Neuroscientists Robert McIntosh and Sergio Della Sala reflect on the phenomena of mirror-writing

“For most objects we encounter, and actions that we learn, the mirror-image versions are equivalent. We should recognise a dog as the same animal, regardless of whether it is facing left or right.”

Mirror-writing is when letters, words or sentences are written in the reverse direction so that they appear normal when reflected in a mirror. It is surprisingly common among children learning to write.

In 2012, Sergio Della Sala and Robert McIntosh, neuroscientists at the University of Edinburgh, published an article in The Psychologist on their research into mirror-writing, which still gets over 10,0000 views a month and is the most popular article on the website to date.

Find out what Sergio and Robert had to say about updates in the field in this interview, featured in the April issue of the Psychologist magazine:

Reflecting on mirror-writing | The Psychologist

You can also listen to Robert comment on the research in this Vox video on why kids write letters backwards:

About Sergio Della Sala and Robert McIntosh

Sergio Della Sala and Robert McIntosh are both Professors of Human Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh.

Sergio’s research interests include cognitive neuropsychology: in particular in amnesia, visuospatial and representational neglect.

Robert’s research interests include the neural control of visual perception and visually-guided action in humans.