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- Edin, Benoni B
(författare)
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Cutaneous afferents provide information about knee joint movements in humans.
- 2001
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Ingår i: Journal of Physiology. - : Wiley. - 0022-3751 .- 1469-7793. ; 531:Pt 1, s. 289-297
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Neurophysiological evidence that afferent information from skin receptors is important for proprioception has been gathered mainly in experiments relating to the human hand and finger joints. To investigate if proprioceptive information is also provided by skin mechanoreceptor afferents from skin areas related to large joints of postural importance, microneurography recordings were obtained in humans from skin afferents in the lateral cutaneous femoral nerve to study their responses to knee joint movements. 2. Data were collected from 60 sequentially recorded afferents from slowly (n = 23) and fast (n = 6) adapting low-threshold mechanoreceptors, hair follicle receptors (n = 24), field receptors (n = 1) and C mechanoreceptors (n = 6). Fascicular recordings showed that the lateral cutaneous femoral nerve supplies extensive areas of the thigh: from 5-10 cm below the inguinal ligament down to below and lateral to the knee joint; accordingly, the afferents originated in receptors located in wide areas of the human thigh. 3. All afferents from fast and slowly adapting low-threshold mechanoreceptors, as well as C mechanoreceptors, responded to manually applied skin stretch. In contrast, the same stimulus elicited, at most, feeble responses in hair follicle receptors. 4. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the responses of a subset of afferents revealed that in particular slowly adapting afferents effectively encode both static and dynamic aspects of passively imposed knee joint movements. 5. It was concluded that receptors in the hairy skin of humans can provide high-fidelity information about knee joint movements. A previously undefined type of slowly adapting receptor (SA III) seemed particularly suited for this task whereas this does not seem to be the case for either hair follicle receptors or C mechanoreceptors.
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| 2. |
- Ohki, Yukari, et al.
(författare)
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Predictions specify reactive control of individual digits in manipulation.
- 2002
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Ingår i: Journal of Neuroscience. - 0270-6474 .- 1529-2401. ; 22:2, s. 600-10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When humans proactively manipulate objects, the applied fingertip forces primarily depend on feedforward, predictive neural control mechanisms that depend on internal representations of the physical properties of the objects. Here we investigate whether predictions of object properties also control fingertip forces that subjects generate reactively. We analyzed fingertip forces reactively supporting grasp stability in a restraining task that engaged two fingers. Each finger contacted a plate mounted on a separate torque motor, and, at unpredictable times, both plates were loaded simultaneously with forces tangential to the plates or just one of the plates was loaded. Thus, the apparatus acted as though the plates were mechanically linked or as though they were two independent objects. In different test series, each with a predominant behavior of the apparatus and with interspersed catch trials, we showed that the reactive responses clearly reflected the predominant behavior of the apparatus. Whether subject performed the task with one hand or bimanually, appropriate reactive fingertip forces developed when predominantly both contact plates were loaded or just one of the plates was loaded. When a finger was unexpectedly loaded during a catch trial, a weak initial reactive response was triggered, but the effective force development was delayed by approximately 100 msec. We conclude that the predicted physical properties of an object not only control fingertip forces during proactive but also in reactive manipulative tasks. Specifically, the automatic reactive responses reflect predictions at the level of individual digits as to the mechanical linkage of items contacted by the fingertips in manipulation.
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| 3. |
- Säfström, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Task requirements influence sensory integration during grasping in humans.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.). - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1072-0502 .- 1549-5485. ; 11:3, s. 356-363
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The sensorimotor transformations necessary for generating appropriate motor commands depend on both current and previously acquired sensory information. To investigate the relative impact (or weighting) of visual and haptic information about object size during grasping movements, we let normal subjects perform a task in which, unbeknownst to the subjects, the object seen (visual object) and the object grasped (haptic object) were never the same physically. When the haptic object abruptly became larger or smaller than the visual object, subjects in the following trials automatically adapted their maximum grip aperture when reaching for the object. This adaptation was not dependent on conscious processes. We analyzed how visual and haptic information were weighted during the course of sensorimotor adaptation. The adaptation process was quicker and relied more on haptic information when the haptic objects increased in size than when they decreased in size. As such, sensory weighting seemed to be molded to avoid prehension error. We conclude from these results that the impact of a specific source of sensory information on the sensorimotor transformation is regulated to satisfy task requirements.
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