Does using #AI dumb you down?
by Willis Ryder Arnold, Meghna Chakrabarti, August 11, 2025
Excerpt: "CHAKRABARTI: ... Well, actually, Nataliya, before you do that, I do want to, I promise you, we will hear the final. I'm just like teasing, I'm teasing listeners today, but since both of you have actually mentioned handwriting, I do wanna just pause for a second and talk about that.
"Because in my personal N=1 of my life, I type every day like any normal person, almost all my writing is done through typing, but I don't know, I find myself that when I like, really want to remember something or it's of high value to me, I pick up a pencil or a pen.
"And somehow that embeds it more deeply into my brain, specifically my aging, working memory.
"So because of that, we actually reached out to one of the researchers that you mentioned who has done research on handwriting to understand like how we process information and think differently depending on how we're physically writing. And according to on Audrey van der Meer the answer is quite a bit.
"AUDREY VAN DER MEER: We actually looked at the connectivity patterns in the brain during handwriting and typewriting, and we found that the brain is much more connected during handwriting than it is during typewriting.
"CHAKRABARTI: van der Meer is a researcher and professor of neuropsychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
"And in her research she used students, once again, the universal Guinea pig, as subjects. And it sounds like the experiment might've looked exactly how you'd think, but maybe with the fun twist.
"VAN DER MEER: They were wearing one of our characteristic electrode nets. Consisting of 256 sensitive electrodes sewn together as like a hair net on their heads, and they were playing the game Pictionary. So we presented Pictionary words on a large screen, and they were supposed to either write the word by hand, draw the word by hand, or type the word on a keyboard. And we recorded their ongoing brain activity while they were performing those tasks.
"CHAKRABARTI: And just like Nataliya's team did, van der Meer recorded that brain activity on an EEG, and she says the number of brain functions, visual processing, sensory motor integration, and the motor cortex are notably more engaged when writing by hand.
"VAN DER MEER: The brain does this through neural oscillations that can oscillate at different frequencies and in different parts of the brain and that kind, those kind of oscillations in the regions of the brain where we found activity are usually involved in learning and memory. So these kind of oscillations, they put the brain in a kind of state that makes it easier to learn from your handwriting activities and to remember what the notes were about.
"CHAKRABARTI: Writing by hand can also promote recall of experience in place because it helps cement memories that are unique to us. According to van der Meer:
"VAN DER MEER: Handwritten notes are very personal. When you then take them up in order to study for the exam, for instance, everything is coming back because it feels like you're back in the lecture theater again.
"And that's why sending your mate to a lecture to take notes doesn't work because notes, hundred of notes are typically very personal."
Read more / listen:
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/08/11/ai-writing-chatgpt-study-cognitive
#AISucks #AIIsDumbingUsDown #AIResistance #Handwriting #BrainHealth #Datacenters #DumbingUsDown
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