A silly little trick has been circulating throughout the cyber world for some time, similar to trying to pat your head and rub your stomach, but this one involves the coordinating movements of your hands and feet. The foot trick goes something like this: While sitting upright in a chair, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Then, while making clockwise circles with your right foot, draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand. The catch is to try to keep your right foot moving in a clockwise direction while drawing the ‘6’ in the air. It is very difficult, if not impossible for some. So, what’s the deal? Read on. This psychological article will explain.

There is a plausible explanation for the challenge to move your foot in a clockwise direction while making a counter-clockwise motion with your hand. The difficulty is not limited to hand/foot coordination. Try this other little muscle coordination test (this one is off the cuff): hold both arms out in front of you, bent at the elbow (hand should be pointed up, palms facing one another). First, move your right arm in forward circle. Once you have your right arm moving forward, move your left arm in backward circles simultaneously. Can you do it? Accurately? Keeping your movements in circles? (Yeah, right. No one was looking as you were reading this psychological article explanation, so who is going to challenge you?)

If you cannot, no matter how hard you try, make your arms and legs move in opposite directions you are not alone. According to a psychological article by David Rosenbaum, Penn State University, published in November/December Journal of Experimental Psychology, your brain is programmed a certain way. The psychological article explains that the brain is the sophisticated wiring that controls our muscle movements. Because of how we are programmed, the brain naturally has more trouble coordinating movements that are in different directions, or non-isodirectional. Why? you ask. Give that question some thought. Do you more often need to use your limbs in conjunction with one another or in contradiction to one another? Here are a few activities that you may have participated in recently, or at least observed, that will demonstrate coordinated muscle movements: 1) riding a bicycle. Do your legs move in the same direction or opposite directions? If they moved in opposite directions you would never move from square one; 2) swinging a bat. Both arms must move together; 3) folding clothes. The actions are mirror images, but are still in the same direction. Also, do not confuse ‘opposite’ with ‘alternating’. Although some of our movements may alternate, they are still in the same direction. It came on our respective mental hard-drives, luckily.

And why does all of this matter? There have been numerous psychological articles that have reported studies that tested the effects of stroke on motor coordination. The general consensus is that non-isodirectional movements are difficult under normal circumstances. For stroke patients, both isodirectional and non-isodirectional movements are compromised not only on the lesioned brain hemisphere but also on the "unaffected" hemisphere. The conclusion is that both the left and right hemispheres are needed for coordinated muscle movements. When a person suffers a stroke, regardless of the side in which the stroke occurred, the synchronization of motor control movements is negatively affected.