Wrinkle Fingers in Water: A Survival Superpower?”

To all my lovely readers, have you ever wondered why your fingers start to wrinkle when you place them for long in water? Wrinkles on your fingers is a fairly common phenomenon. Yet, we do not understand why it happens. Let’s dive deep and understand the science (biology) behind this.

Famous magician’s underwater trick

In 2006, David Blaine, a renowned magician from New York, claimed to have stayed underwater for seven nights. On day five, he was seen showing his wrinkled skin. He later received regular treatment to restore his skin to normal.

Back to the topic, why did his skin wrinkle in the first place? As already mentioned, it doesn’t happen to just magicians, but it is a rather common occurrence.

Some common misconceptions on why our fingers wrinkle-

1. Fingers get wrinkled because they absorb water: this is a misconception because your skin is a fairly good barrier against external water. Furthermore, our fingers will ideally swell up and become rounded if they absorb water, which is the opposite of what we experience.
2. Your fingertips lose fluid: however, how does fluid loss happen inside the body when there is an external change? This is physically not possible- making this a paradox.
   

What causes finger wrinkles?

Wrinkling occurs due to a reduction in fluid at the fingertips. However, this wrinkling isn’t a physical reaction but a biological response. This explains why people with nerve damage do not get wrinkled fingers even after prolonged exposure to water. Thus, finger wrinkling has something to do with the nervous system.

Digital Vasoconstriction: The biology behind wet-induced finger wrinkles

Upon prolonged exposure to water, your nerves signal the blood vessels at your fingertips to constrict resulting in a reduced amount of fluid. This phenomenon called digital vasoconstriction causes your fingers to wrinkle. Have you seen this phenomenon elsewhere? Yes- grapes when dried out become wrinkled raisins.

Let’s break down the entire process of vasoconstriction

1. Prolonged exposure of skin to water
2. Your sweat glands open, resulting in a salt imbalance
3. Nerve fibers in your brain are triggered to fire
4. Blood vessels around the sweat glands constrict
5. The skin over the pulp pulls down resulting in wrinkles
   

Could this be an evolutionary trait?

Many scientists claim finger wrinkles could be evolutionary as they confer an evolutionary advantage. Yet, it was still unclear how wrinkling could be a survival trait until 2011 when a work published by Mark Changizi and his team evidenced that wrinkles improve the grip of wet fingers. Back in the days when humans were hunter-gatherers, this interesting phenomenon helped our ancestors to handle their tools and weapons better during the rains.

While this may be a plausible explanation for wet-induced finger wrinkling, a lot more research needs to be done in order to understand this phenomenon better.

Next time your fingers wrinkle in water, don’t just brush it off as a quirky phenomenon—it’s your body’s built-in grip-enhancing survival trick! Whether nature designed it for gathering food or climbing in wet conditions, one thing’s clear: your skin is smarter than you think!