Does writing cramp your style? Have you ever suffered writer’s cramp? Well it now seems there’s a brainy reason for it…
I’m lucky enough not to be affected, but the crippling condition of writer's cramp arises when a writer attempts to keep up with a long interview or when a musician desperately tries to perfect a difficult piece.
My thoughts on the subject...
Seems a good idea for authors to use a digital recorder to me.... Buggar scribbling, you miss half of what's being said.
You’d be forgiven for thinking it a muscular problem – well it certainly ends in the muscle, but it seems it starts in the brain. In a new paper, researchers in France used an MRI to study 26 right-handed people prone to writer's cramp and 26 people not plagued by the problem.
Writer's cramp and the brain.
I must admit it passed me by, but apparently it had been identified some time ago that there were differences in people prone to writer's cramp, when compared with those without. Specifically, they had less tissue in the cerebellum, the thalamus, and the sensorimotor cortex - parts of the brain affecting senses and movement.
The new research shows that white matter (made up of message-carrying nerve cells) connecting these regions is affected as well.
I wonder if it’s the same for all cramp conditions. Bananas take away cramp in other parts of the body. Wonder if it means bananas are good brain food….. Mmm, better pick some up next shopping day....
- Next post on Tell Me a Story.
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