Computer games spawn super thumbs

Children who have grown up with mobile phones and computer games are evolving faster and more nimble thumbs, according to a leading researcher.

Dr Sadie Plant, of Warwick University's Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, who has been testing children in capital cities throughout the world, said that teenagers and young adults use their thumbs more widely than their index fingers making them faster and more muscled.

She noted that many young people are now using thumbs instead of fingers to point or to ring doorbells.

The situation is more noticeable in Japan where an entire generation has been dubbed the "thumb tribe".

"The relationship between technology and the users of technology is mutual. Discovering that the younger generation has taken to using thumbs in a completely different way, instinctively using thumbs where the rest of us are using index fingers, is particularly interesting," said Dr Plant.

She noticed that younger people used both thumbs ambidextrously, barely looking at console or phone keys as they made rapid entries, while those less used to mobile phones used one or several fingers to access the keyboard.