What fingertips are capable of: 5 incredible things you might not have known

1. Fingertips sense taste

You will be surprised, but to appreciate the full fieriness of red pepper, you don't have to touch it with your tongue. We can sense a salty, bitter, sour or sweet taste thanks to sensory receptors.

For example, red pepper contains a special substance — capsaicin. It is precisely this that we sense with our fingertips, thanks to receptors located on the skin that have the scientific name TRPV1. A signal is immediately sent to the brain: «careful, this might be spicy!».

The receptors TRPM8 are responsible for the sensation of a minty, menthol taste. Having felt them on the fingertips, the brain already anticipates the taste that will follow the tactile sensations. Another interesting fact: scientists have proven that the texture of a product (rough, soft, porous, etc.) can also affect taste sensations.

2. Microsensitivity

Approximately 17,000 receptors that respond to the sensation of touch are located in our hands, and most of them are concentrated precisely on the fingertips. These receptors help us detect, with a single touch, an object just 0.2 mm in size (roughly like two human eyelashes). An amazing sensitivity! After all, even our eyesight is not always able to make out such a microscopic object.

3. Our fingers move like marionettes

There are no muscles in the fingers — at least none of those that help move them. Instead, the fingers are moved by muscles located in the palm and forearm, which are attached to the bones of the fingers by tendons. Essentially, the fingers function like complex marionettes. But with our fingertips we can sense something capable of making the hairs on our arms stand on end. By the way, the more ridges there are on the fingertips, the stronger our sensitivity.

4. Fingertips are in direct contact with the brain

In fact, our brain and the sensors on our fingertips interact with each other so well that they usually shut consciousness out entirely. In this way, we experience constant feedback between what we touch and what we feel.

For example, you are trying to pick up some slippery object. When it starts to slide across the palm, our subtle sense of touch sends a signal to the brain: «hold tighter, it's about to fall!». And we try to grip it as tightly as possible with our fingertips, not letting it slip out of our hand. And we do this completely mechanically, without even having time to think over our actions.

5. Fingertips are able to catch the tiniest vibrations

Let's imagine a situation: someone asks whether the surface in front of you is smooth. What will you do? That's right, you'll touch it with your fingers. A smooth surface activates high-frequency receptors, while a rough one, on the contrary — low-frequency ones. Touching something rough, we experience dynamic touch, which is far more sensitive than static touch, since the fingertips better catch the tiny vibrations that arise when we run our fingers over an uneven surface.

Just as our ears interpret sound vibrations to help us hear, the fingertips interpret the vibrations of movement to help us better sense touch.