“Why did all my fingers become Prunies?” This is a question that baffled children during the bath, teens in swimming lessons, and adults after a long hot tub session. Scientists once thought these wrinkles were caused by fingers that swell like sponge after soaking them in water. However, this theory is washed away quickly. Our numbers need to increase in size significantly to produce such wrinkles. Instead, the answer has more to do with our nerves than with our skin.
The secret to hairless skin
The palm skin and soles of our feet are unique, Danilo del Campoa dermatologist at Chicago Skin Clinic. It is called Glabrous Skin, the Latin name of the Glover, meaning “bald.” This hairless surface plays an important role in sensing our environment. It is packed with receptors that transmit signals from our skin to electrical impulses. Hairless skin It is not unique to humans. It constitutes an unusual protrusion that the star’s nose mole uses to feel its environment and colour type upper bill. an analysis The ratio of fast conduction and slow conduction nerves in hairless skin in rats was found to be three times higher in hairless skin than in hairless skin.
Clinicians say they first realized in a study almost a century ago that the structure packed with unique sensors for ignorant skin might have something to do with wrinkled skin. Lauren Taliaa dermatologist at Northwest Medicine. 1936 paperIr. George White Pickering and Thomas Lewis reported a case study of people with polio-induced nerve damage who had a significantly wrinkle-free figure. No matter how much time they spent in the water, their fingers remained as smooth as marble.
These patients had injuries to them Median nerve valueRuns the arms and provides motor and sensory links to the hands and forearms. This nerve is important Connection With the sympathetic nervous system.
Fails in battles and flights
Sympathetic nervous system Prepare our bodies for physical actions. In the heart, the speed and contraction force of the pump increases. The same system expands the pupil and allows more light to enter. These features are often referred to as “combat or flight” responses. the study In the 1970s, we confirmed that wrinkles were a damage to these sympathetic connections in the central part of the nerve that had stopped. Soaking your hands in warm water was recognized as a valuable test of this type of nerve damage.
It wasn’t until 2003 study We identified the way the sympathetic nervous system creased fingers. Here, the researchers saw how blood flow to the hands changed after soaking them in water. The wrinkles in my fingers were accompanied by a sudden decrease in blood flow. This reduction was caused by the sympathetic nervous system, which narrows down the diameter of blood vessels in the hand, a process called vasoconstriction.
These studies ultimately mapped how finger wrinkles work. There was only one question left. Why does that happen in the first place?
Get a grip on finger wrinkles
Scientists solved this question in 2021 study. Nick Davisresearchers at Manchester Metropolitan University held an experiment at the British Science Museum. Davis assessed the museum’s visitors’ ability to hold wet and dry objects. He then asked them to soak their hands in warm water. Once their fingers wrinkled, he tested their grip again. Anyone who fought to grab a bottle of shampoo during the shower will know that picking up a wet object requires more force than a dry object. Davis’ analysis showed that wrinkled fingers grabbed wet objects more easily than wet. “Evolutionarily,” says Talia, “probably, for our ancestors, they have the advantage of being able to grab fish from the waters.” Our shoeless ancestors would have also benefited from being able to ford streams and rivers without slipping wrinkled feet.
It is a lucky coincidence that features embodied by evolution thousands of years ago will benefit today’s diagnostic medicine. “I want to say that skin is your whole body window,” concludes Del Campo.
This story is part of popular science Please listen to any serieswe answer your most strange and awakened questions from normal to off the wall. Do you always have something you want to know? Ask us.
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