Publication Date:
1996-04-05
Description:
For the last 20 years, it has been hypothesized that well-coordinated, multijoint movements are executed without complex computation by the brain, with the use of springlike muscle properties and peripheral neural feedback loops. However, it has been technically and conceptually difficult to examine this "equilibrium-point control" hypothesis directly in physiological or behavioral experiments. A high-performance manipulandum was developed and used here to measure human arm stiffness, the magnitude of which during multijoint movement is important for this hypothesis. Here, the equilibrium-point trajectory was estimated from the measured stiffness, the actual trajectory, and the generated torque. Its velocity profile differed from that of the actual trajectory. These results argue against the hypothesis that the brain sends as a motor command only an equilibrium-point trajectory similar to the actual trajectory.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gomi, H -- Kawato -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1996 Apr 5;272(5258):117-20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉NTT Basic Research Labs, Information Science Research Lab, Kanagawa-pref., Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8600521" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adult
;
Arm/*physiology
;
Biomechanical Phenomena
;
Brain/*physiology
;
Elbow Joint/*physiology
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Male
;
Movement/*physiology
;
Muscle Contraction
;
Muscle, Skeletal/physiology
;
Psychomotor Performance/*physiology
;
Shoulder Joint/*physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
