Can’t Read Minds? Your Hands May Tell Why!
September 6, 2011
Wearing your heart on your sleeve is merely an adage, but most people do display their emotions – even if unintentionally – on their faces. Women tend to be better than men at reading other people’s subtle facial cues, especially cues from the eyes. Because of the gender difference in cognitive empathy – the ability to notice and correctly interpret body language – psychobiologistsscientists that study psychology from a biological perspective, or vice versa have hypothesized that testosterone – a sex hormone present in much higher levels in males versus females levels – could play a role in “mind reading” ability, or lack thereof.
A new study in PNASProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences validates this hypothesis by demonstrating that a dose of testosterone can make women lose some of their cognitive empathy. Researchers recruited 16 young women (age 20-25) to participate in their study. The women were given either a testosterone pill or a placebo, and then tested on their ability to assess emotions based on photographs of eyes. The test the women took is called the Adult Eyes Test, and is available for free from the Autism Research Center at the University of Cambridge. Here’s a sample question (formatting is slightly modified):
For the correct answer, click here.
Each woman was tested twice – once with placebo and once with real testosterone (in random order; they didn’t have any idea which was which). 75% of the women performed worse on the “mind reading” test after taking testosterone than after taking a placebo. So to a first approximation, an artificial increase in testosterone levels impaired women’s abilities to interpret facial expressions.
But the results aren’t quite that simple. Some women were less affected by the extra testosterone than others, and the researchers had a hunch that this could relate to their exposure to testosterone in the womb. All fetuses are exposed to testosterone while developing, but to different extents. There is a simple way to qualitatively measure fetal testosterone exposure – this parameter is believed to be correlated to the adult ratio of ring finger length to index finger length (see picture at the top of this post).
Larger ratios of ring finger to index finger lengths correspond to higher fetal testosterone levels. This study showed no difference between the inherent expression-reading ability of women exposed to higher vs. lower doses of testosterone in the womb. However, the women with longer ring fingers (higher fetal testosterone) seemed to be more easily impaired when given a dose of testosterone in pill form.
Thus, this study demonstrated that (1) testosterone administered to women can impair their ability to read facial expressions, and (2) women who experienced more testosterone in the womb are more sensitive to the effects of testosterone administered as adults. Nothing further can be definitively gathered from these results, but they seem to suggest that men’s testosterone levels could be to blame for their increased confusion about what others (especially women!) are thinking/feeling.
PS. A brand new study reported by researchers from Florida has recently (sep 2011) presented proof that fingers have hormonal receptors!
Via: ICanHasScience
The following finger length study presents a likewise effect:
How lingerie can sharpen the financial mind!
How to Use Hands in Building Relationships!
June 25, 2011
As a research scientist, Dr. Erina Lee is responsible for the international relationships research at eHarmony. In the following article she described how to use hands in building relationships!
Whether they’re soft and manicured, strong and calloused, weathered and wrinkled—hands come in all shapes and sizes and can often say a lot about you. They can reveal the tattered fingernails of nervous nail biter, the orange fingers of a cheese puff lover, or the worn hands of a grandmother. And when you look even closer at the many lines and wrinkles, is it possible that your hands can reveal even more? Some people believe that clues to our basic selves can be found in the details of our hands. But do our hands really tell us anything of importance about who we really are? Is it possible that the numerous bumps and ridges unique to every hand hold some insight into our level of intelligence or into our love lives?
In an eternal quest for self-discovery, people have looked towards hand readers, among other mystics, to see if the lines in their hands really tell them something meaningful about themselves and their future. In current times, people turn to internet quizzes and online hand reading to make sense of the heart and life lines and the shape of their hands. Although these tests and quizes can be fun, when put to the test of empirical science, most of these claims and predictions cannot be verified. Furthermore, these uncorroborated predictions about personality traits and future events leave palm reading in the category of a pseudoscience.
Despite the inaccuracy of palmistry readings, however, there are aspects of the hands that have been studied empirically, including finger length. When looking at the palm of your hand, fingers straight together, you will likely notice a difference between your second (index) and fourth (ring) fingers. On average women have longer index fingers, compared to ring fingers while men have longer ring fingers compared to index fingers. This association between the two fingers, called the 2D:4D ratio, is related to levels of androgen exposure (a sex hormone higher in men) in the womb. That means that the amount of male hormones a fetus is exposed to determines this very specific detail of finger length in the hands. The precise mechanism by which androgen works is not entirely clear, but in general most theorists believe that increasing androgen exposure will masculinize a fetus. There is also some evidence suggesting that either too much or too little androgen can be feminizing to the fetus.
Because androgen exposure is related to sexual development and masculinization, researchers have begun to wonder if the 2D:4D ratio, as a marker of hormone exposure, may also predict other characteristics. Hormone exposure has been linked to things like general physical health, cognitive abilities, personality, job preferences, attractiveness, and sexual orientation. While the 2D:4D ratio may relate to these developmental characteristics, thus far the evidence supporting such a link is at best described as mixed. For example, there has been much attention dedicated to whether the 2D:4D ratio relates to sexual orientation. While there have been several studies in this area, some have shown no differences between heterosexual and homosexual men in their 2D:4D ratios (e.g., Williams et al., 2000), and others, like Lippa, have shown heterosexual men having lower 2D:4D ratios compared to homosexual men. Similarly with other characteristics like personality and attraction, the research findings have been fairly inconsistent.
Another aspect of the hands that have been conclusively studied are the ridges, the ones that cover the palms and fingers, the ones that make up our unique fingerprints. The study of these ridges is called dermatoglyphics. Similar to the finger length, these ridges are known to be established earlier in the embryonic development, while the fetus is still in the womb. Researchers have shown dermatoglyphic differences between non-deficient people and those with cognitive or genetic abnormalities, like schizophrenia, Down’s syndrome, and intellectual disability. For example, individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia show fewer ridges between two specific points under the second and third fingers [a-b ridge count] compared to non-schizophrenic controls (Bramon et al., 2005). These findings support the idea that changes in the prenatal environment can display its effects in multiple ways, including changes in cognitive development and ridges of the hands. However, the findings do not assume that all people with fewer ridges have cognitive deficiencies.
To summarize, we do know that specific details in our hands are affected by early hormonal exposure and other environmental influences in the womb. And we know that this early exposure also affects other aspects of our development. While it is intriguing to speculate further that details in our hands can predict aspects of our personality or behavior, these conjectures have not been empirically supported. It’s also likely that there are more direct measures of personality, intelligence, and behavioral traits rather than the hands. But even though you can’t currently rely on your hands to unlock all of your mysteries, one thing you can count on is more studies and discussion about them to come.
Stone tools influenced hand evolution in human ancestors.
KENT, MARCH 2011 - New research from anthropologists at the University of Kent has confirmed Charles Darwin’s speculation that the evolution of unique features in the human hand was influenced by increased tool use in our ancestors.
Research over the last century has certainly confirmed the existence of a suite of features in the bones and musculature of the human hand and wrist associated with specific gripping and manipulatory capabilities that are different from those of other extant great apes. These features have fuelled suggestions that, at some point since humans split from the last common ancestor of living apes, the human hand evolved away from features adapted for locomotion toward alternative functions.
Now, researchers Dr Stephen Lycett and Alastair Key have shown that the hands of our ancestors may have been subject to natural selection as a result of using simple cutting tools. In a series of experiments that used stone flakes similar to those known from Africa around 2.6 million years ago, they analysed whether variation in the hand size of individual tool users reflects differences that affect the efficiency of these simple tools to cut through a rope.
Their results, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, show that ‘biometric’ variation did indeed result in a significant relationship with cutting efficiency in the experimental task.
Hands holding stones: dexterity of the wrist joints, of the hands and fingers, enabled early humans to create and use stone tools - which had an important rule in the evolution of human civilization.
Dr Lycett, Senior Lecturer in Human Evolution at the University’s School of Anthropology and Conservation, explained: ’140 years ago, writing from his home at Down House in Kent, Darwin proposed that the use of stone tools may have influenced the evolution of human hands.
‘Our research suggests that he was correct. From a very early stage in our evolution, the cultural behaviour of our ancestors was influencing biological evolution in specific ways.’
Scientists simulated the change of the primate hand into the human hand.
Scientists may have solved the mystery of how human hands became nimble enough to make and manipulate stone tools.
The team reports in the journal Evolution that changes in our hands and fingers were a side-effect of changes in the shape of our feet.
This, they say, shows that the capacity to stand and walk on two feet is intrinsically linked to the emergence of stone tool technology.
The scientists used a mathematical model to simulate the changes.
Other researchers, though, have questioned this approach.
Campbell Rolian, a scientist from the University of Calgary in Canada who led the study, said: “This goes back to Darwin’s The Descent of Man.
“[Charles Darwin] was among the first to consider the relationship between stone tool technology and bipedalism.”
“His idea was that they were separate events and they happened sequentially – that bipedalism freed the hand to evolve for other purposes.”
“What we showed was that the changes in the hand and foot are similar developments… and changes in one would have side-effects manifesting in the other.”
Shape-shifting
To study this, Dr Rolian and his colleagues took measurements from the hands and feet of humans and of chimpanzees.
Their aim was to find out how the hands and feet of our more chimp-like ancestors would have evolved.
The researchers’ measurements showed a strong correlation between similar parts of the hand and foot. “So, if you have a long big toe, you tend have a long thumb,” Dr Rolian explained.
“One reason fingers and toes may be so strongly correlated is that they share a similar genetic and developmental ‘blueprint’, and small changes to this blueprint can affect the hand and foot in parallel,” he said.
With this anatomical data, the researchers were able to create their mathematical simulation of evolutionary change.
“We used the mathematical model to simulate the evolutionary pressures on the hands and feet,” Dr Rolian explained.
This model essentially adjusted the shape of the hands or the feet, recreating single, small evolutionary changes to see what effect they had.
By simulating this evolutionary shape-shifting, the team found that changes in the feet caused parallel changes in the hands, especially in the relative proportions of the fingers and toes.
These parallel changes or side-effects, said Dr Rolian, may have been an important evolutionary stem that allowed human ancestors, including Neanderthals, to develop the dexterity for stone tool technology.
Robin Crompton, professor of anatomy at the UK’s Liverpool University, said the study was very interesting but also raised some questions.
“I am not personally convinced that the foot and hand of chimpanzees are a good model [of human ancestors' hands and feet] – the foot of the lowland gorilla may be more interesting in this respect,” he told BBC News.
He pointed out that there was a lot more to the functional shape and biomechanics of the human foot than just its proportions.
Paul O’Higgins, professor of anatomy at the Hull York Medical School, UK, said: “The results are quite exciting and will doubtless spur further testing and additional work.”
The ‘Vitruvian Man’ - Leonardo da Vinci‘s famous drawing from the year 1487 - can be described as one of the earliest sources presenting guidelines for hand anthropometry. Today, plays hand anthropometry a considerable role in the fields of design, ergonomics, and even architecture! An update presenting data from e.g. the NASA and the US army.
The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man.
Interestingly, Leonardo’s comments for the proportions of th e ‘Vitruvian Man‘ includes a few passage where the hands and fingers are mentioned, quote:
“For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is just the same; the head from the chin to the crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the under side of the nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a third, comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body; of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one fourth. The other members, too, have their own symmetrical proportions, and it was by employing them that the famous painters and sculptors of antiquity attained to great and endless renown. Similarly, in the members of a temple there ought to be the greatest harmony in the symmetrical relations of the different parts to the general magnitude of the whole. Then again, in the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom. And just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square.”
'Study of arms and hands' - another drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo da Vinci’s comment about the proportion of the average hand was quite right, but the field of anthropometry has later developed more precise methods in order to describe the most important individual variations concerning the human body. Various sources of anthropometric hand data indicate the average hand length is close to 11% of body height (usually slightly smaller). Leonardo’s ‘Study of arms and hands’ is another of his drawings.
-
-
ANTHROPOMETRY TODAY:
Today, anthropometry plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics and architecture where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions in the population are used to optimize products.
DATA FROM THE NASA & US ARMY:
In the last decade of the 20 century reports became available developed by the NASA & the US army – which include data for at least 20 characteristics of the human hand shape, including e.g. hand length, hand breadth & finger length. The data in the picture above represents static human physical characteristics of the adult hand, presented in 2000 by the Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group.
The picture below presents at the bottom some average data based on German, UK & American populations – which provide useful ‘points of reference’ in the perspective of biometry & Multi-Perspective Palm Reading.
Finally, regarding Leonardo da Vinci it might be interesting to notice here that in 2008 a report was published describing characteristics of his fingerprint:
http://www.handresearch.com/news/leonardo-da-vinci-fingerprint.htm
‘IN MY HANDS’ – A Marfan syndrome documentary!
May 18, 2011
What did Abraham Lincoln and Johnathan Larson, the playwright of the musical “Rent,” have in common? They both had Marfan Syndrome, according to a new documentary movie that will be screened at the film festival this weekend.
“In My Hands” eloquently explores the lives of a few of the more than 200,000 people in the US stricken with Marfan Syndrome – a little known genetic connective tissue condition that, prior to the invention of open heart surgery in the 1950’s, usually meant a death sentence – and the people who love them.
Dancer and choreographer Ann Reinking, whose son Chris is affected with Marfan syndrome, works with a group of teenagers, designing movement and dance that capitalizes on their shaky long bodies, and unexpectedly, inspires their self-esteem.
Many syndromes & diseases are features with unusual hand characteristics. Long & hypermobile hands is one of the common characteristics of Marfan Syndrome. Learn a little bit more about Marfan syndrome via this quiz about hand motorics.
HANDS & DOWN SYNDROME – A Simian Crease Poll!
May 15, 2011
The BabyCenter.com has conducted a simian crease poll among parents of children who have Down syndrome.
The result confirms the significance of the simian line in Down syndrome, because 41 of the 95 participants (=43%) reported that their child has Down’s syndrome.
But the diagnostic signficance of a simian crease (simian line) is unspecific. Despite the fact that the simian crease is well-known for it’s significance in children & adults who have Down syndrome – there are quite a few other syndromes which show even higher percentages regarding the occurence of the simian crease, such as: the cat-cry syndrome, Edwards syndrome, Patau syndrome, and Cornelia de Lange syndrome.
The most common synonyms for the simian crease are: simian line, single transverse crease, single palmar crease
Read more about the role of the simian crease in Multi-Perspective Palm Reading:
http://www.multiperspectivepalmreading.com/palm-reading-hand-creases-major-lines.htm
A male hand + a female hand.
Hand shape varies between the two sexes: males typically have larger, relatively broader hands, while females typically have smaller, relatively narrower hands. But hand shape also varies among the various populations around the world: in Asia the avarage hand shape is relatively narrower than in European & North American countries. And there is even a link between hand shape & intelligence!
But in order to understand these patterns properly, one first has to understand the relations ship between hand shape & body length. Because in general, all longer populations in the world (males, Europeans & North Americans) typically display a relatively broad hand shape, while all small populations (females, Asians) typically display a relatively narrow hand shape.
-
HAND INDEX:
A good measure to describe the shape of the hand is the so-called ‘hand index’, which is defined as the ratio between the ‘hand width’ (= palm width measured at the metacapals) vs. the ‘hand length’ (= the distance between the tip of the middle finger and the distal wrist crease).
The average ‘hand index’ in human kind is close to 0.44, and is typically much higher than the ‘hand index’ seen in primates, which is typically (far) below 0.40 (though in gorillas – the largest of all primate species – the ‘hand index’ is higher than 0.40).
NOTICE: Finger length can also be measured relative to ‘hand length’ & ‘hand width’, but that topic will be discussed later.
-
HAND SHAPE & SEXE:
In males the ‘hand index’ is typically higher than 0.44, and measures above 0.45 are often seen. While in females the ‘hand index’ is typically lower than 0.44, and measures below 0.43 are not rare at all. These sexe differences are for a large part the result of the body height differences between males and females.
HAND SHAPE & RACE:
The average ‘hand index’ among the various races differs significantly, and is typically lower among asians. In people from China does not vary a lot from the average of human kind, but among for example people from Japan & India the ‘hand index’ is typically close to 0.43 or even lower. At least partly these differences are explained by racial differences in body height.
HAND SHAPE & IQ:
A high hand index typically correlates with a low IQ. And this link between hand shape & IQ has been confirmed in quite a few studies among various types of populations.
In a 1980 study in the former Yugoslavia reported among 540 men a negative correlation between hand index & all 10 measures for IQ.
And the two most common causes for mental retardation (Down syndrome & fragile-X syndrome) are known for having typically a relatively broad hand (= high hand index).
Regarding the sexe differences, one has to be aware of the earlier mentioned point that tall populations typically have a higher ‘hand index’. The fact that women have a lower ‘hand index’ compared to men, is largely neutralized by the fact that women are smaller than men. And therefore there one should not associate this sexe difference with IQ differences among the sexes (because so far there is no evidence for that at all).
And finally there is evidence that when the ‘hand index’ is corrected for body height, then this appears to explain a significant part of the IQ differences that are typically seen between the nations of the world. Though this issue has not been studied thoroughly.
HIGH OR LOW ‘HAND INDEX’ IN INDIVUALS:
The above describes patterns for hand shape implicate that regarding the implications of a high or low ‘hand index’ indivuals, one always has to consider sexe & race before jumping into conclusions!
Time for a hand shape palm reading… what is your ‘hand index’?
Dr. Nosanchuk, Associate Professor of Medicine (Division of Infectious Diseases) and Microbiology/Immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, considers the fact that while healthcare workers know that they should wash their hands, nosocomial infections associated with the transmission of microbes from health care workers to patients remains an enormous problem:
“We know from various studies as well as observing our fellow clinicians on the wards that hand washing rates dramatically improve when clinicians are observed in the course of routine healthcare delivery. What I didn’t know was that electronic systems that can detect alcohol present in microbicidal gels and soaps. From a pubmed search, I learned that these systems have been in development for several years!”
“The systems available vary, but basically you wear an indicator that, for example, blinks when you wash your hands at a monitored sink. The system registers that you applied a gel or soap. If you approach a patient while wearing the badge without washing your hands at the appropriate sink, the badge vibrates to remind you to return to the hand washing area. If you fail to wash your hands despite the warning, you are flagged (but not directly flogged!) by the system.”
Full article is available at:
http://boards.medscape.com/forums?128@@.2a0928da
More articles about hand hygiene:
http://www.handresearch.com/news/hands-on-hand-hygiene.htm
What discriminates ‘Multi-Perspective Palm Reading’ from all other approaches in the field of hand reading?
Multi-Perspective Palm Reading is a new type of hand reading that is rising from scientific research reports that relate to the hand as a ‘diagnostic tool’. The unique characteristic of this advanced type of palm reading is that it only includes hand markers which have been confirmed to have significant value according scientific studies. So this NEXT NATURE variant of ‘palmistry’ is not connected anyhow with astrology nor any other philosophic system.
In Multi-Perspective Palm Reading is the hand studied from 7 different perspectives in order to make an assessment for various specified themes – which can result in either a confirming- or prognostic ‘hand-diagnosis’.
The philosophy behind Multi-Perspective Palm Reading:
The philosophy behind this new advanced type of hand reading can be described as follows:
“In Multi-Perspective Palm Reading, a reliable hand-diagnosis is only possible when a pair of hands displays ‘diagnostic clues’ in MULTIPLE perspectives of the hand. According Multi-Perspective Palm Reading a person typically requires to have ‘diagnostic clues’ in at least 3 perspectives of his/her hands, before one can speak of a solid, specified hand-diagnosis.
The application of this philosophy in the practice for making a hand assessment can be understood by studying the role of the simian line in hand diagnostics. In the 20th century the simian line (the most well known of all palm line variations: a.k.a. the single palmar transverse crease or simian crease) became known as a diagnostic marker for Down syndrome. However, during the past decades this uncommon hand marker was recognized as a ‘minor physical anomaly’ that has diagnostic value for other syndromes, diseases & developmental problems. But in order to specify it’s significance as a major hand line for the individual that has this characteristic in one or both hands, a study of the other perspectives of the hand is required!
The 7 perspectives used in Multi-Perspective Palm Reading:
In the following seven perspectives are required to be studied in order to make a thorough hand assessment:
1 – Palm Reading & the HAND SHAPE, including e.g.: hand index, palm shape, hand length, hand breath.
2 – Palm Reading & the FINGERNAILS, including e.g.: color, morphology, structure, growth.
3 – Palm Reading & FINGER MORPHOLOGY, including e.g.: finger length, 2D:4D ratio, variations in shape & width.
4 – Palm Reading & the MAJOR LINES, including e.g.: primary creases, secundary creases, tertairy creases & accessory lines.
5 – Palm Reading & the DERMATOGLYPHICS, including e.g.: fingerprints, palmar dermatoglyphics.
6 – Palm Reading & SKIN QUALITY, including e.g.: colour, structure, flexure / tone.
7 – Palm Reading & HAND MOTORICS, including e.g.: flexibility, motoric hand index.
Read more about how Multi-Perspective Palm Reading varies from other types of hand reading & modern palmistry via the Wikipedia section: Modern Palmistry: science & criticism
Finger length & penis size linked!
Megan Fox thumbs – TRIBUTE
The hands of Barack Obama
Hand Reading Research!
MultiPerspective Palm Reading
