• Question: I told my friend about rotating your foot and drawing a six with your finger and then he asked you about it, have any of you came up with an answer to why this happens?

    Asked by metemercan2011 to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 16 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 15 Nov 2011:


      I replied to this along with 2 of the other scientists… my reply was:

      Some people claim that the fact that you cannot rub your head and pat your stomach, or rotate your foot clockwise and then try to draw a six with your finger, indicates that motor programs in the brain for each limb are linked together.

      The reason for this might be that it makes coordination easier but it definitely makes drumming different tempos with different hands quite difficult.

      It is a wonderfully funny thing though 😀

    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 15 Nov 2011:


      It may be to do with the sides of your brain? I don’t know! I would listen to Peta, she seems to know…

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 16 Nov 2011:


      Yeh, I think Peta’s probably got it right – it does seem like it would have to have something to do with things being linked. It’s definitely strange though.

      I did sit at my desk and try different combinations of left/right feet with left/right hands, but I don’t think I came to any strong conclusions. And on a sample of “me” it’s probably not a very fair experiment… It would be interesting to see if there another instances you can find that are similar…!

    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 16 Nov 2011:


      No, sorry. But human brains are very bad at multi-tasking. So I guess it’s no surprise that it can’t keep one thing still while it moves another.

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