Hand

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Hands" redirects here. For other uses, see Hand (disambiguation) and Hands

(disambiguation).

Hand

The back (left) and front (right) of the two hands of a male human
 X-ray of human hand

Details

Vein Dorsal venous network of hand

Nerve Ulnar, median, radial nerves

Identifiers

Latin Manus

MeSH D006225

TA98 A01.1.00.025

TA2 148

FMA 9712
 Anatomical terminology

[edit on Wikidata]

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of

the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys,
and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable
thumbs on each "hand" and fingerprints extremely similar to human fingerprints) are
often described as having "hands" instead of paws on their front limbs. The raccoon is
usually described as having "hands" though opposable thumbs are lacking. [1]
Some evolutionary anatomists use the term hand to refer to the appendage of digits on
the forelimb more generally—for example, in the context of whether the three digits of
the bird hand involved the same homologous loss of two digits as in the dinosaur hand.[2]
The human hand usually has five digits: four fingers plus one thumb;[3][4] these are often
referred to collectively as five fingers, however, whereby the thumb is included as one of
the fingers.[3][5][6] It has 27 bones, not including the sesamoid bone, the number of which
varies among people,[7] 14 of which are the phalanges (proximal, intermediate and distal)
of the fingers and thumb. The metacarpal bones connect the fingers and the carpal
bones of the wrist. Each human hand has five metacarpals[8] and eight carpal bones.
Fingers contain some of the densest areas of nerve endings in the body, and are the
richest source of tactile feedback. They also have the greatest positioning capability of
the body; thus, the sense of touch is intimately associated with hands. Like other paired
organs (eyes, feet, legs) each hand is dominantly controlled by the opposing brain
hemisphere, so that handedness—the preferred hand choice for single-handed
activities such as writing with a pencil, reflects individual brain functioning.
Among humans, the hands play an important function in body language and sign
language. Likewise, the ten digits of two hands and the twelve phalanges of four fingers
(touchable by the thumb) have given rise to number systems and calculation
techniques.