Assessment of force coordination and neuromuscular quickness in healthy adults

Throughout daily life, it is necessary to handle and control innumerable objects. To do so, one’s hands must be precisely regulated. To ensure that an object is effectively manipulated, an individual must apply a grip force (GF) perpendicular to the object’s surface to overcome load force (LF), which acts tangential to the surface to counteract the object’s weight and inertia. Previous studies have shown an elaborate coordination between GF and LF in a variety of object manipulation tasks in healthy populations. This kinetic analysis is clinically important because the GF-LF coordination is shown to deteriorate in aging and neurologically impaired populations. Within this thesis, we explored the coordination between GF and LF and their neuromuscular quickness values in rapid force production tasks that could represent conditions where one has to grasp externally fixed objects to avoid falling. We varied the parameters of surface friction (e.g. high and low friction) and LF direction (e.g. pulling up and pushing down) in order to evaluate variables that could potentially affect the measured outcomes. Overall, this study created a simple, non-invasive measurement technique that quantifies force coordination and neuromuscular quickness in healthy, young adults