Synergic analysis of upper limb target-reaching movements

The topological invariance and synergies of human movements are discussed through the analysis and comparison of upper-limb target-reaching tasks. Five subjects were asked to perform different target-reaching tasks with different indices of difficulty, and the movements were captured using a Vicon 3D motion analysis system.Topological invariance was observed in the trajectories of different task performances. After normalization, the trajectories of the arm tips had very close patterns for different target-reaching tasks. Synergy in the target-reaching movements of the upper limbs was also found among the different joint angles. The joint angles can be fitted using the same format of functions proposed in this study. The parameters in the function can be taken as a characteristic feature of target-reaching movement patterns. A target-reaching movement can be determined by these parameters and the start and end positions.     

Whole-field integration, not detailed analysis, is used by the crab optokinetic system to separate rotation and translation in optic flow

For optimal visual control of compensatory eye movements during locomotion it is necessary to distinguish the rotational and translational components of the optic flow field. Optokinetic eye movements can reduce the rotational component only, making the information contained in the translational flow readily available to the animal. We investigated optokinetic eye rotation in the marble rock crab, Pachygrapsus marmoratus, during translational movement, either by displacing the animal or its visual surroundings. Any eye movement in response to such stimuli is taken as an indication that the system is unable to separate the translational and the rotational components in the optic flow in a mathematically perfect way. When the crabs are translated within a pseudo-natural environment, eye movements are negligible, especially during sideways translation. When, however, crabs were placed in a gangway between two elongated rectangular sidewalls carrying dotted patterns which were translated back and forth, marked eye movements were elicited, depending on the translational velocity. To resolve this discrepancy, we tested several hypotheses about mechanisms using detailed analysis of the optic flow or whole-field integration. We found that the latter are sufficient to explain the efficient separation of translation and rotation of crabs in quasi-natural situations. Accepted: 6 May 1997     

A holistic approach to study the temporal variability in gait

Movement variability has become an important field of research and has been studied to gain a better understanding of the neuro-muscular control of human movements. In addition to studies investigating "amplitude variability" there are a growing number of studies assessing the "temporal variability" in movements by applying non-linear analysis techniques. One limitation of the studies available to date is that they quantify variability features in specific, pre-selected biomechanical or physiological variables. In many cases it remains unclear if and to what degree these pre-selected variables quantify characteristics of the whole body movement. This technical note proposes to combine two analysis techniques that have already been applied for gait analysis in order to quantify variability features in walking with variables whose significance for the whole movements are known. Gait patterns were recorded using a full-body marker set on the subjects whose movements were captured with a standard motion tracing system. For each time frame the coordinates of all markers were interpreted as a high-dimensional "posture vector". A principal component analysis (PCA) conducted on these posture vectors identified the main one-dimensional movement components of walking. Temporal variability of gait was then quantified by calculating the maximum Lyapunov Exponent (LyE) of these main movement components. The effectiveness of this approach was demonstrated by determining differences in temporal variability between walking in unstable shoes and walking in a normal athletic-type control shoe. Several additional conceptual and practical advantages of this combination of analysis methods were discussed.     

Kinematics estimation of straddled movements on high bar from a limited number of skin markers using a chain model

To reduce the effects of skin movement artefacts and apparent joint dislocations in the kinematics of whole body movement derived from marker locations, global optimisation procedures with a chain model have been developed. These procedures can also be used to reduce the number of markers when self-occlusions are hard to avoid. This paper assesses the kinematics precision of three marker sets: 16, 11 and 7 markers, for movements on high bar with straddled piked posture. A three-dimensional person-specific chain model was defined with 9 parameters and 12 degrees of freedom and an iterative procedure optimised the gymnast posture for each frame of the three marker sets. The time histories of joint angles obtained from the reduced marker sets were compared with those from the 16 marker set by means of a root mean square difference measure. Occlusions of medial markers fixed on the lower limb occurred when the legs were together and the pelvis markers disappeared primarily during the piked posture. Despite these occlusions, reconstruction was possible with 16, 11 and 7 markers. The time histories of joint angles were similar; the main differences were for the thigh mediolateral rotation and the knee flexion because the knee was close to full extension. When five markers were removed, the average angles difference was about 3 degrees . This difference increased to 9 degrees for the seven marker set. It is concluded that kinematics of sports movement can be reconstructed using a chain model and a global optimisation procedure for a reduced number of markers.     

An optimized protocol for hip joint centre determination using the functional method

The functional method identifies the hip joint centre (HJC) as the centre of rotation of the femur relative to the pelvis during an ad hoc movement normally recorded using stereophotogrammetry. This method may be used for the direct determination of subject-specific HJC coordinates or for creating a database from which regression equations may be derived that allow for the prediction of those coordinates. In order to contribute to the optimization of the functional method, the effects of the following factors were investigated: the algorithm used to estimate the HJC coordinates from marker coordinates, the type and amplitude of the movement of the femur relative to the pelvis, marker cluster location and dimensions, and the number of data samples. This was done using a simulation approach which, in turn, was validated using experiments made on a physical analogue of the pelvis and femur system. The algorithms used in the present context were classified and, in some instances, modified in order to optimize both accuracy and computation time, and submitted to a comparative evaluation. The type of movement that allowed for the most accurate results consisted of several flexion-extension/abduction-adduction movements performed on vertical planes of different orientations, followed by a circumduction movement. The accuracy of the HJC estimate improved, with an increasing rate, as a function of the amplitude of these movements. A sharp improvement was found as the number of the photogrammetric data samples used to describe the movement increased up to 500. For optimal performance with the recommended algorithms, markers were best located as far as possible from each other and with their centroid as close as possible to the HJC. By optimizing the analytical and experimental protocol, HJC location error not caused by soft tissue artefacts may be reduced by a factor of ten with a maximal expected value for such error of approximately 1mm.     

The Punctum Fixum-Punctum Mobile Model: A Neuromuscular Principle for Efficient Movement Generation?

According to the “punctum fixum–punctum mobile model” that was introduced in prior studies, for generation of the most effective intentional acceleration of a body part the intersegmental neuromuscular onset succession has to spread successively from the rotation axis (punctum fixum) toward the body part that shall be accelerated (punctum mobile). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether this principle is, indeed, fundamental for any kind of efficient rotational accelerations in general, independent of the kind of movements, type of rotational axis, the current body position, or movement direction. Neuromuscular onset succession was captured by surface electromyography of relevant muscles of the anterior and posterior muscle chain in 16 high-level gymnasts during intentional accelerating movement phases while performing 18 different gymnastics elements (in various body positions to forward and backward, performed on high bar, parallel bars, rings and trampoline), as well as during non-sport specific pivot movements around the longitudinal axis. The succession patterns to generate the acceleration phases during these movements were described and statistically evaluated based on the onset time difference between the muscles of the corresponding muscle chain. In all the analyzed movement phases, the results clearly support the hypothesized succession pattern from punctum fixum to punctum mobile. This principle was further underlined by the finding that the succession patterns do change their direction running through the body when the rotational axis (punctum fixum) has been changed (e.g., high bar or rings [hands] vs. floor or trampoline [feet]). The findings improve our understanding of intersegmental neuromuscular coordination patterns to generate intentional movements most efficiently. This could help to develop more specific methods to facilitate such patterns in particular contexts, thus allowing for shorter motor learning procedures of context-specific key movement sequences in different disciplines of sports, as well as during non-sport specific movements.     

Kinematic characteristics of the voluntary cyclic trunk movements in patients at the early stage of Parkinson's disease

Patients with the initial stage of Parkinson disease (PD) and matched controls performed repetitive bendings and turnings in standing position. Tasks included trunk movements in each of the anatomical planes: sagittal, frontal and axial. Electromagnetic system Flock of Birds was used for movement registration. Sensors were fixed at different segments of subject's body. Joint angles in the ankle, hip and torso as well as coordinates of the center of pressure served as output parameters. The amplitudes of joint angles were found to be lower in PD patients. Performance of the axial rotation revealed most pronounced differences. Thus, the amplitudes of joint angles of trunk movements in different anatomical planes reliably discriminate between PD patients and healthy subjects.     

Kinematics of the Coordination of Pointing during Locomotion

In natural motor behaviour arm movements, such as pointing or reaching, often need to be coordinated with locomotion. The underlying coordination patterns are largely unexplored, and require the integration of both rhythmic and discrete movement primitives. For the systematic and controlled study of such coordination patterns we have developed a paradigm that combines locomotion on a treadmill with time-controlled pointing to targets in the three-dimensional space, exploiting a virtual reality setup. Participants had to walk at a constant velocity on a treadmill. Synchronized with specific foot events, visual target stimuli were presented that appeared at different spatial locations in front of them. Participants were asked to reach these stimuli within a short time interval after a “go” signal. We analysed the variability patterns of the most relevant joint angles, as well as the time coupling between the time of pointing and different critical timing events in the foot movements. In addition, we applied a new technique for the extraction of movement primitives from kinematic data based on anechoic demixing. We found a modification of the walking pattern as consequence of the arm movement, as well as a modulation of the duration of the reaching movement in dependence of specific foot events. The extraction of kinematic movement primitives from the joint angle trajectories exploiting the new algorithm revealed the existence of two distinct main components accounting, respectively, for the rhythmic and discrete components of the coordinated movement pattern. Summarizing, our study shows a reciprocal pattern of influences between the coordination patterns of reaching and walking. This pattern might be explained by the dynamic interactions between central pattern generators that initiate rhythmic and discrete movements of the lower and upper limbs, and biomechanical factors such as the dynamic gait stability.     

Cyclic behavior of plum curculio,Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), within caged dwarf apple trees in spring

From 12 to 19 May 1987, during Morspur apple bloom, 21 radioactively labeled (⁶⁵ Zn) adult plum curculios, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst), were released within a field cage containing four dwarf apple trees and located three times a day. A technique was developed for quickly obtaining (x, y, z)coordinates of location for adults foraging within apple trees. Cyclic patterns of behavior were detected using spectral analysis procedures. Over 70% of plum curculios exhibited diel periodicity with respect to activity and rate of movement, 36% exhibited such periodicity with respect to presence in the trees, and 27% with respect to movements from the center to the periphery of the canopy. Presence in fruit clusters, height in the trees, and movements along east-west and north-south axes showed little or no periodicity. Factors triggering cyclic behavior and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

On identification of saccades from sinusoidal eye movement signals

Sinusoidal eye movements and potential saccadic eye movements are examined using the syntactic pattern recognition method presented previously. A few computer tests are presented for the verification of potential saccades from signals of sinusoidal eye movements. The technique was developed and tested with electro-oculographic signals. The verification of saccades consists of three tests: the estimation of average noise peaks in an eye movement signal; an angular velocity threshold; and the comparison between a sinusoidal eye movement signal and the corresponding stimulus signal. The technique is also efficient for noisy signals of eye movements, which were stimulated by both predictive and non-predictive sinusoidal stimulus movements.     

Age-related and obstacle height-related differences in movements while stepping over obstacles

Background

This study aims to examine age-related and obstacle height-related differences in movements while stepping over obstacles.

Methods

The participants included 16 elderly and nine young women. Obstacles that were either 5 or 20 cm high were positioned at the center of a 4-m walking path. The participants were instructed to walk along the path as quickly as possible. The participants’ movements were analyzed using a three-dimensional motion analysis system that recorded their movements as they walked and stepped over the obstacles.

Results and conclusions

Seven joint angles and the distances between the ground and six markers were examined in the initial contact and swing instants of the leading and trailing limbs. In the initial contact instant, the elderly women prepared for stepping with a lower toe height than the young women when stepping over the 20-cm obstacle. Trunk rotation was greater in the young women than in the elderly women. In the swing instant, the elderly women showed greater ankle dorsiflexion and hip adduction angles for the leading limb when stepping over the 20-cm obstacle. They moved the trailing limb with increased ankle dorsiflexion, knee flexion, hip flexion, and foot inversion to ensure that they did not touch the obstacle as they stepped over it. These movement patterns are characteristic of elderly individuals who cannot easily lift their lower limbs because of decreased lower-limb strength.     

In-vivo measurement of dynamic joint motion using high speed biplane radiography and CT: application to canine ACL deficiency

Dynamic assessment of three-dimensional (3D) skeletal kinematics is essential for understanding normal joint function as well as the effects of injury or disease. This paper presents a novel technique for measuring in-vivo skeletal kinematics that combines data collected from high-speed biplane radiography and static computed tomography (CT). The goals of the present study were to demonstrate that highly precise measurements can be obtained during dynamic movement studies employing high frame-rate biplane video-radiography, to develop a method for expressing joint kinematics in an anatomically relevant coordinate system and to demonstrate the application of this technique by calculating canine tibio-femoral kinematics during dynamic motion. The method consists of four components: the generation and acquisition of high frame rate biplane radiographs, identification and 3D tracking of implanted bone markers, CT-based coordinate system determination, and kinematic analysis routines for determining joint motion in anatomically based coordinates. Results from dynamic tracking of markers inserted in a phantom object showed the system bias was insignificant (-0.02 mm). The average precision in tracking implanted markers in-vivo was 0.064 mm for the distance between markers and 0.31 degree for the angles between markers. Across-trial standard deviations for tibio-femoral translations were similar for all three motion directions, averaging 0.14 mm (range 0.08 to 0.20 mm). Variability in tibio-femoral rotations was more dependent on rotation axis, with across-trial standard deviations averaging 1.71 degrees for flexion/extension, 0.90 degree for internal/external rotation, and 0.40 degree for varus/valgus rotation. Advantages of this technique over traditional motion analysis methods include the elimination of skin motion artifacts, improved tracking precision and the ability to present results in a consistent anatomical reference frame.     

Arch form,tooth size,and occlusomandibular kinesis in the Ceboidea

Correlations between dental morphology, arch configuration, and jaw movement patterns were quantitatively investigated in 23 ceboid species to elucidate integrative aspects of occlusal functional anatomy in an adaptive and evolutionary context. Differential maxillary-mandibular arch widths are primary in guiding lateral jaw movements. These movements are characterized according to their associated condylar shifts as either predominantly translatory or rotational. Predominantly translatory movements result from peripheral contact relationships between maxillary arches which are considerably wider posteriorly than their opposing mandibular arches. The greatest degree of mandibular movement is in the molar region in functional association with wide “primitive” maxillary molars, narrow mandibular molars, constricted maxillary intercanine widths, and narrow maxillary incisors. In contrast, predominantly rotational masticatory jaw movements result from differential arch widths which are greatest in the maxillary canine and incisor regions. Here most jaw movement is in the anterior segment and this is reflected in small maxillary-mandibular molar width differences, a high degree of premolarization, wide-set maxillary canine teeth, and wide maxillary incisors. Possible selectional factors in the putative evolution of rotational predominance in mastication from the more primitive translatory pattern are discussed.     

Examining motion in the cervical spine II: characterization of coupled joint motion using an opto-electronic device to track skin markers

Analysis of coupled motion in the cervical spine may be useful in helping to identify injuries. In order to investigate this possibility, the nature of coupled motion in the spine and previous investigations on this subject are reviewed here. An enhanced set of displays are developed for an existing opto-electronic device employed for the non-invasive measurement of movement in the upper spine. This instrument consists of a high resolution motion analysis system which tracks small infrared emitting diodes (IREDs). Kinematic data for the motion of the markers is processed and absolute coordinates for the location of each IRED at any time are tabulated; coupled motion with respect to a fixed calibration frame, as well as for vertebrae relative to each other, is deduced from these. Overall analysis provided by the original device includes assessment of cervical lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, and inter-segmental mobility. Characterization of coupled motion, in particular, involves a series of plots showing principal versus secondary motion. Principal movements include flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation, corresponding to motion in the sagittal, transverse, and horizontal planes, respectively. Mobility is represented in terms of the direction angles made by virtual vectors orthogonal to the planes made by markers on the head, neck, and shoulders. Development of the enhanced displays and the required refinements are described. Precision of the deduced angles is found to be approximately 1°. This representation of coupled motion is expected to be valuable in improving the accuracy of attempts to identify normal versus pathological motion in the cervical spine.     

The validity and reliability of surface EMG to assess the neuromuscular response of the abdominal muscles to rapid limb movement.

The transversus abdominus muscle (TrA) has been demonstrated to be active prior to rapid movements of the upper and lower limbs. This activity is termed feed forward motivation. The lack of feed-forward activation for TrA has been demonstrated in subjects with low back pain. The measures used for investigation of TrA function have been fine-wire needle EMG. This limits the practical application of TrA study due to the cost and level of specialisation required for this technique. The objective of the current study was to investigate the validity and reliability of using a surface EMG site to replicate the findings for the feed-forward activation of TrA prior to rapid limb movement. A population of healthy, young males (n = 20) were studied and it was found that four of the subjects did not meet feed-forward criteria. These results were shown to be highly reliable after a 2-week period for the TrA/IO site only. The validity of the signal was further investigated using several functional tasks to specifically target muscles of the abdominal region. Using a cross-correlation analysis to evaluate crosstalk from adjacent muscles, it was concluded that the signal representing TrA/IO accurately demonstrates the functional activity of the muscle. This study has demonstrated a viable surface EMG method to evaluate the feed-forward activation of TrA/IO prior to rapid limb movement. This may lead to opportunities for the clinical application of this method. It was also a finding of this study that four asymptomatic subjects did not pre-activate, therefore providing a rationale for future prospective investigations on whether the lack of TrA/IO feed-forward activation is a cause or an effect of low back pain.     

Robot-based methodology for a kinematic and kinetic analysis of unconstrained,but reproducible upper extremity movement

Although arm movements play an important role in everyday life, there is still a lack of procedures for the analysis of upper extremity movement. The main problems for standardizing the procedure are the variety of arm movements and the difficult assessment of external hand forces. The first problem requires the predefinition of motions, and the second one is the prerequisite for calculation of net joint forces and torques arising during motion. A new methodology for measuring external forces during prespecified, reproducible upper extremity movement has been introduced and validated. A robot-arm has been used to define the motion and 6 degrees of freedom (DoF) force sensor has been attached to it for acquiring the external loads acting on the arm. Additionally, force feedback has been used to help keeping external loads constant. Intra-individual reproducibility of joint angles was estimated by using correlation coefficients to compare a goal-directed movement with robot-guided task. Inter-individual reproducibility has been evaluated by using the mean standard deviation of joint angles for both types of movement. The results showed that both inter- and intra-individual reproducibility have significantly improved by using the robot. Also, the effectiveness of using force feedback for keeping a constant external load has been shown. This makes it possible to estimate net joint forces and torques which are important biomechanical information in motion analysis.     

Nonlinear smooth orthogonal decomposition of kinematic features of sawing reconstructs muscle fatigue evolution as indicated by electromyography

Tracking or predicting physiological fatigue is important for developing more robust training protocols and better energy supplements and/or reducing muscle injuries. Current methodologies are usually impractical and/or invasive and may not be realizable outside of laboratory settings. It was recently demonstrated that smooth orthogonal decomposition (SOD) of phase space warping (PSW) features of motion kinematics can identify fatigue in individual muscle groups. We hypothesize that a nonlinear extension of SOD will identify more optimal fatigue coordinates and provide a lower-dimensional reconstruction of local fatigue dynamics than the linear SOD. Both linear and nonlinear SODs were applied to PSW features estimated from measured kinematics to reconstruct muscle fatigue dynamics in subjects performing a sawing motion. Ten healthy young right-handed subjects pushed a weighted handle back and forth until voluntary exhaustion. Three sets of joint kinematic angles were measured from the right upper extremity in addition to surface electromyography (EMG) recordings. The SOD coordinates of kinematic PSW features were compared against independently measured fatigue markers (i.e., mean and median EMG spectrum frequencies of individual muscle groups). This comparison was based on a least-squares linear fit of a fixed number of the dominant SOD coordinates to the appropriate local fatigue markers. Between subject variability showed that at most four to five nonlinear SOD coordinates were needed to reconstruct fatigue in local muscle groups, while on average 15 coordinates were needed for the linear SOD. Thus, the nonlinear coordinates provided a one-order-of-magnitude improvement over the linear ones.     

Which data should be tracked in forward-dynamic optimisation to best predict muscle forces in a pathological co-contraction case?

The choice of the cost-function for predicting muscle forces during a movement remains a challenge, especially in patients with neuromuscular disorders. Forward dynamics-based optimisations mainly track joint kinematics or torques, combined with a least-excitation criterion. Tracking marker trajectories and/or electromyography (EMG) has rarely been proposed. Our objective was to determine the best tracking objective-function to accurately predict the upper-limb muscle forces. A musculoskeletal model was created and EMG was simulated to obtain a reference movement – a shoulder abduction. A Gaussian noise (mean = 0; standard deviation = 15%) was added to the simulated EMG. Another noise – corresponding to the actual soft tissue artefacts (STA) of experimental shoulder abduction movements – was added to the trajectories of the markers placed on the model. Muscle forces were estimated from these noisy data, using forward dynamics assisted by six non-linear least-squared objective-functions. These functions involved the tracking of marker trajectories, joint angles or torques, with and without EMG-tracking. All six approaches used the same musculoskeletal model and were solved using a direct multiple shooting algorithm. Finally, the predicted joint angles, muscle forces and activations were compared to the reference values, using root-mean-square errors (RMSe) and biases. The force RMSe of the approach tracking both marker trajectories and EMG (18.45 ± 12.60 N) was almost five times lower than the one of the approach tracking only joint angles (82.37 ± 66.26 N) or torques (85.10 ± 116.40 N). Therefore, using EMG as a complementary tracking-data in forward dynamics seems to be promising for the estimation of muscle forces.