scholarly journals Selection of head and whisker coordination strategies during goal-oriented active touch

2016 ◽  
Vol 115 (4) ◽  
pp. 1797-1809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph B. Schroeder ◽  
Jason T. Ritt
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Head Motion ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Level Control ◽  
Head Turning ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Coordination Strategies

In the rodent whisker system, a key model for neural processing and behavioral choices during active sensing, whisker motion is increasingly recognized as only part of a broader motor repertoire employed by rodents during active touch. In particular, recent studies suggest whisker and head motions are tightly coordinated. However, conditions governing the selection and temporal organization of such coordinated sensing strategies remain poorly understood. We videographically reconstructed head and whisker motions of freely moving mice searching for a randomly located rewarded aperture, focusing on trials in which animals appeared to rapidly “correct” their trajectory under tactile guidance. Mice orienting after unilateral contact repositioned their whiskers similarly to previously reported head-turning asymmetry. However, whisker repositioning preceded head turn onsets and was not bilaterally symmetric. Moreover, mice selectively employed a strategy we term contact maintenance, with whisking modulated to counteract head motion and facilitate repeated contacts on subsequent whisks. Significantly, contact maintenance was not observed following initial contact with an aperture boundary, when the mouse needed to make a large corrective head motion to the front of the aperture, but only following contact by the same whisker field with the opposite aperture boundary, when the mouse needed to precisely align its head with the reward spout. Together these results suggest that mice can select from a diverse range of sensing strategies incorporating both knowledge of the task and whisk-by-whisk sensory information and, moreover, suggest the existence of high level control (not solely reflexive) of sensing motions coordinated between multiple body parts.

scholarly journals Additive Manufacturing of Nerve Decellularized Extracellular Matrix-Contained Polyurethane Conduits for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen ◽  
Chen ◽  
Ng ◽  
Lou ◽  
Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Extracellular Matrix ◽  
Nerve Regeneration ◽  
Nerve Repair ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Cellular Adhesion ◽  
Electrical Signal ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Digital Light Processing ◽  
Nerve Conduits

The nervous system is the part of our body that plays critical roles in the coordination of actions and sensory information as well as communication between different body parts through electrical signal transmissions. Current studies have shown that patients are likely to experience a functional loss if they have to go through a nerve repair for >15 mm lesion. The ideal treatment methodology is autologous nerve transplant, but numerous problems lie in this treatment method, such as lack of harvesting sites. Therefore, researchers are attempting to fabricate alternatives for nerve regeneration, and nerve conduit is one of the potential alternatives for nerve regeneration. In this study, we fabricated polyurethane/polydopamine/extracellular matrix (PU/PDA/ECM) nerve conduits using digital light processing (DLP) technology and assessed for its physical properties, biodegradability, cytocompatibility, neural related growth factor, and proteins secretion and expression and its potential in allowing cellular adhesion and proliferation. It was reported that PU/PDA/ECM nerve conduits were more hydrophilic and allowed enhanced cellular adhesion, proliferation, expression, and secretion of neural-related proteins (collagen I and laminin) and also enhanced expression of neurogenic proteins, such as nestin and microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2). In addition, PU/PDA/ECM nerve conduits were reported to be non-cytotoxic, had sustained biodegradability, and had similar physical characteristics as PU conduits. Therefore, we believed that PU/PDA/ECM nerve conduits could be a potential candidate for future nerve-related research or clinical applications.

scholarly journals Gait control in a soft robot by sensing interactions with the environment using self-deformation

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 160766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Umedachi ◽  
Takeshi Kano ◽  
Akio Ishiguro ◽  
Barry A. Trimmer
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Soft Tissues ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Gait Pattern ◽  
Soft Robot ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Gait Control ◽  
Mechanical Responses ◽  
Contact Points ◽  
Propagating Waves

All animals use mechanosensors to help them move in complex and changing environments. With few exceptions, these sensors are embedded in soft tissues that deform in normal use such that sensory feedback results from the interaction of an animal with its environment. Useful information about the environment is expected to be embedded in the mechanical responses of the tissues during movements. To explore how such sensory information can be used to control movements, we have developed a soft-bodied crawling robot inspired by a highly tractable animal model, the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta . This robot uses deformations of its body to detect changes in friction force on a substrate. This information is used to provide local sensory feedback for coupled oscillators that control the robot's locomotion. The validity of the control strategy is demonstrated with both simulation and a highly deformable three-dimensionally printed soft robot. The results show that very simple oscillators are able to generate propagating waves and crawling/inching locomotion through the interplay of deformation in different body parts in a fully decentralized manner. Additionally, we confirmed numerically and experimentally that the gait pattern can switch depending on the surface contact points. These results are expected to help in the design of adaptable, robust locomotion control systems for soft robots and also suggest testable hypotheses about how soft animals use sensory feedback.

scholarly journals Two distinct types of eye-head coupling in freely moving mice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne F. Meyer ◽  
John O’Keefe ◽  
Jasper Poort
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Ground Plane ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Head Tilt ◽  
Head Rotation ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Head Motion ◽  
List Type ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Freely Moving

SummaryAnimals actively interact with their environment to gather sensory information. There is conflicting evidence about how mice use vision to sample their environment. During head restraint, mice make rapid eye movements strongly coupled between the eyes, similar to conjugate saccadic eye movements in humans. However, when mice are free to move their heads, eye movement patterns are more complex and often non-conjugate, with the eyes moving in opposite directions. Here, we combined eye tracking with head motion measurements in freely moving mice and found that both observations can be explained by the existence of two distinct types of coupling between eye and head movements. The first type comprised non-conjugate eye movements which systematically compensated for changes in head tilt to maintain approximately the same visual field relative to the horizontal ground plane. The second type of eye movements were conjugate and coupled to head yaw rotation to produce a “saccade and fixate” gaze pattern. During head initiated saccades, the eyes moved together in the same direction as the head, but during subsequent fixation moved in the opposite direction to the head to compensate for head rotation. This “saccade and fixate” pattern is similar to that seen in humans who use eye movements (with or without head movement) to rapidly shift gaze but in mice relies on combined eye and head movements. Indeed, the two types of eye movements very rarely occurred in the absence of head movements. Even in head-restrained mice, eye movements were invariably associated with attempted head motion. Both types of eye-head coupling were seen in freely moving mice during social interactions and a visually-guided object tracking task. Our results reveal that mice use a combination of head and eye movements to sample their environment and highlight the similarities and differences between eye movements in mice and humans.HighlightsTracking of eyes and head in freely moving mice reveals two types of eye-head couplingEye/head tilt coupling aligns gaze to horizontal planeRotational eye and head coupling produces a “saccade and fixate” gaze pattern with head leading the eyeBoth types of eye-head coupling are maintained during visually-guided behaviorsEye movements in head-restrained mice are related to attempted head movements

scholarly journals Coding of whisker motion across the mouse face

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle S. Severson ◽  
Duo Xu ◽  
Hongdian Yang ◽  
Daniel H. O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Body Position ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Orofacial Movements ◽  
Proprioceptive Signal ◽  
Motion Responses ◽  
The Face ◽  
Whisker Pad ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
The Brain

AbstractHaptic perception synthesizes touch with proprioception, or sense of body position. Humans and mice alike experience rich active touch of the face. Because most facial muscles lack proprioceptor endings, the sensory basis of facial proprioception remains unsolved. Facial proprioception may instead rely on mechanoreceptors that encode both touch and self-motion. In rodents, whisker mechanoreceptors provide a signal that informs the brain about whisker position. Whisking involves coordinated orofacial movements, so mechanoreceptors innervating facial regions other than whiskers could also provide information about whisking. To define all sources of sensory information about whisking available to the brain, we recorded spikes from mechanoreceptors innervating diverse parts of the face. Whisker motion was encoded best by whisker mechanoreceptors, but also by those innervating whisker pad hairy skin and supraorbital vibrissae. Redundant self-motion responses may provide the brain with a stable proprioceptive signal despite mechanical perturbations such as whisker growth and active touch.

Hip Hop Battles and Facial Intertexts

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherril Dodds
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Facial Expression ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face

Hip hop dance battles are organized around a face-to-face danced exchange and, although dancers mobilize a diverse range of facial expression, scarcely any scholarly work addresses the face as a choreographic device. Several scholars, however, have noted that hip hip battles are dialogic or conversational in style, and I assert that dancers strategically employ facial expression to challenge and comment upon their opponents. In this article, I draw on the theory of intertextuality, and in particular Henry Louis Gates's concept of signifyin(g), to show how dancers deploy facial choreography as a mode of embodied articulation. Based on an ethnography of hip hop battles in Philadelphia, I examine the choreography of facial expression in four particular ways: as a strategy to signal generic particularity; to make commentary on the actions of other body parts; to create dialogic exchange between other faces at the battle event; and to reference facial intertexts from the broader popular culture.

scholarly journals A moving topic: control and dynamics of animal locomotion

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Biewener ◽  
Thomas Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Sensory Systems ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Motor Output ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Animal Locomotion ◽  
Available Energy ◽  
Integrative Research ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

Animal locomotion arises from complex interactions among sensory systems, processing of sensory information into patterns of motor output, the musculo-skeletal dynamics that follow motor stimulation, and the interaction of appendages and body parts with the environment. These processes conspire to produce motions and forces that permit stunning manoeuvres with important ecological and evolutionary consequences. Thus, the habitats that animals may exploit, their ability to escape predators or attack prey, their capacity to manoeuvre and turn, or the use of their available energy all depend upon the processes that determine locomotion. Here, we summarize a series of 10 papers focused on this integrative research topic.

scholarly journals Feedback control in active sensing: rat exploratory whisking is modulated by environmental contact

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1613) ◽  
pp. 1035-1041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Mitchinson ◽  
Chris J Martin ◽  
Robyn A Grant ◽  
Tony J Prescott
Keyword(s):  
Feedback Control ◽  
Digital Video ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Contralateral Side ◽  
Video Tracking ◽  
Pattern Generation ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Freely Moving

Rats sweep their facial whiskers back and forth to generate tactile sensory information through contact with environmental structure. The neural processes operating on the signals arising from these whisker contacts are widely studied as a model of sensing in general, even though detailed knowledge of the natural circumstances under which such signals are generated is lacking. We used digital video tracking and wireless recording of mystacial electromyogram signals to assess the effects of whisker–object contact on whisking in freely moving animals exploring simple environments. Our results show that contact leads to reduced protraction (forward whisker motion) on the side of the animal ipsilateral to an obstruction and increased protraction on the contralateral side. Reduced ipsilateral protraction occurs rapidly and in the same whisk cycle as the initial contact. We conclude that whisker movements are actively controlled so as to increase the likelihood of environmental contacts while constraining such interactions to involve a gentle touch. That whisking pattern generation is under strong feedback control has important implications for understanding the nature of the signals reaching upstream neural processes.

scholarly journals Wheelchair control by head motion

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Pajkanovic ◽  
Branko Dokic
Keyword(s):  
Medical Devices ◽  
The Body ◽  
Head Motion ◽  
Accelerometer Data ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Motion Recognition ◽  
Electric Wheelchair ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Recognition Technique ◽  
Wheelchair Control

Electric wheelchairs are designed to aid paraplegics. Unfortunately, these can not be used by persons with higher degree of impairment, such as quadriplegics, i.e. persons that, due to age or illness, can not move any of the body parts, except of the head. Medical devices designed to help them are very complicated, rare and expensive. In this paper a microcontroller system that enables standard electric wheelchair control by head motion is presented. The system comprises electronic and mechanic components. A novel head motion recognition technique based on accelerometer data processing is designed. The wheelchair joystick is controlled by the system?s mechanical actuator. The system can be used with several different types of standard electric wheelchairs. It is tested and verified through an experiment performed within this paper.

scholarly journals Coding of whisker motion across the mouse face

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle S Severson ◽  
Duo Xu ◽  
Hongdian Yang ◽  
Daniel H O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Body Position ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Orofacial Movements ◽  
Proprioceptive Signal ◽  
Motion Responses ◽  
The Face ◽  
Whisker Pad ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
The Brain

Haptic perception synthesizes touch with proprioception, the sense of body position. Humans and mice alike experience rich active touch of the face. Because most facial muscles lack proprioceptor endings, the sensory basis of facial proprioception remains unsolved. Facial proprioception may instead rely on mechanoreceptors that encode both touch and self-motion. In rodents, whisker mechanoreceptors provide a signal that informs the brain about whisker position. Whisking involves coordinated orofacial movements, so mechanoreceptors innervating facial regions other than whiskers could also provide information about whisking. To define all sources of sensory information about whisking available to the brain, we recorded spikes from mechanoreceptors innervating diverse parts of the face. Whisker motion was encoded best by whisker mechanoreceptors, but also by those innervating whisker pad hairy skin and supraorbital vibrissae. Redundant self-motion responses may provide the brain with a stable proprioceptive signal despite mechanical perturbations during active touch.

scholarly journals Influence of inter-individual distance on grooming interaction in captive chimpanzees and bonobos

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgane Allanic ◽  
Satoshi Hirata ◽  
Misato Hayashi ◽  
Tetsuro Matsuzawa
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Pan Paniscus ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Social Tolerance ◽  
Focal Animal ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Individual Distance ◽  
Species Specific

The spatial organization of a set of individuals may reflect the underlying relationships between them. This study investigated whether inter-individual distance, or the proximity between a pair of individuals, predicts the patterns of grooming interactions. The subjects were twelve chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes; M = 2, F = 10; age: mean = 34.8, range = 25-45) and six bonobos (Pan paniscus; M = 2, F = 4; age: mean = 27.3, range = 13-44) studied since September 2015 and living at Kumamoto Sanctuary (Japan). Proximity, time in contact, and time at less than one meter of all group members were recorded using focal animal sampling. The full temporal organization of grooming patterns was analyzed after ad libitum video records of the interactions. A pair of individuals that spends more time in close proximity was predicted to (i) show a shorter latency to approach before the onset of grooming, (ii) groom sensitive body parts (e.g. face and genitals) more often, and (iii) take turns in grooming more frequently than two individuals that stay far from each other. The results may suggest species-specific or relationship-dependent social tolerance, reflected in both inter-individual distance and patterns of grooming.

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