Understanding biological motor control and learning

To understand the mechanism of the robust adaptive motor control in biological systems, we employ electro-physiology and animal behavioral study in combination with engineering system identification techniques.  Our model systems are the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR), Optokinetic Response (OKN), and the eye velocity to position neural integrator (VPNI) in goldfish, zebrafish, medaka, monkey, and human.

Neuroengineering

Biomedical Engineering

Evaluation of human mental states by the pupil or/and eye movements

“Look into a person’s pupils he cannot hide himself” Confucius (BC552~479).  The pupil tells us a lot about brain activities, and so do reflexive eye movements such as VOR and saccades.  We evaluate them as possible predictors of drowsiness to prevent fatal car accidents caused by sleepy drivers.  We also evaluate various eye movements (VOR, OKR, saccades, smooth pursuit, microsaccades, vergence), pupil fluctuations, and accommodation in car drivers, studing students, and sports athletes.  

Application of neuroscience evidence to solve engineering problems

As applications of the knowledge obtained from our and other's neuroscience studies, we are working on the following research themes:

• Adaptive control of robots by the cerebellar neuronal network model

• Adaptive control of robots by goldfish cerebellar neuronal activity (cerebellum-machine interface)

 

Evaluation of the autonomic nervous system activity by the pupil of the eye

The pupil is controlled by two types of smooth muscles, sphincter and dilator each of which is innervated by the parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves, respectively.  We have established a method to separately evaluate these nervous activities by observing changes in the pupil diameter [PDF].  Some of the applications of this method are:

• Evaluation of sympathetic and parasympathetic activities under hyper- and hypo-gravity

• Correlation between intra-cranial pressure and the pupillary light reflex