Figure 1.

Handwriting is a complex skill involving activations in the left dorsal premotor cortex, the inferior parietal cortex, the fusiform gyrus, the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, the right cerebellum and the primary motor cortex, which is devoted to manual motor output. In the basal ganglia, the striatum mediates visual–motor integration [18]. Children, unlike adults, recruit in addition the prefrontal cortex, notably the anterior cingular cortex, to perform writing tasks, which is interpreted as a mark of a lower-level automation between the ages of 8 and 11 [19,20]. Handwriting also involves gestural and kinematic characteristics (i.e., the handwriting process in green in the text) leading to the production of the written trace (i.e., the product of handwriting).