Intra-limb segmental influences on random-like movements in humans

The experiment investigated the influence of segmental coupling on the ability to produce random-like movements in individual limb segments. Adult participants were instructed to move randomly (2 min trials) in the sagittal plane their index finger, hand, and lower arm as "frozen" effector units or where the individual links within the upper limb complex were free to move independently. The findings showed that the distal finger movements were more random-like when the proximal joints were also free to vary, but the reverse directional segmental effects were not present. Analysis of the movement frequency structure of the coordination between limb segments showed that patterns of modal frequencies were preserved even though the participants were trying to produce with equal probability a wide range of frequencies. These findings provide further evidence that: (1) the boundary conditions on the degrees of freedom of the neural output of an effector are relatively restrictive; (2) inter-limb reactive forces can enhance the limits on the dynamical degrees of freedom; and (3) the intrinsic dynamics influence movement output even when the task goal is a random output. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.