Question: If you replaced you foot with a hand would you still be able to walk?

  1. Strangely enough you probably could.

    The brain is very good at adapting our walking pattern, referred to as gait, when strange circumstances present themselves and it does so surprisingly quickly. A couple of years ago I did an experiment that involved blocking the tibial nerve in some subjects with anaesthetic. The tibial nerve controls the ankle muscles, so the anaesthetic temporarily paralysed our subjects’ ankle muscles. After we were finished the experiment we got one of our subjects to stand up and walk while we measured his gait. It took him only three steps to adapt to walking with paralysed ankle muscles.

    It may take a little while to get used to, but if for some reason one of your feet were replaced with a hand, I think you would be able to walk.

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