Team DailyPedia
Why do our fingers get prune-y during a bath, while washing the dishes or doing the laundry?
Good question.
This is completely normal especially if you have been in the water for longer than ten minutes, and it can even affect your toes. For years, scientists believed this has something to do with Osmosis – the passing of liquid through the surface of the skin causing the outer layer to expand but not the tissue underneath it.
However in 1935, doctors noticed that this result did not happen in patients suffering from nerve damage. Researchers Lewis and Pickering found out in one of the patients that when his hands got wet, all the fingers that could feel wrinkled except those that were numb.
It appears that the wrinkling is an “active response of the nervous system to prolonged moisture,” as SciShow explained. The nervous system compresses the blood vessels underneath the skin which results to the wrinkling of the upper layers.
So, what could be the purpose and function of having wrinkled fingers?
In 2011, a study made by Mark Changizi. an evolutionary neurobiologist. along with his colleagues at 2AI Labs in Boise, Idaho suggested that wrinkles provide a person with better grip in wet conditions.
A recent study was conducted involving participants who were asked to pickup wet or dry objects using dry hands and those who have been submerged in water for 30 minutes. The individuals with wrinkled fingers were faster at picking up wet marbles as compared to the dry ones.
This theory was supported by Tom Smulders, an evolutionary biologist at Newcastle University, UK, stating that this effect acts like rain treads on car tires which enables better contact with wet surfaces resulting to a better grip.
But why does the wrinkling only affect the hands and feet?
According to Meyer via How Stuff Works, this is because our hands and feet get so much use. The palm of the hand and sole of the feet both have thicker skin than the rest of the body, meaning they have a thicker layer of keratin, making them more prone to wrinkles when submerged in water.
Featured image via SuperFantastic
