If you concentrate well and try to feel your toes without touching them, you will find that some of them escape you and you end up counting only eight or nine. Nothing frightening, rest assured: about half of the population does not manage to feel all its toes.
Researchers from the University of Oxford (UK) conducted the survey of 19 healthy men and women to elucidate this mystery. The volunteers had to close their eyes as the scientists tapped their toes one by one, then stated which toe had been affected.
The central three toes often indistinguishable
Result: Nine of the 19 participants said they felt like one of their toes was missing. In 90% of the tests, the volunteers felt the big or smallest toe well, but it was much more difficult for the three central toes.
Also, when it came to their foot non-dominant (the left foot for right-handed people, for example), participants showed more difficulty defining which toe had been affected.
The brain unable to distinguish the toes separately
The researchers’ hypothesis? The toes would be more difficult to feel because they are less independent and closer together than the fingers.
Another supposition: the brain would be incapable of distinguishing toes separately, it would allocate five equally sized spaces for the toes. The big toe, which alone takes up two spaces, would cause the brain to commit a lack of sensation for the second toe. This would thus explain why many of us fail to sense it.
A useful study for certain diagnoses and treatments
Although this study, published in the journal Perception, may seem light, it will be very useful for the medicine, and in particular, to neurologists who perform tests to measure their patients’ brain damage by asking them if they can feel their toes.
It may also give clues in the treatment of agnosia, the belief that parts of the body are missing, or of a different shape and size from reality (a symptom present in certain illnesses such as anorexia nervosa or stroke).
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