Peri-hand space: A helping hand for faster object recognition in children.

Visual processing is altered for stimuli located near the hands, in what is termed peri-hand space, but it is unclear whether peri-hand effects are stable across the lifespan. To investigate this, adults and 5- to 8-year-old children completed a naturalistic visual search task on a touchscreen monitor while wearing eye-tracking glasses. Upon recognizing a previously specified target image in a 12-image array, they released a pushbutton with their left index finger in order to reach out and touch the target. Participants completed the task twice, once with their right hand positioned on the monitor beside the visual array and once with their right hand positioned in their lap. Both children and adults were faster at recognizing the target when their right hand was near the array, but the magnitude of this peri-hand effect was greater in children than adults. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that object recognition may be facilitated within peri-hand space to a greater extent during childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Faster recognition of graspable targets defined by orientation in a visual search task.

Peri-hand space is the area surrounding the hand. Objects within this space may be subject to increased visuospatial perception, increased attentional prioritization, and slower attentional disengagement compared to more distal objects. This may result from kinesthetic and visual feedback about the location of the hand that projects from the reach and grasp networks of the dorsal visual stream back to occipital visual areas, which in turn, refines cortical visual processing that can subsequently guide skilled motor actions. Thus, we hypothesized that visual stimuli that afford action, which are known to potentiate activity in the dorsal visual stream, would be associated with greater alterations in visual processing when presented near the hand. To test this, participants held their right hand near or far from a touchscreen that presented a visual array containing a single target object that differed from 11 distractor objects by orientation only. The target objects and their accompanying distractors either strongly afforded grasping or did not. Participants identified the target among the distractors by reaching out and touching it with their left index finger while eye-tracking was used to measure visual search times, target recognition times, and search accuracy. The results failed to support the theory of enhanced visual processing of graspable objects near the hand as participants were faster at recognizing graspable compared to non-graspable targets, regardless of the position of the right hand. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that, in addition to potentiating appropriate motor responses, object affordances may also potentiate early visual processes necessary for object recognition.

Two types of memory-based (pantomime) reaches distinguished by gaze anchoring in reach-to-grasp tasks.

Comparisons of target-based reaching vs memory-based (pantomime) reaching have been used to obtain insight into the visuomotor control of reaching. The present study examined the contribution of gaze anchoring, reaching to a target that is under continuous gaze, to both target-based and memory-based reaching. Participants made target-based reaches for discs located on a table or food items located on a pedestal or they replaced the objects. They then made memory-based reaches in which they pantomimed their target-based reaches. Participants were fitted with hand sensors for kinematic tracking and an eye tracker to monitor gaze. When making target-based reaches, participants directed gaze to the target location from reach onset to offset without interrupting saccades. Similar gaze anchoring was present for memory-based reaches when the surface upon which the target had been placed remained. When the target and its surface were both removed there was no systematic relationship between gaze and the reach. Gaze anchoring was also present when participants replaced a target on a surface, a movement featuring a reach but little grasp. That memory-based reaches can be either gaze anchor-associated or gaze anchor-independent is discussed in relation to contemporary views of the neural control of reaching.

Increasing task precision demands reveals that the reach and grasp remain subject to different perception-action constraints in 12-month-old human infants.

The reach and grasp follow different developmental trajectories, but are often considered to have achieved nearly adult-like precision and integration by 12 months of age. This study used frame-by-frame video analysis to investigate whether increasing precision demands, by placing small reaching targets on a narrow pedestal rather than on a flat table, would influence the reach and grasp movements of 12-month-old infants in a complementary or differential fashion. The results reveal that placing the target atop a pedestal impaired the infants's ability to direct an appropriate digit towards the small target, but did not produce a corresponding decrease in the frequency with which they used an index-thumb pincer grip to grasp the target. This was due to the fact that, although infants were more likely to contact the target with a suboptimal part of the hand in the pedestal condition, a greater proportion of these suboptimal contacts ultimately transitioned to a successful index-thumb pincer grip. Thus, increasing task precision demands impaired reach accuracy, but facilitated index-thumb grip formation, in 12-month-old infants. The differential response of the reach and grasp to the increased precision demands of the pedestal condition suggests that the two movements are not fully integrated and, when precision demands are great, remain sensitive to different perception-action constraints in 12-month-old infants.

Touch the table before the target: contact with an underlying surface may assist the development of precise visually controlled reach and grasp movements in human infants.

Multiple motor channel theory posits that skilled hand movements arise from the coordinated activation of separable neural circuits in parietofrontal cortex, each of which produces a distinct movement and responds to different sensory inputs. Prehension, the act of reaching to grasp an object, consists of at least two movements: a reach movement that transports the hand to a target location and a grasp movement that shapes and closes the hand for target acquisition. During early development, discrete pre-reach and pre-grasp movements are refined based on proprioceptive and tactile feedback, but are gradually coordinated together into a singular hand preshaping movement under feedforward visual control. The neural and behavioural factors that enable this transition are currently unknown. In an attempt to identify such factors, the present descriptive study used frame-by-frame video analysis to examine 9-, 12-, and 15-month-old infants, along with sighted and unsighted adults, as they reached to grasp small ring-shaped pieces of cereal (Cheerios) resting on a table. Compared to sighted adults, infants and unsighted adults were more likely to make initial contact with the underlying table before they contacted the target. The way in which they did so was also similar in that they generally contacted the table with the tip of the thumb and/or pinky finger, a relatively open hand, and poor reach accuracy. Despite this, infants were similar to sighted adults in that they tended to use a pincer digit, defined as the tip of the thumb or index finger, to subsequently contact the target. Only in infants was this ability related to their having made prior contact with the underlying table. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that initial contact with an underlying table or surface may assist infants in learning to use feedforward visual control to direct their digits towards a precise visual target.

Gaze anchoring guides real but not pantomime reach-to-grasp: support for the action-perception theory.

Reach-to-grasp movements feature the integration of a reach directed by the extrinsic (location) features of a target and a grasp directed by the intrinsic (size, shape) features of a target. The action-perception theory suggests that integration and scaling of a reach-to-grasp movement, including its trajectory and the concurrent digit shaping, are features that depend upon online action pathways of the dorsal visuomotor stream. Scaling is much less accurate for a pantomime reach-to-grasp movement, a pretend reach with the target object absent. Thus, the action-perception theory proposes that pantomime movement is mediated by perceptual pathways of the ventral visuomotor stream. A distinguishing visual feature of a real reach-to-grasp movement is gaze anchoring, in which a participant visually fixates the target throughout the reach and disengages, often by blinking or looking away/averting the head, at about the time that the target is grasped. The present study examined whether gaze anchoring is associated with pantomime reaching. The eye and hand movements of participants were recorded as they reached for a ball of one of three sizes, located on a pedestal at arms' length, or pantomimed the same reach with the ball and pedestal absent. The kinematic measures for real reach-to-grasp movements were coupled to the location and size of the target, whereas the kinematic measures for pantomime reach-to-grasp, although grossly reflecting target features, were significantly altered. Gaze anchoring was also tightly coupled to the target for real reach-to-grasp movements, but there was no systematic focus for gaze, either in relation with the virtual target, the previous location of the target, or the participant's reaching hand, for pantomime reach-to-grasp. The presence of gaze anchoring during real vs. its absence in pantomime reach-to-grasp supports the action-perception theory that real, but not pantomime, reaches are online visuomotor actions and is discussed in relation with the neural control of real and pantomime reach-to-grasp movements.

Frame-by-Frame Video Analysis of Idiosyncratic Reach-to-Grasp Movements in Humans.

Prehension, the act of reaching to grasp an object, is central to the human experience. We use it to feed ourselves, groom ourselves, and manipulate objects and tools in our environment. Such behaviors are impaired by many sensorimotor disorders, yet our current understanding of their neural control is far from complete. Current technologies for investigating human reach-to-grasp movements often utilize motion tracking systems that can be expensive, require the attachment of markers or sensors to the hands, impede natural movement and sensory feedback, and provide kinematic output that can be difficult to interpret. While generally effective for studying the stereotypical reach-to-grasp movements of healthy sighted adults, many of these technologies face additional limitations when attempting to study the unpredictable and idiosyncratic reach-to-grasp movements of young infants, unsighted adults, and patients with neurological disorders. Thus, we present a novel, inexpensive, and highly reliable yet flexible protocol for quantifying the temporal and kinematic structure of idiosyncratic reach-to-grasp movements in humans. High speed video cameras capture multiple views of the reach-to-grasp movement. Frame-by-frame video analysis is then used to document the timing and magnitude of pre-defined behavioral events such as movement start, collection, maximum height, peak aperture, first contact, and final grasp. The temporal structure of the movement is reconstructed by documenting the relative frame number of each event while the kinematic structure of the hand is quantified using the ruler or measure function in photo editing software to calibrate 2 dimensional linear distances between two body parts or between a body part and the target. Frame-by-frame video analysis can provide a quantitative and comprehensive description of idiosyncratic reach-to-grasp movements and will enable researchers to expand their area of investigation to include a greater range of naturalistic prehensile behaviors, guided by a wider variety of sensory modalities, in both healthy and clinical populations.

Dissociation of the Reach and the Grasp in the destriate (V1) monkey Helen: a new anatomy for the dual visuomotor channel theory of reaching.

Dual visuomotor channel theory proposes that reaching depends on two neural pathways that extend from visual cortex (V1) to motor cortex via the parietal lobe. The Reach pathway directs the hand to the target's location and the Grasp pathway shapes the hand and digits for purchase. Sighted human participants integrate the Reach and the Grasp, but without vision they dissociate the movements to capitalize on tactile cues. They use a Reach with a relatively open hand to locate the target and then they use touch cues to shape the fingers to Grasp. After a V1 lesion, the rhesus monkey, Helen, learned to make near-normal visual discriminations based on size and brightness but displayed visual agnosia. She also learned to reach for food with her mouth and her hands. The present analysis of film of her reaching behavior shows that she dissociated the Reach and the Grasp, as do unsighted human participants reaching for a food target at a fixed location. Her rapid and direct Reach was made with an open hand and extended fingers to contact the food with the palm whereas her Grasp was initiated after she touched the food. She also visually fixated the target during the Reach and visually disengaged after target contact, as do sighted human participants. In contrast, Helen did integrate the Reach and the Grasp to take food from her mouth, demonstrating that she could integrate the movements using online tactile cues. The finding that extrastriate pathways can direct the hand toward extrinsic target properties (location) but not intrinsic target properties (size and shape) is discussed as a novel addition to dual visuomotor channel theory.

The contribution of the reach and the grasp to shaping brain and behaviour.

Skilled hand use is a striking feature of human behaviour, but in contrast to the view that it recently evolved in the primate lineage, the present paper argues that skilled hand movements have an early phylogenetic origin dating back to the synergies displayed by the pectoral fins of bony fishes. Insights into the function and evolution of hand use stem from the dual visuomotor channel theory, which proposes that prehension is a composite of 2 movements, the reach and the grasp. The reach is in part an egocentric act directed toward the extrinsic (location) features of objects while the grasp is in part an allocentric act directed toward the intrinsic (shape and size) features of objects. Phylogenetic, developmental, and behavioural evidence suggest that the reach and the grasp evolved separately under somatosensory control and were subsequently coordinated with visual control in the primate lineage. Accordingly, parallel pathways from visual cortex came to influence separate reach and grasp systems in parietofrontal cortex, and new descending pathways to the spinal cord came to assist in visually guided reaching. Neural processes related to the "where" of the reach and the "what" of the grasp have had a formative role in shaping cognition more generally.

Haptic grasping configurations in early infancy reveal different developmental profiles for visual guidance of the Reach versus the Grasp.

The Dual Visuomotor Channel theory posits that reaching consists of two movements mediated by separate but interacting visuomotor pathways that project from occipital to parietofrontal cortex. The Reach transports and orients the hand to the target while the Grasp opens and closes the hand for target purchase. Adults rely on foveal vision to synchronize the Reach and the Grasp so that the hand orients, opens, and largely closes by the time it gets to the target. Young infants produce discrete preReach and preGrasp movements, but it is unclear how these movements become synchronized under visual control throughout development. High-speed 3-D video recordings and linear kinematics were used to analyze reaching components, hand orientation, hand aperture, and grasping strategy in infants aged 4-24 months compared with adults who reached with and without vision. Infants aged 4-8 months resembled adults reaching without vision; in that, they delayed both Reach orientation and Grasp closure until after target contact, suggesting that they relied primarily on haptic cues to guide reaching. Infants aged 9-24 months oriented the Reach prior to target contact, but continued to delay the majority of Grasp closure until after target contact, suggesting that they relied on vision for the Reach versus haptics for the Grasp. Changes in sensorimotor control were associated with sequential Reach and Grasp configurations in early infancy versus partially synchronized Reach and Grasp configurations in later infancy. The results argue that (1) haptic inputs likely contribute to the initial development of separate Reach and Grasp pathways in parietofrontal cortex; (2) the Reach and the Grasp are adaptively uncoupled during development, likely to capitalize on different sensory inputs at different developmental stages; and (3) the developmental transition from haptic to visual control is asymmetrical with visual guidance of the Reach preceding that of the Grasp.

Reach and Grasp reconfigurations reveal that proprioception assists reaching and hapsis assists grasping in peripheral vision.

The dual visuomotor channel theory proposes that prehension consists of a Reach that transports the hand in relation to an object's extrinsic properties (e.g., location) and a Grasp that shapes the hand to an object's intrinsic properties (e.g., size and shape). In central vision, the Reach and the Grasp are integrated but when an object cannot be seen, the movements can decompose with the Reach first used to locate the object and the Grasp postponed until it is assisted by touch. Reaching for an object in a peripheral visual field is an everyday act, and although it is reported that there are changes in Grasp aperture with target eccentricity, it is not known whether the configuration of the Reach and the Grasp also changes. The present study examined this question by asking participants to reach for food items at 0° or 22.5° and 45° from central gaze. Participants made 15 reaches for a larger round donut ball and a smaller blueberry, and hand movements were analyzed using frame-by-frame video inspection and linear kinematics. Perception of targets was degraded as participants could not identify objects in peripheral vision but did recognize their differential size. The Reach to peripheral targets featured a more dorsal trajectory, a more open hand, and less accurate digit placement. The Grasp featured hand adjustments or target manipulations after contact, which were associated with a prolonged Grasp duration. Thus, Grasps to peripheral vision did not consist only of a simple modification of visually guided reaching but included the addition of somatosensory assistance. The kinematic and behavioral changes argue that proprioception assists the Reach and touch assists the Grasp in peripheral vision, supporting the idea that Reach and Grasp movements are used flexibly in relation to sensory guidance depending upon the salience of target properties.

Independent development of the Reach and the Grasp in spontaneous self-touching by human infants in the first 6 months.

The Dual Visuomotor Channel Theory proposes that visually guided reaching is a composite of two movements, a Reach that advances the hand to contact the target and a Grasp that shapes the digits for target purchase. The theory is supported by biometric analyses of adult reaching, evolutionary contrasts, and differential developmental patterns for the Reach and the Grasp in visually guided reaching in human infants. The present ethological study asked whether there is evidence for a dissociated development for the Reach and the Grasp in nonvisual hand use in very early infancy. The study documents a rich array of spontaneous self-touching behavior in infants during the first 6 months of life and subjected the Reach movements to an analysis in relation to body target, contact type, and Grasp. Video recordings were made of resting alert infants biweekly from birth to 6 months. In younger infants, self-touching targets included the head and trunk. As infants aged, targets became more caudal and included the hips, then legs, and eventually the feet. In younger infants hand contact was mainly made with the dorsum of the hand, but as infants aged, contacts included palmar contacts and eventually grasp and manipulation contacts with the body and clothes. The relative incidence of caudal contacts and palmar contacts increased concurrently and were significantly correlated throughout the period of study. Developmental increases in self-grasping contacts occurred a few weeks after the increase in caudal and palmar contacts. The behavioral and temporal pattern of these spontaneous self-touching movements suggest that the Reach, in which the hand extends to make a palmar self-contact, and the Grasp, in which the digits close and make manipulatory movements, have partially independent developmental profiles. The results additionally suggest that self-touching behavior is an important developmental phase that allows the coordination of the Reach and the Grasp prior to and concurrent with their use under visual guidance.

Nonvisual learning of intrinsic object properties in a reaching task dissociates grasp from reach.

The Dual Visuomotor Channel theory proposes that skilled reaching is composed of a Reach that directs the hand in relation to the extrinsic properties of an object (e.g., location) and a Grasp that opens and closes the hand in relation to the intrinsic properties of an object (e.g., size). While Reach and Grasp movements are often guided by vision, they can also be performed without vision when reaching for a body part or an object on one's own body. Memory of a recently touched but unseen object can also be used to guide Reach and Grasp movements although the touch-response memory durations described are extremely brief (Karl et al. in Exp Brain Res 219:59-74, 2012a). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether repeated nonvisual reaching for a consistent object could calibrate Reach and Grasp movements in a way similar to those guided by vision. The nonvision group wore vision-occluding goggles and reached for fifty consecutive trials for a round donut ball placed on a pedestal. The control group performed the same task with vision. Frame-by-frame video analysis and linear kinematics revealed that nonvision participants consistently used an elevated Reach trajectory, in which the hand, rather than being directed toward the target in the horizontal plane, was first elevated above the target before being lowered to touch and locate it. First contact was established with the dorsal surface of the target, and thus, adjustments in contact locations were often required for purchase. Although nonvision participants initially used an open and extended hand during transport, with practice they began to scale digit aperture to object size with an accuracy and temporal relation similar to vision participants. The different ways in which the Reach and Grasp movements respond to nonvisual learning are discussed in relation to support for the dual channel theory of reaching and to the idea that the Reach and Grasp channels may be differentially dependent on online visual guidance.

Different evolutionary origins for the reach and the grasp: an explanation for dual visuomotor channels in primate parietofrontal cortex.

The Dual Visuomotor Channel Theory proposes that manual prehension consists of two temporally integrated movements, each subserved by distinct visuomotor pathways in occipitoparietofrontal cortex. The Reach is mediated by a dorsomedial pathway and transports the hand in relation to the target's extrinsic properties (i.e., location and orientation). The Grasp is mediated by a dorsolateral pathway and opens, preshapes, and closes the hand in relation to the target's intrinsic properties (i.e., size and shape). Here, neuropsychological, developmental, and comparative evidence is reviewed to show that the Reach and the Grasp have different evolutionary origins. First, the removal or degradation of vision causes prehension to decompose into its constituent Reach and Grasp components, which are then executed in sequence or isolation. Similar decomposition occurs in optic ataxic patients following cortical injury to the Reach and the Grasp pathways and after corticospinal tract lesions in non-human primates. Second, early non-visual PreReach and PreGrasp movements develop into mature Reach and Grasp movements but are only integrated under visual control after a prolonged developmental period. Third, comparative studies reveal many similarities between stepping movements and the Reach and between food handling movements and the Grasp, suggesting that the Reach and the Grasp are derived from different evolutionary antecedents. The evidence is discussed in relation to the ideas that dual visuomotor channels in primate parietofrontal cortex emerged as a result of distinct evolutionary origins for the Reach and the Grasp; that foveated vision in primates serves to integrate the Reach and the Grasp into a single prehensile act; and, that flexible recombination of discrete Reach and Grasp movements under various forms of sensory and cognitive control can produce adaptive behavior.

Development of visual and somatosensory attention of the reach-to-eat movement in human infants aged 6 to 12 months.

The reach-to-eat movement is a natural act in which an object or food item is grasped and brought to the mouth. It is one of the earliest forelimb behaviours displayed by human infants, who bring almost all grasped objects to the mouth, and is used daily by adults. In adults, there is a tight coupling between visual attention and the advance phase of the reach-to-eat movement. The target is visually engaged just as hand advance is initiated and visually disengaged just as the target is grasped. This coupling of vision and hand advance suggests that advance is mediated by visual attention and withdrawal by somatosensation. The present study examined when the tight coupling between visual attention and the advance phase of the movement develops in infancy. In a longitudinal study, eight infants, aged 6-12 months, and 20 adults reached for familiar inanimate objects and food items. Visual gaze, hand movement and hand accuracy were measured using frame-by-frame video scoring and 2D kinematic analysis. The study found that the youngest infants (6-8 months) visually engaged the target well before initiating a reaching movement and continued to fixate on the target after it was grasped and as it was brought to the mouth. Between 10 and 12 months of age, infants began to visually engage the target just as the reaching movement was initiated and visually disengaged the target as it was grasped, as did the adults. Over the same developmental time period, the infants developed rotatory hand shaping movements, precision grasping, and improved targeting accuracy both for grasping the object and placing it into the mouth. The results suggest that visual guidance of advance and somatosensory guidance of withdrawal develop together and in concert with hand movement ability and skill.

Oral hapsis guides accurate hand preshaping for grasping food targets in the mouth.

Preshaping the digits and orienting the hand when reaching to grasp a distal target is proposed to be optimal when guided by vision. A reach-to-grasp movement to an object in one's own mouth is a natural and commonly used movement, but there has been no previous description of how it is performed. The movement requires accuracy but likely depends upon haptic rather than visual guidance, leading to the question of whether the kinematics of this movement are similar to those with vision or whether the movement depends upon an alternate strategy. The present study used frame-by-frame video analysis and linear kinematics to analyze hand movements as participants reached for ethologically relevant food targets placed either at a distal location or in the mouth. When reaching for small and medium-sized food items (blueberries and donut balls) that had maximal lip-to-target contact, hand preshaping was equivalent to that used for visually guided reaching. When reaching for a large food item (orange slice) that extended beyond the edges of the mouth, hand preshaping was suboptimal compared to vision. Nevertheless, hapsis from the reaching hand was used to reshape and reorient the hand after first contact with the large target. The equally precise guidance of hand preshaping under oral hapsis is discussed in relation to the idea that hand preshaping, and its requisite neural circuitry, may have originated under somatosensory control, with secondary access by vision.

Development of rotational movements, hand shaping, and accuracy in advance and withdrawal for the reach-to-eat movement in human infants aged 6-12 months.

The reach-to-eat movement, transport of a hand to grasp an object that is withdrawn and placed in the mouth, is amongst the earliest developing functional movements of human infants. The present longitudinal study is the first description of the maturation of hand-rotation, hand shaping, and accuracy associated with the advance and withdrawal phases of the movement. Eight infants, aged 6-12 months, and eight adults, were video recorded as they reached for familiar objects or food items. Hand, arm, and trunk movements were assessed frame-by-frame with the Skilled Reaching Rating Scale, previously developed for the assessment of adult reaching, and supplementary kinematic analysis. Reach-to-eat maturation was characterized by three changes. First, for advance, a simple open hand transport gradually matured to a movement associated with pronation and hand shaping of the digits for precision grasping. Second, for withdrawal to the mouth, a direct withdrawal movement gradually became associated with hand supination that oriented the target object to the mouth. Third, associated with the maturation of rotational movements, inaccurate and fragmented hand transport and withdrawal movements developed into precise targeting of the hand-to-object and object-to-mouth. Across the age range, there was a decrease in bimanual reaching and an increase in right handed reaching. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that the maturation of the reach-to-eat movement involves the development of rotational and shaping movements of the hand and visual and somatosensory guidance of a preferred hand.

Hand shaping using hapsis resembles visually guided hand shaping.

The reach-to-grasp movement is composed of a number of movement elements including hand transport, hand shaping, and grasping. These movement elements are featured in grasping when it is guided by vision, when it is guided by haptic input from the non-reaching hand or other body parts, and when it is guided by off-line perceptual (remembered) knowledge. An unanswered question is how is the reach-to-grasp movement achieved when all information about the target must be acquired by the grasping hand? The answer to this question was obtained by asking participants to reach for three randomly presented food items that varied in size: an orange slice, a small round donut ball, or a blueberry. In order to constrain the grasping pattern, participants were asked to pick up an item with the intention of placing it in the mouth. Thus, in the unsighted condition, participants did not know which item they were reaching for until they made haptic contact with it. Hand transport, shaping, and grasping were examined using frame-by-frame video analysis and linear kinematics. These measures showed that in unsighted reaching, hand transport first served to establish haptic contact between either the second or third digit and the target. After haptic identification of the target, the hand and/or grasping digits adjusted their trajectory, reshaped, and reoriented for grasping. A comparison of haptically guided grasping and visually guided grasping indicated that the two were very similar. This similarity is discussed in relation to contemporary ideas concerning the neural mechanisms that guide hand use.

The functional origins of speech-related hand gestures.

Many theories of language posit its recent evolution, perhaps contemporaneous with the evolution of Homo sapiens. The embodied language theory, however, in proposing that language includes gestures, provides an avenue for tracing language origins to phylogenetically earlier ancestral species. Here, evidence is presented that the structure of functional hand movements (e.g., reaching for food, climbing a ladder, or crawling), in rats and humans is similar. The structure of these functional hand movements is then compared to speech-related hand gestures in humans. The sequence of language-related gestures are also found to be characteristic of functional hand movements. It is suggested that these findings show that the arm and hand gestures that accompany human speech are derived from the same neural substrates that produce functional movements. Additionally, evidence is reviewed that supports the idea that speech-related gestures resemble the movements elicited by long-train stimulation of the primate motor cortex. Together, this evidence suggests that speech-related hand gestures have their evolutionary origins in functional hand movements of ancestral non-primate and primate species and may be constrained by the neural substrate for those movements. These findings are further discussed in relation to the idea that speech-related gestures reflect forelimb motor cortex contributions to embodied language.

Intact intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) representations of rostral and caudal forelimb areas in rats with quinolinic acid lesions of the medial or lateral caudate-putamen in an animal model of Huntington's disease.

Neurotoxic, cell-specific lesions of the rat caudate-putamen (CPu) have been proposed as a model of human Huntington's disease and as such impair performance on many motor tasks, including skilled forelimbs tasks such as reaching for food. Because the CPu and motor cortex share reciprocal connections, it has been proposed that the motor deficits are due in part to a secondary disruption of motor cortex. The purpose of the present study was to examine the functionality of the motor cortex using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) following neurotoxic lesions of the CPu. ICMS maps have been shown to be sensitive indicators of motor skill, cortical injury, learning, and experience. Long-evans hooded rats received a sham, a medial, or a lateral CPu lesion using the neurotoxin, quinolinic acid (2,3-pyridinedicarboxylic acid). Two weeks later the motor cortex was stimulated under light ketamine anesthesia. Neither lateral nor medial lesions of the CPu altered the stimulation threshold for eliciting forelimb movements, the type of movements elicited, or the size of the rostral forelimb (RFA) and caudal forelimb areas (CFA) from which movements were elicited. The preservation of ICMS forelimb movement representations (the forelimb map) in rats with cell-specific CPu lesions suggests motor impairments following lesions of the lateral striatum are not due to the disruption of the motor map. Therefore, the impairments that follow striatal cell loss are due either to alterations in circuitry that is independent of motor cortex or to alterations in circuitry afferent to the motor cortex projections.