A Neural Model for Motor Synergies

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Perdoor, Mithun C.
Language:English
Published: University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1276952818
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spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ucin12769528182021-08-03T06:14:05Z A Neural Model for Motor Synergies Perdoor, Mithun C. Electrical Engineering Motor Control Synergy Neural Explaining motor control in humans and animals is one of the greatest challenges facing cognitive science, and has significant implications for engineering. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the control of a complex, nonlinear, high degree-of-freedom system like the body could serve as the basis for more sophisticated limbed robots with very advanced capabilities. One widely held theory about motor control is that it happens through the selective combination of pre-existing motor primitives called synergies, encoded as patterns of activity in the spinal cord and higher brain regions. This mechanism shows promise in addressing the problem of excess degrees-of-freedom that is the most serious difficulty faced by any motor controller. Recent experiments have provided significant support for this hypothesis, and invariant motor synergies have been extracted from electromyogram data in many animals, including humans. Scaled and time-shifted combinations of these synergies can replicate a variety of movements in these animals. However, the neurobiological basis of these synergies remains obscure.In this thesis, we propose a neural model for the synergy-based motor control of a 2 jointed arm consisting of 4 single jointed and 2 double jointed muscles. The neural model proposes that synergies are encoded as metastable attractors in modular recurrent networks in the motor system. These attractors are triggered with different amplitudes and delays by neurally plausible mechanisms, and integrated through neural networks in the spinal cord. As a result, the simulated arm can produce a large repertoire of movements using only a few synergies. The synergies generated by the model are compared with those observed experimentally, and richness of this system is explored through several simulations. 2010-08-05 English text University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1276952818 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1276952818 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Electrical Engineering
Motor Control
Synergy
Neural
spellingShingle Electrical Engineering
Motor Control
Synergy
Neural
Perdoor, Mithun C.
A Neural Model for Motor Synergies
author Perdoor, Mithun C.
author_facet Perdoor, Mithun C.
author_sort Perdoor, Mithun C.
title A Neural Model for Motor Synergies
title_short A Neural Model for Motor Synergies
title_full A Neural Model for Motor Synergies
title_fullStr A Neural Model for Motor Synergies
title_full_unstemmed A Neural Model for Motor Synergies
title_sort neural model for motor synergies
publisher University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK
publishDate 2010
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1276952818
work_keys_str_mv AT perdoormithunc aneuralmodelformotorsynergies
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