School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 31;8(7):e69040. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069040. Print 2013.
Old age is associated with reduced mobility of the hand. To investigate age related decline when reaching-to-lift an object we used sophisticated kinematic apparatus to record reaches carried out by healthy older and younger participants. Three objects of different widths were placed at three different distances, with objects having either a high or low friction surface (i.e. rough or slippery). Older participants showed quantitative differences to their younger counterparts - movements were slower and peak speed did not scale with object distance. There were also qualitative differences with older adults showing a greater propensity to stop the hand and adjust finger position before lifting objects. The older participants particularly struggled to lift wide slippery objects, apparently due to an inability to manipulate their grasp to provide the level of precision necessary to functionally enclose the object. These data shed light on the nature of age related changes in reaching-to-grasp movements and establish a powerful technique for exploring how different product designs will impact on prehensile behavior.
随着年龄的增长，手部的活动能力会降低。为了研究伸手取物时与年龄相关的下降，我们使用了精密的运动学仪器来记录健康的老年人和年轻人参与者进行的伸手动作。三个不同宽度的物体放置在三个不同的距离，物体具有不同的摩擦表面（即粗糙或光滑）。与年轻参与者相比，年长参与者的表现存在定量差异——动作更慢，峰值速度与物体距离不成比例。此外，老年人还表现出更大的停止手部运动和调整手指位置的倾向，然后再提起物体。年长的参与者尤其难以提起宽而滑的物体，显然是因为他们无法控制自己的抓握方式，无法提供必要的精度来有效地包围物体。这些数据揭示了与伸手抓握动作相关的年龄变化的本质，并建立了一种强大的技术，用于探索不同的产品设计将如何影响抓握行为。
