Pointing Forward

Have you ever wished for an extra arm when doing too many things at once? What about an extra finger? A small number of people are born with a sixth finger, a condition known as polydactyly. A new study examined two such subjects to better understand how we might one day improve artificial replacement or additional limbs. They found that the sixth finger, between the thumb and index, had its own distinct muscles (green) and movement, enabling the subjects to complete with one hand tasks that take five-fingered people two. The study also found dedicated brain resources taking control of the sixth finger, illustrating our mental capacity for controlling additional movement with no sacrifice of function elsewhere. This behaviour has been trained since birth, so it’s unlikely that we could all instantly handle enhanced limbs and digits, but it does point to a promising possibility.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image adapted from work by C. Mehring and M. Akselrodand, and colleagues
• Bernstein Center Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Germany, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Lausanne, Switzerland, and Imperial College London, UK
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, June 2019