TO date, most robots are still programmed by a smart operator who uses human understanding of the desired task to create a program for accomplishing the required behavior. While such specialized programming is highly efficient, it is also expensive and limited to the situations the human operator had considered. For example, human programming has become the main bottleneck for manufacturing of ...

Rhythmic motor patterns, which underlie behaviors such as mastication, respiration and locomotion, are generated by specialized neural circuits called central pattern generators (CPGs). Although CPGs can generate their rhythmic motor output in the absence of rhythmic input, these motor patterns are modified by rhythmic sensory feedback in vivo. Furthermore, although the importance of sensory fe...

Human interaction often requires simultaneous precision and flexibility in the coordination of rhythmic behaviour between individuals engaged in joint activity, for example, playing a musical duet or dancing with a partner. This review article addresses the psychological processes and brain mechanisms that enable such rhythmic interpersonal coordination. First, an overview is given of research ...

We recorded whole scalp magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals simultaneously with the surface electromyogram from upper and lower limb muscles of six healthy right-handed adults during voluntary isometric contraction. The 15- to 33-Hz MEG signals, originating from the anterior bank of the central sulcus, i.e., the primary motor cortex, were coherent with motor unit firing in all subjects and fo...

Following a stroke 90% of all patients suffer from a loss of arm and hand function, whereby 30-40% of them never regain full functionality ever again. Robot-assisted hand function training (RT) intensifies and complements common ergo-therapeutic treatment effectively. Most of robotic rehabilitation devices are connected to multimedia-environments offering playful training to promote motivation....

In this article, a speed control of DC motor is designed and illustrated using fuzzy logic-based programmable logic controller (PLC). The DC motor is an attractive part of electrical equipment in many industrial applications requiring variable speed and load specifications due to its ease of controllability. The designed system is consisted of three main parts including programmable logic contr...

OBJECTIVE Parkinson's disease is characterized by motor and cognitive problems that are accompanied by slowing of neural activity. This study examined the relationship between neural slowing and disease severity during rest and motor performance. METHODS Primary motor activity was assessed by means of magnetoencephalography during rest and rhythmic movements. Motor output and event-related co...

One especially important feature of metrical music is that it contains periodicities that listeners' bodily rhythms can adapt to. Recent psychological frameworks have introduced the notion of rhythmic entrainment, among other mechanisms, as an emotion induction principle. In this review paper, we discuss rhythmic entrainment as an affect induction mechanism by differentiating four levels of ent...

Previously, an analog of operant conditioning in Aplysia was developed using the rhythmic motor activity in the isolated buccal ganglia. This analog expressed a key feature of operant conditioning, namely a selective enhancement in the occurrence of a designated motor pattern by contingent reinforcement. Different motor patterns generated by the buccal central pattern generator were induced by ...

This study on the marine mollusc, Pleurobranchaea californica, examined the electrophysiological basis of coordinated motor neurone activity associated with the intrinsic feeding rhythm of the buccal ganglion, and the sensory modulation of this rhythm. Paired intracellular microelectrode recordings from antagonist motor neurones showed that each received alternating barrages of EPSPs and IPSPs;...