Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 47th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Neuroscience of cursive handwriting: A computational appraoch

Kazuyoshi Fukuzawa, Ph.D.1), Satoko Tsunoda, M.A.2), Yasuharu Koike, Ph.D.3) and Yasuhiro Wada, Ph.D.4)

1)Waseda University
2)Waseda University
3)Tokyo Institute of Technology
4)Nagaoka University of Techology

Based on the minimum torque change model (MTCM), Wada and Kawato (1995) proposed a computational model of cursive handwriting which includes the following assumptions. The brain represents via-points that the hand passes through in a trajectory. Cursive handwriting consists of consecutive reaching movements. The via-points for handwriting are retrieved from memory during actual handwriting. Mathematically extracted via-points based on MTCM proved to be practically identical to motor primitives measured by EMG suggesting that drastic directional changes in muscle movement may be determining the location of via-points. Based on computational model, we examined the via-points in the cursive handwriting of a patient with parietal lobe involvement accompaning agraphia. While the control subject showed basically the same numbers and locations in via-points regardless of the velocity of hand movement, the patient's number and locations of via-points differed depending on the velocity of hand movement. The results suggest that the control subject retrieved necessary via-points based on the velocity of handwriting. The results also may reflect the neuropsychological nature of agraphic hand writing in a patient with parietal lobe damage.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 46: 914|916, 2006)
key words: cursive handwriting, computational theory of movement, via-point, motor primitive, agraphia

(Received: 12-May-06)