WHO:	BCS Lunch Talk: Karen Reilly , Postdoctoral Research Associate, Neurobiology & Anatomy M&D
TOPIC:	Hand and Brain: Finger movements as a model for studying human motor control
ABSTRACT:	Scientists have yet to design an artificial hand that achieves the same level of dexterity as the human hand. Part of the reason for this might be that the actual design of the human hand is far more complex than a robotic system in which each finger is controlled completely independently of the others. For example, in humans each finger is not flexed or extended by a separate muscle, but primarily by three large muscles that each send tendons to all four fingers. To better understand how the primary motor cortex controls movements of the hand and fingers it is essential to understand more about how these multi-tendoned muscles are organized and controlled by the motor cortex. I will present the results of intramuscular electromyographic recordings from one multi-tendoned muscle, flexor digitorum profundus. One study showed that during independent force production by each of the fingers there is a complex pattern of activation in this muscle. The results of subsequent studies suggest that this is due to motoneurons branching to innervate muscle fibres that connect to more than one tendon, and to the inability of the motor cortex to independently access motoneurons innervating separate parts of the muscle. Despite this seemingly less than ideal design, the complex descending control from the motor cortex enables humans to produce highly independent and incredibly dexterous movements with their fingers
WHEN:	11/19/2003 12:00:00 PM
WHERE:	Meliora 269

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