An exploratory study of Chinese calligraphy handwriting on rumination for female psychosomatic symptoms

Rumination is a key cognitive process implicated in stress-related psychological and somatic symptoms in females. While embodied practices such as Chinese calligraphy have been proposed as potential interventions targeting rumination, the short-term cognitive and physiological mechanisms underlying their effects remain unclear. The present study aimed to explore whether calligraphy writing could modulate experimentally induced rumination and associated autonomic nervous system activity. Participants were randomly assigned to a calligraphy-writing group or a neutral reading control group following a rumination induction task. State and trait rumination were assessed using self-report measures. Autonomic nervous system activity was recorded via heart rate variability (HRV), including time-domain indices. The intervention consisted of a 30-minute session of either Chinese calligraphy writing or neutral reading. Results indicated that the rumination induction paradigm was effective, as state rumination increased following induction. After the calligraphy writing session, both state and trait rumination decreased to below baseline levels, suggesting a potential regulatory effect of calligraphy on ruminative processes. HRV analyses revealed that pNN20 showed significant changes across experimental phases. Given prior evidence linking pNN20 to emotional and affective regulatory processes, this finding may suggest that calligraphy-related activity is associated with emotion-related physiological pathways. Taken together, this exploratory study provides preliminary evidence that Chinese calligraphy writing may reduce both state and trait rumination following experimental induction and highlights pNN20 as a potentially sensitive physiological marker in this context. These findings offer theory-informed guidance for the future design of calligraphy-based interventions.