Why We Adjust Your Fingers and Toes (Not Just Your Spine)

We've all seen a traditional anatomical skeleton. But have you ever seen one where each part is sized according to how much information it sends to the brain? It sounds like an odd concept, but stick with it.

Not All Body Parts Talk to the Brain Equally

Different areas of the body send different amounts of information to the nervous system. Your hands, for example, provide far more information than your elbows. That makes sense when you think about it: hands handle complex, precise tasks that need constant, detailed feedback to and from the brain.

Picture that adjusted skeleton again. Since hands send so much more information than elbows, your hands would appear massively oversized on it in comparison. More information sent, the bigger the representation.

So that's one area accounted for. What three other areas would you guess are similarly oversized on this skeleton?

If you guessed feet, face, and genitals, you're exactly right.

Why Those Specific Areas

It makes logical sense once you break it down. Hands handle most of our physical tasks, which is part of why we have such dexterous thumbs.

Being bipedal, standing and walking on two legs, means our feet are our only point of contact with the ground, so they need constant information about slopes, angles, and uneven surfaces to keep us balanced and upright.

Our faces house the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, four areas responsible for four of our major senses, which is a huge part of how we make sense of our surroundings.

And finally, the genitals, for reasons that are probably better explained by a parent than a blog post.

Meet the Somatosensory Homunculus

This whole concept has a name: the somatosensory homunculus. It refers to the areas of the body that send the largest amount of information to the nervous system.

This gives us, as clinicians, a genuinely useful answer when clients ask why we spend time working on their fingers and toes specifically.

In short, these areas give us the ability to influence specific hemispheres, or sides, of the brain quickly and efficiently. Since hands and feet provide the largest amount of sensory information to the brain, it follows that adjusting these areas gives us a more direct route to influencing brain function than adjusting areas that send less information.

Why Distribution Matters Too

There's another important factor: how that information is distributed. When we adjust a finger or toe, essentially all of that information travels to the corresponding side of the brain. Compare that to adjusting one side of the spine, where the information splits roughly 60:40, biased toward the side that was adjusted, but not entirely one-sided.

So if the goal is to specifically influence the left hemisphere, for example, adjusting the corresponding foot or hand tends to produce a more targeted effect than adjusting a spinal segment alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the somatosensory homunculus? It's a concept describing how much of the brain's sensory processing is dedicated to different parts of the body. Areas like the hands, feet, face, and genitals send disproportionately large amounts of information relative to their physical size.

Why do hands and feet get so much brain "real estate"? Hands need detailed feedback for precise, complex tasks, while feet constantly relay information about balance, terrain, and stability, given their role as our only point of contact with the ground.

Why does a clinician adjust fingers or toes instead of just the spine? Because these areas send a large, concentrated amount of information to specific sides of the brain, adjusting them can offer a more direct way to influence brain function than a spinal adjustment alone.

What does the 60:40 split refer to? It describes how information from a spinal adjustment is distributed, roughly 60% to the corresponding side of the brain and 40% to the other, compared to close to 100% for a finger or toe adjustment.

Does this mean spinal adjustments are less effective than finger or toe adjustments? Not necessarily less effective, just different in how targeted they are. Spinal adjustments and hand or foot adjustments can serve different purposes depending on what a clinician is trying to influence.