The corticospinal (CS) tract is the anatomical support of the exquisite motor ability to skillfully manipulate small objects, a prerogative mainly of primates(1). In case of lesion affecting the CS projection system at its origin (lesion of motor cortical areas) or along its trajectory (cervical cord lesion), there is a dramatic loss of manual dexterity (hand paralysis), as seen in some tetrapl...

RoboHealth is a project that is focused on giving assistance to medical staff in order to improve the quality of treatment provided to patients in rehabilitation processes. The project covers two aspects during the rehabilitation process: assessment and therapy itself. In previous work [1], an automatic assessment system was presented for the evaluation of patient progress and effectiveness of ...

We compared performance on three manual-dexterity tasks under monocular and binocular viewing. The tasks were the standard Morrisby Fine Dexterity Test, using forceps to manipulate the items, a modified version of the Morrisby test using fingers, and a "buzz-wire" task in which subjects had to guide a wire hoop around a 3D track without bringing the hoop into contact with the track. In all thre...

PurposeThe motor development of firstborns compared to children having an older sibling in the first two years life was examined.MethodThe data study come from ongoing research project with citizen participation, which is investigating milestones and second life. Parents report online their children's developmental progress using a calendar. 18 skills birth until manage walking alone are record...

Conceptual knowledge accessed by language may involve the reactivation of the associated primary sensory-motor processes. Whether these embodied representations are indeed constitutive to conceptual knowledge is hotly debated, particularly since direct evidence that sensory-motor expertise can improve conceptual processing is scarce. In this study, we sought for this crucial piece of evidence, ...

Manual ability (dexterity) and hand preference (handedness) are key features of human motor control. Recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies casted new light on the neural underpinnings of dexterity. In right-handers, MRI identified structural brain features related to the right–left difference in dexterity or skill acquisition. Functional MRI disclosed a hierarchical and modular repres...

Human non-hairy (glabrous) skin of the fingers, palms and soles wrinkles after prolonged exposure to water. Wrinkling is a sympathetic nervous system-dependent process but little is known about the physiology and potential functions of water-induced skin wrinkling. Here we investigated the idea that wrinkling might improve handling of wet objects by measuring the performance of a large cohort o...