Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 15 – All Those Arms! (Patreon)

 (The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Dear Ms. Jessica -

I've always wondered something about mutants who grow extra limbs, specifically extra arms. How long does it take for a new mutant to learn how to control their new arms? Can they just use them immediately with little to no issues, or do they have to go through some sort of physical therapy before they are able to control them effectively? Do the new arms mimic the movements of the originals at first, or do they act out subconscious impulses that the person might have like the new arms have a "mind of their own"? Does the process of learning to control the new arms become more difficult as the number of arms increases, or would a four armed mutant and an eight armed mutant go through basically the same amount of effort in learning to control their new limbs?

Sorry, that's a lot of questions. But I've always been curious!

Thanks!

As always don’t worry about asking a lot of questions. I covered a lot of this in issue 9, which I believe at this point hasn’t been made public, so I’ll send you a transcript. However, there are a few things worth noting. 

First of all, the degree to which mutants can utilize their new mutations varies from mutant to mutant. There is a slight correlation between general fitness and skill at using one’s limbs before a mutation hits. For example, we have found that musicians, chefs, and other people who have greater specified muscle memory with their hands tend to learn how to use new hands and arms quicker. Similarly, dancers and gymnasts tend to adapt to new legs faster.

The general theory is that the more neural pathways you have dedicated to limb use, the easier neural pathways form when you gain new limbs.

There is no correlation between number of limbs and difficulty of adaption, however. We fine that mutants with two new limbs to twenty new limbs seem to learn at the same rate. Once again, the brain mutates along with the body, so there is some pre-existing groundwork to make moving these limbs more natural.

As for the “mind of their own” example, that is actually more of a psychological phenomena than a biological one. Some mutants who gain new limbs struggle with imagining them as a part of their body. In these circumstances these new limbs will operate on reflex and subconscious desires any time they are not actively thinking about moving them. This can be trained away with physical therapy though.

Speaking of physical therapy, you are correct in that some mutants that gain extra limbs have a hard time differentiating them, and tend to move them all at once. A common therapy used to train mutants with new limbs is called “restraint therapy.” It’s pretty simple. Say a mutant has eight arms. Seven of them will be restrained somehow and the mutant will be asked to move the one that isn’t. They do this several times and the restraints are loosened each time, until they are able to move it without moving the rest of their arms. This, of course, is repeated several times over the course of weeks and months until full independent control has been granted to each limb.

Hope all your questions were answered.

Stay curious!

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com