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Sensing form - finger gaiting as key to tactile object exploration - a data glove analysis of a prototypical daily task.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Motor hand skill and associated dexterity is important for meeting the challenges of daily activity and an important resource post-stroke. In this context, the present study investigated the finger movements of right-handed subjects during tactile manipulation of a cuboid, a prototypical task underlying tactile exploration. During one motor act, the thumb and fingers of one hand surround the cuboid in a continuous and regular manner. While the object is moved by the guiding thumb, the opposed supporting fingers are replaced once they reach their joint limits by free fingers, a mechanism termed finger gaiting. METHODS:For both hands of 22 subjects, we acquired the time series of consecutive manipulations of a cuboid at a frequency of 1?Hz, using a digital data glove consisting of 29 sensors. Using principle component analysis, we decomposed the short action into motor patterns related to successive manipulations of the cuboid. The components purport to represent changing grasp configurations involving the stabilizing fingers and guiding thumb. The temporal features of the components permits testing whether the distinct configurations occur at the frequency of 1?Hz, i.e. within the time window of 1?s, and, thus, taxonomic classification of the manipulation as finger gaiting. RESULTS:The fraction of variance described by the principal components indicated that three components described the salient features of the single motor acts for each hand. Striking in the finger patterns was the prominent and varying roles of the MCP and PIP joints of the fingers, and the CMC joint of the thumb. An important aspect of the three components was their representation of distinct finger configurations within the same motor act. Principal component and graph theory analysis confirmed modular, functionally synchronous action of the involved joints. The computation of finger trajectories in one subject illustrated the workspace of the task, which differed for the right and left hands. CONCLUSION:In this task one complex motor act of 1?s duration could be described by three elementary and hierarchically ordered grasp configurations occurring at the prescribed frequency of 1?Hz. Therefore, these configurations represent finger gaiting, described until now only in artificial systems, as the principal mechanism underlying this prototypical task. TRIAL REGISTRATION:clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02865642 , registered 12 August 2016.

SUBMITTER: Krammer W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7542978 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sensing form - finger gaiting as key to tactile object exploration - a data glove analysis of a prototypical daily task.

Krammer Werner W Missimer John H JH Habegger Simon S Pastore-Wapp Manuela M Wiest Roland R Weder Bruno J BJ

Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation 20201008 1

<h4>Background</h4>Motor hand skill and associated dexterity is important for meeting the challenges of daily activity and an important resource post-stroke. In this context, the present study investigated the finger movements of right-handed subjects during tactile manipulation of a cuboid, a prototypical task underlying tactile exploration. During one motor act, the thumb and fingers of one hand surround the cuboid in a continuous and regular manner. While the object is moved by the guiding th ...[more]

PMID: 33032615

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Project description:BackgroundWhen scanning surfaces, humans perceive some of their physical attributes. These percepts are frequently accompanied by a sensation of (un)pleasantness. We therefore hypothesized that aspects of the mechanical activity induced by scanning surfaces with fingertips could be objectively associated with a pleasantness sensation. Previously, we developed a unidimensional measure of pleasantness, the Pleasant Touch Scale, quantifying the pleasantness level of 37 different materials. Findings of this study suggested that the sensation of pleasantness was influenced by the average magnitude of the frictional forces brought about by sliding the finger on the surface, and by the surface topography. In the present study, we correlated (i) characteristics of the fluctuations of frictional forces resulting from the interaction between the finger and the surface asperities as well as (ii) the average friction with the sensation of pleasantness.ResultsEight blindfolded participants tactually explored twelve materials of the Pleasant Touch Scale through lateral sliding movements of their index fingertip. During exploration, the normal and tangential interaction force components, fN and fT , as well as the fingertip trajectory were measured. The effect of the frictional force on pleasantness sensation was investigated through the analysis of the ratio fT to fN , i.e. the net coefficient of kinetic friction, ?. The influence of the surface topographies was investigated through analysis of rapid fT fluctuations in the spatial frequency domain. Results showed that high values of ? were anticorrelated with pleasantness. Furthermore, surfaces associated with fluctuations of fT having higher amplitudes in the low frequency range than in the high one were judged to be less pleasant than the surfaces yielding evenly distributed amplitudes throughout the whole spatial frequency domain.ConclusionCharacteristics of the frictional force fluctuations and of the net friction taking place during scanning can reliably be correlated with the pleasantness sensation of surfaces.

Dataset Information

Sensing form - finger gaiting as key to tactile object exploration - a data glove analysis of a prototypical daily task.

Publications

Sensing form - finger gaiting as key to tactile object exploration - a data glove analysis of a prototypical daily task.

Similar Datasets

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