Human Hand FunctionOxford University Press, USA, 2006 M04 20 - 270 pages Human Hand Function is a multidisciplinary book that reviews the sensory and motor aspects of normal hand function from both neurophysiological and behavioral perspectives. Lynette Jones and Susan Lederman present hand function as a continuum ranging from activities that are essentially sensory in nature to those that have a strong motor component. They delineate four categories of function along this sensorimotor continuum--tactile sensing, active haptic sensing, prehension, and non-prehensile skilled movements--that they use as a framework for analyzing and synthesizing the results from a broad range of studies that have contributed to our understanding of how the normal human hand functions.The book begins with a historical overview of research on the hand and a discussion of the hand's evolutionary development in terms of anatomical structure. The subsequent chapters review the research in each of the four categories along the continuum, covering topics such as the intensive spatial, temporal, and thermal sensitivity of the hand, the role of hand movements in recognizing common objects, the control of reaching and grasping movements, and the organization of keyboard skills. Jones and Lederman also examine how sensory and motor function develops in the hand from birth to old age, and how the nature of the end effector (e.g., a single finger or the whole hand) that is used to interact with the environment influences the types of information obtained and the tasks performed. The book closes with an assessment of how basic research on the hand has contributed to an array of more applied domains, including communication systems for the blind, haptic interfaces used in teleoperation and virtual-environment applications, tests used to assess hand impairments, and haptic exploration in art. Human Hand Function will be a valuable resource for student and professional researchers in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, engineering, human-technology interaction, and physiology. |
Contents
Historical Overview and General Introduction | 3 |
Evolutionary Development and Anatomy of the Hand | 10 |
Neurophysiology of Hand Function | 24 |
Tactile Sensing | 44 |
Active Haptic Sensing | 75 |
Prehension | 100 |
Nonprehensile Skilled Movements | 116 |
Endeffector Constraints | 131 |
Hand Function Across the Lifespan | 150 |
Applied Aspects of Hand Function | 179 |
Summary Conclusions and Future Directions | 204 |
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Common terms and phrases
active haptic sensing acuity adults afferent Bolanowski chapter corpuscles cortex cortical cues curvature cutaneous digits discrimination display distal dorsal effect Experimental Brain Research finger movements fingertip frequency Gescheider glabrous skin grasp grip force hairy skin haptic haptic interfaces haptic perception human hand function illusion Immersion Corporation increase index finger infants inputs interval involved Johansson joint Journal Lederman load forces manual exploration mechanoreceptors ment motor muscle muscle spindle nerve neural Neurophysiology observers Optacon Pacinian corpuscles patterns perceived Perception & Psychophysics performance prehension primary motor cortex properties proprioceptive Psychology psychophysical receptive fields receptors relative Reprinted response roughness Ruffini endings sensitivity sensory shape shown in figure size-weight illusion skilled Soechting somatosensory spatial spatial summation stimulation studies surface tactile tactile sensing tapping target task temporal texture thenar eminence thermal thresholds thumb tion touch two-point typing Vallbo velocity Verrillo vibrotactile weight Westling