Committee on Computational Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Neuroscience Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
J Neurophysiol. 2022 Jun 1;127(6):1669-1678. doi: 10.1152/jn.00522.2021.
Nonhuman primates, especially rhesus macaques, have been a dominant model to study sensorimotor control of the upper limbs. Indeed, human and macaques have similar hands and homologous neural circuits to mediate manual behavior. However, few studies have systematically and quantitatively compared the manual behaviors of the two species. Such comparison is critical for assessing the validity of using the macaque sensorimotor system as a model of its human counterpart. In this study, we systematically compared the prehensile behaviors of humans and rhesus macaques using an identical experimental setup. We found human and macaque prehension kinematics to be generally similar with a few subtle differences. Although the structure of the preshaping hand postures is similar in humans and macaques, human postures are more object-specific and human joints are less intercorrelated. Conversely, monkeys demonstrate more stereotypical preshaping behaviors that are common across all objects and more variability in their postures across repeated presentations of the same object. Despite these subtle differences in manual behavior between humans and monkeys, our results bolster the use of the macaque model to understand the neural mechanisms of manual dexterity in humans. Macaques have been a dominant animal model to study the neural mechanisms of human dexterity because they exhibit complex manual behavior. We show that the kinematics of prehension, a critical dexterous behavior, are largely similar in humans and macaques. However, human preshaping postures are more object-specific and the movement of human digits is less correlated with each other. The thumb, index, and wrist are major drivers of these interspecies differences.
非人类灵长类动物，尤其是恒河猴，一直是研究上肢感觉运动控制的主要模型。事实上，人类和猕猴的手具有相似的结构，并且具有同源的神经回路来介导手动行为。然而，很少有研究系统地和定量地比较了这两个物种的手动行为。这种比较对于评估使用猕猴感觉运动系统作为其人类对应物模型的有效性至关重要。在这项研究中，我们使用相同的实验设置系统地比较了人类和恒河猴的抓握行为。我们发现人类和猕猴的抓握运动学通常相似，但存在一些细微的差异。尽管人类和猕猴的预塑形手姿势的结构相似，但人类的姿势更具针对性，人类的关节之间的相关性较小。相反，猴子表现出更刻板的预塑形行为，这些行为在所有物体中都很常见，并且在相同物体的多次呈现中，它们的姿势变化更大。尽管人类和猴子的手动行为存在这些细微差异，但我们的结果支持使用猕猴模型来理解人类灵巧性的神经机制。猕猴一直是研究人类灵巧性神经机制的主要动物模型，因为它们表现出复杂的手动行为。我们表明，抓握的运动学，这一关键的灵巧行为，在人类和猕猴中基本相似。然而，人类的预塑形姿势更具针对性，人类手指的运动彼此之间的相关性较小。拇指、食指和手腕是这些种间差异的主要驱动因素。
