Quantitative Tactile Assessment of Human Manual Dexterity

手的灵活性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运动，并且精确 控制指尖力的方向和大小，例如在抓取物体时所涉及的力。我们 通过调整我们指尖的力量来适应摩擦力， 抓握表面、物体的重量及其形状。必须优化握力， 物体过度挤压（浪费力和/或物体损坏）或物体从抓取中滑脱 (and可能断裂），由于力不足、弱。触觉是用来感知 物体表面;如果没有触觉反馈，人类在抓握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， 在心理物理测试中对身体尺寸进行了规定和量化。我们建议量化和 使用抓握和举起任务分析手动灵活性，其中我们测量负载和表面的影响 在年龄为18-80岁的健康成年人和患有中枢和/或中枢神经系统疾病的受试者中， 周围神经损伤这些实验将提供手工灵巧性的定量指标 年轻、中年和老年受试者的力量控制，可作为 评估中风或周围神经损伤后的治疗和康复治疗，以及 众所周知的由于老化导致的手功能下降。

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.