Postural Hand Synergies for Tool Use
Open accessAbstract
Subjects were asked to shape the right hand as if to grasp and use a large number of familiar objects. The chosen objects typically are held with a variety of grips, including “precision” and “power” grips. Static hand posture was measured by recording the angular position of 15 joint angles of the fingers and of the thumb. Although subjects adopted distinct hand shapes for the various objects, the joint angles of the digits did not vary independently. Principal components analysis showed that the first two components could account for >80% of the variance, implying a substantial reduction from the 15 degrees of freedom that were recorded. However, even though they were small, higher-order (more than three) principal components did not represent random variability but instead provided additional information about the object. These results suggest that the control of hand posture involves a few postural synergies, regulating the general shape of the hand, coupled with a finer control mechanism providing for small, subtle adjustments. Because the postural synergies did not coincide with grip taxonomies, the results suggest that hand posture may be regulated independently from the control of the contact forces that are used to grasp an object.
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For multifingered hands, human control uses low-dimensional synergies rather than independent joints, so operators cannot intentionally control more than 20 coupled degrees of freedom through a retargeting layer they cannot perceive.
“human hand control is organized in low-dimensional synergies rather than independent joints, so operators cannot deliberately steer 20+ coupled degrees of freedom through a retargeting layer they cannot perceive (Santello et al., 1998;Li et al., 2026)”
From Dexterous Robot Manipulation from Human Demonstrations via Contact-Anchored Retargeting and Residual Policy Learning (2026) · cites this paper as Santello et al., 1998
In “How many effective degrees of freedom are there?” (page unavailable), the paper reports that two principal components explain over 80% of hand-posture variance, supporting the claim about coordinated, low-dimensional control. But it also finds that higher-order components contribute to hand shape, and the Figure 11 discussion allows for finer control of individual fingers or joints. It does not establish that operators cannot deliberately steer 20-plus degrees of freedom through an imperceptible retargeting layer. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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“…than independent joints, so operators cannot deliberately steer 20+ coupled de‑ grees of freedom through a retargeting layer they cannot perceive (Santello et al., 1998; Li et al., 2026); sensing and retargeting latency degrades operator control quality (Pattiwar et al., 2025); and operators…”
- Authors
- Santello, M., Flanders, M., & Soechting, J. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- ORCID
- Santello, Marco
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 1998-12-01
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 23
- Pages
- 10105-10115
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6793309
- OpenAlex
- W2154006563
- Cited by
- 1,215
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 56 · 2023: 54 · 2022: 64 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 75 · 2019: 60 · 2018: 80 · 2017: 68 · 2016: 79 · 2015: 59 · 2014: 88 · 2013: 81 · 2012: 64
- FWCI
- 2.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Public Health Service
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS-27484, NS-15018, R56NS015018, R01NS027484, R01NS015018)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Control and Systems Engineering › Robot Manipulation and Learning
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- hand posture, postural synergies, tool use, grasping, precision grip, power grip, finger joint angles, thumb position, degrees of freedom, contact force, motor control
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Biomechanical Phenomena, Feedback, Female, Fingers, Humans, Male, Movement, Posture, Hand Strength
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