Motor units serve both as the mechanical apparatus and the final stage of neural processing through which motor behaviors are enacted. Therefore, knowledge about the contractile properties and organization of the neural inputs to motor units supplying finger muscles is essential for understanding the control strategies underlying the diverse motor functions of the human hand. In this review, basic physiological properties of motor units residing in various human hand muscles are described. Information is considered as to whether or not motor units that reside in multitendoned finger muscles exert force on more than one tendon. In addition, the distribution of corticospinal inputs to motor nuclei supplying different hand muscles is described. Evidence for substantial divergence of such input across certain motor nuclei is presented and the functional significance of such neural coupling for the control of hand movements is discussed.