The use of visual information during a visual saccade for the control of a goal-directed upper limb movement

Hand gestures communicate complex information to listeners through the visual information created by movement. In a recent study, however, we found that there are also direct biomechanical effects of high-impetus upper limb movement on voice acoustics. Here we explored whether listeners could detect information about movement in voice acoustics of another person. In this exploratory study, participants listened to a recording of a vocalizer who was simultaneously producing low- (wrist movement) or high- (arm movement) impetus movements at three different tempos. Listeners were asked to synchronize their own movement (wrist or arm movement) with that of the vocalizer. Listeners coupled with the frequency of the vocalizer arm (but not wrist) movements, and showed phase-coupling with vocalizer arm (but not wrist) movements. However, we found that this synchronization occurred regardless of whether the listener was moving their wrist or arm. This study shows that, in principle, there is acoustic specification of arm movements in voicing, but not wrist movements. These results, if replicated, provide novel insight into the possible interpersonal functions of gesture acoustics, which may lie in communicating bodily states. The second part of the paper is a pre-registration for the confirmatory study that will assess the research question in a larger sample with more diverse and naturalistic stimuli.

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Study of Rapid Goal-Directed Force of Upper Limb Movement

Journal of Mathematical Sciences ◽

10.1007/s10958-021-05282-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

A. G. Yakushev ◽

T. Yu. Bokov

Keyword(s):

Upper Limb ◽

Limb Movement

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Efficacy of the use of unaffected hand containment in unimanual intensive therapy to increase visuomotor coordination in children with hemiplegia: a randomized controlled pilot study

Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease ◽

10.1177/20406223211001280 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

pp. 204062232110012

Author(s):

Rocío Palomo-Carrión ◽

Elisabeth Bravo-Esteban ◽

Sara Ando-La Fuente ◽

Purificación López-Muñoz ◽

Inés Martínez-Galán ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Upper Limb ◽

Visual Information ◽

Intensive Therapy ◽

Action Planning ◽

Reaction Time Task ◽

Group Differences ◽

Visuomotor Coordination ◽

Therapy Program ◽

Anticipatory Action

Background: The capacity of children with hemiplegia to be engaged in anticipatory action planning is affected. There is no balance among spatial, proprioceptive and visual information, thus altering the affected upper limb visuomotor coordination. The objective of the present study was to assess the improvement in visuomotor coordination after the application of a unimanual intensive therapy program, with the use of unaffected hand containment compared with not using unaffected hand containment. Methods: A simple blind randomized clinical trial was realized. A total of 16 subjects with congenital infantile hemiplegia participated in the study with an age mean of 5.54 years old (SD:1.55). Two intensive protocols for 5 weeks of modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) or unimanual therapy without containment (UTWC) were executed 5 days per week (2 h/day). Affected upper limb visuomotor coordination (reaction time, task total time, active range, dynamic grasp) was measured before–after intensive therapy using a specific circuit with different slopes (10°/15°). Results: Statistically significant inter-group differences were found after the intervention, with clinically relevant results for the mCIMT group not seen in UTWC, in the following variables: reaction time 10°slope ( p = 0.003, d = 2.44), reaction time 15°slope ( p = 0.002, d = 2.15) as well as for the task total time 10°slope ( p = 0.002, d = 2.25), active reach 10°slope ( p = 0.002, d = 2.7), active reach 15°slope ( p = 0.003, d = 2.29) and dynamic grasp 10°/15°slopes ( p = <0.001, d = 2.69). There were not statistically significant inter-group differences in the total task time with 15°slope ( p = 0.074, d = 1.27). Conclusions: The use of unaffected hand containment in mCIMT would allow improvements in the affected upper limb’s visuomotor coordination. Thus, it would favor clinical practice to make decisions on therapeutic approaches to increase the affected upper limb functionality and action planning in children diagnosed with infantile hemiplegia (4–8 years old).

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