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Pruney fingers in water aren't caused by skin absorbing water—it's an active nervous system reflex (www.oddlyclear.com)
submitted 8 hours ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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Common myth: skin wrinkles in water because of osmosis/swelling.

Reality: it is an active, involuntary vasomotor response. The nervous system constricts blood vessels under the skin to form ridges—acting like tire treads to channel away water and improve grip on wet objects. Patients with severed median nerves don't wrinkle at all.

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[–] 9 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

How does what you linked conflict with what OP said?

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  • [–] 12 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

    1. It's a loss of volume, not vasomotors pulling the skin 'down', though that can be chocked up to phrasing.

    2. It is still caused by water absorption, though not directly and not only.

    3. The medical paper makes no mention of "improving grip". That conclusion seems to be spurious and almost certainly wrong. The tire tread bit is particularly hilariously dumb. Your fingertips don't need to shed water like a tire ffs.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    The medical paper makes no mention of "improving grip". That conclusion seems to be spurious and almost certainly wrong. The tire tread bit is particularly hilariously dumb. Your fingertips don't need to shed water like a tire ffs.

    That theory has been around for ages, much longer than AI. I recall reading it in Readers Digest as a kid. It's also listed in Wikipedia as a probable reason with some studies backing it up.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    This is also one of the things slop loves to add, spurious 'reasons' for things happening like my mother in law does.

    Did she see the dog pee on some dead grass? That means if the dog pees literally anywhere it is going to kill the grass!

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