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Related Experiment Videos

Matching object size by controlling finger span and hand shape

M Santello1, J F Soechting

  • 1Department of Physiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA. marco@shaker.med.umn.edu

Somatosensory & Motor Research
|January 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary
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Human subjects control finger span with high accuracy, though errors often result in spans smaller than the object. Hand posture is controlled as a unit, suggesting a unified grasping strategy.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Biomechanics
  • Human Factors

Background:

  • Accurate control of finger span is crucial for effective grasping.
  • Understanding the sensorimotor control of hand movements is essential for prosthetics and robotics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the accuracy of human finger span control without visual feedback.
  • To determine how object properties (size, shape, distance, orientation) and hand configurations influence finger span accuracy.
  • To explore the role of sensory modality (vision, haptics) and finger combinations in size perception and control.

Main Methods:

  • Experiments involved human subjects controlling finger span without visual feedback.
  • Object properties like size, shape, distance, and orientation were systematically varied.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Different finger combinations and sensory modalities (vision, haptics) were tested.
  • Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyze hand postures.

    • Main Results:

    • Subjects demonstrated high proficiency in controlling finger span, with predominantly negative errors (span < object size).
    • The thumb-little finger combination was less accurate than others.
    • Cylinders were matched with greater underestimation errors than cubes or parallelepipeds.
    • No significant effects of viewing distance, object orientation, or finger configuration were found.
    • Accuracy was independent of the sensory modality used.
    • PCA revealed two principal components characterizing hand postures, with the second component scaling linearly with object size.

    Conclusions:

    • Human finger span control is robust and largely independent of visual feedback, object orientation, and distance.
    • The hand's degrees of freedom are controlled as a unified system, supporting the 'virtual finger' hypothesis for grasping.
    • Object shape influences size matching accuracy, with cylinders posing a greater challenge.