• 한국운동역학회지
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.131-144
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of degrees of freedom on the multi-synergies in two hierarchies of human hand system during force production and releasing tasks. Method: In this study, the constrained movements of the aiming and releasing actions using both hands and fingers during archery-like shooting were implemented as experimental tasks. The participants produced a pulling force holding the customized frame (mimicking an archery bow, with a set of force transducers) and kept it consistently for about 5 seconds, and released fingers as quickly as possible in a self-paced manner within the next 5 seconds. An analytical method based on the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis was used to quantify the stability index (synergy index) in two hierarchies including two hands (upper hierarchy) and individual fingers (lower hierarchy). Results: The results confirmed that the positive synergy pattern showed simultaneously at the upper and lower hierarchies, and the kinetic degrees of freedom were associated with the increment of hierarchical synergy indices and the performance indices. Also, the synergy indices of both hierarchies showed significant positive correlations with the performance accuracy during the task. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the human control system actively uses extra degrees of freedom to stabilize task performance variables. Further increasing the degree of freedom at one level of hierarchy induces positive interactions across hierarchical control levels, which in turn positively affects the accuracy and precision of task performance.

• 한국운동역학회지
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• 제29권3호
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• pp.157-166
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• 2019

Objective: This study examined the effects of stimulating fingertip temperature on the patterns of force sharing and stability properties during multi-finger force production tasks. Method: 9 adult subjects (male: 3, female: 6, age: $26.11{\pm}4.01yrs$, height: $169.22{\pm}5.97cm$, weight: $61.44{\pm}11.27kg$) participated in this study. The experiment consisted of three blocks: 1) maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) task, 2) single-finger ramp task to quantify enslaving (i.e., unintended force production by non-task fingers), and 3) 12 trials of multi-finger steady-state force production task at 20% MVC. There were three temperature conditions including body-temperature (i.e., control condition), $40^{\circ}C$, and $43^{\circ}C$, and the stimulation was given to the index finger only for all experimental conditions. Results: There were no significant differences in the MVC forces, enslaving, and the accuracy of performance during the steady-state task between the conditions. However, the share of stimulated index finger force increased with the index fingertip temperature, while the share of middle finger force decreased. Also, the coefficient of variation of both index and middle finger forces over repetitive trials increased with the index fingertip temperature. Under the framework of the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) hypothesis used to quantify indices of multi-finger synergies (i.e., stability property) stabilizing total force during the steady-state task, the two variance components within the UCM analysis increased together with the fingertip temperature, while no changes in the synergy indices between the conditions. Conclusion: The current results showed that fingertip temperature stimulation only to index finger does not affect to muscle force production capability of multi-finger, independence of individual fingers, and force production accuracy by the involvement of all four fingers. The effect of fingertip temperature on the sharing pattern and force variation may be due to diffuse reflex effects of the induced afferent activity on alpha-motoneuronal pools. However, the unchanged stability properties may be the reflection of the active error compensation strategies by non-stimulated finger actions.