 30 min. and had their reaction time and error rate taken before and after the writing session. The reaction time to asymmetric characters was significantly shortened after Chinese calligraphic handwriting. These results confirm the general Chinese calligraphic handwriting effect on cognitive facilitation, but the asymmetric characters seem to result in greater such effects than the symmetric characters.