{"id":98645,"date":"2025-05-13T17:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T17:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/98645\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T17:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T17:45:08","slug":"water-wrinkles-are-predictable-and-may-help-identify-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/98645\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Wrinkles Are Predictable, and May Help Identify You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Summary: <\/strong>New research confirms that the wrinkles on your fingers after water exposure always form in the same pattern. The consistency stems from the fixed position of blood vessels under the skin, which constrict after prolonged immersion, creating the familiar loops and ridges.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers tested the same fingers across multiple immersions and found near-identical wrinkle topography each time. The findings could have forensic applications, including identification of bodies exposed to water and new approaches in biometric science.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Repeatable Patterns:<\/strong> Wrinkle topography stays consistent across water exposures.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vessel-Based Mechanism:<\/strong> Blood vessel constriction\u2014not skin swelling\u2014drives wrinkle formation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Forensic Potential:<\/strong> Findings could aid in identification after water-related deaths.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong>Binghamton University<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do your wrinkles always form in the same pattern every time you\u2019re in the water for too long? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York, the answer is yes.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of years ago, Binghamton University Associate Professor\u00a0Guy German\u00a0published research about why human skin wrinkles when you stay in the water too long.<\/p>\n<p>  <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"829\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/water-winkles-forensic-neuroscience.jpg\" alt=\"This shows wrinkled fingers.\"  \/> New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York reveals that wrinkle patterns on skin actually stay the same over time. Credit: Brenderous<\/p>\n<p>Received wisdom held that the water swelled your skin and made your fingers wrinkly, but little to no research had been done to prove that.<\/p>\n<p>What German and his team at the Biological Soft Matter Mechanics Laboratory found is that blood vessels beneath the skin actually contract after prolonged immersion, and that\u2019s where the wrinkles come from.<\/p>\n<p>He wrote about the research for The Conversation\u00a0\u2014 a nonprofit news organization that asks academics to share their expertise on current topics \u2014 as part of its Curious Kids feature. One of the follow-up questions stumped him, though.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA student asked, \u2018Yeah, but do the wrinkles always form in the same way?\u2019 And I thought: I haven\u2019t the foggiest clue!\u201d said German, a faculty member at the\u00a0Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science\u2019s\u00a0Department of Biomedical Engineering. \u201cSo it led to this research to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0a paper recently published in the\u00a0Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, German and Rachel Laytin \u201923, MS \u201924, show that, yes, the topography patterns remain constant after multiple immersions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBlood vessels don\u2019t change their position much \u2014 they move around a bit, but in relation to other blood vessels, they\u2019re pretty static,\u201d German said. \u201cThat means the wrinkles should form in the same manner, and we proved that they do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The research put subjects\u2019 fingers in water for 30 minutes, taking photos and then repeating the immersion under the same conditions at least 24 hours later. By comparing the images, German and Laytin found the same patterns of raised loops and ridges after both immersions.<\/p>\n<p>They also made an interesting side discovery: \u201cWe\u2019ve heard that wrinkles don\u2019t form in people who have median nerve damage in their fingers,\u201d German said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of my students told us, \u2018I\u2019ve got median nerve damage in my fingers.\u2019 So we tested him \u2014 no wrinkles!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As much fun as it was to figure out something a child asked, the research also could have real-world applications in forensics, such as fingerprinting at crime scenes and identifying bodies found after prolonged water exposure. German\u2019s father, a retired U.K. police officer, faced some of these challenges during his law enforcement career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBiometrics and fingerprints are built into my brain,\u201d he said. \u201cI always think about this sort of stuff, because it\u2019s fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>German is eager to further explore questions about skin immersion with his students: \u201cI feel like a kid in a candy store, because there\u2019s so much science here that I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thank the people at The Conversation and the wonderful question they asked us, because does it create cool new science.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About this forensic neuroscience research news<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Author: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#2a404858424f466a4843444d424b475e4544044f4e5f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Brhel<\/a><br \/><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/binghamton.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Binghamton University<\/a><br \/><strong>Contact: <\/strong>John Brhel \u2013 Binghamton University<br \/><strong>Image: <\/strong>The image is credited to Brenderous<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Original Research: <\/strong>Open access.<br \/>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jmbbm.2025.106935\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">On the repeatability of wrinkling topography patterns in the fingers of water immersed human skin<\/a>\u201d by Guy German et al. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>On the repeatability of wrinkling topography patterns in the fingers of water immersed human skin<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finger wrinkling during and after water immersion, often called pruning, is an evolutionary mechanism that increases grip strength in water.<\/p>\n<p>Previous studies have determined that water-induced finger wrinkles result from vasoconstriction, or the tightening of blood vessels below the skin\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n<p>However, no previous studies have characterized the morphology of topographical finger wrinkles.<\/p>\n<p>We anticipate that vasoconstriction also governs the morphology of finger wrinkles formed.<\/p>\n<p>Since these constricting blood vessels are stationary, we expect the pattern created by topographical wrinkles formed to remain constant over time.<\/p>\n<p>To evaluate pattern repeatability, images of human fingertips at two separate time points are overlaid and compared visually to establish corresponding wrinkle pairs.<\/p>\n<p>Wrinkle pairs are vectorized with orientation correlations evaluated quantitatively using normalized dot products, then compared against randomly oriented control vectors.<\/p>\n<p>The results demonstrate a significant relationship between wrinkle orientation across both time points and thus reveal the consistency of wrinkle morphology over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: New research confirms that the wrinkles on your fingers after water exposure always form in the same&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45873,215,45874,45875,105,219,220,16,15,45876],"class_list":{"0":"post-98645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-binghamton-university","9":"tag-brain-research","10":"tag-finger-prints","11":"tag-forensic-neuroscience","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-neurobiology","14":"tag-neuroscience","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-water-wrinkles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114501774411038614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}