Controlling Finger Contact Transitions
Author Information
Author(s): Venkadesan Madhusudhan, Valero-Cuevas Francisco J.
Hypothesis
Does the strategy used by the biological system for contact transitions approach a strategy that is mechanically optimal or near optimal?
Conclusion
The study reveals that neuromuscular lags significantly influence the control of finger contact transitions, leading to a speed-accuracy trade-off.
Supporting Evidence
- The optimal control strategy anticipatorily switches joint torques to minimize misdirection of fingertip force.
- The model's predictions align closely with experimental data on human finger movements.
- Speed-accuracy trade-offs arise solely from neuromuscular lags, challenging existing noise-based theories.
Takeaway
When we touch things, our fingers need to switch from moving to pushing, and this study shows that our brain has to plan ahead to do it right.
Methodology
The study used numerical optimization on a finger model to explore contact transitions and the effects of neuromuscular lags.
Limitations
The model used idealized assumptions and did not account for all physiological properties of the human finger.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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