Read the commentary on it publish in the same journal, it’s plain English and pretty scathing: https://www.frontiersin.orghttps//www.frontiersin.org/journa...

> suggests handwriting may be irreplaceable when it comes to learning.

> For the typing condition, participants typed the same words on a keyboard using only their right index finger.

So they tested exactly nothing useful.

Give it up Mrs. Smith, the keyboard won.

In seriousness, I would always expect pressing a single button to require less brain power than drawing a complex line, even more so if the subjects have been in the digital world for the last 10 years.

Just from a pure mechanical motion finger movement of a single key being pressed at a time is far less than most of the full hand engagement wiring requires.

The study might have been better if the types used a full keyboard with both hands, but I suspect they always know the results would not be worthy to write home about.

But even they were. The task of transcribing is not all that engaging. Maybe I would have reserve brain power to do the task.

You will also have to convince me that what is measured, brain connectivity, is a metric we care about and has any real impact beyond being a fun trick.

Is it really "typing" if you are only allowed to use your index finger?

I think it would be interesting to compare hand dominance in writing vs typing then.