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People who have smaller fingers have a finer sense of touch, according to new research in the Dec. 16 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. This finding explains why women tend to have better tactile acuity than men, because women on average have smaller fingers.
"Neuroscientists have long known that some people have a better sense of touch than others, but the reasons for this difference have been mysterious," said Daniel Goldreich, PhD, of McMaster University in Ontario, one of the study's authors. "Our discovery reveals that one important factor in the sense of touch is finger size."
To learn why the sexes have different finger sensitivity, the authors first measured index fingertip size in 100 university students. Each student's tactile acuity was then tested by pressing progressively narrower parallel grooves against a stationary fingertip -- the tactile equivalent of the optometrist's eye chart. The authors found that people with smaller fingers could discern tighter grooves.
"The difference between the sexes appears to be entirely due to the relative size of the person's fingertips," said Ethan Lerner, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, who is unaffiliated with the study. "So, a man with fingertips that are smaller than a woman's will be more sensitive to touch than the woman."
Read more here:Women tend to have better sense of touch due to smaller finger size