Understanding the constraints of finger motor control

Maas, Huub; Veeger, H.E.J.; Stegeman, Dick F.

doi:10.1016/j.jelekin.2017.10.004

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This difference may be due to a difference in the intensity of the tasks studied as both other studies employed finger movement at a low intensity (either tapping on a table or extension movements), while the channels for this study were selected on the basis of 100%MVC extension force tasks. However, they mainly highlight the individual nature of forearm musculature (Maas, Veeger, Dirkjan, & Stegeman, 2018;. These results suggest that caution should be applied when determining extrinsic muscle bellies by anatomical landmarks and palpation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Distinct neural control of intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the hand during single finger pressing

Dupan

Stegeman²,

Maas

2018

Human Movement Science

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Single finger force tasks lead to unintended activation of the non-instructed fingers, commonly referred to as enslaving. Both neural and mechanical factors have been associated with this absence of finger individuality. This study investigates the amplitude modulation of both intrinsic and extrinsic finger muscles during single finger isometric force tasks. Twelve participants performed single finger flexion presses at 20% of maximum voluntary contraction, while simultaneously the electromyographic activity of several intrinsic and extrinsic muscles associated with all four fingers was recorded using 8 electrode pairs in the hand and two 30-electrode grids on the lower arm. The forces exerted by each of the fingers, in both flexion and extension direction, were recorded with individual force sensors. This study shows distinct activation patterns in intrinsic and extrinsic hand muscles. Intrinsic muscles exhibited individuation, where the agonistic and antagonistic muscles associated with the instructed fingers showed the highest activation. This activation in both agonistic and antagonistic muscles appears to facilitate finger stabilisation during the isometric force task. Extrinsic muscles show an activation independent from instructed finger in both agonistic and antagonistic muscles, which appears to be associated with stabilisation of the wrist, with an additional finger-dependent modulation only present in the agonistic extrinsic muscles. These results indicate distinct muscle patterns in intrinsic and extrinsic hand muscles during single finger isometric force pressing. We conclude that the finger specific activation of intrinsic muscles is not sufficient to fully counteract enslaving caused by the broad activation of the extrinsic muscles.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Distinct neural control of intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the hand during single finger pressing

Dupan

Stegeman²,

Maas

2018

Human Movement Science

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“…An average contribution of 0.72 could be achieved for all six muscles for gesture F (Figure 6), suggesting that the motor control required participation of more forearm muscles to conduct a fist. Meanwhile, for gesture O, EIP and EPB made the primary contributions (0.95 and 0.99, respectively), which was in accordance with the inherent physiological mechanism that the contribution of finger motor control varies with the task performance [47]. In addition, the ED muscle, located in the posterior forearm, primarily controls stretching movements of the finger, wrist or elbow [48], which theoretically supports our results for the hand open gesture, as presented in Figure 6.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Synergistic Myoelectrical Activities of Forearm Muscles Improving Robust Recognition of Multi-Fingered Gestures

Luo

Chen³

et al. 2019

Sensors

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Currently, surface electromyography (sEMG) features of the forearm multi-tendon muscles are widely used in gesture recognition, however, there are few investigations on the inherent physiological mechanism of muscle synergies. We aimed to study whether the muscle synergies could be used for gesture recognition. Five healthy participants executed five gestures of daily life (pinch, fist, open hand, grip, and extension) and the sEMG activity was acquired from six forearm muscles. A non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithm was employed to decompose the pre-treated six-channel sEMG data to obtain the muscle synergy matrixes, in which the weights of each muscle channel determined the feature set for hand gesture classification. The results showed that the synergistic features of forearm muscles could be successfully clustered in the feature space, which enabled hand gestures to be recognized with high efficiency. By augmenting the number of participants, the mean recognition rate remained at more than 96% and reflected high robustness. We showed that muscle synergies can be well applied to gesture recognition.

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“…Although not assessed in the present study, substantial interindividual variation has been reported for the intertendinous connections of FDP [13] and FDS [15]. A large sample size will be needed to assess if specific variations are encountered more frequently like those described for the FDS muscle bellies [10].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Independent finger control is limited, which is mediated by neural and musculoskeletal mechanisms [9,10]. Regarding the musculoskeletal mechanisms, several candidates have been described: (i) the complex anatomy of the extrinsic muscles actuating the fingers, such as a muscle compartment arranged in series with multiple distal tendons of the FDS muscle [10,19,20];…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mechanical Interaction Between the Tendons of the Extrinsic Finger Flexors

Maas,

Geusebroek,

Baan

et al. 2024

Scandinavian Med Sci Sports

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Humans possess an incredible capacity for dexterity, but independent finger control is limited. One factor constraining finger independence is the connections between the tendons of the extrinsic finger muscles. The aim of this study was to assess to what extent the linkages between the distal tendons of flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) and those of the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) constrain finger independence. Experiments on human fresh frozen cadaveric upper extremities (n = 6) were performed. First, one finger (target) was flexed whereas the other (nontarget) fingers were held in a nearly extended position. The change (Δ) in total flexion angle (∑Θ; i.e., the sum of angles of the different finger joints) of the target finger from the ∑Θ corresponding to the extended position at the start of the movement until the ∑Θ corresponding to the onset of force exertion at the nontarget fingers was assessed. Second, the distribution of force across the four fingers upon loading the tendon of the target finger was assessed for two finger positions (extended, 90° flexion of metacarpal phalangeal joint). For both muscles and for all fingers, the range of independent movement was small (<7°). Δ∑Θ at force onset was lowest for fingers immediately adjacent to the target finger and highest for more distant fingers. For both muscles and for all fingers, some of the target finger force (<14% for FDP, <2% for FDS) was distributed to the nontarget fingers, which increased (up to 58%) only for FDP in response to target finger flexion. We conclude that mechanical connections between the FDP and FDS tendons constrain finger independence. Such constraints become apparent when moving one finger relative to the other fingers.

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Understanding the constraints of finger motor control

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Distinct neural control of intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the hand during single finger pressing

Distinct neural control of intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the hand during single finger pressing

Synergistic Myoelectrical Activities of Forearm Muscles Improving Robust Recognition of Multi-Fingered Gestures

Mechanical Interaction Between the Tendons of the Extrinsic Finger Flexors

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