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The toes are flexed and relaxed by muscles in the calf.

If you have constant flexed (contracted muscles) this can lead
to hammer toes.

A common cause is low magnesium levels from poor food intake.
Magnesium helps muscles relax after contraction. Too much
calcium with low magnesium can lead to inability to relax those muscles.

If the nerves to those muscles are damaged or die, then this contracture may become permanent.

This website has lots of information on foot problems...mechanical ones:
http://www.northcoastfootcare.com/pages/Hammertoes.html

You should tell us more about yourself. Your lifestyle, medications (all of them), etc. Seeing a good foot doctor, is also very important.

Foot drop, hammer toes, contracted leg muscles, with a diagnosis of PN all sound like hereditary neuropathy to me. Have you discussed the possibility of CMT with your neurologist? Research the condition on this site and others and see what you think,but PN that causes changes to the physiology of the foot is often CMT.

I should add, in answer to your question, my toes look a lot like yours, my calf muscles are tightly contracted as Mrs. D mentioned, my feet are also contracted with high arches and muscles thinning and I do have CMT.

Here is a good site:

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/h...topic-overview

As you can tell lots of times it's your feet being crammed into shoes or heels and over time your toes can stay that way.

Another site:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ham...SECTION=causes

As you can tell there are many causes.

This site mentions CMT, arthritis, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_toe