Mutant people. The sixth extra. What should I do if my child has polydactyly? Anomaly 6 fingers

Even with all the amazing properties of our hands, capable of everything from threading a needle to breaking wooden planks, it is impossible to say for sure how perfect they are for us. Evolutionary biologists don't know exactly why humans as well as most of four-legged earth creatures have five fingers on each limb. Would life be worse if a person's hands developed six fingers?

An extra finger near the little finger would make some tasks easier. We could play more complex musical instruments, type faster, and grip objects more tightly. “A wider hand would make it easier to play basketball,” says Cliff Tabin, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who studies vertebrate limb evolution. - But fine motor skills our hand is basically the thumb and forefinger. An extra little finger wouldn't make a big difference."

However, the greatest influence would be in the mathematical field, and a different system of counting would have surprisingly profound consequences.

man counting

All over the world people count by tens. Anthropologists are sure that we owe such a ten-digit counting system to the number of fingers on our hands. It seems natural to us, but this is only because we are used to it. If we had six fingers on each hand, we would definitely get used to the 12-digit system, Tabin is sure, while the numbers would be: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, x, y, 10. “We would think that the 12-digit system is the most simple and natural, and the 10-digit system would be found as incomprehensible as the 14-digit one,” says the scientist.

It may not make much difference whether you count in tens or dozens, but Mark Shangizi thinks otherwise. The head of the Laboratory for the Study of the Properties of Human Perception at the Research Institute in Idaho, USA, believes that many human achievements, whether it be mathematics, speech or music, progress rapidly when human culture takes the most natural form of expression of this achievement.

“In my book The Visual Revolution, I argued that our ability to read so well is due to the shape of the letters, which, in the course of the development of culture, began to look natural. Their shapes and curves can be seen in nature, and therefore activate our visual recognition mechanism, allowing us to read, explains Shangizi. - In my next work, I explained that we have the ability to understand speech due to the fact that, culturally, speech developed as something natural. That is, in its sound, the noise from solid objects can be traced, which could be heard in the habitats where we evolved.

When a culture takes advantage of evolutionary conditions and creates natural ways to get things done, we do great. When culture fails to engage human evolution, we perform a new task insecurely, unnaturally and pathetically, the scientist notes. For example, doing logic tasks is a classic case where we seem underfit, as even the simplest concepts in logic are frankly complex for really smart people.

Returning to counting fingers, it should be noted that 12 fingers would greatly affect people's mathematical abilities. After all, the number 12 has many more factors than the number 10.

“The choice of counting system can also affect reading. As a result, instead of reading letters we are used to, we would be forced to read bar codes (and we would never be able to do this well, despite long training),” explains Shangizi.

According to the scientist, it is difficult to say for sure whether the transition from a 10-digit counting system to a 12-digit one would turn us into a counting person. But it would certainly be a serious blow to our "digital technology", which ensures the maximum use of cultural evolution for our achievements.

Rule of thumb?

Extra fingers sometimes appear as a birth defect. This is called "polydactyly" and is a common genetic error. But natural selection hasn't made these extra toes a permanent feature. Why not? According to Cliff Tabin, one more finger does not provide anything new, and therefore does not provide any evolutionary advantages at the world level. If we developed a truly necessary sixth finger, it would probably grow out of the wrist as an extra thumb.

This is the standard model for the few tetrapods (four-legged animals) inhabiting the Earth, such as the panda, which have an additional thumb-shaped process. It is actually an extension of the wrist bone used by pandas to support them when grasping bamboo.

But Shangizi argues that humans could not have had an extra thumb. He developed a theory to explain the five-digit number of fingers on a limb in the animal kingdom, which he called the "law of limbs." It is a simple mathematical formula, derived from the rules for the number of nodes in computer networks, which provides for the optimal number of limbs a body needs to communicate with the outside world based on its size. The law specifies that when the limbs are very long in relation to the body, there should ideally be six (such as insects). With the shortening of the limbs, their number increases to large values ​​(for example, centipedes). The law also suggests the number of fingers needed by a limb based on their size. Given that they must be the correct length to span the palm of the hand, the optimal number of fingers for a human hand is the number five.

“If we needed another finger to perform newfangled tasks (typing, surgery, fanning, etc.), this would be a significant deviation from the optimal morphology for which our hands developed, namely grasping various objects,” explains Shangizi.

Some neuroscientists agree that six fingers is too many. In modern prosthetics, robotic hands are being developed that work perfectly with two, three and four fingers. Therefore, the normal number would be four rather than six.

The family of 50-year-old Krishna Chudhary from the village of Gaya in northern India is different from all his neighbors and friends. Each of the 25 family members has 6 fingers and toes.
Some of the family members call it a gift from God, some call it a curse. But both those and others face a lot of problems because of extra fingers.

There are 25 people in the Chudhary family - and each of them has 24 fingers. Because of this, girls from the Chudhary family cannot get married - potential suitors do not like this strange feature.

Krishna himself has never been bothered by his condition, but the difficulties his children face make him sad.

“My grandfather had 24 fingers,” says Krishna. - My father also has 24 fingers. My brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren have the same story.”

Krishna, who has worked all his life as a day laborer, believes that there is nothing wrong with their family features. But others think differently. "I've never had problems with extra fingers," says Krishna. - But my children and grandchildren, they deliver a lot of trouble. Many guys refuse to marry girls from our family after learning about their features. Four suitors have already abandoned my daughter, as soon as they found out that she has more fingers than others. I don’t know what scares them so much, but I think it’s just awful.”

The Krishna family is famous throughout the village. They are called so - "family with 24 fingers."

11-year-old Raju Choudhary, 10-year-old Pintu Choudhary, 10-year-old Pawan Choudhary and 14-year-old Sunny Choudhary show their extra fingers to reporters without embarrassment.

Krishna's daughter-in-law, Sitbiya Choudhary, considers the extra fingers a blessing from God, while the rest of the family treats them more like a curse.

“I believe that this is how God blessed our family,” says Sitbia. - Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why all family members have extra fingers. I think God is trying to convey a message to us.”

Krishna complains only that it is difficult for him to find comfortable shoes for themselves and children, and therefore they constantly have to walk in slippers. “It's very difficult for us to find shoes,” he complains. - They are all uncomfortable, so we wear flip-flops. We simply have no other choice: we can’t afford to make shoes to order.”

The Chudhary family has other problems as well. So, it is difficult for boys to study at school - with six fingers it is very inconvenient to hold a pen and a pencil. Girls, in turn, cannot count on a good match. One-year-old Manisha Chudhary is the youngest in the family, but her parents are already worried about how her fate will turn out: after all, the girl has inherited a family trait.

Dr. Ayaush Gupta, associate professor of dermatology at the Patil Medical College in Pune, India, says: “This condition is called polydactyly, or polydactylism. It is due to a genetic defect that causes a person to develop extra fingers.”

"Usually, extra fingers don't pose much of a physical problem," says Dr. Gupta. - But they can deliver a lot of psychological suffering. They can be removed surgically, but the operation will be expensive.”

● Mark or God's gift?

A six-fingered child was born in Blagoveshchensk. As the doctors of the city maternity hospital assure, there have already been such cases in their practice, there is no danger to the health of the child.

In the Blagoveshchensk maternity hospital, a boy was born with a sixth - additional - finger on his right hand. “The child is ordinary, only one more fingers. Moreover, he also has additional fingers on his left hand and on his left foot, only they are not bone, but on a skin leg, like a small phalanx, - says Svetlana Chipizubova, head of the neonatal department of the city maternity hospital. - It is usually difficult to say what such vices are connected with, but in this case it's heredity. The mother of the child told us that the father also had an extra - sixth - finger at birth. Such cases, according to doctors, in Blagoveshchensk occur infrequently, 10-12 in the entire history of the maternity hospital.

Six-fingeredness, or polydakylia, is an anomaly of the limbs, in which instead of five fingers, six or more are observed on the hand. Its origin is not exactly known, some consider it a hereditary disease, the second - an adverse consequence of radioactive exposure, and others - the "mark of the devil" (this is from the realm of superstition). However, many consider the sixth finger God's gift and a sign of special choice. As history shows, six-fingered were: Pope Sixtus II, Queen of England Anna Boleyn, well-known to the inhabitants of Buryatia, the attendant of the Ivolginsky datsan Sanjay Lama and the shaman Valentin Khagaev. In Russia, before the revolution, there were entire villages of six-fingered people. "Six-fingered" - one of Stalin's nicknames, he had six toes. Rumor has it that actress Marilyn Monroe also had six toes. The singer, Russian pop star Maxim was also born six-fingered - with two thumbs on her left hand. The surgeons corrected this anomaly in childhood, saying that the girl would never be able to play the piano. Having learned this, young Maxim, in spite of everyone, asked her mother to enroll her in a music school. Although she did not become a great pianist, she still connected her life with music.
According to statistics, one baby out of every 5,000 newborns is born with six fingers. In mysticism, the six occupies a special position. The geometric analogue of the six - a hexagram (a six-pointed star, or a regular equilateral polygon) - is considered in magic a symbol of protection, good luck and love. In magical TARO cards, for example, the card of six staves symbolizes good luck, triumph, and the sixth is called the “Lovers” card and means goodwill and love for the people around. In China, the six is ​​also considered lucky and is associated with this people with success in various endeavors. Another hexagram can be found on Orthodox icons and crosses. By the way, not only people can have six fingers, but also animals - dogs, cats, rodents.

Have you ever heard of people with "extra" fingers? Or maybe you've seen them? Notes about children and adults who have six fingers or toes appear quite often. The Internet is replete with photographs of people with unusual limbs, and ordinary people tend to classify such a feature as deformities or diseases. Whether this congenital defect is so terrible can be understood only by knowing the reasons for the appearance of additional fingers.

Polydactyly - this is the name of a congenital anomaly of an anatomical nature, which manifests itself as additional fingers on the feet or on the hands. Statistics show that out of every five thousand newborns, one has deviations in the number of fingers, and this defect does not always manifest itself symmetrically.

Varieties of polydactyly

Congenital changes in this developmental anomaly can manifest themselves in several ways:

1. If the bifurcation of the rudimentary structures of the phalanges occurred in the early stages of development, a full-sized and fully functional additional finger is formed.
2. The appearance of rudimentary undeveloped processes from the outer or inner edge of the palm and foot.
3. Bifurcation or the appearance of processes on the fingers is also referred to as the phenomenon of polydactyly.

The situation when a person has fully functional six fingers on his hand (photo below) is a rarity. In India, such children are born more often than in other regions, so this feature is a separate item in the police questionnaires there. As a rule, adnexal phalanges cannot be operated on or even controlled in any way, and people with six fingers on their hands undergo corrective operations.

Reasons for multi-fingering

Teratogenic effects of chemicals on the fetus (taking certain drugs by a pregnant woman) can cause a violation of the order of cell division and the formation of tissues and organs. In the case of congenital polydactyly, the rudiments of the digital phalanges are exposed to toxins.

The factor of heredity, according to doctors, is the main cause of the appearance of extra fingers. Often in the family pedigree, one can trace the inheritance of this defect and its appearance through a generation or in a series of several generations in a row. The genes that cause polydactyly are dominant, which means they appear when they are present in the genotype. But it happens that due to incomplete penetrance, the defect still remains hidden.

Isolated polydactyly does not pose additional threats to the body, but polydactylism often manifests itself as part of complex gene or chromosomal disorders. Scientists know up to 120 syndromes, a sign of which is six fingers on the hands or more (Patau, Lawrence, Meckel syndromes).

Diagnosis of polydactyly in newborns

Immediately after the birth of the baby, a pediatrician or neonatologist examines. Therefore, when a child is born with six fingers on a hand or foot, the diagnosis is made immediately.

To determine the methods of treatment, the doctor needs to establish:

1. The position of the extra finger of the hand, which can be pre-axial (between the ring finger and the little finger) or post-axial - behind the little finger.
2. The nature of the pathology. With hereditary polydactyly, the accessory finger departs from the fifth and is quite well developed. If we are talking about a birth defect, then the finger will be underdeveloped, in the form of one / several phalanges inside the skin protrusion.
3. The presence of additional changes in the anatomy of the metacarpus or metatarsus, which can manifest itself in the form of additional bones, deformities of the joints, ligaments and tendons.
4. Whether polydactyly is an independent anomaly or manifested as part of the syndrome. For this, other symptoms are evaluated and additional tests are ordered.

After that, a treatment method is selected. It consists in the prompt removal of extra fingers so that a child who has six fingers on his hands or a deformed foot from birth can develop normally without feeling psychological and physical infringement. The doctor determines at what age it is better to carry out the removal, and also whether it is necessary Plastic surgery to restore the aesthetic appearance of the limb.

Preparing for the operation

Features of the genesis of polydactyly affect the extent of surgical intervention. For example, a skin fold, which is supplied with blood by capillaries, is easy to remove. And if six fingers on the hands are accompanied by corresponding changes in the metacarpus, then more than one operation will be required. And in cases of full functionality of "extra" fingers, a decision can be made to leave everything as it is.

Choosing a methodology surgical treatment polydactyly, doctors are doing some more research:

• radiography of the limb;
• research of blood supply of additional fingers.

There are cases when a large vessel feeds two partially separated fingers at once. Then removal without taking into account this feature can lead to subsequent circulatory disorders.

When all studies are completed, the operation is performed. Sometimes it is preceded by therapeutic treatment, but such cases are rare. Usually the attending physician insists on the treatment of polydactyly at an early age, most operations are performed in the first month of a child's life.

Delay only complicates the situation, because the bones and surrounding tissues in children grow rapidly and experience a certain load. The earlier plastic is made, the less secondary deformations will have to be dealt with.

What if you leave...

On the hands, especially if all fingers are well developed and the hands are symmetrical, this feature will not interfere much. Unless you have to order gloves from a tailor and catch curious glances.