Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition
Simultaneous execution of cognitive and sensorimotor tasks is critical in daily life. Here, we examined whether dexterous manipulation, a highly habitual and seemingly automatic behavior, involves high order cognitive functions. Specifically, we explored the impact of reducing available cognitive re...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00220/full |
| _version_ | 1811274392531894272 |
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| author | Erwan Guillery André Mouraux Jean-Louis Thonnard Jean-Louis Thonnard Valéry Legrain Valéry Legrain |
| author_facet | Erwan Guillery André Mouraux Jean-Louis Thonnard Jean-Louis Thonnard Valéry Legrain Valéry Legrain |
| author_sort | Erwan Guillery |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Simultaneous execution of cognitive and sensorimotor tasks is critical in daily life. Here, we examined whether dexterous manipulation, a highly habitual and seemingly automatic behavior, involves high order cognitive functions. Specifically, we explored the impact of reducing available cognitive resources on the performance of a precision grip-lift task in healthy participants of three age groups (18–30, 30–60 and 60–75 years). Participants performed a motor task in isolation (M), in combination with a low-load cognitive task (M + L), and in combination with a high-load cognitive task (M + H). The motor task consisted in grasping, lifting and holding an apparatus instrumented with force sensors to monitor motor task performance. In the cognitive task, a list of letters was shown briefly before the motor task. After completing the motor task, one letter of the list was shown, and participants reported the following letter of the list. In M + L, letters in the list followed the alphabetical order. In M + H, letters were presented in random order. Performing the high-load task thus required maintaining information in working memory. Temporal and dynamic parameters of grip and lift forces were compared across conditions. During the cognitive tasks, there was a significant alteration of movement initiation and a significant increase of grip force (GF) throughout the grip-lift task. There was no interaction with “age”. Our results demonstrate that planning and the on-line control of dexterous manipulation is not an automatic behavior and, instead, that it interacts with high-level cognitive processes such as those involved in working memory. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:18:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-387141a5f1e0408cab7fd3ffc526f665 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5153 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:18:04Z |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-387141a5f1e0408cab7fd3ffc526f6652022-12-22T03:12:37ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience1662-51532017-11-011110.3389/fnbeh.2017.00220267986Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level CognitionErwan Guillery0André Mouraux1Jean-Louis Thonnard2Jean-Louis Thonnard3Valéry Legrain4Valéry Legrain5Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, BelgiumInstitute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, BelgiumInstitute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, BelgiumDepartment of Physical and Rehabilitation-Medicine, Saint-Luc University Hospital, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, BelgiumInstitute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, BelgiumPsychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, BelgiumSimultaneous execution of cognitive and sensorimotor tasks is critical in daily life. Here, we examined whether dexterous manipulation, a highly habitual and seemingly automatic behavior, involves high order cognitive functions. Specifically, we explored the impact of reducing available cognitive resources on the performance of a precision grip-lift task in healthy participants of three age groups (18–30, 30–60 and 60–75 years). Participants performed a motor task in isolation (M), in combination with a low-load cognitive task (M + L), and in combination with a high-load cognitive task (M + H). The motor task consisted in grasping, lifting and holding an apparatus instrumented with force sensors to monitor motor task performance. In the cognitive task, a list of letters was shown briefly before the motor task. After completing the motor task, one letter of the list was shown, and participants reported the following letter of the list. In M + L, letters in the list followed the alphabetical order. In M + H, letters were presented in random order. Performing the high-load task thus required maintaining information in working memory. Temporal and dynamic parameters of grip and lift forces were compared across conditions. During the cognitive tasks, there was a significant alteration of movement initiation and a significant increase of grip force (GF) throughout the grip-lift task. There was no interaction with “age”. Our results demonstrate that planning and the on-line control of dexterous manipulation is not an automatic behavior and, instead, that it interacts with high-level cognitive processes such as those involved in working memory.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00220/fulldual-taskmotor-cognitive interferenceprecision gripgrip-lift |
| spellingShingle | Erwan Guillery André Mouraux Jean-Louis Thonnard Jean-Louis Thonnard Valéry Legrain Valéry Legrain Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience dual-task motor-cognitive interference precision grip grip-lift |
| title | Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition |
| title_full | Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition |
| title_fullStr | Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition |
| title_short | Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition |
| title_sort | mind your grip even usual dexterous manipulation requires high level cognition |
| topic | dual-task motor-cognitive interference precision grip grip-lift |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00220/full |
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