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Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures

Reconstructing ancient technical gestures associated with simple tool actions is crucial for understanding the co-evolution of the human forelimb and its associated control-related cognitive functions on the one hand, and of the human technological arsenal on the other hand. Although the topic of ge...

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Autores principales: Pfleging, Johannes, Stücheli, Marius, Iovita, Radu, Buchli, Jonas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4540478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26284785
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134570
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author Pfleging, Johannes
Stücheli, Marius
Iovita, Radu
Buchli, Jonas
author_facet Pfleging, Johannes
Stücheli, Marius
Iovita, Radu
Buchli, Jonas
author_sort Pfleging, Johannes
collection PubMed
description Reconstructing ancient technical gestures associated with simple tool actions is crucial for understanding the co-evolution of the human forelimb and its associated control-related cognitive functions on the one hand, and of the human technological arsenal on the other hand. Although the topic of gesture is an old one in Paleolithic archaeology and in anthropology in general, very few studies have taken advantage of the new technologies from the science of kinematics in order to improve replicative experimental protocols. Recent work in paleoanthropology has shown the potential of monitored replicative experiments to reconstruct tool-use-related motions through the study of fossil bones, but so far comparatively little has been done to examine the dynamics of the tool itself. In this paper, we demonstrate that we can statistically differentiate gestures used in a simple scraping task through dynamic monitoring. Dynamics combines kinematics (position, orientation, and speed) with contact mechanical parameters (force and torque). Taken together, these parameters are important because they play a role in the formation of a visible archaeological signature, use-wear. We present our new affordable, yet precise methodology for measuring the dynamics of a simple hide-scraping task, carried out using a pull-to (PT) and a push-away (PA) gesture. A strain gage force sensor combined with a visual tag tracking system records force, torque, as well as position and orientation of hafted flint stone tools. The set-up allows switching between two tool configurations, one with distal and the other one with perpendicular hafting of the scrapers, to allow for ethnographically plausible reconstructions. The data show statistically significant differences between the two gestures: scraping away from the body (PA) generates higher shearing forces, but requires greater hand torque. Moreover, most benchmarks associated with the PA gesture are more highly variable than in the PT gesture. These results demonstrate that different gestures used in ‘common’ prehistoric tasks can be distinguished quantitatively based on their dynamic parameters. Future research needs to assess our ability to reconstruct these parameters from observed use-wear patterns.
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spelling pubmed-45404782015-08-24 Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures Pfleging, Johannes Stücheli, Marius Iovita, Radu Buchli, Jonas PLoS One Research Article Reconstructing ancient technical gestures associated with simple tool actions is crucial for understanding the co-evolution of the human forelimb and its associated control-related cognitive functions on the one hand, and of the human technological arsenal on the other hand. Although the topic of gesture is an old one in Paleolithic archaeology and in anthropology in general, very few studies have taken advantage of the new technologies from the science of kinematics in order to improve replicative experimental protocols. Recent work in paleoanthropology has shown the potential of monitored replicative experiments to reconstruct tool-use-related motions through the study of fossil bones, but so far comparatively little has been done to examine the dynamics of the tool itself. In this paper, we demonstrate that we can statistically differentiate gestures used in a simple scraping task through dynamic monitoring. Dynamics combines kinematics (position, orientation, and speed) with contact mechanical parameters (force and torque). Taken together, these parameters are important because they play a role in the formation of a visible archaeological signature, use-wear. We present our new affordable, yet precise methodology for measuring the dynamics of a simple hide-scraping task, carried out using a pull-to (PT) and a push-away (PA) gesture. A strain gage force sensor combined with a visual tag tracking system records force, torque, as well as position and orientation of hafted flint stone tools. The set-up allows switching between two tool configurations, one with distal and the other one with perpendicular hafting of the scrapers, to allow for ethnographically plausible reconstructions. The data show statistically significant differences between the two gestures: scraping away from the body (PA) generates higher shearing forces, but requires greater hand torque. Moreover, most benchmarks associated with the PA gesture are more highly variable than in the PT gesture. These results demonstrate that different gestures used in ‘common’ prehistoric tasks can be distinguished quantitatively based on their dynamic parameters. Future research needs to assess our ability to reconstruct these parameters from observed use-wear patterns. Public Library of Science 2015-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4540478/ /pubmed/26284785 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134570 Text en © 2015 Pfleging et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pfleging, Johannes
Stücheli, Marius
Iovita, Radu
Buchli, Jonas
Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures
title Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures
title_full Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures
title_fullStr Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures
title_full_unstemmed Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures
title_short Dynamic Monitoring Reveals Motor Task Characteristics in Prehistoric Technical Gestures
title_sort dynamic monitoring reveals motor task characteristics in prehistoric technical gestures
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4540478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26284785
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134570
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