Fingerprints may be important for assessing fine textures, in addition to their known role in making gripping objects easier by increasing friction.
Georges Debrégeas and his colleagues at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris made a fake fingertip and tested it with and without a print. They covered a sensor with either a smooth or ridged cap and measured pressure variations as it scanned an uneven surface. The sensor represented a nerve ending, the cap the skin.
In the experiment, ridged 'skin' amplified certain vibrations 100 times more than smooth 'skin'. The team calculated that a human fingerprint would amplify vibrations at 200–300 hertz — a range that spans those frequencies to which nerve fibres that respond to fine-texture perception are most sensitive.
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Physiology: Fake fingerprints. Nature 457, 638 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457638c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/457638c
