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Capturing Dynamic Finger Gesturing with High-resolution Surface Electromyography and Computer Vision
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Augmenting natural skin stretch during active finger motion reshapes hand proprioception
Eleonora Fontana1, Alessandro Moscatelli2,3, Manuel Giuseppe Catalano4
1Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Journal of the Royal Society, Interface
|May 19, 2026
Summary
Augmenting natural skin stretch during finger movement enhances proprioception. Controlled skin deformation systematically alters perceived finger position, even with active muscle engagement.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomechanics
- Haptics
Background:
- Skin stretch at joints is known to influence proprioception.
- Previous research often used anesthesia and focused on illusory movements, leaving gaps in understanding active movement scenarios.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how controlled, amplified skin deformation affects proprioception during active finger movement.
- To determine if augmenting natural skin stretch influences kinesthetic perception.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed active index finger position matching tasks.
- A custom tactile device delivered precisely scaled skin-stretch stimuli across the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint.
- Conditions included bare hand, device-deactivated, and device-activated (augmented skin stretch).
Main Results:
- Augmenting natural skin stretch consistently shifted perceived finger posture towards more extended configurations.
- No significant difference was found between the bare hand and device-deactivated conditions.
- Cutaneous deformation systematically altered proprioceptive estimates during active movement.
Conclusions:
- Proprioceptive estimates are continuously integrated with tactile cues from skin deformation, even during active tasks.
- Controlled skin stretch can systematically reshape kinesthetic perception.
- Findings have implications for haptics, virtual reality, and understanding sensorimotor control.
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