Methods to activate the brain’s prefrontal cortex includes communicating with people, making things using your hands and fingers (such as cooking and manufacturing), reading (reading aloud), writing and even simple calculation. In particular, research done by Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), shows that reading aloud, writing and computing every day even for just a short period of time can improve brain functions. In this article, the effect of writing a kanji characters are explained.
The brain when writing kanji consists of the motor cortex that commands you to move your hand, the parietal cortex that teaches the location and positional relationship, the inferior temporal gyrus where the knowledge of the letters are stored, and the left and right prefrontal cortex that is actively working over a wide range. It is important to move with a purpose, and it seems that the prefrontal cortex does not work very much with movements that have no purpose, such as moving a finger with a walnut.
Instead, focusing on short sentences such as poems and “haikus” are recommended. For example, first read aloud a haiku; next, write the phrase while paying attention to the stroke order. Try to make a copy of the phrase’s while looking at the original as much as possible. Doing this at least twice a day with different poems or “haikus” is recommended. This particular activity not only stimulates the brain when continued everyday, but it can also helps you practice writing beautiful characters while paying attention to the writing order.