Grip force as a functional window to somatosensory cognition

TL;DR

This paper explores how grip force signals, monitored via wireless sensors, provide new insights into somatosensory cognition and motor control during complex tasks, with implications for future cognitive and robotic applications.

Contribution

It introduces non-invasive multi-finger grip force sensor technology to study somatosensory-motor interactions during learning and strategic hand movements.

Findings

Grip force signals reveal functional insights into somatosensory cognition.

Wireless sensors enable tracking of grip force during cognitive tasks.

Future applications include robot-assisted precision tasks.

Abstract

Analysis of grip force signals tailored to hand and finger movement evolution and changes in grip force control during task execution provide unprecedented functional insight into somatosensory cognition. Somatosensory cognition is the basis of our ability to act upon and to transform the physical world around us, to recognize objects on the basis of touch alone, and to grasp them with the right amount of force for lifting and manipulating them. Recent technology has permitted the wireless monitoring of grip force signals recorded from biosensors in the palm of the human hand to track and trace human grip forces deployed in cognitive tasks executed under conditions of variable sensory (visual, auditory) input. Non-invasive multi-finger grip force sensor technology can be exploited to explore functional interactions between somatosensory brain mechanisms and motor control, in particular during learning a novel and complex tasks where the planning and strategic execution of hand movements is essential. Under the light of a comprehensive overview of recent discoveries into the functional significance of human grip force variations, perspectives for future studies in cognition, in particular the cognitive control of strategic hand movements in robot-assisted precision tasks, are pointed out.