Do YOU count on your fingers? Experts say it could actually boost your brainpower and turn you into a genius

During a lab meeting, one of our PhD researchers recalls how her father would forbid her from using paper to help solve maths homework problems by writing them down. Another admits that she sometimes still uses her hands to make small calculations, although she does so while hiding them behind her back. When we realise that all of us use our fingers in order to answer demands for the'third, fifth, and seventh digits' of our secret online banking password, we laugh in relief. We are not so daft after all, or at least we are not alone. Consider a game of Scrabble, the researchers say.