The statistics of natural hand movements

Humans constantly use their hands to interact with the environment and they engage spontaneously in a wide variety of manual activities during everyday life. In contrast, laboratory-based studies of hand function have used a limited range of predefined tasks. The natural movements made by the hand d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental brain research Vol. 188; no. 2; pp. 223 - 236
Main Authors: Ingram, James N., Körding, Konrad P., Howard, Ian S., Wolpert, Daniel M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.06.2008
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Biomechanical Phenomena - instrumentation
Biomechanical Phenomena - methods
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain
Cortex
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Environmental movements
Everyday life
Fingers
Fingers & toes
Fingers - innervation
Fingers - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hand - innervation
Hand - physiology
Hand movements
Hand Strength - physiology
Hands
Human subjects
Humans
Identity formation
Independence
Joints - physiology
Kinematics
Laboratories
Male
Motor control and motor pathways. Reflexes. Control centers of vegetative functions. Vestibular system and equilibration
Motor Cortex - physiology
Movement - physiology
Muscle, Skeletal - innervation
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Neurology
Neurosciences
Observer Variation
Orientation - physiology
Principal Component Analysis
Principal components analysis
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Pyramidal Tracts - physiology
Range of Motion, Articular - physiology
Research Article
Sensors
Somesthesis and somesthetic pathways (proprioception, exteroception, nociception); interoception; electrolocation. Sensory receptors
Space Perception - physiology
Statistical methods
Statistics
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
United States > US
Chicago Illinois
Movement statistics
Human hand
Digit independence
Dimensionality of hand movements
Human
Gripping
Motor pathway
Thumb
Central nervous system
Joint
Hand
Encephalon
Osteoarticular system
Motor cortex
Kinematics
Principal component analysis
ISSN:0014-4819, 1432-1106, 1432-1106
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Humans constantly use their hands to interact with the environment and they engage spontaneously in a wide variety of manual activities during everyday life. In contrast, laboratory-based studies of hand function have used a limited range of predefined tasks. The natural movements made by the hand during everyday life have thus received little attention. Here, we developed a portable recording device that can be worn by subjects to track movements of their right hand as they go about their daily routine outside of a laboratory setting. We analyse the kinematic data using various statistical methods. Principal component analysis of the joint angular velocities showed that the first two components were highly conserved across subjects, explained 60% of the variance and were qualitatively similar to those reported in previous studies of reach-to-grasp movements. To examine the independence of the digits, we developed a measure based on the degree to which the movements of each digit could be linearly predicted from the movements of the other four digits. Our independence measure was highly correlated with results from previous studies of the hand, including the estimated size of the digit representations in primary motor cortex and other laboratory measures of digit individuation. Specifically, the thumb was found to be the most independent of the digits and the index finger was the most independent of the fingers. These results support and extend laboratory-based studies of the human hand.
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ISSN:0014-4819
1432-1106
1432-1106
DOI:10.1007/s00221-008-1355-3