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Related Experiment Videos

Hand synergies during reach-to-grasp.

C R Mason1, J E Gomez, T J Ebner

  • 1Department of Neuroscience and Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.

Journal of Neurophysiology
|December 4, 2001
PubMed
Summary

The central nervous system simplifies hand control using a few key postural synergies for reach-to-grasp actions. These fundamental movement patterns, identified through eigenpostures, are consistent across different grasps and objects.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Biomechanics
  • Motor Control

Background:

  • The central nervous system (CNS) may employ synergies to simplify complex motor tasks like hand manipulation.
  • Prior research indicated that static hand postures in mimed grasps can be represented by principal components, with higher-order components offering meaningful, albeit small, variance explanations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the entire reach-to-grasp action can be described by a limited set of postural synergies.
  • To determine if these identified synergies are consistent across various grasp types and object interactions.

Main Methods:

  • Five adults performed five types of reach-to-grasp tasks with 16 objects of varying shapes and sizes.
  • Three-dimensional hand and wrist kinematics were captured using a multi-camera system.

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  • Singular value decomposition (SVD) analyzed temporal marker data to extract common postural patterns (eigenpostures) and their time-varying weights.

    • Main Results:

    • The primary eigenposture accounted for an average of 97.3% of hand shape variance, representing a basic open-and-close hand movement during reach.
    • A secondary eigenposture (1.9% variance) refined thumb and finger movements, crucial for grasp preparation.
    • Eigenpostures and their temporal dynamics showed similarity across participants and grasp types.

    Conclusions:

    • Reach-to-grasp movements are largely governed by a fundamental postural synergy, with additional refinements in finger and thumb positioning.
    • This suggests a synergistic control strategy in the CNS for efficient and adaptable hand manipulation.
    • The identified eigenpostures provide a reduced, yet informative, representation of hand movement during grasping actions.