Abstract: The dimensional constraints on limb movements were investigated by asking adult participants to move specific segments of the upper limb (Experiment 1 – index finger(s); Experiment 2 – index finger, hand, lower arm, whole arm) with random frequency and amplitude over 2 min trials. The results showed that the amplitude–frequency characteristics of the random trials were limited to particular ranges within the respective potential workspace and with distributions that were broader than that of preferred oscillatory trials. The approximate entropy and dimension of the joint motion was higher in the random than the preferred conditions, but the random movements were shown to have a relatively low dimension. The irregularity of the random movements was enhanced in the more distal limb segments. The findings reveal that the structural and functional constraints to planar motion at a single joint coalesce to provide a set of relatively low dimensional boundary conditions. The implication is that the control structure induces a more limited reduction in the dimensionality of the active system degrees of freedom than is typically postulated in theories of movement control.
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 18
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