Why is my handwriting so messy?
CrowdScience listener Azeddine from Algeria has had bad handwriting since he was a child. In fact, it was so untidy that, when he later became a chemistry lecturer, his university students complained that they could not read his lecture notes. That was when he decided he had to do something about it. \n \nAnd it got him wondering\u2026 why do some of us have very neat handwriting while other people\u2019s is almost unreadable? Why do his sisters all write beautifully when his natural style is quite the opposite? \n \nPresenter Alex Lathbridge sets out to answer Azeddine\u2019s question. He explores the different factors which determine how well we write. How much of it is inherited? What part does family and education play? And what is actually going on in our brains when we apply pen to paper? \n \nAlex talks to anthropologist Monika Saini of the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi, who has analysed writing styles within families and in different regions across India. She tells him about the genetic and cultural factors which seem to influence our handwriting. \n \nWe also hear from neuroscientist Marieke Longcamp of Aix Marseille Universit\xe9, France, who uses MRI scanning to find out which parts of our brains are involved when we write by hand. She has looked at what is happening in the brains of people who write in more than one script \u2013 for example in French and Arabic, like Azeddine. \n \nAnother neuroscientist, Karin Harman James, from Indiana University, USA ,has been looking at the link between learning something by writing it down compared to typing it on a tablet or laptop. \n \nAnd Alex meets handwriting tutor Cherrell Avery to find out if it\u2019s possible to improve your writing \u2013 even as an adult. \n \nPresenter: Alex Lathbridge\nProducer: Jeremy Grange\nEditor: Cathy Edwards\nProduction Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano\nStudio Manager: Emma Harth