Novel Assessments Of The Central And Peripheral Control Of The Human Hand
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,105.00
Summary
This is a study of how the human hand works. The hand is supremely adapted for manual skills ranging from writing and playing a musical instrument to non-verbal communications via gesture and pointing. How is the range of hand skills achieved? We are motivated to study this because the ability of the hand to recovery from some neurological disorders, particularly stroke, is very poor. One important element in virtually all activities of the hand is precise movement of the thumb. The tip of the t ....This is a study of how the human hand works. The hand is supremely adapted for manual skills ranging from writing and playing a musical instrument to non-verbal communications via gesture and pointing. How is the range of hand skills achieved? We are motivated to study this because the ability of the hand to recovery from some neurological disorders, particularly stroke, is very poor. One important element in virtually all activities of the hand is precise movement of the thumb. The tip of the thumb is flexed by a single muscle, a muscle only present in humans. We want to determine how this muscle works, and how the force it produces affects the whole hand. We will use specialised neurophysiological techniques to do this in human volunteers. There is no comparable animal model for this type of work due to significant differences at both the level of the brain and the level of the muscle. Second, we want to understand better how the cells in the spinal cord which control the hand (and other) muscles work. We have two new ways to do this, including a novel technique which can activate these cells with a form of stimulation that may help us improve functional electrical stimulation. Finally, with 27 bones and more than 25 muscles which operate it, the hand is not simple to control. We will use a new apparatus to measure how well it is controlled, and we will directly stimulate the motor areas of the brain to evaluate the control. From this, we will come up with new understanding, as well as new stimulus and measurement techniques that can be applied to patients with impaired hand function, as occurs all too often after stroke.Read moreRead less