FINGER COORDINATION IN ELDERLY

老年人的手指协调能力

• 批准号: 6940629
• 负责人: Mark L Latash
• 金额: $ 23.17万
• 依托单位: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-09-01 至 2007-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6940629
• 关键词: aging; artificial intelligence; body movement; clinical research; computer system design /evaluation; hand; human old age (65+); human subject; psychomotor function

Impairment of hand function with age is a major disabling factor limiting many activities of daily living. A decrease in the hand dexterity may lead to a loss of independence and require external care during most everyday activities. Our present understanding of the functioning of the human hand and changes in its function with age is limited. This makes it imperative to perform studies directed at improved understanding of the hand function and its deterioration with age. Series of studies on control subjects and preliminary findings in a small group of elderly subjects have allowed us to formulate two major hypotheses: (a) Aging is associated with selective impairment of intrinsic hand muscles; and (b) Aging is associated with an increase in force deficit during multi-finger tasks. The following research program has been elaborated for an analysis of possible contribution of these age-related changes to the loss of hand dexterity with age: (1) Confirmation of the preliminary conclusions using a larger subject population and a wider spectrum of tasks; (2) Analysis of the effects of these changes on crucial features of multi-finger synergies such as minimization of secondary moments and patterns of variability of individual finger forces (error compensation among fingers); (3) Analysis of possible changes in finger and hand coordination during more common actions such as gripping and bi-manual object handling; and (4) Analysis of correlations between changes in the indices of finger coordination and activities of daily living that involve hand function. Seven experiments on elderly and control subjects are suggested that include force production by sets of fingers in gripping and pressing tasks, self-imposed perturbations, and bi-manual object handling. The research will combine noninvasive behavioral, biomechanical, electrophysiological, and modeling methods, as well as questionnaires. In one experiment, the results will be compared with indices of the activities of daily living. Disprovable predictions are made for each experiment. We believe that supporting or disproving the two main Hypotheses is important not only for a better understanding of age-related changes in hand muscle coordination but also for development of new rehabilitation approaches to hand function.

随着年龄的增长，手部功能受损是限制许多日常生活活动的主要残疾因素。 手部灵活性的下降可能会导致独立性的丧失，并且在大多数日常活动中需要外部护理。 我们目前对人手的功能及其随年龄变化的了解是有限的。 这使得开展旨在提高对手部功能及其随年龄退化的了解的研究势在必行。对对照受试者的一系列研究和一小群老年受试者的初步研究结果使我们能够提出两个主要假设：（a）衰老与手部内在肌肉的选择性损伤有关； (b) 衰老与多手指任务期间力量不足的增加有关。 为了分析这些与年龄相关的变化对随着年龄的增长而导致手部灵活性丧失的可能贡献，我们制定了以下研究计划：（1）使用更大的受试者群体和更广泛的任务来确认初步结论； (2) 分析这些变化对多指协同作用的关键特征的影响，例如次要力矩的最小化和单个手指力的可变模式（手指之间的误差补偿）； （3）分析在更常见的动作（例如抓握和双手处理物体）期间手指和手的协调可能发生的变化； (4)手指协调性指标变化与涉及手功能的日常生活活动的相关性分析。建议对老年人和对照对象进行七项实验，包括在抓握和按压任务中通过多组手指产生力、自我施加的扰动和双手处理物体。 该研究将结合无创行为、生物力学、电生理学和建模方法以及问卷调查。 在一项实验中，结果将与日常生活活动指数进行比较。每个实验都会做出不可证伪的预测。 我们相信，支持或反驳这两个主要假设不仅对于更好地理解与年龄相关的手部肌肉协调变化很重要，而且对于开发新的手部功能康复方法也很重要。