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Topic Name: USC Researchers Say Precision Hand Manipulation is the Result of a Complex Neuro-Motor-Mechanical Process Orchestrated

Category: Mechanical

Research persons: Francisco Valero-Cuevas, Madhusudhan Venkadesan

Location: University of Southern California, United States

Details

Quickly moving your fingertips to tap or press a surface is essential for everyday life to, say, pick up small objects, use a BlackBerry or an iPhone. But researchers at the University of Southern California say that this seemingly trivial action is the result of a complex neuro-motor-mechanical process orchestrated with precision timing by the brain, nervous system and muscles of the hand.

USC Viterbi School of Engineering biomedical engineer Francisco Valero-Cuevas is working to understand the biological, neurological and mechanical features of the human hand that enable dexterous manipulation and makes it possible for a person to grasp and crack an egg, fasten a button, or fumble with a cell phone to answer a call.

"When you look at the hand, you think, ‘five fingers, what could be more straightforward"’ ” Valero-Cuevas said, “but really we don’t understand well what a hand is bio-mechanically, how it is controlled neurologically, how disease impairs it, and how treatment can best restore its function. It is difficult to know how each of its 30-plus muscles contributes to everyday functions like using a cell phone or performing the many finger tasks it takes to dress yourself.”

In a study published online today in The Journal of Neuroscience, titled “Neural Control Of Motion-to-Force Transitions with the Fingertip,” Valero-Cuevas and co-author Madhusudhan Venkadesan of Cornell University’s Department of Mathematics asked volunteers to tap and push against a surface with their forefinger while the researchers recorded the fingertip force and electrical activity in all of the muscles of the hand.

These researchers, in a first-of-a-kind experiment, recorded 3D fingertip force plus the complete muscle coordination pattern simultaneously using intramuscular electromyograms from all seven muscles of the index finger. Subjects were asked to produce a downward tapping motion, followed by a well-directed vertical fingertip force against a rigid surface. The researchers found that the muscle coordination pattern clearly switched from that for motion to that for force (~65 ms) before contact. Venkadesan’s mathematical modeling and analysis revealed that the underlying neural control also switched between mutually incompatible strategies in a time-critical manner.

"We think that the human nervous system employs a surprisingly time-critical and neurally demanding strategy for this common and seemingly trivial task of tapping and then pushing accurately, which is a necessary component of dexterous manipulation,” said Valero-Cuevas, who holds a joint appointment in the USC School of Dentistry’s division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.

“Our data suggest that specialized neural circuitry may have evolved for the hand because of the time-critical neural control that is necessary for executing the abrupt transition from motion (tap) to static force (push),” he said. “In the tap-push exercise, we found that the brain must be switching from the tap command to the push command while the fingertip is still in motion. Neurophysiological limitations prevent an instantaneous or perfect switch, so we speculate that there must be specialized circuits and strategies that allow people to do so effectively.

“If the transition between motor commands is not well timed and executed, your initial forces will be misdirected and you simply won’t be able to pick up an egg, a wine glass or a small bead quickly,” he said.

The findings begin to explain why it takes young children years to develop fine finger muscle coordination and skills such as precision pinching or manipulation, and why fine finger manipulation is so vulnerable to neurological diseases and aging, Valero-Cuevas said.

But perhaps even more importantly, he said, the findings suggest a functional explanation for an important evolutionary feature of the human brain: its disproportionately large sensory and motor centers associated with hand function.

“If, indeed, the nervous system faced evolutionary pressures to be able to anticipate and precisely control routine tasks like rapid precision pinch, the cortical structures for sensorimotor integration for finger function would probably need to be pretty well developed in the brain,” Valero-Cuevas said.

“That would give us the neural circuits needed for careful timing of motor actions and fine control of finger muscles,” he said. “Thus, our work begins to propose some functional justifications for the evolution of specialized brain areas controlling dexterous manipulation of the fingertips in humans.”

By understanding the neuromuscular principles behind dexterous manipulation, Valero-Cuevas hopes to help those who have lost the use of their hands by guiding rehabilitation and helping to develop the next generation of prosthetics. In addition, the work will allow industry to build machines that have versatility comparable to that of the human hand.

“As an analogy, I ask people to imagine going through life wearing winter gloves,” he said. “If you can grasp things in only the grossest of ways without fine manipulation, life is pretty difficult. Yet millions of people worldwide go through life without the full use of their hands. Diseases and aging processes that affect the hand function tend to disproportionately degrade the quality of life, and we want to reverse that.”

Note for Electromyography
Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for evaluating and recording physiologic properties of muscles at rest and while contracting. EMG is performed using an instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram. An electromyograph detects the electrical potential generated by muscle cells when these cells contract, and also when the cells are at rest.
To perform intramuscular EMG, a needle electrode is inserted through the skin into the muscle tissue. A trained medical professional (most often a physiatrist, neurologist, or physical therapist) observes the electrical activity while inserting the electrode. The insertional activity provides valuable information about the state of the muscle and its innervating nerve. Normal muscles at rest make certain, normal electrical sounds when the needle is inserted into them. Then the electrical activity when the muscle is at rest is studied. Abnormal spontaneous activity might indicate some nerve and/or muscle damage. Then the patient is asked to contract the muscle smoothly. The shape, size and frequency of the resulting motor unit potentials is judged. Then the electrode is retracted a few millimeters, and again the activity is analyzed until at least 10-20 units have been collected. Each electrode track gives only a very local picture of the activity of the whole muscle. Because skeletal muscles differ in the inner structure, the electrode has to be placed at various locations to obtain an accurate study.
Intramuscular EMG may be considered too invasive or too specific in some cases. A surface electrode may be used to monitor the general picture of muscle activation, as opposed to the activity of only a few fibres as observed using a needle. This technique is used in a number of settings; for example, in the physiotherapy clinic, muscle activation is monitored using surface EMG and patients have an auditory or visual stimulus to help them know when they are activating the muscle (biofeedback).

Note for Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function. Primarily, it is connected with neurobiology, psychology, neurology, clinical neurophysiology, electrophysiology, ethology, neuroanatomy, cognitive science and other brain sciences.
Surgical Neurophysiology is an applied subfield of neuroscience. A surgical neurophysiologist may work as a researcher at a university, or as a member of a surgical team in the surgical suite or operating room (OR). In the OR, he or she is involved with the functional monitoring of neural structures and neural systems with the aim of safe guarding the nervous system of the patient. He or she may also facilitate the surgical procedure by performing electrophysiological assays to identify neural structures.

Note for Nervous System
The nervous system is a highly specialized tissue network whose principal component are cells called neurons. Neurons are interconnected to each other in complex arrangements, and have the property of conducting, using electrochemical signals, a great variety of stimuli both within the nervous tissue as well as from and towards most of the other tissues. Thus, neurons coordinate multiple functions in organisms.

Nervous systems are found in many multicellular animals but differ greatly in complexity between species.
The human nervous system can be observed both with gross anatomy, (which describes the parts that are large enough to be seen with the plain eye,) and microanatomy, (which describes the system at a cellular level.) At gross anatomy, the nervous system can be grouped in distinct organs, these being actually stations which the neural pathways cross through. Thus, with a didactical purpose, these organs, according to their ubication, can be divided in two parts: the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS).

The research was supported by the Whitaker Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.