Unexpected complexity of everyday manual behaviors

How does the brain control an effector as complex and versatile as the hand? One possibility is that neural control is simplified by limiting the space of hand movements. Indeed, hand kinematics can be largely described within 8 to 10 dimensions. This oft replicated finding has been construed as evi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2020-07, Vol.11 (1), p.3564-8, Article 3564
Main Authors: Yan, Yuke, Goodman, James M., Moore, Dalton D., Solla, Sara A., Bensmaia, Sliman J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/2632
631/378/2632/2634
Adult
Biomechanical Phenomena
Brain
Complexity
Control systems
Grasping
Hand
Hand - physiology
Human performance
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Kinematics
Motor Activity - physiology
multidisciplinary
Posture - physiology
Principal Component Analysis
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Subspaces
Volition - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:How does the brain control an effector as complex and versatile as the hand? One possibility is that neural control is simplified by limiting the space of hand movements. Indeed, hand kinematics can be largely described within 8 to 10 dimensions. This oft replicated finding has been construed as evidence that hand postures are confined to this subspace. A prediction from this hypothesis is that dimensions outside of this subspace reflect noise. To address this question, we track the hand of human participants as they perform two tasks—grasping and signing in American Sign Language. We apply multiple dimension reduction techniques and replicate the finding that most postural variance falls within a reduced subspace. However, we show that dimensions outside of this subspace are highly structured and task dependent, suggesting they too are under volitional control. We propose that hand control occupies a higher dimensional space than previously considered. How does the brain control the complex movements of hands? Here, by tracking human hand kinematics and applying multidimensional reduction techniques, the authors provide evidence that grasping involves a complex control system that regulates even the most subtle aspects of hand movement.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-17404-0