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Water-induced finger wrinkling improves grip on wet objects.

Enright, Brennan

University of Washington
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Abstract

Submersion in water induces skin wrinkling on the glabrous skin of human fingers and toes. This

process is known to be under autonomic nerve control and thus likely serves an adaptive purpose;

however, there is disagreement on the purpose these wrinkles play. In this study, I explore the purpose of

the formation of these wrinkles by measuring how well wrinkled and unwrinkled fingers handle wet and

dry objects. By measuring how tightly wrinkled and unwrinkled fingers can screw on a lid in wet and dry

conditions, I found that wrinkled fingers have better grip on wet objects while having no effect on grip of

dry objects. These results support that autonomic wrinkling of finger pads in humans has an adaptive role

in gripping wet objects.

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Introduction

Human finger skin forms wrinkles in response to submersion in water. This phenomenon was

initially thought to be simply due to osmotic swelling of the finger pads; however, it is now known that

wrinkle formation is due to vasoconstriction controlled by the autonomic nervous system (Wilder-Smith,

2004). Vasoconstriction typically occurs due to exposure to the cold (Rintamki 2007), yet wrinkling still

occurs warm water, showing that finger pad wrinkling operates against physiological norms and thus is

likely under apecial control. Also, it is apparent that wrinkling only occurs on the parts of hands used in

handling or gripping (figure 1), suggesting that wrinkling plays a role in manual tasks. Kareklas and

colleagues performed a time-based manual dexterity experiment where participants performed a task with

and without wrinkled fingers as described by figure 2 and found that wrinkled fingers improve the

handling of wet objects. However, when trying to replicate Kareklas experiment, Haseleu and colleagues

found no difference between the manual dexterity of wrinkled and unwrinkled fingers.

To determine how finger wrinkles affect grip on wet objects, I posit that measuring friction

between the finger and the wet surface as it relates to grip strength will more directly address the purpose

of finger wrinkles than Kareklas timed manual dexterity test handling very small objects. From an

evolutionary perspective, human interaction with wet objects would be more greatly affected by friction

between the hands or feet and the wet surface (as used in climbing, throwing, running) than the ability to

quickly handle small, wet objects. Also, since human hands are only wrinkled under wet conditions, it is

likely that wrinkled hands have worse grip on dry objects than unwrinkled hands. Thus, I hypothesize that

wrinkled hands will have superior grip to non-wrinkled hands on wet objects and wrinkled hands will

have inferior grip on dry objects than unwrinkled hands.

Methods

The experiment was designed using a container with a screw on cap that grew increasingly

difficult to tighten as it got tighter. Marks were made on the lid and the container to designate fully loose
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and fully tightened states. The distance between these marks was then measured and subdivided to form a

scale from 1 (loose) to 9 (tight) to align with an increase in tightness and thus friction required to attain

that tightness (figure 3). The farther a participant can tighten the lid, the better the grip he or she gets

under that condition. For each experimental condition, participants held the lid with thumb and forefinger

at designated locations on opposite sides of the lid edge with fingers parallel to the lid so that the two

distal-most phalanges of the index finger and only the most distal phalange of the thumb contacted the lid

edge. The container was held in place by a clamp. The lid was initially set so that the arrow on the

container aligned with the mark on the lid for 1 and was tightened in a clockwise direction towards the

mark for 9 until the participant was unable to further tighten the lid without slippage. The 10 participants

first performed this with unwrinkled hands and a dry lid and container, then for wet conditions each

participant submerged his or her hand and the container in room temperature water, removed both from

the water and immediately made a tightening attempt. Then, participants soaked their hands in warm

water until wrinkles appeared (about 30 minutes), dried off their hands, and repeated the tightening in dry

and wet conditions as described. Participants performed each trial twice.

Averages were calculated for each condition and were plotted in a bar graph. If the hypothesis

were correct, I would expect to see a higher average tightness achieved with wrinkled fingers than with

unwrinkled fingers in the wet lid trial, and a lower tightness achieved by wrinkled hands in the dry trials.

If the hypothesis were incorrect, participants with wrinkled hands would achieve the same or less lid

tightness under wet conditions as when their fingers were not wrinkled and wrinkled hands would grip

dry objects the same as unwrinkled hands (figure 4).

Results

The results (figure 5) are consistent with the hypothesis in that wrinkled hands handled wet

objects better than unwrinkled hands; however, it is incorrect in proposing that wrinkled hands are

inferior to unwrinkled hands in handling dry objects. At most, participants were able to tighten the lid as

much as 7.9 out of 9 under the wrinkled hands wet object condition with the least tightness achieved
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being 3.8 under the wet object, unwrinkled hands condition. The averages for unwrinkled-dry,

unwrinkled-wet, wrinkled-dry, and wrinkled-wet are 6.21, 5.21, 6.43 and 6.37 respectively and can be

found on figure 5. Wrinkled hands were able to grip wet objects 18% more effectively than unwrinkled

hands. Interestingly, wrinkled hands grip dry and wet objects as well as unwrinkled hands grip dry

objects. These data show an advantage of finger wrinkling for handling wet objects, and no difference in

handling of dry objects.

Discussion

The results show evidence that wrinkled fingers are adaptive in handling wet objects. This is

consistent with the conclusion reached by Kareklas and colleagues and inconsistent with what Haseleu

found. The results do not allow us to conclude anything regarding the mechanism of action behind this

increased grip, which will require further study. Potential mechanisms are that wrinkles facilitate drainage

of water from the space between the finger and wet object, or that the softer skin on the peaks of finger

wrinkles provides a higher coefficient of friction than dry, unwrinkled skin. Whatever the mechanism

behind wrinkles improving grip, it does not have any effect on grip in dry conditions.

The puzzling result that wrinkled hands handle dry objects as unwrinkled hands brings up the

question of why human fingers are not always wrinkled. Haseleu found that finger wrinkles do not affect

touch acuity or vibrational sense; however, a repeat of this experiment would be valuable to confirm this.

Another possibility is that wrinkled hands are more subject to damage than unwrinkled due to the

increased softness, which has yet to be tested. Overall, further experimentation is needed to determine the

mechanism behind the increased grip wrinkled provide for wet objects and the reason that finger wrinkles

arent always present.

A topic of further study is whether wrinkled fingers are more prone to damage than unwrinkled

fingers. I propose that human fingers are not always wrinkled because wrinkled fingers are more prone to

damage. Thus, I hypothesize that wrinkled fingers will be more prone to damage than unwrinkled fingers.
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To test this, I would design a gradient of sand paper increasing in grit. Each participant would soak one

hand in water to induce wrinkles and leave the other wrinkle-free. Then, the participant will run one

finger from each hand down the sandpaper both at the same pressure (measured by a balance) until

discomfort leads him or her to choose to stop. The participant will then wait until the finger wrinkles

disappear and will take photos of each fingertip. The photos from each participant will then be

randomized and analyzed by a group of volunteers on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being severely damaged

and 0 being not damaged at all. If my hypothesis were true, I would expect that photos of fingers that

were wrinkled when damaged would on average receive higher damage scores than unwrinkled fingers. If

incorrect, there would be no significant difference between these scores. It does not escape my attention

that this experiment puts participants at ceratain level of risk and harm and thus would require proper

consent and compensation.

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Figures

Figure 1: Wrinkling of the skin on the hands because of water exposure. Notice the most extreme
wrinkling is observed on only the fingertips (Scott 2014).

Figure 2: Experimental setup where the participant picks up a marble, passes it through a hole in a
sheet of plastic into the other hand, then places the marble into a container with a narrow lid when a)
marble is initially in a dry container and b) marble is initially submerged in water (Kareklas 2013).
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Figure 3: Diagram of the experimental setup. The screw on lid was marked with numbers 1 (loosest) to
9 (tightest) when measured against the arrow drawn on the container. The lid (smooth metal) was
initially rotated to the arrow pointed at the 1 mark, then was tightened as tight as could be achieved
with two fingers gripping opposite sides of the lid edges with the fingers parallel to the lid top under
the varying experimental conditions.

Hypothesis True Hypothesis Not True

Tightness Achieved Tightness Achived

unwrinkled hands, dry lid unwrinkled hands, dry lid

Figure 4: expected results if the hypothesis were true and if it were not true. If true, wrinkled hands
would be able to achieve a greater tightness in wet conditions than unwrinkled fingers with wrinkled
fingers gripping dry objects more poorly than unwrinkled hands. If not true, wrinkles would not
influence handling of wet or dry conditions.
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Tightness Achieved Under Wet and Dry Conditions

7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00

Tightness Achieved 1.00

0.00

Figure 5: Results of the experiment. Results are consistent with the hypothesis. Normal hands seem to
grip wet objects worse than wrinkled hands do and wrinkled hands grip both wet and dry objects as
well as unwrinkled hands grip wet objects.
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References

1. Wilder-Smith EPV, 2004 Water immersion wrinklingphysiology and use as an indicator of

sympathetic function. Clin. Autonomic. Res. 14, 125131.
2. Scott 2014 How and Why, skin Wrinkles in the Water. Digital Image. The Medicine Journal
3. Rintamki, Hannu, 2007, Human responses to cold. Alaska medicine 49(2 Suppl).29-31.
4. Kareklas, Kyriacos 2013, Water-induced finger wrinkles improve handling of wet ojects. Biol.
Letters 9: 20120999
5. Haseleu, J., Omerbasic, D., Frenzel, H., Gross, M., & Lewin, G. R. (2014). Water-induced finger
wrinkles do not affect touch acuity or dexterity in handling wet objects. PLoS One, 9(1), e84949