Palm Reading Perspectives

 In the last post a few hand markers were described which signal the presence of congenital heart defects. How come that hands present clues about congenital heart defects?

The answer is relatively simple: the basic structure of both the hands & the heart is developed in the same period of the prenatal development. Below follows an overview of landmark developments in the heart and the hands from week 4 to week 8 after conception.

WEEK 4 AFTER CONCEPTION:

- HEART: A pipe-shaped heart is formed and begins to beat.

- HANDS: - (the hands are not yet formed)

WEEK 5 AFTER CONCEPTION:

- HEART: A dividing wall is formed in the heart (heartbeat continues in one chamber).

- HANDS: The hands are shaped like paddles.

 WEEK 6 AFTER CONCEPTION:

- HEART: The heart has devided into right and left chambers.

- HANDS: Finger soon take shape.

 WEEK 7 AFTER CONCEPTION:

- HEART: The main structure of the heart is now complete.

- HANDS: Fingers are forming, but are still joined by webs of skin; the ‘volar pads’ become manifest which preceed the formation of the fingerprints – notice: the shape of the ‘volar pads’ correlates with the fingerprint type that is later formed.

 WEEK 8 AFTER CONCEPTION:

- HEART: Continues growing.

- HANDS: As the hands develop they have lost their paddle like look. The touch pads of the fingers form and already have fingerprints.

More details are available in the article:
The embryology & the morphogenesis of the hand lines 

As a research scientist, Dr. Lee is responsible for the international relationships research at eHarmony. In the following article she described how the hands can become involved 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 palm 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 palm reading to make sense of the heart and life lines and the shape of their hands. Although these tests and quizzes 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 palmistry in the category of a pseudoscience.

 Despite the inaccuracy of palm 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.

Long before the hands was discovered as a diagnostic tool, many great philosophers have described the significance of the hand perceived from various perspectives.

The following quotes represent a few early examples describing the philosophical importance of  hands:

Aristotle (384BC - 322BC)

“… (the hand) is the organ of the organs, the active agent of the passive powers”

Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842).

 
“The hand is essentially the organ of the mind, the medium of its expression, and the Instrument whereby its promptings are carried into execution”

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961).

 

Carl Gust Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist said:

“Chirology [hand reading] is an art which dates back to very ancient times. The ancient physician never hesitated to make use of such
auxiliary systems as chiromancy and astrology for diagnostic and prognostic purposes as is shown, for instance, by the book of Dr. Goclenius who lived at the end of the sixteenth century. … The totality-conception of modern biology which is based on the evidence of a host of observations and research does not exclude the possibility that hands, whose shape and functioning are so intimately connected with the psyche, might provide revealing and therefore, interpretable expressions of psychical peculiarity, that is, of the human character. …”

Many studies have revealed that syndromes & diseases become manifest in hand functions & many aspects in the morphology of the hands. Interestingly, a closer look a the studies performed so far indicates that for the hand in schizophrenia the significance of the fingertips is more important than in other disorders!

A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations (most reported are hearing voices), delusions (often bizarre or persecutory in nature), and disorganized thinking and speech. But there are no symptoms which are seen in all schizophrenic patients.

 In order to understand the connection between hands and schizophrenia thorougly, it is important to be aware of the essential difference between the so-called ‘positive symptoms‘ and ‘negative symptoms‘. Because some of the fingertip characteristics in schizophrenia are associated with only category of the symptoms! (More details will be revealed later)

NOTICE:  The ‘positive symptoms’ in schizoprenia are those symptoms that most individuals do not normally experience but are present in people with schizophrenia (such as: hallucinations & disordered speech). And the ‘negative symptoms‘ are deficits of normal emotional responses or of other thought processes, and respond less well to medication (such as: blunted affect & poverty of speech).

FIVE FINGERTIP DIMENSIONS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA!

A closer study of the reports published so far, unveals that in schizophrenia at least 5 dimensions of the fingertips  provide significant clues, including:

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 1 - Fingerprints:

- 1a: extralimital triradii (prevalence: 6.6% in schizophrenics vs. 1.5% in controls);
- 1b: fingerprint type asymmetry on 3 or more fingers.

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 2 - Fingernails:

- small & underdeveloped (prevalence: 18.8% in schizophrenics vs. 2.0% in controls).

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 3 - Shape:

- 3a: short length is typical (prevalence: unknown);
- 3b: spatulate is typical (prevalence: 42.4% in schizophrenics vs 21.7% in controls).

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 4 - Skin:

- blood vessels in proximal nail fold are visible (prevalence: 20-70% in schizophrenics vs. 3-7% in controls);

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 5 - Creases:

- excessive (prevalence: unknown);

(The sources for the percentages are listed in the article: How to make a Palm Reading Assessment
for SCHIZOPHRENIA?)

 FINGERTIPS & THE BRAIN:

Interestingly, there appears to be a connection as well regarding how schizophrenia is linked with the brain! Because after Penfield described in his cortical homunculus (see the picture on the right) in the 1940′s how the primary somatosensory cortex is linked with e.g. the fingertips, brain studies have later revealed that schizophrenia is often featured with abnormalities in the same region of the brain (+ other near located parts of the brain, including: the thalamus & frontal lobe). 

FINGERTIP DIMENSIONS IN OTHER DISORDERS?:

The following summary shows that only three out of the five fingertip dimensions that provide significant clues for schizophrenia, also display significant clues in 6 other diseases & syndromes that are well known for displaying significant hand markers. Only rheumatoid arthritis provides clues in these three fingertip dimensions!
 

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 1 – Fingerprints:

Significant for the hand in Down syndrome, the hand in diabetes mellitus, the hand in fragile-X syndrome, and the hand in rheumatoid arthritis.

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 2 – Fingernails:

Significiant for the hand in Down syndrome, the hand in diabetes mellitus, the hand in Marfan syndrome, the hand in psoriasis, and the hand in rheumatoid arthritis.

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 3 - Shape:

Significant for the hand in Marfan syndrome, the hand in psoriasis, and the hand in rheumatoid arthritis.

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 4 - Skin:

No significant markers for any of the six studied diseases & syndromes.

FINGERTIP DIMENSION 5 - Creases:

No significant markers for any of the six studied diseases & syndromes.

These materials indicate that a significant part of the correlations between the hands & schizophrenia is found at the fingertips. To be continued!

Penrose's brain homunculus describes how the fingertips relate to the primary somatosensory cortex & the primary somatomotoric cortex.

CHICAGO, JUNE 2011 – New psychology research suggests that hand gestures unconsciously influence people’s problem solving strategy! Two experiments have shown that when people are confronted with a problem to solve, they don’t just use their brains but the rest of their bodies, too. “Being able to use your body in problem solving alters the way you solve the problems,” says University of Wisconsin psychology professor Martha Alibali. “Body movements are one of the resources we bring to cognitive processes.”

These conclusions, of a new study by Alibali and colleagues—Robert C. Spencer, also at the University of Wisconsin, and Lucy Knox and Sotaro Kita of the University of Birmingham—are augmented by another, counter-intuitive one – even when we are solving problems that have to do with motion and space, the inability to use the body may force us to come up with other strategies, and these may be more efficient.

The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

TWO EXPERIMENTS:

The study involved two experiments. The first recruited 86 American undergraduates, half of whom were prevented from moving their hands using Velcro gloves that attached to a board. The others were prevented from moving their feet, using Velcro straps attached to another board. The latter thus experienced the strangeness of being restricted, but also had their hands free.  From the other side of an opaque screen, the experimenter asked questions about gears in relation to each other—e.g., “If five gears are arranged in a line, and you move the first gear clockwise, what will the final gear do?” The participants solved the problems aloud and were videotaped.

The videotapes were then analyzed for the number of hand gestures the participants used (hand rotations or “ticking” movements, indicating counting); verbal explanations indicating the subject was visualizing those physical movements; or the use of more abstract mathematical rules, without reference to perceptual-motor processes.

Psychologist dr. Martha Alibali.

The results: The people who were allowed to gesture usually did so—and they also commonly used perceptual-motor strategies in solving the puzzles. The people whose hands were restrained, as well as those who chose not to gesture (even when allowed), used abstract, mathematical strategies much more often.

The findings evince deeper questions about the relationship of mind and body and their relationship to space, says Alibali. “As human thinkers, we use visual-spatial metaphors all the time to solve problems and conceptualize things—even in domains that don’t seem physical on their face. Adding is ‘up,’ subtracting is ‘down.’ A good mood is ‘high,’ a bad one is ‘low.’ This is the metaphoric structuring of our conceptual landscape.”

Alibali, who is also an educational psychologist, asks: “How we can harness the power of action and perception in learning?” Or, conversely: What about the cognitive strategies of people who cannot use their bodies? “They may focus on different aspects of problems,” she says. And, it turns out, they may be onto something the rest of us could learn from.

Obviously, by controling- or using your hands… you can stimulate your brains to find another strategy (in respective: an abstract- or verbal explanation) to solve a problem

More studies related to the connection between hand gestures & palm reading:
http://www.handresearch.com/news/hand-gestures.htm

Hand prints in on the walls of Chauvet Cave, southern France (width of each hand print is 8cm).

 The earliest known ’portrait of man’ was found in Chauvet Cave (south-east of France) – which was discovered 1994. Containing the earliest known cave paintings, the cave art has been attributed to Aurignacian Man (c.35,000 BC) through the use of carbon dating. Interestingly, among the many cave paintings there are quite a lot of hand prints; one of those hand prints became known as ‘the oldest portrait of man‘ – made c.32.000 BC!

The oldest portrait of man - a 32.000 year old hand print found in Chauvet Cave, France.

Whereas some scholars consider these cave handprints to be early attempts at human artistic self-expression, others believe they must have magical significance. And because the hand prints occur in the innermost parts of caves, on the walls of which primitive men painted  pictures of horses, cattle, bears, mammoths, and other animals that roamed Europe in their epoch, it has been suggested that these locations must have been  places of prayer and magical ceremonies.

Since these were the main tools primitive people had to capture the animals they relied on for sustenance, the hands must have seemed not only mystical, but also symbolic of the entire human being. As Jack Mauduy says, if the hand print is taken to be the hand itself and, by an extension, the entire body, the spirit-strength within the hand can be thought to represent all of the energy stored in the entire being.

And today, the capturing of the hand prints of celebrities can in a way be perceived as a likewise ritual as the ancient art from the Chauvet cave in France. Nelson Mandela’s hand print art collection (see the picture below) is an example of this. 

Nelson Mandela's hand print art.

HAND PRINTS & RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS:

Religious customs associated with the hands still persist among premitive peoples today. For example, the African Bushmen cut of a finger to symbolize suffering at the loss of a family member or loved one. Other peoples cut of a finger to use a talisman against danger of plague. Plainsmen of New Guinea make hand prints of walls just as primitive man did twenty thousands years ago and cut of fingers to give to the gods in gratitude for good harvest. Interestingly, it seems that, as time passed, primitive people stopped performing bodily mutilation of this kind and resorted to finding mystical qualities in hand print, which came to replace severed digits and hands in their religious ceremonies.

Hand print of a Japanese Sumo wrestler.

HAND PRINTS AROUND THE WORLD:

 The same psychology maybe traceable in old Japanese customs of displaying on walls hand prints of Sumo wrestlers as charms and good-luck signs.

But there many likewise habits are found all over the world. Muslims, for example, use such a charm that looks like a hand with the five fingers extrended. And in some parts of Arabia, people make good-luck signs over the entrances to their houses by dipping their hands in sheep’s blood and pressing them against the wall.

In brief, since the dawn of civilization, human beings, not only in Europe, but also in Asia and Africa, have been fascinated by the mystical nature of the hands.

Hand print of 'James Bond 007' - Sir Sean Connery, Leicester - UK.

THE EARLIEST SIGNS OF PALM READING:

The ancient Indians  were the first to conceive the idea of telling a man’s ‘fate’ from his hands (3000 BC), and palm reading in New Delhi is still a classic source of entertainment for Western tourists. 

Then the ancient Chinese became known for being the first who associated man’s health with his hands (2500 BC), a palm reading in Hong Kong will nearly always include a reading of your ‘health’.

And the Greeks were probably the first who associated man’s psychology with his hands (350 BC). And maybe therefore it is not really surprizing that a palm reading in London will often include a reading of your ‘personality’!

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder which affects about 1% of people worldwide. People who suffer from schizophrenia experience problems perceiving the difference between real and unreal experiences – which results in psychotic experiences. And as a consequence schizophrenic people also are not able to think logically, to have normal emotional responses, and to behave normally in social situations. The hands become involved as well, because people who have schizophrenia typically also have impaired hand movement coordination.

Even brain experts are not sure what causes schizophrenia, but there is plenty of evidence which suggests that the brains are involved.

BRAINS & SCHIZOPHRENIA:

One of the most common is the dopamine hypothesis which attributes psychosis to the mind’s faulty interpretation of the misfiring of dopamineurgic neurons.

In the picture on the right presents the skull of twin persons of which one (right) is suffering on schizophrenia. It is fascinating to see the elonguation in the brain skull of the twin-person who suffers on schizophrenia. A likewise tendency is typical for the hand in schizophrenia, which tend to be long & slender!

HAND BEHAVIOR IN SCHIZOPHRENIA:

Atypical handedness is much more often seen among schizophrenics (20%) vs. controls (3.8%), which implicates that people who suffer on schizophrenia tend to develop ambiguous preferences for different tasks. Also they tend to developed impaired hand-motor performance, right handedness is in schizophrenics often featured with non-right eye preference.

HAND CHARACTERISTICS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA:

The hand in schizophrenia shows a large overlap with common hands, however in all perspectives of the hand ‘minor anomalies’ are seen much more often than in the general population. An overview of some of these typical characteristics is displayed in the ‘phantom picture’ for the hand in schizophrenia, see the picture below. However, it is not easy at all to identify a person who suffers on schizophrenia solely via a palm reading!

In order to recognize the hand of a schizophrenic person, the presence of significant hand characteristics in at least 4 perspectives of the hand is required. Both the palmar dermatoglyphics & fingerprints and the major hands lines are required to show assocatied characteristics. Plus two of the other five perspectives of the hand are required to be involved as well.

The following two articles present more details about typical hand characteristics in schizophrenia:
http://www.multiperspectivepalmreading.com/hands-schizophrenia-palm-reading.htm
http://www.handresearch.com/diagnostics/schizophrenia-simian-line-palm-reading.htm

Phantom picture for the hand in schizophrenia.

Physical characteristics in Down syndrome.

Down syndrome (trisomy 21) is known as a genetic condition in which the person has 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. Down syndrome symptoms vary from person to person and can range from mild to severe (often featured with medical problems). However, children with Down syndrome have a widely recognized physical appearance. The hand characteristics in Down syndrome are very typical, and it is even possible to make a very reliable hand-diagnosis (with an accuracy beyond 99%).

Pregnant women can be screened for various complications during pregnancy. Many standard prenatal screens can discover Down syndrome, so sometimes the condition is already known before birth.

But when the condition has not yet been identified before birth, in most cases the typical physical characteristics are recognized shortly after birth through the face. And then doctors will make a quick inspection of the hands & feet in order to find out if further diagnostic tests are required.

HANDS & DOWN SYNDROME:

The hand in Down’s syndrome varies significantly from the common hand. The most significant features manifest in a combination of the dermatoglyphics, the hand shape & the finger morphology. Some of the typical hand characteristics in Down’s syndrome are summarized in the picture below – many more details are summarized in the article: how to make a hand diagnosis for Down syndrome?

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The hands of people who have Down syndrome are typically smaller than the common hand and they are featured with uncommon fingerprint distributions & palmar dermatoglyphics.

Usually the palms of these people are short, featured with a high positioned ‘axial triradius’ (the delta in the dermatoglyphics of the hypothenar – in palmistry / palm reading known as the mount of moon), and a majority also has a simian line or Sydney line.

The fingers are typically featured with ulnar loop fingerprints (possibly a radial loop on the ring finger and or pinky), short fingernails, thumb & pinky are typically very short, and especially the pinky finger can be featured with other minor physical anomalies (such as: clinodactlyly or a missing interphalangeal crease).

Read more about other hand characteristics in other themes:
http://www.multiperspectivepalmreading.com/palm-reading-themes.htm

Historically, Leonardo da Vinici’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ can be described as one of the earliest examples of anthropometry. The drawing was created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487, and is accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed architect, Vitruvius.

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.”

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).

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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