Long-Latency Feedback Coordinates Upper-Limb and Hand Muscles during Object Manipulation Tasks

• Published in: eNeuro Vol. 3; no. 1; p. ENEURO.0129-15.2016
• Main Authors: Crevecoeur, Frédéric, Thonnard, Jean-Louis, Lefèvre, Philippe, Scott, Stephen H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Electromyography; Feedback, Sensory - physiology; Female; Goals; Hand - innervation; Hand - physiology; Hand Strength; Humans; Male; Motor Skills - physiology; Muscle, Skeletal - innervation; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Upper Extremity - innervation; Upper Extremity - physiology; Young Adult; object manipulation; grip force control; motor prediction; feedback control
• ISSN: 2373-2822; 2373-2822
• DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0129-15.2016

Suppose that someone bumps into your arm at a party while you are holding a glass of wine. Motion of the disturbed arm will engage rapid and goal-directed feedback responses in the upper-limb. Although such responses can rapidly counter the perturbation, it is also clearly desirable not to destabilize your grasp and/or spill the wine. Here we investigated how healthy humans maintain a stable grasp following perturbations by using a paradigm that requires spatial tuning of the motor response dependent on the location of a virtual target. Our results highlight a synchronized expression of target-directed feedback in shoulder and hand muscles occurring at ∼60 ms. Considering that conduction delays are longer for the more distal hand muscles, these results suggest that target-directed responses in hand muscles were initiated before those for the shoulder muscles. These results show that long-latency feedback can coordinate upper limb and hand muscles during object manipulation tasks.