IMT Institutional Repository: No conditions. Results ordered -Date Deposited. 2024-03-29T13:43:46ZEPrintshttp://eprints.imtlucca.it/images/logowhite.pnghttp://eprints.imtlucca.it/2016-10-05T13:17:08Z2017-03-27T11:08:21Zhttp://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/3559This item is in the repository with the URL: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/35592016-10-05T13:17:08ZHand synergies: Integration of robotics and neuroscience for understanding the control of biological and artificial hands.The term 'synergy' - from the Greek synergia - means 'working together'. The concept of multiple elements working together towards a common goal has been extensively used in neuroscience to develop theoretical frameworks, experimental approaches, and analytical techniques to understand neural control of movement, and for applications for neuro-rehabilitation. In the past decade, roboticists have successfully applied the framework of synergies to create novel design and control concepts for artificial hands, i.e., robotic hands and prostheses. At the same time, robotic research on the sensorimotor integration underlying the control and sensing of artificial hands has inspired new research approaches in neuroscience, and has provided useful instruments for novel experiments. The ambitious goal of integrating expertise and research approaches in robotics and neuroscience to study the properties and applications of the concept of synergies is generating a number of multidisciplinary cooperative projects, among which the recently finished 4-year European project "The Hand Embodied" (THE). This paper reviews the main insights provided by this framework. Specifically, we provide an overview of neuroscientific bases of hand synergies and introduce how robotics has leveraged the insights from neuroscience for innovative design in hardware and controllers for biomedical engineering applications, including myoelectric hand prostheses, devices for haptics research, and wearable sensing of human hand kinematics. The review also emphasizes how this multidisciplinary collaboration has generated new ways to conceptualize a synergy-based approach for robotics, and provides guidelines and principles for analyzing human behavior and synthesizing artificial robotic systems based on a theory of synergies.Marco SantelloMatteo BianchiMarco GabicciniEmiliano Ricciardiemiliano.ricciardi@imtlucca.itGionata SalviettiDomenico PrattichizzoMarc ErnstAlessandro MoscatelliHenrik JörntellAstrid M L KappersKostas KyriakopoulosAlin Albu-SchäfferClaudio CastelliniAntonio Bicchi2016-10-05T13:11:35Z2017-03-27T11:07:09Zhttp://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/3557This item is in the repository with the URL: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/35572016-10-05T13:11:35ZTowards a synergy framework across neuroscience and robotics: Lessons learned and open questions. Reply to comments on: "Hand synergies: Integration of robotics and neuroscience for understanding the control of biological and artificial hands".Marco SantelloMatteo BianchiMarco GabicciniEmiliano Ricciardiemiliano.ricciardi@imtlucca.itGionata SalviettiDomenico PrattichizzoMarc ErnstAlessandro MoscatelliHenrik JorntellAstrid M L KappersKostas KyriakopoulosAlin Abu SchaefferClaudio CastelliniAntonio Bicchi2016-05-11T11:02:48Z2016-09-13T09:42:41Zhttp://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/3485This item is in the repository with the URL: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/34852016-05-11T11:02:48ZHuman and Robot Hands: Sensorimotor Synergies to Bridge the Gap Between Neuroscience and RoboticsThe control of the many degrees of freedom of the hand through functional modules (hand synergies) has been proposed as a potentially useful model to describe how the hand can maintain postures while being able to rapidly change its configuration to accomplish a wide range of tasks. However, whether and to what extent synergies are actually encoded in motor cortical areas is still debated. A direct encoding of hand synergies is suggested by electrophysiological studies in nonhuman primates, but the evidence in humans resulted, so far, partial and indirect. In this chapter, we review the organization of the brain network that controls hand posture in humans and present preliminary results of a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) on the encoding of synergies at a cortical level to control hand posture in humans.Andrea LeoGiacomo HandjarasHamal MarinoMatteo BianchiPietro Pietrinipietro.pietrini@imtlucca.itEmiliano Ricciardiemiliano.ricciardi@imtlucca.it2016-03-01T10:32:04Z2016-09-12T08:28:51Zhttp://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/3170This item is in the repository with the URL: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/31702016-03-01T10:32:04ZA synergy-based hand control is encoded in human motor cortical areasHow the human brain controls hand movements to carry out different tasks is still debated. The concept of synergy has been proposed to indicate functional modules that may simplify the control of hand postures by simultaneously recruiting sets of muscles and joints. However, whether and to what extent synergic hand postures are encoded as such at a cortical level remains unknown. Here, we combined kinematic, electromyography, and brain activity measures obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging while subjects performed a variety of movements towards virtual objects. Hand postural information, encoded through kinematic synergies, were represented in cortical areas devoted to hand motor control and successfully discriminated individual grasping movements, significantly outperforming alternative somatotopic or muscle-based models. Importantly, hand postural synergies were predicted by neural activation patterns within primary motor cortex. These findings support a novel cortical organization for hand movement control and open potential applications for brain-computer interfaces and neuroprostheses.Andrea LeoGiacomo HandjarasMatteo BianchiHamal MarinoMarco GabicciniAndrea GuidiEnzo Pasquale ScilingoPietro Pietrinipietro.pietrini@imtlucca.itAntonio BicchiMarco SantelloEmiliano Ricciardiemiliano.ricciardi@imtlucca.it