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Fingerprints, the skin ridges on volar skin, did not evolve to make the tasks of the FBI and the TSA easier. The traditional explanation of fingerprints’ function is that they increase friction between the skin and grasped objects, decreasing the likelihood that we will drop a dime or a diamond. Neuroscientists now suggest another, less intuitive and more intriguing function: enhancement of the sense of touch. Pacinian corpuscles are nerve endings in the skin responsible for sensitivity to pressure and vibration. These mechanoreceptors are numerous in the distal digits.
Scheibert and colleagues showed that Pacinian corpuscles respond to vibrations generated by textured surfaces moving across the fingerprint ridges. They deve…