Dermatoglyphics and Intelligence Quotient (Iq) in Children of the Age Group 4 to 7 Years in the South Indian Population

Abstract

BACKGROUND Dermatoglyphics is considered to be a window to a child's personal characteristics and a sensitive indicator of brain function abnormalities. Widespread interest in epidermal ridges is developing in the medical field. In this study, certain specific patterns were prominent in high, intermediate and low IQ groups which were characteristic of these groups. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1000 school going children in the South Indian population. Hand prints were taken using the lipstick method. A modified version of the Wechsler PreSchool and Primary Scale of Intelligence was used to assess the intelligence of the students and they were accordingly grouped into high, intermediate, and low intelligence quotient groups. The hand prints from each of the intelligence groups were analysed thoroughly using standard parameters such as fingertip pattern, finger ridge count, palmar ridge count, and palmar angles. The results were tabulated and interpreted. RESULTS High intelligence levels showed the highest proportion of loops in all their digits. As the intelligence level decreased, the incidence of the arches and whorls increased. The thumb and 1 st digit especially showed these variations. The 4 th digit shows the highest incidence of loops in the high intelligence group with a number of 468, that is, 80.7% of loops. When taking the 1 st digit into consideration, the high intelligence quotient group showed 61.4% of loops, while the intermediate level shows just 54.5% of loops. The 1 st digit of the low intelligence level is the only one in the entire study to show more number of whorls than loops. Nearly half the patterns, that is 47.9%, were whorls in the low IQ group. The thumb also showed a higher number of whorl patterns and arch patterns with 36.6% and 20.6% respectively in low IQ group. In the low IQ level group, there is a significant difference between the total and absolute finger ridge count, indicating a greater prominence of whorl patterns. As the intelligence decreases, the difference between the total and absolute finger ridge counts increases, which correlates with the increase in the incidence of whorls. And finally, we found that the A-B ridge count increases as the intelligence decreases. CONCLUSIONS This study thus attempts to determine certain dermatoglyphic patterns in children of 4 to 7 years of age of varying intelligence quotient which may be extremely helpful in future studies by proving a basal patterning. It calls for further studies in the future to establish a definite relationship between intelligence and observed patterns.

Association between fingerprint patterns and intelligence quotient (IQ)

“…In this study, a correlation was found between fingerprint patterns and IQ of Vietnamese students, students with whorls fingerprint patterns had a higher IQ than students with loop arches fingerprint patterns. (Prabhakaran et al, 2019) reported, the majority of the pupils in the high IQ group exhibited loop patterns. The patterns of arches and whorls were substantially more prevalent in the group of people with medium and low intellect.…”