Dermatoglyphics, derived from ancient Greek words “Derma” meaning “skin” and “glyph” meaning “carving” is a proven scientific method to decode the brain’s potential and talent through the physical formation of fingerprints, which has linkage to brain development.

It is not Palmistry or future telling. Dermatoglyphics is a 400-year-old globally popular Science in which the ridges and patterns present on one's finger are studied and analyzed.

In 1892, the famous English anthropologist Francis Galton published his book in which he shared the methods of identifying the fingerprint types, which are called Whorl, Loop, Arch & Accidental. In 1969, John Mulvihill, MD, and David W.Smith, MD published the research on different stages of formation of finger grains for the babies in the womb. The skin ridges are formed during the gestation period of the embryo till the 13th week and permanent skin ridges begin to appear and are complete by the 19th week in tandem with the embryo brain’s network of neurons.

Over the years, by much research and thesis, it has been proven that no two people can have the same fingerprints. Once a child is born, his fingerprints are completely developed and they remain unchanged till the end of life.

It has been proven that fingerprints reveal the personality and behavior of an individual. Dermatoglyphics is now being used all over the world for multiple purposes like Medical, Psychological, Health, Counseling, Education, Career, Matrimonial, Parenting, and many more.

Relationship between fingerprints and human brain

The skin is the largest sensory organ of the body. It is sensitive to many different kinds of "stimuli", such as touch, pressure, temperature, etc. Within the skin, there are different types of "receptors" that are activated by different stimuli. The finger is the receptor. It contains sensory neurons. When a receptor is activated, it triggers a series of nerve impulses. For a person to "feel" the stimulus, the nerve impulses must make their way up to the brain. Nerves control specific muscles, and nerves provide sensations in our body. The median nerve carries sensory messages from the thumb and some fingers to the brain, and also instructions from the brain to the muscles in the hand.

Every finger is connected to the brain hemispheres with nerves. Any damage in fingerprints (during the time of birth) or unusual fingerprint patterns will affect our brain function. For Example, mentally retarded people will have abnormal fingerprint patterns.

Any change in fingerprint patterns (abnormal patterns) have been reported in several congenital conditions. E.g. Down syndrome.

The development of our nervous system is closely related to dermatoglyphics because the convex fold of the surface of the cerebra grows synchronously with dermal ridges and their differentiation takes place early in fetal development. The resulting ridge configurations on each finger tell the story of our genetic history and traits. Experts who study dermatoglyphics believe that fingerprints are marks of embryonic nerves.

Dermatoglyphics - a very good tool in preventive medicine

The current state of medical dermatoglyphics is such that the diagnosis of some illnesses can now be done based on dermatoglyphic analysis alone and currently, several dermatoglyphic researchers claim a very high degree of accuracy in their prognostic ability from the hand's features. Dr. Stowens, Chief of Pathology at St Luke's hospital in New York, claims to be able to diagnose schizophrenia and leukemia with up to a 90% accuracy from the patterns of the hands alone and in Germany, Dr. Alexander Rodewald reports he can pinpoint many congenital abnormalities with a 90% accuracy from a consideration of the features of the hands alone.

In Germany, dermatoglyphic assessment has been taken very seriously. To the extent that computer programs have now been designed to perform rapid multivariate assessments of hand imprints which can predict with up to an 80% accuracy the chances of a new-born child developing heart disease, cancer, leukemia, diabetes, or mental illness. Such is the status of dermatoglyphic analysis in Germany that it has become an integral part of the medical syllabus in many German universities and it would seem that before too long, the diagnosis of disease from the patterns of the hand will become quite ordinary and commonplace activity.

KEY REFERENCES –

Dermatoglyphics Multiple Intelligence Analysis

Dermatoglyphics: Blueprints of Human Cognition

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (2009)

The hand as a mirror of systemic disease by Theodore J. Berry, M.D.F.A.C.P., 1963

Dermatoglyphics in Medical Disorders by Blank Schauman & Milton Alter-New York,1976

Trends in Dermatoglyphics Research by Norris M. Durham, Chris C. Plato - Kluwer Academic, 1990

The Science of fingerprints by U.S. Department of Justice F.B. I.