Finger mind games

[alan2here]

I discovered this today.

 

Hold two fingers out in front of you at half arms length, point them at each other and touch your two finger tips together, push them towards from each other slightly so that they are overlapping by 1/2 a fingers length and pull one up and one down slightly so there is a gap of about 2 finger thickness between your two parallel fingers.

 

Now move your fingers round and round each other, first one way then the other, try slow\fast.

 

Now pull your left hand to the left and your right hand to the right a fingers length. Try the same thing again, now for the trick.

 

Try and move your fingers in opposite circles. For example, left finger clockwise and right finger anti-clockwise. They should point at each other 2 times in a cycle. It's perplexingly hard to do, even slowly. If you think you have it sorted try speeding up.

[iNow]

It's perplexingly hard to do, even slowly. If you think you have it sorted try speeding up.

Yes, it is VERY difficult.

 

Do you know why, though?

[alan2here]

No, tell me.

[iNow]

Hmmm... I was hoping for a more "scholastic" response than that.

 

I'll let you know it has to do with how the motor cortex is mapped, and how close the connections are for these types of actions. The areas for the hands are very very close.

 

Also, have you heard of the homonculous? Some areas of the body are represented more in the brain than others (example, lips have more cortical representation than an elbow).

 

 

If you're curious, here are a few starter links on the topic I was alluding to above. My favorites are the Neuroscience for Kids ones. I studied this stuff in college and still learn new things when checking those out.

 

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/brain/mapcortex.html

 

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/flash/hom.html

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus#Sensory_and_motor_homunculi

 

 

 

Enjoy.

[YT2095]

I have no problem doing this, I am Equi-manual (ambidextrous) however and can write with both hands at the same time too.

 

Nice try though

[baraeris]

I actually never had a problem with the opposing circles finger game. I tried it on two local kids today at church and neither of them could do it. In my experience extremely few people could ever do it successfully.

 

I am not ambidextrous, by the way. Primarily left handed for writing and eating, although I "mouse" with the right. Many other tasks I can do with right of left.

 

Are there any other games like this to try? I'd be interested in hearing about some new things to share.

[SMF]

I once knew an old anatomist who liked to draw body structures on the board while lecturing. When drawing something that was bilaterally symmetrical he did the right half of the drawing with his right hand while simultaneously drawing the left half, as a mirror image, with his left hand. This is, sort of, the flip side of the puzzle discussed above. It turns out that most people are able to do this. You can try it by writing your name. If you are right handed, what you write with your left hand will be a mirror image (right left reversed). What you are trying to do is write your name normally from left to right, while with your left hand starting at the same place and writing from right to left. I am pretty sure that the principle works for everybody, but am wondering what happens when a left hander does this. I assume that the left hand writes from left to right and right hand back toward the other hand, right to left. SM

 

 

[Schrödinger's hat]

I, and a few other left handers I know have little difficulty writing mirrored with the left hand.

For a while I found it both quicker and neater than writing forwards.

[SMF]

Schrodinger's what (couldn't resist)? Are you saying that, when doing mirror image writing, your left hand writes the mirror image while your right hand writes left to right like a right hand person? SM