Temporal coordination in bimanual actions

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 591-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Wiesendanger ◽  
Pawel Kaluzny ◽  
Oleg Kazennikov ◽  
Agostino Palmeri ◽  
Stephen Perrig
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Postural Adjustment ◽  
Motor Equivalence ◽  
Temporal Coordination ◽  
Bimanual Movements ◽  
Bimanual Actions ◽  
First Dorsal Interosseus ◽  
Bimanual Unloading

The issue of bimanual temporal coordination in human subjects is discussed for three selected movement paradigms: (i) simple, symmetric, bimanual finger movements, (ii) bimanual unloading, and (iii) a complex bimanual pull and grasp task. Temporal synchronization was found for all three experiments and was least variable for the first experiment. In the second experiment, synchronization concerned unloading with the index finger of one hand (electromyographic activation of the first dorsal interosseus muscle) and the postural adjustment of the load-bearing index finger of the other hand (electromyographic deactivation of the first dorsal interosseus muscle). In the third experiment, a goal-related temporal invariance was observed, even in the absence of visual guidance. Possible neural mechanisms for the observed temporal coordination of the three types of bimanual movements are discussed, as well as the concepts of goal invariance and motor equivalence.Key words: bimanual coordination, temporal invariance, motor equivalence.

Cerebellar Involvement in Anticipating the Consequences of Self-Produced Actions During Bimanual Movements

2005 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 801-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörn Diedrichsen ◽  
Timothy Verstynen ◽  
Steven L. Lehman ◽  
Richard B. Ivry
Keyword(s):  
Short Term ◽  
Bimanual Movements ◽  
Cerebellar Damage ◽  
Bimanual Actions ◽  
Learned Behaviors ◽  
Short Term Adaptation ◽  
Cerebellar Lesions ◽  
Cerebellar Involvement ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Bimanual Unloading

Anticipatory postural adjustments (APA) during bimanual actions can be observed when participants hold an object in one hand and then lift it with the other hand. The postural force used to hold the object is reduced in anticipation of unloading, indicating an accurate prediction of the change in load. We examined patients with unilateral or bilateral cerebellar damage as well as two individuals lacking the corpus callosum on the bimanual unloading task. The acallosal patients showed an intact APA, suggesting subcortical integration of motor signals for anticipatory adjustments during bimanual actions. Contrary to the hypothesis that the cerebellum is critical for predicting and compensating for the consequences of our actions, we found that the well-learned APA in this task was largely intact in cerebellar patients. However, cerebellar damage abolished short-term adaptation of the APA, and the patients were unable to acquire an APA in a similar but previously untrained situation. These results indicate that while over-learned anticipatory adjustments are preserved after cerebellar lesions, adaptation of this response and the acquisition of a novel coordination requires the cerebellum ipsilateral to the postural hand. Furthermore, this structure appears to be essential for the accurate timing of previously learned behaviors. The patients with cerebellar damage showed poorly timed adjustments with the APA beginning earlier than in healthy participants.

Index finger position and force of the human first dorsal interosseus and its ulnar nerve antagonist

1994 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 987-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Zijdewind ◽  
D. Kernell
Keyword(s):  
Ulnar Nerve ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Maximum Voluntary Contraction ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Voluntary Contraction ◽  
Abduction Angle ◽  
Hand Position ◽  
First Dorsal Interosseus ◽  
Length Analysis ◽  
Neutral Angle

In normal subjects, maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and electrical ulnar nerve stimulation (UNS; 30-Hz bursts of 0.33 s) were systematically compared with regard to the forces generated in different directions (abduction/adduction and flexion) and at different degrees of index finger abduction. With a “resting” hand position in which there was no index finger abduction, UNS produced about one-half of the abduction force elicited by an MVC (mean ratio 51%). Qualitatively, such a discrepancy would be expected, because UNS activates two index finger muscles with opposing actions in the abduction/adduction plane of torques: the first dorsal interosseus (FDI) and the first palmar interosseus (FPI). The abduction forces produced by MVC and UNS were very sensitive to index finger abduction angle: at a maximum degree of abduction, the UNS-generated force even reversed its direction of action to adduction (with FPI dominating) and the abduction MVC declined to 37% of that in the resting hand position. Inasmuch as these declines in MVC- and UNS-generated abduction force could not be explained by a change in moment arm, the main alternative seemed to be abduction-associated alterations in FDI fiber length (analysis by previously published biomechanical data). The FDI and FPI were further compared by application of a UNS-generated fatigue test (5-min burst stimulation), with the index finger kept at a "neutral" angle, i.e., the abduction angle at which, in the unfatigued state, the forces of the FDI and FPI were in balance (zero net UNS-generated abduction/adduction force).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Dissociation of Spatial and Temporal Coupling in the Bimanual Movements of Callosotomy Patients

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 306-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Franz ◽  
James C. Eliassen ◽  
Richard B. Ivry ◽  
Michael S. Gazzaniga
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Callosum ◽  
Execution Time ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Movement Onset ◽  
Temporal Synchrony ◽  
Bimanual Movements ◽  
Limb Coordination ◽  
Temporal Coupling ◽  
Spatial Interference

The neural mechanisms of limb coordination were investigated by testing callosotomy patients and normal control subjects on bimanual movements Normal subjects produced deviations in the trajectories when spatial demands for the two hands were different, despite temporal synchrony in the onset of bimanual movements Callosotomy patients did not produce spatial deviations, although their hands moved with normal temporal synchrony Normal subjects but not callosotomy patients exhibited large increases in planning and execution time for movements with different spatial demands for the two hands relative to movements with identical spatial demands for the two hands This neural dissociation indicates that spatial interference in movements results from callosal connections, whereas temporal synchrony in movement onset does not rely on the corpus callosum

PHASED MULTI-JOINT MOVEMENT OF THE INDEX FINGER DURING A FULL FLEXION CYCLE

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. 303-312
Author(s):  
Wensheng Hou ◽  
Xiaoying Wu ◽  
Yingtao Jiang ◽  
Jun Zheng ◽  
Xiaolin Zheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Angular Velocity ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Joint Motion ◽  
Joint Movement ◽  
General Belief ◽  
Angular Velocities ◽  
Full Flexion ◽  
Five Phases

Flexion of the index finger is a fairly complex process requiring the coordination of different joints. This study is the first attempt to investigate how the angular velocity profile of the three right index joints (DIP, PIP, and MCP) varies with respect to time during the course of flexion. Ten right-handed subjects (healthy college students between 21 and 23 years old) were recruited to participate in the experiment. Each of these human subjects was instructed to perform a flexion task with his/her right hand. Five miniaturized (5-mm diameter) reflective markers were applied to each human subject: three placed at the DIP, PIP, and MCP joints of the index finger on the side close to thumb, and the rest at the predetermined landmarks on dorsum of thumb. A high-speed camera was used to record the motion of the index finger during a paced flexion, and the instantaneous angular velocity of each joint was determined by relating the marker displacement to the frame frequency (~5 ms between two consecutive frames). Opposite to the general belief that the speed is constant throughout a flexion cycle, to our best knowledge, this study, for the first time, has revealed that the speed of multi-joint movement actually varies with time. It has been identified that during one full flexion cycle, the angular velocity of the three joints of interest undergoes five distinguishable phases, referred as phases P1 (slow), P2 (fast), P3 (slow), P4 (fast), and P5 (slow), respectively. It has also been observed that duration of each of phases P1, P2, P4, or P5 accounts for approximately 10–15% of the whole flexion cycle, while P3 lasts for nearly half a cycle. Furthermore, although the flexions of DIP, PIP, and MCP joints cycle through the same five phases, the starts of their respective phases tend to vary. In P2 and P5, flexion of MCP takes place considerably later than those of PIP and DIP, whereas DIP flexes earlier than PIP in P2. The angular velocity of each joint reaches its peaks in P2 and P4; the peak velocity of DIP occurs earlier than that of PIP or MCP in P2, whereas peak of MCP is reached later than that of PIP. Moreover, the three joints of index finger flex with different angular velocities in each of the five phases: PIP moves significantly faster than MCP in P2, whereas DIP moves faster than MCP in P4. The results from our study indicate that the multi-joint motion of index finger is an uneven course, i.e. different joints flex with different angular velocities during the flexion. The temporal features of the velocity due to a single joint or multi-joint motion provide useful information to further clarify the dexterity of finger movement.

TMS-responses during anticipatory postural adjustment in bimanual unloading in humans

2005 ◽  
Vol 383 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleg Kazennikov ◽  
Irina Solopova ◽  
Vera Talis ◽  
Alexander Grishin ◽  
Marat Ioffe
Keyword(s):  
Postural Adjustment ◽  
Anticipatory Postural Adjustment ◽  
Bimanual Unloading

Transfer of ballistic motor skill between bilateral and unilateral contexts in young and older adults: neural adaptations and behavioral implications

2013 ◽  
Vol 109 (12) ◽  
pp. 2963-2971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Hinder ◽  
Timothy J. Carroll ◽  
Jeffery J. Summers
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Intracortical Inhibition ◽  
Corticospinal Excitability ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Ballistic Performance ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Bimanual Movements ◽  
Bilateral Training

Bilateral movement rehabilitation is gaining popularity as an approach to improve the recovery not only of bimanual function but also of unilateral motor tasks. While the neural mechanisms mediating the transfer of bilateral training gains into unimanual contexts are not fully understood, converging evidence from behavioral, neurophysiological, and imaging studies suggests that bimanual movements are not simply the superposition of unimanual tasks undertaken with both (upper) limbs. Here we investigated the neural responses in both hemispheres to bilateral ballistic motor training and the extent to which performance improvements transferred to a unimanual task. Since aging influences interhemispheric interactions during movement production, both young ( n = 9; mean age 19.4 yr; 6 women, 3 men) and older ( n = 9; 66.3 yr; 7 women, 2 men) adults practiced a bilateral motor task requiring simultaneous “fast-as-possible” abductions of their left and right index fingers. Changes in bilateral and unilateral performance, and in corticospinal excitability and intracortical inhibition, were assessed. Strong transfer was observed between bimanual and unimanual contexts for both age groups. However, in contrast to previous reports of substantial bilateral cortical adaptations following unilateral training, increases in corticospinal excitability following bilateral training were not statistically reliable, and a release of intracortical inhibition was only observed for older adults. The results indicate that the neural mechanisms of motor learning for bilateral ballistic tasks differ from those that underlie unimanual ballistic performance improvement but that aging results in a greater overlap of the neural mechanisms mediating bilateral and unilateral ballistic motor performance.

Behavioral evidence of filling-in at the blind spot of the monkey

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1103-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hidehiko Komatsu ◽  
Ikuya Murakami
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Visual Fields ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Opposite Field ◽  
Normal Visual Field ◽  
Saccade Task ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
Blind Spots

AbstractIn human subjects, the blind spot is perceptually filled-in by color and brightness from the surrounding visual field. The present behavioral study examined the occurrence of color filling-in at the blind spot in monkeys. First, the location of the blind spot was determined using a monocular saccade task. The blind spots were located on the horizontal meridian at approximately 15–17 deg from the fixation point in the temporal visual field. Then, filling-in at the blind spot was tested by determining if the monkey could discriminate between an annulus presented on the blind spot and a homogeneous disk in the normal visual field. In this task, the monkey was required to make a saccade to a homogeneous disk of the same color and size as an annulus presented simultaneously in the opposite field. Both stimuli were large enough to cover the blind spot and the inner circle of the annulus was confined inside the blind spot. All four monkeys tested performed this task correctly in over 80% of the trials. However, when one eye was covered and the annulus was presented on the blind spot of the uncovered eye, performance deteriorated significantly. To confirm that these results reflected filling-in, one monkey was trained to maintain fixation when two identical homogeneous disks appeared in opposite visual fields. When only one eye was uncovered, and the annulus was presented on the blind spot of the uncovered eye, the monkey maintained fixation in most of the trials. These results show that monkeys were unable to distinguish an annulus from a homogeneous disk when the annulus was presented on the blind spot. This indicates that color filling-in occurs at the blind spot in monkeys and opens possibility to physiological experiments to study the neural mechanisms of filling-in.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological and Kinematic Correlates of Communicative Intent in the Planning and Production of Pointing Gestures and Speech

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 2352-2368 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Peeters ◽  
Mingyuan Chu ◽  
Judith Holler ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
Aslı Özyürek
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Material World ◽  
Communicative Intent ◽  
Electrophysiological Data ◽  
Pointing Gestures ◽  
Communicative Act

In everyday human communication, we often express our communicative intentions by manually pointing out referents in the material world around us to an addressee, often in tight synchronization with referential speech. This study investigated whether and how the kinematic form of index finger pointing gestures is shaped by the gesturer's communicative intentions and how this is modulated by the presence of concurrently produced speech. Furthermore, we explored the neural mechanisms underpinning the planning of communicative pointing gestures and speech. Two experiments were carried out in which participants pointed at referents for an addressee while the informativeness of their gestures and speech was varied. Kinematic and electrophysiological data were recorded online. It was found that participants prolonged the duration of the stroke and poststroke hold phase of their gesture to be more communicative, in particular when the gesture was carrying the main informational burden in their multimodal utterance. Frontal and P300 effects in the ERPs suggested the importance of intentional and modality-independent attentional mechanisms during the planning phase of informative pointing gestures. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the complex interplay between action, attention, intention, and language in the production of pointing gestures, a communicative act core to human interaction.

A Computational Role for Dopamine Delivery in Human Decision-Making

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 623-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Egelman ◽  
Christophe Person ◽  
P. Read Montague
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Behavioral Strategies ◽  
Pharmacological Interventions ◽  
Decision Strategies ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Future Events ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Mesencephalic Dopamine

Recent work suggests that fluctuations in dopamine delivery at target structures represent an evaluation of future events that can be used to direct learning and decision-making. To examine the behavioral consequences of this interpretation, we gave simple decision-making tasks to 66 human subjects and to a network based on a predictive model of mesencephalic dopamine systems. The human subjects displayed behavior similar to the network behavior in terms of choice allocation and the character of deliberation times. The agreement between human and model performances suggests a direct relationship between biases in human decision strategies and fluctuating dopamine delivery. We also show that the model offers a new interpretation of deficits that result when dopamine levels are increased or decreased through disease or pharmacological interventions. The bottom-up approach presented here also suggests that a variety of behavioral strategies may result from the expression of relatively simple neural mechanisms in different behavioral contexts.

Design and Performance of a Motor-Driven Mechanism to Conduct Experiments With the Human Index Finger

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Hsin Kuo ◽  
Jerod Hayes ◽  
Ashish D. Deshpande
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Joint Stiffness ◽  
Viscoelastic Behavior ◽  
Neuromuscular Control ◽  
External Loading ◽  
Human Hand ◽  
Robotic Hands ◽  
Hand Biomechanics ◽  
Human Hands

Passive properties of the human hands, defined by the joint stiffness and damping, play an important role in hand biomechanics and neuromuscular control. Introduction of mechanical element that generates humanlike passive properties in a robotic form may lead to improved grasping and manipulation abilities of the next generation of robotic hands. This paper presents a novel mechanism, which is designed to conduct experiments with the human subjects in order to develop mathematical models of the passive properties at the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint. We designed a motor-driven system that integrates with a noninvasive and infrared motion capture system, and can control and record the MCP joint angle, angular velocity, and passive forces of the MCP joint in the index finger. A total of 19 subjects participated in the experiments. The modular and adjustable design was suitable for variant sizes of the human hands. Sample results of the viscoelastic moment, hysteresis loop, and complex module are presented in the paper. We also carried out an error analysis and a statistical test to validate the reliability and repeatability of the mechanism. The results show that the mechanism can precisely collect kinematic and kinetic data during static and dynamic tests, thus allowing us to further understand the insights of passive properties of the human hand joints. The viscoelastic behavior of the MCP joint showed a nonlinear dependency on the frequency. It implies that the elastic and viscous component of the hand joint coordinate to adapt to the external loading based on the applied frequency. The findings derived from the experiments with the mechanism can provide important guidelines for design of humanlike compliance of the robotic hands.

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