Tapping Into the Neural Network: BioVlog 81 of 384

First, I pick up a coin and determine which hand feels more comfortable doing the roll, and it is my right hand. But, because I want to do it with both hands, I place the half-dollar in the opposite left hand and begin the maneuver from there. 

Mary and I have to go run some errands. I’m holding one of her hands and I notice that the hand I’ve not practiced with before is unconsciously doing the coin roll! 

I realize I’ve stumbled onto something really interesting. It is a way to teach one hand to do what the practiced hand has already learned by disabling the practiced hand. 

Now I roll two coins across my left knuckles for three to five hours. Then, I stop and place the two coins in the untrained right hand. Next, I sit on my left hand to disable it and relax my brain. 

This is the important part! 

Because the left hand is disabled, the right hand is tricked into tapping into the neural network where the muscle-memory is stored. As a result, within a fraction of the time, say 20 to 30 minutes, the right hand behaves as if it is the left hand, and becomes equally skilled. I grab another coin, toss the three coins back into the left hand, and keep practicing. After three coins comes four, five, six, seven and eventually I figure out how to roll a pyramid of eight coins across the knuckles of one hand. (Eight coins, which doubles the four-coin world record.)