Prof. Luis Schettino: Natural Statistics of Grasping Behavior

What is it?

A Lafayette professor presents his current research to a general audience which includes colleagues and students. You are welcome to participate by attending, asking questions, or giving feedback. 

Why I should Come?

Know what your colleague/professor is doing besides teaching

Enjoy the information exchange

FREE lunch 

Luis F. Schettino------------Psychology Department

Abstract

                       Natural statistics of grasping behavior

There is perhaps no more familiar movement to humans than the act of grasping. Most of us use our hands to interact with everyday objects and never give a second thought (both literally and figuratively) to the extremely complex set of processes that implement a reach-to-grasp action. Nonetheless, from finding an object with our eyes to the initiation of the movement and its monitoring to a successful conclusion, large swaths of our brain’s cortical and subcortical regions are activated. In spite of three decades of research, we are still not sure what it is that each neural region contributes to the coordination of motion. An efficient way to begin to understand complex motor control is to characterize the coordination patterns of motor output. While much of grasping research has involved only the ‘pincer grasp’ conformed by the thumb and index finger, my work has focused on the neural and behavioral control of full hand prehension.  In this talk, I will be presenting some of my data involving hand preshaping in normal human adults and Parkinson’s patients as well as finger contact timing during grasping.