Learning is a complicated process composed of vision, interpretation, comprehension and memory. This study for the first time compared activities in the brain for equation reading and writing by selected professionals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Finger writing did not change the message pathway in brain, but on the other hand intensified stimuli on the information integration and language processing centers by hand movement. Writing practice can assist students to integrate and comprehend the lectures delivered in the chemical engineering, classrooms. However, this practice cannot help a student to extract abstract meaning in the equation. (c) 2008 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.