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Effect of visual and tactile feedback on kinematic synergies in the grasping hand

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Abstract

The human hand uses a combination of feedforward and feedback mechanisms to accomplish high degree of freedom in grasp control efficiently. In this study, we used a synergy-based control model to determine the effect of sensory feedback on kinematic synergies in the grasping hand. Ten subjects performed two types of grasps: one that included feedback (real) and one without feedback (memory-guided), at two different speeds (rapid and natural). Kinematic synergies were extracted from rapid real and rapid memory-guided grasps using principal component analysis. Synergies extracted from memory-guided grasps revealed greater preservation of natural inter-finger relationships than those found in corresponding synergies extracted from real grasps. Reconstruction of natural real and natural memory-guided grasps was used to test performance and generalizability of synergies. A temporal analysis of reconstruction patterns revealed the differing contribution of individual synergies in real grasps versus memory-guided grasps. Finally, the results showed that memory-guided synergies could not reconstruct real grasps as accurately as real synergies could reconstruct memory-guided grasps. These results demonstrate how visual and tactile feedback affects a closed-loop synergy-based motor control system.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge Dr. Zhi-Hong Mao for his assistance in data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, 07030, USA

    Vrajeshri Patel, Martin Burns & Ramana Vinjamuri

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  1. Vrajeshri Patel
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  2. Martin Burns
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  3. Ramana Vinjamuri
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Correspondence to Ramana Vinjamuri.

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Patel, V., Burns, M. & Vinjamuri, R. Effect of visual and tactile feedback on kinematic synergies in the grasping hand. Med Biol Eng Comput 54, 1217–1227 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-015-1424-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-015-1424-2

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