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The length of a girl's ring finger could be an indicator of her future sporting potential, researchers at King's College London said on Thursday.
In the largest study of its kind, hand measurements of 607 female twins aged 25-79 from the UK were compared with the women's lifetime sporting achievements.
The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that women with ring fingers longer than their index fingers had performed better at running and associated running sports such as soccer and tennis.
In women the ring finger is commonly shorter or the same length as the index finger, while in men the ring finger is generally longer.
The report said detection of sporting potential by examining the ratio between the index and ring fingers "could help identify talented individuals at a pre-competitive stage."
The reasons for the findings were unclear, said one of the report's authors, Professor Tim Spector from at King's College, who said he was originally sceptical about the link to sporting ability.
"Previous studies have suggested the change in finger length was due to changes in testosterone levels in the womb", he said.
But he said it had been found in a separate study of twins that finger length was largely inherited, possibly explaining why sporting parents often have sporting children.
"We found that finger length was 70 percent heritable with little influence of the womb environment," he said.
"This suggests that genes are the main factor and that finger length is a marker of your genes."
He said no specific candidate genes had been identified for the link and that multiple genes were probably responsible.
Previous studies looking at the link between finger length and sporting ability have mainly focused on men.
A study published in 2001 of 304 English professional soccer players found they had a significantly larger ring-to-index-finger ratio than a control group of 533 other men.
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伦敦国王学院的研究人员周四提出，从女性无名指的长度可以看出她的竞技潜力。
这项调查是同类调查中规模最大的一次，研究人员对英国607对年龄在25岁到79岁之间的女性双胞胎的手指长度与她们所取得的体育成就进行了对照。
此项研究结果在《英国体育医学》上发表，研究发现，无名指比食指长的女性在跑步和与跑步相关的一些项目，如足球和网球中表现较为突出。
女性的无名指通常比食指短，或和食指一样长，但男性的无名指普遍比食指长。
研究报告中说，通过研究食指和无名指之间的比例探测人的竞技潜力"可以及早发现（未过竞技年龄）竞技人才"。
研究报告撰写者之一伦敦国王学院的蒂姆·斯派克特教授说，至于其中的原因，目前还不清楚。他说自己原本对无名指长度关系到竞技能力持怀疑态度。
他说："此前的一些研究表明女性手指长度的不同主要是因为子宫中睾丸激素的水平变化。"
但是，他说，对双胞胎所做的另一个研究表明，手指长度主要受遗传因素影响，这可以解释为什么运动能力强的父母生的孩子运动能力也较强。
他说："我们发现，手指长度70％是遗传而来的，子宫环境对此没什么影响。"
"这说明基因是影响手指长度的主要因素，同时，手指长度也是基因的一个标志。"
他说，目前未发现哪种特定的基因形成了手指长度和竞技能力的这种关系，所以很可能是多种基因造成的。
之前的一些研究主要着眼于男性的手指长度和竞技能力的关系。
2001年公布的一项研究发现，304名英国职业足球运动员的无名指和食指的比例要远远大于另外533名普通男人的手指比例。
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发布日期：2006-10-06
