Temporal postural synergies of the hand in rapid grasping tasks

IEEE Trans Inf Technol Biomed. 2010 Jul;14(4):986-94. doi: 10.1109/TITB.2009.2038907. Epub 2010 Jan 12.

Abstract

Postural synergies of the hand have been widely proposed in the literature, but only a few attempts were made to visualize temporal postural synergies, i.e., profiles of postural synergies varying over time. This paper aims to derive temporal postural synergies from kinematic synergies extracted from joint angular velocity profiles of rapid grasping movements. The rapid movements constrain the kinematic synergies to combine instantaneously, and thus, the movements can be approximated by a weighted summation of synchronous synergies. After being extracted by using singular value decomposition, the synchronous kinematic synergies were translated into temporal postural synergies, which revealed strategies of enslaving, metacarpal flexion for larger movements, and hierarchical recruitment of joints, adapted by subjects while grasping.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Hand / physiology*
  • Hand Strength*
  • Humans
  • Posture*