The Influence of Fine Motor Skills and Executive Functions on Automatized Handwriting

The study aimed to explore the understudied area of typical adult handwriting performance, focusing on the potential predictive roles of fine motor skills and executive functions. While the initial stages of handwriting acquisition are assumed to rely upon executive functions and fine motor skills, both components are no longer viewed as needed in automatized, expert handwriting. We tested this assumption by assessing the contributions of these components to handwriting performance in a group of 33 adult participants. Linear regressions were used to examine whether dexterity, manual praxis, working memory, inhibition and flexibility predict handwriting speed, legibility, and fluency. Results revealed that fine motor skills were a significant contributor to all aspects of handwriting performance. Executive functions also predicted handwriting performance, with a significant effect of flexibility on writing speed and of working memory on legibility. These findings highlight that, even at a high level of expertise and automatization, handwriting remains a motor skill whose performance depends on executive and fine motor control capacities. They suggest a predictive coding account of graphomotor control, whereby internal forward and inverse models would support the execution and monitoring of handwriting movements. This raises important questions about the extent to which disorders in motor and executive processes can affect handwriting performance and highlights the need for further research into this complex motor behavior.