Why do hands wrinkle easily after being soaked in water for a long time?

People who swim frequently or soak in water for a long time will develop wrinkles on the skin of their fingers over time. The smooth skin will become full of wrinkles, which will make many people suspicious. Research has found that wrinkles will appear on people's hands if they are soaked in water for a long time. The wrinkles will recover quickly after leaving the water surface. Therefore, if this condition is serious, do not soak in water for a long time.

Fingers wrinkle when soaked in water, which actually indicates this

According to the French health website "futura-sciences", researchers at Newcastle University in the UK concluded that the formation of bubbles when fingers are immersed in water is a choice made by humans, which can help humans better grasp slippery objects.

No one can escape the fate of wrinkled fingers after soaking in water for a long time. It has long been believed that wrinkling is caused by osmosis, which causes water to enter the epidermis of the fingers. In 2011, American scientists overturned the above view and proposed that this process is actually controlled by the nervous system. When fingers are soaked in water for a long time, the nerves will cause the diameter of the blood vessels at the fingertips to decrease. At this time, the surface area of ​​the skin remains unchanged, so grooves appear on the fingers. Scientists can't help but wonder if this is the same principle as in car tires, where grooves improve the grip of human fingers on wet surfaces.

To this end, British researchers conducted an experiment: as required, the 20 volunteers participating in the experiment needed to pick up 39 glass balls and 6 sinkers with their right hand, pass them through a small hole, pick them up with their left hand, and put them one by one into a new box.

Fingers wrinkle when soaked in water, which actually indicates this

The experiment was conducted on a table or in a water tank. Volunteers operated with dry hands or soaked their hands in 40°C water for 30 minutes, completing the experiment after their fingers became wrinkled. The results showed that there was no difference in performance when the subjects picked up dry glass balls, but when picking up wet glass balls, using wrinkled hands to complete the task saved an average of 12% of the time compared to using dry hands. This result seems to confirm previous speculation about adhesion.

However, some other scientists speculate that wrinkling of fingers when exposed to water is the result of natural selection. The grooves increase the adhesion of fingers, improving humans' ability to catch fish with their bare hands, thereby increasing the possibility of human survival in nature.