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SUMMARY:Homo Cyberneticus: Neurocognitive embodiment of artificial limbs -
  Tamar Makin\, MRC-CBSU\, Cambridge 
DTSTART:20230206T161500Z
DTEND:20230206T180000Z
UID:TALK196285@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Prof Máté Lengyel
DESCRIPTION:To successfully design devices for the human body\, engineers 
 often view the body itself as the ideal design template. Similarly\, for i
 ndividuals missing a limb\, the development of artificial prosthetic limbs
  often centres on embodiment as the goal: focusing device design and contr
 ol on becoming more like our biological bodies. But ultimately\, the succe
 ss of artificial limb will critically depend on its neural representation 
 in our brains. Importantly\, neurocognitive resources might differ radical
 ly\, depending on the user’s life experiences and needs. Here I will pre
 sent a series of studies where we investigated the neural basis of artific
 ial limb use for both substitution and augmentation technologies. We find 
 that contrary to folk wisdom\, the brain does not assimilate neural repres
 entations for the artificial limb with those for the biological body\, cre
 ating opportunities for novel technological interfaces. Collectively\, the
 se studies suggest that although\, in principle\, opportunities exist for 
 harnessing hand neural and cognitive resources to control artificial limbs
 \, alternative non-biomimetic approaches could be also well suited for suc
 cessful human-device interface. 
LOCATION:Hodgkin-Huxley Seminar Room + Zoom
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