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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1404559

People with higher systemizing traits have wider right hands

Provisionally accepted
Na Chen Na Chen 1Souta Hidaka Souta Hidaka 2Naomi Ishii Naomi Ishii 1Makoto Wada Makoto Wada 1*
  • 1 National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan
  • 2 Sophia University, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tōkyō, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Various genetic mutations have been implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some candidate genes for ASD are known to be related to signal transduction and may be involved in hand development as well as neurodevelopment. Therefore, although subtle, anatomical variations in hand configurations may be observed in individuals with ASD. However, except for research on the finger ratio, which has been suggested to be related to prenatal sex hormone exposure, only few studies have been conducted. Given the spectrum characteristics of ASD, we explored whether hand configurations are associated with ASD-related traits in the general population. Photographs of the dorsal surface of each hand were obtained, and the distances between the metacarpophalangeal joints and finger lengths were measured. The Autism Spectrum Quotient, Empathy Quotient, and Systemizing Quotient were used to evaluate ASD-related traits. We found a significant positive correlation between the aspect ratio of the right hand and the Systemizing Quotient score: individuals with a larger width relative to the finger length showed more systemizing traits. These findings suggest that gene polymorphisms or prenatal sex hormone exposure may underlie the relationship between systemizing traits and hand configurations.

    Keywords: Hand configuration, Systemizing Quotient, finger length, Width-to-length ratio, Metacarpophalangeal joints

    Received: 02 Apr 2024; Accepted: 19 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Hidaka, Ishii and Wada. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Makoto Wada, National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan

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