• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Hand Choice

Hand Choice

November 3, 2010
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/101103_sciup_hand.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):
Competing hands…I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Like eager job applicants, your left and right hand compete to perform every mundane task, from turning a doorknob to scratching your nose. This according to neuroscientist Flavio Oliveira of the University of California at Berkeley. His team had right-handed volunteers reach for targets that appeared in different places in front of them. Then they repeated the task under the influence of magnetic brain stimulation, aimed at a particular region.

FLAVIO OLIVEIRA (University of California, Berkeley):
By stimulating this brain region, called the posterior parietal cortex, we managed to influence choice, and make people choose their left hand more often.

HIRSHON:
The region has previously has been linked to movement planning, and a condition called alien hand syndrome, in which the patient’s hand seems to act on its own. Olivera’s work suggests that our brains have to actively block one hand from doing the other one’s work. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Brain Science, Social & Behavioral Sciences
Previous Post:Ant Epigenetics
Next Post:Micro Musical Instrument

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos