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Córdova Bulens D, du Bois de Dunilac S, Delhaye BP, Lefèvre P, Redmond SJ. Open-Source Instrumented Object to Study Dexterous Object Manipulation. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0211-23.2023. [PMID: 38164548 PMCID: PMC10849037 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0211-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Revised: 10/20/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Humans use tactile feedback to perform skillful manipulation. When tactile sensory feedback is unavailable, for instance, if the fingers are anesthetized, dexterity is severely impaired. Imaging the deformation of the finger pad skin when in contact with a transparent plate provides information about the tactile feedback received by the central nervous system. Indeed, skin deformations are transduced into neural signals by the mechanoreceptors of the finger pad skin. Understanding how this feedback is used for active object manipulation would improve our understanding of human dexterity. In this paper, we present a new device for imaging the skin of the finger pad of one finger during manipulation performed with a precision grip. The device's mass (300 g) makes it easy to use during unconstrained dexterous manipulation. Using this device, we reproduced the experiment performed in Delhaye et al. (2021) We extracted the strains aligned with the object's movement, i.e., the vertical strains in the ulnar and radial parts of the fingerpad, to see how correlated they were with the grip force (GF) adaptation. Interestingly, parts of our results differed from those in Delhaye et al. (2021) due to weight and inertia differences between the devices, with average GF across participants differing significantly. Our results highlight a large variability in the behavior of the skin across participants, with generally low correlations between strain and GF adjustments, suggesting that skin deformations are not the primary driver of GF adaptation in this manipulation scenario.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Córdova Bulens
- Biomedical Sensors & Signals Group, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, D04V1W8, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
| | - Sophie du Bois de Dunilac
- Biomedical Sensors & Signals Group, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, D04V1W8, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
| | - Benoit P Delhaye
- Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM), Université catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, 1200, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Philippe Lefèvre
- Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM), Université catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, 1200, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Stephen J Redmond
- Biomedical Sensors & Signals Group, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, D04V1W8, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
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Keime M, Chomienne L, Goulon C, Sainton P, Lapole T, Casanova R, Bossard M, Nicol C, Martha C, Bolmont B, Hays A, Vercruyssen F, Chavet P, Bringoux L. How about running on Mars? Influence of sensorimotor coherence on running and spatial perception in simulated reduced gravity. Front Physiol 2023; 14:1201253. [PMID: 37601641 PMCID: PMC10433163 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1201253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Motor control, including locomotion, strongly depends on the gravitational field. Recent developments such as lower-body positive pressure treadmills (LBPPT) have enabled studies on Earth about the effects of reduced body weight (BW) on walking and running, up to 60% BW. The present experiment was set up to further investigate adaptations to a more naturalistic simulated hypogravity, mimicking a Martian environment with additional visual information during running sessions on LBPPT. Twenty-nine participants performed three sessions of four successive five-min runs at preferred speed, alternating Earth- or simulated Mars-like gravity (100% vs. 38% BW). They were displayed visual scenes using a virtual reality headset to assess the effects of coherent visual flow while running. Running performance was characterized by normal ground reaction force and pelvic accelerations. The perceived upright and vection (visually-induced self-motion sensation)in dynamic visual environments were also investigated at the end of the different sessions. We found that BW reduction induced biomechanical adaptations independently of the visual context. Active peak force and stance time decreased, while flight time increased. Strong inter-individual differences in braking and push-off times appeared at 38% BW, which were not systematically observed in our previous studies at 80% and 60% BW. Additionally, the importance given to dynamic visual cues in the perceived upright diminished at 38% BW, suggesting an increased reliance on the egocentric body axis as a reference for verticality when the visual context is fully coherent with the previous locomotor activity. Also, while vection was found to decrease in case of a coherent visuomotor coupling at 100% BW (i.e., post-exposure influence), it remained unaffected by the visual context at 38% BW. Overall, our findings suggested that locomotor and perceptual adaptations were not similarly impacted, depending on the -simulated- gravity condition and visual context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Keime
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France
- École Centrale Marseille, Marseille, France
- KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Cédric Goulon
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France
| | | | - Thomas Lapole
- Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, Lyon 1, Université Savoie Mont-Blanc, Laboratoire Interuniversitaire de Biologie de la Motricité, Saint-Etienne, France
| | - Rémy Casanova
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France
| | - Martin Bossard
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France
- University Gustave Eiffel, COSYS-PICS-L, Marne-la-Vallée, France
| | | | - Cécile Martha
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France
| | | | - Arnaud Hays
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France
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Abstract
Mental imagery represents a potential countermeasure for sensorimotor and cognitive dysfunctions due to spaceflight. It might help train people to deal with conditions unique to spaceflight. Thus, dynamic interactions with the inertial motion of weightless objects are only experienced in weightlessness but can be simulated on Earth using mental imagery. Such training might overcome the problem of calibrating fine-grained hand forces and estimating the spatiotemporal parameters of the resulting object motion. Here, a group of astronauts grasped an imaginary ball, threw it against the ceiling or the front wall, and caught it after the bounce, during pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight experiments. They varied the throwing speed across trials and imagined that the ball moved under Earth's gravity or weightlessness. We found that the astronauts were able to reproduce qualitative differences between inertial and gravitational motion already on ground, and further adapted their behavior during spaceflight. Thus, they adjusted the throwing speed and the catching time, equivalent to the duration of virtual ball motion, as a function of the imaginary 0 g condition versus the imaginary 1 g condition. Arm kinematics of the frontal throws further revealed a differential processing of imagined gravity level in terms of the spatial features of the arm and virtual ball trajectories. We suggest that protocols of this kind may facilitate sensorimotor adaptation and help tuning vestibular plasticity in-flight, since mental imagery of gravitational motion is known to engage the vestibular cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvio Gravano
- grid.417778.a0000 0001 0692 3437Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179 Rome, Italy ,grid.6530.00000 0001 2300 0941Department of Systems Medicine and Center of Space BioMedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Lacquaniti
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy. .,Department of Systems Medicine and Center of Space BioMedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy.
| | - Myrka Zago
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy. .,Department of Civil Engineering and Computer Science Engineering & Center of Space BioMedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy.
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Abstract
Humans excel at learning complex tasks, and elite performers such as musicians or athletes develop motor skills that defy biomechanical constraints. All actions require the movement of massive bodies. Of particular interest in the process of sensorimotor learning and control is the impact of gravitational forces on the body. Indeed, efficient control and accurate internal representations of the body configuration in space depend on our ability to feel and anticipate the action of gravity. Here we review studies on perception and sensorimotor control in both normal and altered gravity. Behavioral and modeling studies together suggested that the nervous system develops efficient strategies to take advantage of gravitational forces across a wide variety of tasks. However, when the body was exposed to altered gravity, the rate and amount of adaptation exhibited substantial variation from one experiment to another and sometimes led to partial adjustment only. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that the brain uses a multimodal and flexible representation of the effect of gravity on our body and movements. Future work is necessary to better characterize the nature of this internal representation and the extent to which it can adapt to novel contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- O White
- INSERM UMR1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - J Gaveau
- INSERM UMR1093-CAPS, UFR des Sciences du Sport, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - L Bringoux
- Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, CNRS, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - F Crevecoeur
- Institute of Communication and Information Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM), UCLouvain, Belgium.,Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), UCLouvain, Belgium
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