Photo by Stefan Lehner on Unsplash
Photo by Stefan Lehner on Unsplash

Nailed it! Fingernails have an accurate sense of touch

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Fingernails are highly sensitive to touch and may help us sense the world around us with our hands, say UK scientists who found that people can accurately tell where on their fingernail they were touched. While most mammals have claws, humans have fingernails, but how these nails help us sense the world through our hands is still poorly understood. To work out the ability of our fingernails to sense touch, the researchers touched nine different locations on the middle fingernail or thumb fingernail of 19 people and asked them to say where on the fingernail they were touched by clicking a mouse cursor on a photograph of their finger. People could identify the touched location about as accurately as on the fingertip itself, suggesting fingernails may have important sensory functions.

Journal/conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Research: Paper

Organisation/s: University of London, UK

Funder: No funding has been received for this article.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Nailed it - Humans can precisely localise a touch to the fingernail. Nineteen participants’ fingernails were touched at nine different locations and they judged the location by clicking a mouse cursor on a photograph of their finger. All participants identified the location of pressure with accuracy comparable to the fingertip itself, suggesting fingernails may have important sensory functions. Proceedings B

Precise tactile localisation on the human fingernail

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

While most mammals have claws on each digit, primates such as humans have nails instead. The role of fingernails in perceiving and acting on the world, however, remains poorly understood. This study investigated a basic tactile ability on the fingernails, localizing precisely where a touch was applied. On each trial, the fingernail was touched and the participant clicked a mouse cursor on a photograph of their fingernail to indicate where they felt the touch. These judgments were highly accurate, showing that humans are able to precisely localize touch on the fingernails. These results suggest that the fingernails may be involved in our ability to perceive the world using our hands.

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