FEB 12 (Thursday): Veronica Santos (Cornell University)
Abstract:
Everyday manipulation tasks depend on the thumb’s ability to produce well-directed forces of sufficient magnitude. What are the consequences of unavoidable anatomical variability on the way the nervous system controls muscles to produce functional thumb forces? In this work, we used a computer-modeling approach to investigate the consequences of anatomical variability, and the choice of kinematic description of the thumb, on the neural control and biomechanical performance of static thumbtip forces. Specifically, we assumed a kinematic model of the thumb based on a serial linkage of five hinges. We then used a stochastic Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm to tune parameters to drive model input/output predictions, in a manner equivalent to a least-squares fit, towards thumbtip force/torque and electromyography measurements.