Long Fingers and Lotsa Exercise
September 19, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
I’ve noted frequently that Charlie is taller than me. But several months (maybe even a year) before I started to find myself looking up to him, I realized that Charlie’s were longer than mind. He’s always had long, tapering fingers since he was born; he never has a problem reaching an octave on the piano. According to a recent study noted in Science Daily, those long fingers are also a marker for voluntary exercise:
According to a joint University of Alberta/ University of California- Riverside research study, there is a direct correlation between digit length and voluntary exercise.
The study also casts some doubt on a previously released study which linked digit length and male aggression.
While both situations were first thought to have been caused by exposure to elevated levels of prenatal testosterone in the womb, research conducted using lab mice yielded no concrete evidence to support that original hypothesis.
The new study, conducted using 1,000 white mice, seems to support a stronger connection between digit length, voluntary exercise and high levels of prenatal stress hormones, which was indicated by the difference in activity level between the control mice and the selectively-bred active mice.
Maybe that’s a reason why Charlie, once he learned to bike and swim, has been so motivated to do these activities, along with a good share of running and pacing………
The “Lake Simcoe” segment of 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, the very first film AANE screened in the film series I described in Autism and Representation, started playing in my mind as I read this post
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Now I’m going to have to look up that film again…….or watch some footage of Gould himself at the keyboard.
“The new study, conducted using 1,000 white mice, seems to support a stronger connection between digit length, voluntary exercise and high levels of prenatal stress hormones…”
Gus also has really long fingers and is almost constantly in motion. But the last part about the prenatal stress hormones is interesting and a little concerning to me. I was teaching on a juvenile jail while I was pregnant with him and I’ve always wondered if the high level of stress I experienced effected him.