The body has redundant neural pathways to the hand because the ability to use the hand is very important.

Judge against established neuroscience and anatomy as of 2025-01-10. True: authoritative sources confirm that the hand is controlled through redundant or overlapping neural pathways (for example, several descending motor tracts, a large and overlapping cortical representation, or nerve supply that overlaps across the median, ulnar and radial nerves), and that this redundancy is commonly explained by how important hand function is. Mostly true: the redundancy is real, but saying it exists 'because' the hand is important is only loosely supported or overstated (an evolutionary explanation that is plausible but not firmly established). Mixed: some redundancy exists, but the description is significantly inaccurate. Mostly false: hand control is not notably redundant compared with other body parts, and the claim distorts a narrow fact. False: the sources show the hand has no meaningful redundant neural control.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Parallel pathways mediating manual dexterity in the macaque Experimental Brain Research (PubMed record; review by I Darian-Smith, K Burman, C Darian-Smith) · September 1999

   “Studies over the last two decades have established that the corticospinal and corticocerebellar pathways mediating manual dexterity in the primate are structurally organized to sustain the parallel transmission of sensorimotor information in multiple pathways.”

2. E2 The primate reticulospinal tract, hand function and functional recovery PubMed Central (review by Stuart Baker, Newcastle University) · 30 August 2011

   “Multiple descending pathways link the brain to the spinal cord, allowing transmission of commands for voluntary movement to spinal motoneurons, Sherrington's ‘final common path’ via which all motor acts must be relayed to the muscular apparatus.”

3. E3 Frontiers | Role of Direct vs. Indirect Pathways from the Motor Cortex to Spinal Motoneurons in the Control of Hand Dexterity Frontiers in Neurology · 19 November 2013

   “Evolutionally, development of the direct connection from the motor cortex to spinal motoneurons [corticomotoneuronal (CM) pathway] parallels the ability of hand dexterity.”

4. E4 The primate reticulospinal tract, hand function and functional recovery PubMed Central (review by Stuart Baker, Newcastle University) · 30 August 2011

   “Whilst some ability to grasp returned, they never recovered the fine, independent finger movements which are the hallmark of primate manual dexterity.”

Peer-reviewed reviews describe the pathways behind primate manual dexterity as organised for parallel transmission through multiple pathways (E1). They also say that several descending tracts carry voluntary motor commands to the spinal cord (E2). Together these support the redundancy part of the claim, although the evidence comes mainly from macaques, not humans. None of the sources says the redundancy exists because the hand is important. E3 only ties the evolution of the direct cortex-to-motoneuron pathway to hand dexterity, and E4 reports that some ability to grasp returned but fine, independent finger movements were never recovered [E3][E4]. So the redundancy is real but partial, and the 'because' explanation is only loosely supported.