scholarly journals Proximal-distal differences in movement smoothness reflect differences in biomechanics

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (3) ◽  
pp. 1239-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Layne H. Salmond ◽  
Andrew D. Davidson ◽  
Steven K. Charles
Keyword(s):  
Neural Control ◽  
Sudden Change ◽  
Mechanical Impedance ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Neural Noise ◽  
Movement Smoothness ◽  
Flexion Extension

Smoothness is a hallmark of healthy movement. Past research indicates that smoothness may be a side product of a control strategy that minimizes error. However, this is not the only reason for smooth movements. Our musculoskeletal system itself contributes to movement smoothness: the mechanical impedance (inertia, damping, and stiffness) of our limbs and joints resists sudden change, resulting in a natural smoothing effect. How the biomechanics and neural control interact to result in an observed level of smoothness is not clear. The purpose of this study is to 1) characterize the smoothness of wrist rotations, 2) compare it with the smoothness of planar shoulder-elbow (reaching) movements, and 3) determine the cause of observed differences in smoothness. Ten healthy subjects performed wrist and reaching movements involving different targets, directions, and speeds. We found wrist movements to be significantly less smooth than reaching movements and to vary in smoothness with movement direction. To identify the causes underlying these observations, we tested a number of hypotheses involving differences in bandwidth, signal-dependent noise, speed, impedance anisotropy, and movement duration. Our simulations revealed that proximal-distal differences in smoothness reflect proximal-distal differences in biomechanics: the greater impedance of the shoulder-elbow filters neural noise more than the wrist. In contrast, differences in signal-dependent noise and speed were not sufficiently large to recreate the observed differences in smoothness. We also found that the variation in wrist movement smoothness with direction appear to be caused by, or at least correlated with, differences in movement duration, not impedance anisotropy. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This article presents the first thorough characterization of the smoothness of wrist rotations (flexion-extension and radial-ulnar deviation) and comparison with the smoothness of reaching (shoulder-elbow) movements. We found wrist rotations to be significantly less smooth than reaching movements and determined that this difference reflects proximal-distal differences in biomechanics: the greater impedance (inertia, damping, stiffness) of the shoulder-elbow filters noise in the command signal more than the impedance of the wrist.

Changes in motor cortex activity during reaching movements with similar hand paths but different arm postures

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 2563-2567 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. H. Scott ◽  
J. F. Kalaska
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Sagittal Plane ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Tonic Activity ◽  
Population Vector ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Direction Of Movement ◽  
Kinematics And Kinetics

1. Neuronal activity was recorded in the motor cortex of a monkey that performed reaching movements with the use of two different arm postures. In the first posture (control), the monkey used its natural arm orientation, approximately in the sagittal plane. In the second posture (abducted), the monkey had to adduct its elbow nearly to shoulder level to grasp the handle. The path of the hand between targets was similar in both arm postures, but the joint kinematics and kinetics were different. 2. In both postures, the activity of single cells was often broadly tuned with movement direction and static arm posture over the targets. In a large proportion of cells, either the level of tonic activity, the directional tuning, or both, varied between the two postures during the movement and target hold periods. 3. For most directions of movement, there was a statistically significant difference in the direction of the population vector for the two arm postures. Furthermore, whereas the population vector tended to point in the direction of movement for the control posture, there was a poorer correspondence between the direction of movement and the population vector for the abducted posture. These observed changes are inconsistent with the notion that the motor cortex encodes purely hand trajectory in space.

Neuromuscular Adaptation During Skill Acquisition on a Two Degree-of-Freedom Target-Acquisition Task: Isometric Torque Production

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (5) ◽  
pp. 3046-3057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Shemmell ◽  
Matthew Forner ◽  
James R. Tresilian ◽  
Stephan Riek ◽  
Benjamin K. Barry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Muscle Activation ◽  
Joint Torque ◽  
Acquisition Time ◽  
Neutral Position ◽  
Target Acquisition ◽  
Joint Torques ◽  
Flexion Extension ◽  
Torque Development

In this study we attempted to identify the principles that govern the changes in neural control that occur during repeated performance of a multiarticular coordination task. Eight participants produced isometric flexion/extension and pronation/supination torques at the radiohumeral joint, either in isolation (e.g., flexion) or in combination (e.g., flexion–supination), to acquire targets presented by a visual display. A cursor superimposed on the display provided feedback of the applied torques. During pre- and postpractice tests, the participants acquired targets in eight directions located either 3.6 cm (20% maximal voluntary contraction [MVC]) or 7.2 cm (40% MVC) from a neutral cursor position. On each of five consecutive days of practice the participants acquired targets located 5.4 cm (30% MVC) from the neutral position. EMG was recorded from eight muscles contributing to torque production about the radiohumeral joint during the pre- and posttests. Target-acquisition time decreased significantly with practice in most target directions and at both target torque levels. These performance improvements were primarily associated with increases in the peak rate of torque development after practice. At a muscular level, these changes were brought about by increases in the rates of recruitment of all agonist muscles. The spatiotemporal organization of muscle synergies was not significantly altered after practice. The observed adaptations appear to lead to performances that are generalizable to actions that require both greater and smaller joint torques than that practiced, and may be successfully recalled after a substantial period without practice. These results suggest that tasks in which performance is improved by increasing the rate of muscle activation, and thus the rate of joint torque development, may benefit in terms of the extent to which acquired levels of performance are maintained over time.

scholarly journals The duration of reaching movement is longer than predicted by minimum variance

2016 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 2342-2345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunji Wang ◽  
Yupeng Xiao ◽  
Etienne Burdet ◽  
James Gordon ◽  
Nicolas Schweighofer
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Variance ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Slow Movement ◽  
Reaching Movement ◽  
End Point ◽  
Parsimonious Explanation ◽  
Arm Reaching ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Duration Condition

Whether the central nervous system minimizes variability or effort in planning arm movements can be tested by measuring the preferred movement duration and end-point variability. Here we conducted an experiment in which subjects performed arm reaching movements without visual feedback in fast-, medium-, slow-, and preferred-duration conditions. Results show that 1) total end-point variance was smallest in the medium-duration condition and 2) subjects preferred to carry out movements that were slower than this medium-duration condition. A parsimonious explanation for the overall pattern of end-point errors across fast, medium, preferred, and slow movement durations is that movements are planned to minimize effort as well as end-point error due to both signal-dependent and constant noise.

Proprioceptive activity in primate primary somatosensory cortex during active arm reaching movements

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 2280-2301 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Prud'homme ◽  
J. F. Kalaska
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Arm Movements ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Tonic Activity ◽  
Directional Tuning ◽  
Central Target ◽  
Tonic Response

1. We studied the activity of 254 cells in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) responding to inputs from peripheral proprioceptors in a variety of tasks requiring active reaching movements of the contralateral arm. 2. The majority of cells with receptive fields on the proximal arm (shoulder and elbow) were broadly and unimodally tuned for movement direction, often with approximately sinusoidal tuning curves similar to those seen in motor and parietal cortex. 3. The predominant temporal response profiles were directionally tuned phasic bursts during movement and tonic activity that varied with different arm postures. 4. Most cells showed both phasic and tonic response components to differing degrees, and the population formed a continuum from purely phasic to purely tonic cells with no evidence of separate distinct phasic and tonic populations. This indicates that the initial cortical neuronal correlates of the introspectively distinguishable sensations of movement and position are represented in an overlapping or distributed manner in SI. 5. The directional tuning of the phasic and tonic response components of most cells was generally similar, although rarely identical. 6. We tested 62 cells during similar active and passive arm movements. Many cells showed large differences in their responses in the two conditions, presumably due to changes in peripheral receptor discharge during active muscle contractions. 7. We tested 86 cells in a convergent movement task in which monkeys made reaching movements to a single central target from eight peripheral starting positions. A majority of the cells (46 of 86, 53.5%) showed a movement direction-related hysteresis in which their tonic activity after movement to the central target varied with the direction by which the arm moved to the target. The directionality of this hysteresis was coupled with the movement-related directional tuning of the cells. 8. We recorded the discharge of 93 cells as the monkeys performed the task while compensating for loads in different directions. The large majority of cells showed a statistically significant modulation of activity as a function of load direction, which was qualitatively similar to that seen in motor cortex under similar task conditions. Quantitatively, however, the sensitivity of SI proprioceptive cells to loads was less than that seen in motor cortex but greater than in parietal cortex. 9. We interpret these results in terms of their implications for the central representation of the spatiotemporal form (“kinematics”) of arm movements and postures. Most importantly, the results emphasize the important influence of muscle contractile activity on the central proprioceptive representation of active movements.

Minimum Acceleration Criterion with Constraints Implies Bang-Bang Control as an Underlying Principle for Optimal Trajectories of Arm Reaching Movements

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 779-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shay Ben-Itzhak ◽  
Amir Karniel
Keyword(s):  
Neural Control ◽  
Minimum Principle ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Minimum Jerk ◽  
Trajectory Formation ◽  
Arm Reaching ◽  
Human Movements ◽  
Underlying Principle ◽  
Bang Bang Control

Rapid arm-reaching movements serve as an excellent test bed for any theory about trajectory formation. How are these movements planned? A minimum acceleration criterion has been examined in the past, and the solution obtained, based on the Euler-Poisson equation, failed to predict that the hand would begin and end the movement at rest (i.e., with zero acceleration). Therefore, this criterion was rejected in favor of the minimum jerk, which was proved to be successful in describing many features of human movements. This letter follows an alternative approach and solves the minimum acceleration problem with constraints using Pontryagin's minimum principle. We use the minimum principle to obtain minimum acceleration trajectories and use the jerk as a control signal. In order to find a solution that does not include nonphysiological impulse functions, constraints on the maximum and minimum jerk values are assumed. The analytical solution provides a three-phase piecewise constant jerk signal (bang-bang control) where the magnitude of the jerk and the two switching times depend on the magnitude of the maximum and minimum available jerk values. This result fits the observed trajectories of reaching movements and takes into account both the extrinsic coordinates and the muscle limitations in a single framework. The minimum acceleration with constraints principle is discussed as a unifying approach for many observations about the neural control of movements.

Interacting Noise Sources Shape Patterns of Arm Movement Variability in Three-Dimensional Space

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (5) ◽  
pp. 2654-2666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Apker ◽  
Timothy K. Darling ◽  
Christopher A. Buneo
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Vertical Plane ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Movement Variability ◽  
Noise Sources ◽  
Principal Axes ◽  
Three Dimensional Space

Reaching movements are subject to noise in both the planning and execution phases of movement production. The interaction of these noise sources during natural movements is not well understood, despite its importance for understanding movement variability in neurologically intact and impaired individuals. Here we examined the interaction of planning and execution related noise during the production of unconstrained reaching movements. Subjects performed sequences of two movements to targets arranged in three vertical planes separated in depth. The starting position for each sequence was also varied in depth with the target plane; thus required movement sequences were largely contained within the vertical plane of the targets. Each final target in a sequence was approached from two different directions, and these movements were made with or without visual feedback of the moving hand. These combined aspects of the design allowed us to probe the interaction of execution and planning related noise with respect to reach endpoint variability. In agreement with previous studies, we found that reach endpoint distributions were highly anisotropic. The principal axes of movement variability were largely aligned with the depth axis, i.e., the axis along which visual planning related noise would be expected to dominate, and were not generally well aligned with the direction of the movement vector. Our results suggest that visual planning–related noise plays a dominant role in determining anisotropic patterns of endpoint variability in three-dimensional space, with execution noise adding to this variability in a movement direction-dependent manner.

Sensory–motor processing in the caudate nucleus and globus pallidas: a single-unit study in behaving primates

1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. 1192-1201 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Aldridge ◽  
R. J. Anderson ◽  
J. T. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Caudate Nucleus ◽  
Control Process ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Wrist Flexion ◽  
Motor Processing ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Flexion Extension ◽  
Sensory Motor

Monkeys were prepared for chronic recording of single neurons in the caudate nucleus (Cd) or globus pallidus (GP) during learned wrist flexion–extension movements triggered by visual and somatic sensory inputs. Almost two-thirds of GP cells and more than one-third of Cd cells modified their discharge during these tasks. Three categories of response types were observed. The first was movement related. The second type was event related, in which the cells responded to either the onset or offset of the sensory inputs regardless of the correcting movement direction. A third type combined elements of the first two categories and was termed complex. These cells responded to complex abstractions of the sensory–motor event. A latency analysis indicated that the majority of cells was not involved in initiating movements but may have participated in movement execution. The results of this experiment suggest that during voluntary movement the basal ganglia activity is correlated with motor outputs, sensory inputs, and perceptual abstractions of these sensory–motor events. As such the results are compatible with an influence by diverse regions of cerebral cortex on basal ganglia neurons during the movement control process.

Effects of Direction and Curvature on Variable Error Pattern of Reaching Movements

Motor Control ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slobodan Jaric ◽  
Charli Tortoza ◽  
Ismael F.C. Fatarelli ◽  
Gil L. Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Movement Kinematics ◽  
Starting Position ◽  
Movement Curvature ◽  
Variable Errors ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Insight Into

A number of studies have analyzed various indices of the final position variability in order to provide insight into different levels of neuromotor processing during reaching movements. Yet the possible effects of movement kinematics on variability have often been neglected. The present study was designed to test the effects of movement direction and curvature on the pattern of movement variable errors. Subjects performed series of reaching movements over the same distance and into the same target. However, due either to changes in starting position or to applied obstacles, the movements were performed in different directions or along the trajectories of different curvatures. The pattern of movement variable errors was assessed by means of the principal component analysis applied on the 2-D scatter of movement final positions. The orientation of these ellipses demonstrated changes associated with changes in both movement direction and curvature. However, neither movement direction nor movement curvature affected movement variable errors assessed by area of the ellipses. Therefore it was concluded that the end-point variability depends partly, but not exclusively, on movement kinematics.

scholarly journals Proximal Versus Distal Control of Two-Joint Planar Reaching Movements in the Presence of Neuromuscular Noise

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hung P. Nguyen ◽  
Jonathan B. Dingwell
Keyword(s):  
System Performance ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Energetic Cost ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Joint Control ◽  
Total Work ◽  
Upper Arm ◽  
Reaching Accuracy ◽  
Distal Joint ◽  
Human Nervous System

Determining how the human nervous system contends with neuro-motor noise is vital to understanding how humans achieve accurate goal-directed movements. Experimentally, people learning skilled tasks tend to reduce variability in distal joint movements more than in proximal joint movements. This suggests that they might be imposing greater control over distal joints than proximal joints. However, the reasons for this remain unclear, largely because it is not experimentally possible to directly manipulate either the noise or the control at each joint independently. Therefore, this study used a 2 degree-of-freedom torque driven arm model to determine how different combinations of noise and/or control independently applied at each joint affected the reaching accuracy and the total work required to make the movement. Signal-dependent noise was simultaneously and independently added to the shoulder and elbow torques to induce endpoint errors during planar reaching. Feedback control was then applied, independently and jointly, at each joint to reduce endpoint error due to the added neuromuscular noise. Movement direction and the inertia distribution along the arm were varied to quantify how these biomechanical variations affected the system performance. Endpoint error and total net work were computed as dependent measures. When each joint was independently subjected to noise in the absence of control, endpoint errors were more sensitive to distal (elbow) noise than to proximal (shoulder) noise for nearly all combinations of reaching direction and inertia ratio. The effects of distal noise on endpoint errors were more pronounced when inertia was distributed more toward the forearm. In contrast, the total net work decreased as mass was shifted to the upper arm for reaching movements in all directions. When noise was present at both joints and joint control was implemented, controlling the distal joint alone reduced endpoint errors more than controlling the proximal joint alone for nearly all combinations of reaching direction and inertia ratio. Applying control only at the distal joint was more effective at reducing endpoint errors when more of the mass was more proximally distributed. Likewise, controlling the distal joint alone required less total net work than controlling the proximal joint alone for nearly all combinations of reaching distance and inertia ratio. It is more efficient to reduce endpoint error and energetic cost by selectively applying control to reduce variability in the distal joint than the proximal joint. The reasons for this arise from the biomechanical configuration of the arm itself.

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