“So now comes the question, if I give you an eleventh finger ... are you processing it the same way as you're processing a regular limb?”
Researchers at the Brain & Behaviour Lab that Faisal heads found that, regardless of playing ability, the six pianists and six other non-playing volunteers all adapted to the thumb quickly, suggesting we are not limited to using an extra digit for tasks we are familiar with.
“The fact that you can actually play with eleven fingers is not entirely trivial and that has to do with how your brain is actually wired up…," Faisal said.
“So what we can say is it's a proof of existence. We can do it. So the next challenge would be can we do two thumbs, so 12-fingered? Can we do something else?”