telophase | (no subject)

Crossposts: http://telophase.livejournal.com/2186960.html

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According to this article about hands, it's difficult, if not impossible, for most people to put their hand out, palm up, fingers outstretched, and to roll or fold their little finger down without the ring finger coming with it, because the two fingers are connected by a tendon.

Apparently my left hand is a mutant.

My right hand works like it's supposed to - the ring finger comes down with the little whether I will or no, but the little finger on my left is rather independant. Huh.

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I recall reading that the left hand is often nimbler for right-handed people: weaker, but more flexible. Which is your dominant hand, or are you ambidextrous?

My left hand can curl the little finger down while leaving the ring finger mostly stable--it twitches every time--and my right hand looks similar to yours in the picture. I'm somewhere between right-handed and ambidextrous (which sounds silly but I eat soup neatly and unthinkingly with my left hand, stuff like that).

I'm right-handed, but at times people have asked me if I'm left-handed, so I expect I use my left a lot.

Someone on LJ said she thinks it can be trained, and asked if I played piano. I've only done that as an adult, but I played the violin for a few years as a kid, which might explain it, as you gotta use that left little finger nimbly!

That'd make sense--and I played violin for some years, too. Add independent, uppity tendons to the calluses one earns? :)

Possibly! Someone else on LJ just said they played for years and can't do that, so who knows?

I can do my left hand just like yours -- I just have to pay attention, or the ring finger will automatically come with. (For the record, I am a righty, a former piano player, and I played the violin very briefly and very badly in high school.)

On my right hand, I can do it with a lot of effort, but it hurts the palm of my hand.

I'm right-handed and can sorta-curl my pinkie down; the ring finger moves when I start the movement, but I can straighten it. The joint closest to the nail of my pinkie remains straight, but the other joint is at a 90-degree or smaller angle.

I tried with my left hand until the two fingers and palm hurt with no luck.

Thanks for the neat article! I'm a typist and a knitter, so that kind of thing interests me. (I move my whole hand in touch typing, sometimes up to the elbow. It's probably not considered proper form, but I've had wrist issues, and this is the method I've developed that doesn't hurt. Mostly.)

If I really hold the other fingers stiff, I can bend both pinkies down while keeping the others straight, but just to naturally do it, the ring fingers do come down slightly. The left hand seems easier to do than the right (and I'm right-handed).

Yeah, I can't roll the little finger. What I'm trying to figure out right now is why whenever I capitalize a word using my left hand on a Qwerty keyboard, I invariably also capitalize the second letter.

I capitalize the first and second letters all the time - -I'll have to pay attention and see if there's a different between the left and right hands. The only letter combo I remember doing with any consistentcy is AN, however - I tend to type "ANyway, [blah]" which gives a bit of an exasperated air to whatever I'm trying to say!

I think this can be learned or trained. Long before I became keyboard-dependent, I played piano. I use my pinky finger far more than many people I see.

Did you play piano? I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Strangely enough, I had to actually train my toes to spread out I couldn't do it until I was 40 and that was only after hours of practice.

I've only played piano for a year or so recently, but I did play the violin for three years as a kid, which might explain it, and why it's only my left hand.

I used to be able to lift my big toes up independently of the rest. And then came the arthritis - which I caught only because Ic ould no longer lift my toes up, which was weird for me. :/

I played the violin for longer than that, but I can't do that with my left hand (nor my right).

Bang goes a possible theory, then!

I can do it with both hands just fine; my ring fingers lifts up a little bit, but in no way seems compelled to curl entirely.

My hands behave the same way yours do.

Huh. My hands are a lot like yours. Here's a pic. Don't know if it's clear, on the right hand, the ring finger angles in, I can't hold it flat with the other fingers, but it doesn't bend.

Miles, who took the picture, found his hands did work the expected way.

My hands do have a fairly wide stretch for a woman's hands - as was pointed out to me by the harpist who urged me to study harp. I must get back to it again someday, I loved it so.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/61973860@N00/6801674984/)

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