Human Arm Movements Research Articles

Kinematics of arm movements in elderly humans

Changes in the kinematics of arm movements with age were studied. “Young” (aged 21–23) and “elderly” (aged 68–95) subjects performed a visually guided, step tracking task. Each subject performed movements of eight different amplitudes (10–80 deg) at two volitionally determined speeds (“own speed,” “fast and accurate”). Movement durations and maximum velocities were similar for both groups and increased with movement amplitude under all conditions. The young subjects made movements in which approximately the same length of time was spent in accelerating as in decelerating the movement. In contrast, movements by the elderly subjects were temporally asymmetrical, the deceleration phase being longer than the acceleration phase. The ratio of maximum to average velocities (Vm/Vav) was markedly different between the young and elderly subjects, particularly in the smaller amplitude movements (less than 40 deg). Values of this parameter ranged from 1.5 to 6 in the elderly subjects. Movements made by the elderly subjects were more variable than those of the young subjects, particularly so at smaller amplitudes. Variability was most apparent in the deceleratory phase of movement where the elderly subjects often showed hypermetria. Some elderly subjects also showed movement decomposition, the movements being made as a series of discrete submovements. Thus, the elderly subjects displayed some of the characteristics classically described as arising from cerebellar dysfunction.

Control of simple arm movements in elderly humans

Eight elderly subjects (aged 68–95 years) and 6 young adults (aged 21–24 years) performed elbow flexion and extension movements in a visual step-tracking paradigm. Movement amplitudes ranging from 10°–80° were made under two instructions: “move at own speed” and “move fast and accurate.” In a second experiment, 5 elderly subjects practiced 30° movements for a total of 180 flexion and 180 extension movements under the instruction to increase movement speed, while maintaining accuracy, during practice. Movement trajectories became more variable as both movement amplitude and speed increased. Trajectory variability was greater in the elderly subjects for both the acceleratory and deceleratory phases of movements. This was due primarily to a greater rate of increase in trajectory variability during the acceleration phase in the elderly. With practice, elderly subjects could substantially reduce trajectory variability with little change in movement speed. The agonist burst initiating movements was qualitatively normal in the elderly subjects. However, there was considerable tonic cocontraction of agonist and antagonist muscles prior to and during movement. Phasic antagonist EMG activity was obviously abnormal in many elderly subjects. There was often no clear antagonist burst associated with deceleration of the movements or, if present, it was timed inappropriately early. With practice, combined agonist-antagonist EMG variability decreased. A clear antagonist burst also developed during practice in most elderly subjects, but its inappropriate timing remained in all but one subject. The results show that movement trajectories are less accurately controlled in the elderly. This greater movement variability may result from: 1) changes in motor neuron population and motor unit properties with aging and the associated effects on muscle force output and joint torques and 2) abnormal control of phasic and tonic antagonist muscle activity. The ability to improve performance with practice, however, is clearly not lost in the elderly.

Asymmetric velocity and acceleration profiles of human arm movements.

Displacement, velocity, acceleration and jerk (change of acceleration with time) were analyzed for arm flexion movement over a wide range of movement amplitudes and speeds. Relative time to peak velocity or relative duration of acceleration, k, was approximately 0.5 for the movements with intermediate speed (about 0.5 s in movement time), i.e., symmetric velocity and acceleration profiles. For the slow and ballistic movements, k shifted towards values below and above 0.5, respectively creating asymmetric profiles. Consistent k-dependence of movement time, peak velocity, maximum acceleration and maximum deceleration were observed. "Jerk cost", the square of the magnitude of jerk integrated over the entire movement, was calculated for each movement. A dynamic optimization technique to minimize jerk cost under the constraint on jerk input was applied to interpret the results, assuming that a major goal of skilled movements was to produce optimally smooth movements. The constrained minimum-jerk model explained speed-dependent asymmetry of the velocity and acceleration profiles. Jerk cost consumed by the movements with intermediate speed approximately satisfied minimum-cost criterion predicted by the model but was higher than the criterion for slow and ballistic movements. The results suggested that optimality criteria other than jerk cost also should be considered to predict movement profiles over the entire range of speeds.

Adaptation and learning in control of voluntary movement by the central nervous system

In order to control voluntary movements, the central nervous system must solve the following three computational problems at different levels: (1) the determination of a desired trajectory in visual coordinates; (2) the transformation of its coordinates into body coordinates; and (3) the generation of motor command. Concerning these problems, relevant experimental observations obtained in the field of neuroscience are briefly reviewed. On the basis of physiological information and previous models, we propose computational theories and a neural network model which account for these three problems. (1) A minimum torque-change model which predicts a wide range of trajectories in human multi-joint arm movements is proposed as a computational model for trajectory formation. (2) An iterative learning scheme is presented as an algorithm which solves the coordinate transformation and the control problem simultaneously. This algorithm can be regarded as a Newton-like method in function spaces. (3) A neural network model for generation of motor command is proposed. This model contains internal neural models of the motor system and its inverse system. The inverse-dynamics model is acquired by heterosynaptic plasticity using a feedback motor command (torque) as an error signal. The hierarchical arrangement of these neural networks and their global control are discussed. Their applications to robotics are also discussed.

Velocity curves of human arm and speech movements.

The velocity curves of human arm and speech movements were examined as a function of amplitude and rate in both continuous and discrete movement tasks. Evidence for invariance under scalar transformation was assessed and a quantitative measure of the form of the curve was used to provide information on the implicit cost function in the production of voluntary movement. Arm, tongue and jaw movements were studied separately. The velocity curves of tongue and jaw movement were found to differ in form as a function of movement duration but were similar for movements of different amplitude. In contrast, the velocity curves for elbow movements were similar in form over differences in both amplitude and duration. Thus, the curves of arm movement, but not those of tongue or jaw movement, were geometrically equivalent in form. Measurements of the ratio of maximum to average velocity in arm movement were compared with the theoretical values calculated for a number of criterion functions. For continuous movements, the data corresponded best to values computed for the minimum energy criterion; for discrete movement, values were in the range of those predicted for the minimum jerk and best stiffness criteria. The source of a rate dependent asymmetry in the form of the velocity curve of speech movements was assessed in a control study in which subjects produced simple raising and lowering movements of the jaw without talking. The velocity curves of the non-speech control gesture were similar in form to those of jaw movement in speech. These data, in combination with similar findings for human jaw movement in mastication, suggest that the asymmetry is not a direct consequence of the requirements of the task. The biomechanics and neural control of the orofacial system may be possible sources of this effect.

Constraints on human arm movement trajectories.

Constraints on human arm movement trajectories.

Relative displacements in muscle and tendon during human arm movements.

1. X-ray, cine and video recordings were made of the movement of radio-opaque markers injected into the musculo-tendinous junctions of biceps brachii muscle. 2. In strong isometric contractions, the distal tendon of the long head of biceps lengthened by about 2% of its estimated rest length. 3. During voluntary isotonic elbow flexion-extension movements at frequencies up to 5.5 Hz there was no detectable phase shift between intramuscular and joint displacements. 4. In the fastest alternating movements (5.5-6.7 Hz) small phase advances developed in the muscle. 5. We conclude that human tendons do stretch during muscle contraction, but not enough to cause intramuscular phase reversals in rapid unloaded movements. This in turn means that muscle spindles shorten and lengthen virtually in phase with joint movements under most conditions.

A model of handwriting.

The research reported here is concerned with hand trajectory planning for the class of movements involved in handwriting. Previous studies show that the kinematics of human two-joint arm movements in the horizontal plane can be described by a model which is based on dynamic minimization of the square of the third derivative of hand position (jerk), integrated over the entire movement. We extend this approach to both the analysis and the synthesis of the trajectories occurring in the generation of handwritten characters. Several basic strokes are identified and possible stroke concatenation rules are suggested. Given a concise symbolic representation of a stroke shape, a simple algorithm computes the complete kinematic specification of the corresponding trajectory. A handwriting generation model based on a kinematics from shape principle and on dynamic optimization is formulated and tested. Good qualitative and quantitative agreement was found between subject recordings and trajectories generated by the model. The simple symbolic representation of hand motion suggested here may permit the central nervous system to learn, store and modify motor action plans for writing in an efficient manner.

Deducing planning variables from experimental arm trajectories: pitfalls and possibilities.

This paper investigates whether endpoint Cartesian variables or joint variables better describe the planning of human arm movements. For each of the two sets of planning variables, a coordination strategy of linear interpolation is chosen to generate possible trajectories, which are to be compared against experimental trajectories for best match. Joint interpolation generates curved endpoint trajectories called N-leaved roses. Endpoint Cartesian interpolation generates curved joint trajectories, which however can be qualitatively characterized by joint reversal points. Though these two sets of planning variables ordinarily lead to distinct predictions under linear interpolation, three situations are pointed out where the two strategies may be confused. One is a straight line through the shoulder, where the joint trajectories are also straight. Another is any trajectory approaching the outer boundary of reach, where the joint rate ratio always appears to be approaching a constant. A third is a generalization to staggered joint interpolation, where endpoint trajectories virtually identical to straight lines can sometimes be produced. In examining two different sets of experiments, it is proposed that staggered joint interpolation is the underlying planning strategy.

On a human-arm-like mechanical manipulator

SUMMARYThis paper investigates the kinematics and motion of a human arm as a manipulator with seven degrees of freedom, and how to deal with the extra degree of freedom that exists. It proposes that a change of configuration be divided into a sequence of motions where each time one of the joints is locked. It then presents a general technique to solve inverse kinematic equations of the different reduced models that arise.

The coordination of arm movements: an experimentally confirmed mathematical model

This paper presents studies of the coordination of voluntary human arm movements. A mathematical model is formulated which is shown to predict both the qualitative features and the quantitative details observed experimentally in planar, multijoint arm movements. Coordination is modeled mathematically by defining an objective function, a measure of performance for any possible movement. The unique trajectory which yields the best performance is determined using dynamic optimization theory. In the work presented here, the objective function is the square of the magnitude of jerk (rate of change of acceleration) of the hand integrated over the entire movement. This is equivalent to assuming that a major goal of motor coordination is the production of the smoothest possible movement of the hand. Experimental observations of human subjects performing voluntary unconstrained movements in a horizontal plane are presented. They confirm the following predictions of the mathematical model: unconstrained point-to-point motions are approximately straight with bell-shaped tangential velocity profiles; curved motions (through an intermediate point or around an obstacle) have portions of low curvature joined by portions of high curvature; at points of high curvature, the tangential velocity is reduced; the durations of the low-curvature portions are approximately equal. The theoretical analysis is based solely on the kinematics of movement independent of the dynamics of the musculoskeletal system and is successful only when formulated in terms of the motion of the hand in extracorporal space. The implications with respect to movement organization are discussed.

Rapid error correction during human arm movements: evidence for central monitoring.

Studies were made of rapid error correction movements in eight subjects performing a visually guided tracking task involving flexion-extension movements about the elbow. Subjects were required to minimize reaction times in this two-choice task. Errors in initial movement direction occurred in about 3% of the trials. Error correction times (time from initiation to reversal of movement in incorrect direction) ranged from 30-150 ms. The first sing of correction of the error movement was a suppression of the electromyographic (EMG) activity in the muscle producing the error movement. This suppression started as early as 20-40 ms after the initiation of the error-related EMG activity and as much as 50 ms before any overt sign of limb movement. The correction of the error movement was also accompanied by an increase in the drive to the muscle which moved the arm in the correct direction. This increased activity always occurred after the initiation of the error movement. it is concluded that the first step in the error correction, suppression of drive to the muscle producing the error movement, cannot be based on information from the moving limb. It is thus suggested that this earliest response to the error movement is based on central monitoring of the commands for movement.

Computer-controlled manipulator/display system for human-movement studies.

In the paper a manipulator/display system which is used is studies on visual and proprioceptive feedback in human arm movements is presented. A very flexible design was obtained by using a linear hydraulic motor the dynamics of which are controlled by a PDP 11/23 minicoputer. In this way, a large number of different experimental conditions can easily be programmed into a sequence which defines experiments with online variations of manipulator and display properties. The manipulator system and the display generation are discussed together with the control software of the experiments. The measurement system combines a high degree of reproducibility, accuracy and data integrity with safe operation and ease of use.

Responses to force perturbations preceding voluntary human arm movements

Brief force perturbations were applied 30–120 ms prior to onset of step-tracking forearm movements by normal humans. The perturbations altered the first agonist burst of the movement-related triphasic EMG pattern. Perturbations opposing the movement resulted in an increase in the magnitude of the late part of the first agonist burst, the early part being unchanged. Conversely, in movements which would be assisted by the perturbation, EMG magnitude decreased during the late part of the burst. No reflex EMG responses were elicited during the period following the perturbation and preceding onset of the first agonist burst.

On the Stability Problem of Human Arm and Hand Movements Controlling External Load Systems

Different loads, controlled by a human operator effect different dynamic behaviour of the entire controlled Arm-Hand-Load (AHL) system. Thus, in terms of stability and optimal control, a human operator requires information about the AHL system to provide the Performance of a aiven task. Additionaly adaptive mechanisms must be present, to determine the properties of the closed loop system. It is shown, that the receptors of the neuromuscular system, muscle spindle and Golai tendon organs might have the functional role of an internal parallel model to the controlled AHL system. A parallel model of this kind is shown to be feasible to realize identification and compensatory mechanisms involved in the human motor control system.

The effects of muscle vibration on the attainment of intended final position during voluntary human arm movements.

Muscle tendon vibration was applied during voluntary step-tracking arm target-movements performed by normal human subjects. Vibration (freq. = 120 Hz) was applied over either the biceps or triceps tendons. During non-visually guided (eyes closed) trials, vibration of the muscle antagonistic to the movement being performed resulted in an undershoot of the required target. Thus, biceps vibration produced an undershoot of the extension target and triceps vibration an undershoot of the flexion target. The same effect occurred if the vibration was applied continuously over several movements or only during the course of individual movements. In contrast, vibration of the muscle acting as the prime mover had no effect on the correct attainment of the required target. It is suggested that the central nervous system may monitor muscle afferent activity of the lengthening (antagonist) muscle during simple, step movements.

High Speed Optical Scanning Techniques for Dimensional Measurement

Recently, human–robot cooperation (HRC) research activities have focused on the development of new methodologies for the generation of safe robot trajectories. However, the applicability of such methodologies in a real context is limited due to the inherent uncertainty of robot trajectory execution time (i.e. the robot can avoid the worker by modifying its velocity along the path). This paper proposes an approach to estimate a confidence interval on robot trajectory execution time for scenarios in which human–robot space sharing is required. First, human arm movements are studied for a given set of assembly collaborative tasks: worker occupancy volumes and occupancy volume probabilities are derived. Then, a finite number of alternative robot trajectories, crossing human occupancy volumes with different occupancy probabilities, are generated. It is therefore possible to estimate a probability for the robot to reduce its velocity, and a confidence interval on the robot execution time. The application on a real assembly case is discussed.

Dependence of human arm movements on limb mechanical properties

Dependence of human arm movements on limb mechanical properties

Simulation of human arm movements controlled by peripheral feedback

A model of the human arm, suitable for simulation purposes, is presented in order to investigate whether it is possible that peripheral feedback can play an important role during fast arm movements. In spite of factors such as the inertia of the system, the slow regulation of muscle tension, and efferent and afferent conduction delays between the muscles and the motorneuronal pools, it appears from the simulations that peripheral feedback of proprioceptive information could indeed be effective even during fast movements.

Effects of cerebellar lesions on saccadic eye movements.

1. Areas of cerebellar cortex related to saccadic eye movements were ablated in three Macaca mulatta monkeys trained to fixate visual targets. There followed a postoperative dysmetria of saccadic eye movements which appeared to be the result of an impairment specifically within the saccadic system. 2. Convergent evidence from two experimental paradigms indicated that the saccadic deficit was a function of the position of the eye in the orbit and did not involve retinal error processing. 3. The pattern of this position-dependent dysmetria suggests that the eye was no longer fully compensating for the elastic restoring forces imposed by the orbital medium and antagonist muscle(s). 4. The similarity of these data to saccadic eye movements of human cerebellar patients and arm movements of rhesus monkeys with cerebellar lesions indicates that the inability to compensate for the differential loads placed on motor systems by the mechanics of those systems may explain several cerebellar symptoms.