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Are you tall, short, or got a small head? Recently Roger Dobson – author at MailOnline.co.uk presented an informative article with the title: ‘Tall, short – or got a small head? Here’s what your physique reveals about your health’. The article describes how various body dimensions – varying from body length to foot size – can indicate useful information about your risk of developing certain conditions, varying from cancer through to dementia & heart disease. Roger Dobson wrote in his article about the hand:
Autism and ADHD, mental illness/depression A range of disorders has been linked to the length of fingers, and in particular the ratio between index and ring fingers. The ratio is thought to be a marker of what was happening hormonally in the womb when the foetus developed. It’s thought a relatively long ring finger is a sign that the foetus was exposed to higher levels of the male hormone testosterone, while a relatively long index finger is a marker of the female hormone, oestrogen. Conditions associated with a long ring finger compared to the index include autism and ADHD. Those associated with a longer index include depression. Males, who are more likely to develop autism and ADHD, tend to have a longer ring finger relative to their index finger. Exposure to certain hormones might increase or reduce the risk of certain conditions and traits. ‘It has been suggested that autism may arise as the result of exposure to high concentrations of prenatal testosterone,’ say researchers at Liverpool University.” |
“IF YOU HAVE LONG FINGERS
New research on the little finger: the ‘pinky’ relates to autism!
January 23, 2009
 Your little finger might reveal more: hand gestures, autism & medical syndromes. |
The little finger (your ‘pinky’ or ‘pinkie’) relates to autism:
What do we know about the ‘pinky’ or ‘pinkie’? In the past certain features of the little finger have been related to autism & various medical syndromes. New research from The Netherlands indicates that a ‘curved’ pinky is often found in the hands of people who have autism.
Psychiatry researcher Ozgen from University Medical Center in Utrecht (The Netherlands), presents the details of the research in the journal ‘Molecular Psychiatry’. |
| “The presence of small physical defects and the occurrence of autism often go together”, says Dutch researcher Ozgen. Some of the physical defects reported are:
These are subtle physical defects without a specific medical significance, and cosmetic surgery is usually not necessary when these body features are present. NOTICE: Ozgen noticed in her studies that these physical defects more often occure in patients with autistic disorders, compared to the healthy controls. DIGIT RATIO & AUTISM: Likely, one can understand the findings of Ozgen a little bit more in perspective of the FINGER RATIO (2D: 4D digit ratio) evidence presented by UK psychologist John T. Manning. Manning describes in his first book DIGIT RATIO that autism is frequently featured with a ‘low 2D:4D digit ratio’ [= the ratio between the full length of the index finger (= 2th finger) & the full length of the ring finger (= 4th finger)]. READ MORE ABOUT THE LITTLE FINGER:
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Finger length related to autism! | Low ‘digit ratio’ (0.94)
October 1, 2008
 Autism research in the hands of children. |
The world’s most famous ‘digit ratio’ research, John T. Manning, has begun examining autism too. He teamed up with Simon Baron- Cohen and Svetlana Lutchmaya from the University of Cambridge, who have used samples of amniotic fluid to directly measure the levels of hormones that babies are exposed to in the womb. |
| When the children reached their first birthday, the researchers measured their vocabularies and ability to make eye contact. Poor language skills and an unwillingness to make eye contact are early hallmarks of autism. They found that babies who’d been exposed to high levels of testosterone in the womb fared the worst.
“What we’re hoping to look at is whether finger ratios can be used as a proxy for hormones,” says Lutchmaya. Amniocentesis (sampling the amniotic fluic surrounding the unborn baby) is a risky procedure that only a few mothers choose to undergo, she says. But by measuring finger lengths instead, researchers can assess a random sample of children for possible early signs of impaired language and social skill development. Currently, they are checking the fingers of children for whom they have amniotic samples. Meanwhile, Manning and Baron-Cohen have looked at the finger ratios of 49 children with firm diagnoses of autism, 23 with a mild form of the disorder called Asperger’s syndrome, and their families. The researchers found that autistic children tended to have very low 2D:4D ratios. Interestingly, children with Asperger’s syndrome had ratios that fell between those of autistics and unaffected children. “It fits exceptionally well with the theory,” says Manning. Clearly genes play a role too in these conditions. But could fetal hormone levels explain other cognitive differences between the sexes? Janel Tortorice at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, thinks they may. She has measured finger ratios in 2D:4D ratio gay women and found that their hands were significantly different from those of heterosexual women-in fact, they tend to resemble those of heterosexual men. But she has also found differences in the way these women’s brains work. “They have more masculine fingers and more masculine cognition,” she says. On tests of spatial and verbal ability, lesbian volunteers perform more like men than heterosexual women, she says. If this can be confirmed by further studies, perhaps Manning’s most recent suggestion is not as outrageous as it sounds. He claims that musical talent, too, is nurtured in the womb. An overview of the scientific sources which have found a link between finger length (low ‘digit ratio’: 0.94) and autism: * The 2th to 4th ratio and autism – 2001 (PDF) * [Evaluation of the 2nd to 4th digit ratio in the patients with autism] – 2005 (Japanese study)
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Finger length & DIGIT RATIO hand news! 