Quantitative Tactile Assessment of Human Manual Dexterity

手动灵巧使人类能够用手指操纵小物体，执行高度熟练的任务 以及简单的日常生活活动。这些动作需要独立的手指移动，并且精确 控制指尖力量的方向和大小，例如抓取物体时所涉及的力量。我们 通过使我们的指尖力量适应摩擦力，掌握各种纹理、重量和形状的物体 抓取面、物体的重量和形状。抓地力必须优化，以防止 过度挤压物体(浪费力量和/或物体损坏)或物体从抓握中滑落 (和可能的破损)由于不充分，弱的力量。触觉是用来感知摩擦的 物体表面；没有触觉反馈，人类在抓取或应用时往往会使用太多的力 力量不足。在这项研究中，我们使用高分辨率3D打印来创建纹理表面，其 物理维度是在心理物理测试中指定和量化的。我们建议量化和 使用抓举任务分析手动灵活性，在该任务中，我们测量负载和表面的影响 18-80岁健康成人的质地对表现的影响，以及中心性和/或 周围神经损伤。这些实验将提供手动灵巧性的量化指标 以及年轻、中年和老年受试者的力量控制，可以作为基线 评估中风或周围神经损伤后的治疗和康复治疗，以及 众所周知，由于衰老，手的功能会减少。

Manual dexterity enables humans to manipulate small objects with our fingers, perform highly skilled tasks as well as simple activities of daily living. These actions require independent finger movements, and precise control of the direction and magnitude of fingertip forces such as those involved in grasping objects. We grasp objects of various textures, weights, and shapes by adapting our fingertip forces to friction at the grasping surface, the weight of the object, and its shape. The grip force must be optimized to prevent excessive squeezing of the object (wasted force and/or object damage) or slippage of the object from grasp (and possible breakage) due to insufficient, weak forces. The sense of touch is used perceive friction at the object surface; without tactile feedback humans tend to use too much force when grasping, or apply insufficient forces. In this study we use high-resolution 3D printing to create textured surfaces whose physical dimensions are specified and quantified in psychophysical tests. We propose to quantify and analyze manual dexterity using a grasp-and-lift task in which we measure the effects of load and surface texture on performance in healthy human adults of ages 18-80, and in subjects with central and/or peripheral neurological impairments. These experiments will provide quantitative metrics of manual dexterity and force control in young, middle-aged, and elderly subjects that can serve as baseline values for evaluating treatment and rehabilitation therapies following stroke, or peripheral nerve injury, as well as the well-known reduction in hand function as a result of aging.