Contributions of intrinsic visco-elastic torques during planar index finger and wrist movements.

Human hand movements have been studied for many decades, yet the role of hand biomechanics in achieving dexterity has not been fully understood. In this paper, we investigate the contributions of the intrinsic passive viscoelastic component in the hand during the coordinated wrist and hand movements. We compare the contributions of stiffness, damping, and dynamics torques under two types of joint phase movements at two speeds.

A musculotendon contribution for multijoint hand control.

For multijoint arm control, intersegmental dynamic properties have been observed to play a significant role. This paper focuses on the contribution of viscoelastic musculotendon properties during coordinated hand movements. Specifically, the musculotendon passive stiffness torque is shown to be more than 90% of the total passive torque, based on two-link planar model dynamics, during repetitive hand movements.