1,721,079 research outputs found
À la recherche du temps perdu: will AI and 150 years of human movement research drive the next Neuroscience revolution?
No full textArduino: A low-cost multipurpose lab equipment
No full textaTypical experiments in psychological and neurophysiological settings often require the accurate control of multiple input and output signals. These signals are often generated or recorded via computer software and/or external dedicated hardware. Dedicated hardware is usually very expensive and requires additional software to control its behavior. In the present article, I present some accuracy tests on a low-cost and open-source I/O board (Arduino family) that may be useful in many lab environments. One of the strengths of Arduinos is the possibility they afford to load the experimental script on the board's memory and let it run without interfacing with computers or external software, thus granting complete independence, portability, and accuracy. Furthermore, a large community has arisen around the Arduino idea and offers many hardware add-ons and hundreds of free scripts for different projects. Accuracy tests show that Arduino boards may be an inexpensive tool for many psychological..
Mirror-Like Mechanisms and Music
Full text linkThe neural processes underlying sensory-motor integration have always attracted strong interest. The classic view is that action and perception are two extremes of mental operations. In the past 2 decades, though, a large number of discoveries have indeed refuted such an interpretation in favor of a more integrated view. Specifically, the discovery of mirror neurons in monkey premotor cortex is a rather strong demonstration that sensory and motor processes share the same neural substrates. In fact, these cells show complex sensory-motor properties, such that observed, heard, or executed goal-directed actions could equally activate these neurons. On the other hand, the neuroscience of music has similarly emerged as an active and productive field of research. In fact, music-related behaviors are a useful model of action-perception mechanisms and how they develop through training. More recently, these two lines of research have begun to intersect into a novel branch of research. As a consequence, it has been proposed recently that mirror-like mechanisms might be at the basis of human music perception-production abilities. The scope of the present short review is to set the scientific background for mirror-like mechanisms in music by examining recent published data
The common origins of language and action
No full textaThe motor system organization shows some interesting parallels with the language organization. Here we draw the possible communalities between Action and Language, basing our claims on neurophysiological, neuroanatomical and neuroimaging data. Furthermore, we speculate that the motor system may have furnished the basic computational capabilities for the emergence of both semantics and syntax
The too many facets of motor output variability. Comment on “From neural noise to co-adaptability: Rethinking the multifaceted architecture of motor variability” by Casartelli, L., Maronati, C., & Cavallo, A
No full textCommento sulla variabilità motori
Motor control may support mirror neuron research with new hypotheses and methods. Reply to comments on "Grasping synergies: A motor-control approach to the mirror neuron mechanism"
No full textThe contribution of the frontal lobe to the perception of speech
No full textClassical models of language claim a clear-cut distinction between language production and perception, indicating for them a different localization in the brain, and limiting the involvement of the frontal lobe exclusively in motor functions. In this review we present empirical evidence pointing to a weaker separation between sensory and motor functions, showing that the motor system plays an important role also in perception. In particular, very recent neurophysiological literature shows that a selective alteration of neural activity in speech motor centers alters speech perception. This result not only confirms that the classical sensory versus motor separation has to be abandoned, but underlines the causal contribution of the frontal lobe to the perception of speech
Grasping synergies: A motor-control approach to the mirror neuron mechanism
No full textThe discovery of mirror neurons revived interest in motor theories of perception, fostering a number of new studies as well as controversies. In particular, the degree of motor specificity with which others’ actions are simulated is highly debated. Human corticospinal excitability studies support the conjecture that a mirror mechanism encodes object-directed goals or low-level kinematic features of others’ reaching and grasping actions. These interpretations lead to different experimental predictions and implications for the functional role of the simulation of others’ actions. We propose that the representational granularity of the mirror mechanism cannot be any different from that of the motor system during action execution. Hence, drawing from motor control models, we propose that the building blocks of the mirror mechanism are the relatively few motor synergies explaining the variety of hand functions. The recognition of these synergies, from action observation, can be potentially very robust to visual noise and thus demonstrate a clear advantage of using motor knowledge for classifying others’ action
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