While humans are known to have several premotor cortical areas, secondary motor cortex (M2) is often considered to be the only higher -order motor area of the mouse brain and is thought to combine properties of various human premotor cortices. Here, we sho ...
This thesis reports high energy-density electrostatic actuators for use in soft robotics. This thesis has two main parts: a) a detailed study of electro-adhesion using microfabricated electrodes, and b) a flexi-ble fiber-shaped linear motor.
Electro-adhesi ...
The decline of motor ability is a hallmark feature of aging and is accompanied by degeneration of motor synaptic terminals. Consistent with this, Drosophila motor synapses undergo characteristic age -dependent structural fragmentation co -incident with dim ...
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) controls the synthesis of lipids and proteins and Ca2+ homeostasis, as well as contacting other organelles and the plasma membrane. A study now looks at a process by which this compartment is remodelled in axons during neurog ...
Animals, including humans, exhibit a remarkable variety of complex behaviours.
How the nervous system controls all these behaviours ranging from simple, stereotyped movements to flexible, adaptive actions is a central questions of neuroscience. One of the ...
Objective: We predicted that accelerometry would be a viable alternative to electromyography (EMG) for assessing fundamental Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) measurements (e.g. Resting Motor Threshold (RMT), recruitment curves, latencies). New Metho ...
As a universal expression of human creativity, music is capable of conveying great subtlety and complexity. Crucially, this complexity is not encoded in the score or in the sounds, but is rather construed in the mind of the listener in the form of nuanced ...
An important function of the brain is to interpret incoming sensory information from the outside world to guide adaptive behavior. Understanding how and where sensory information is transformed into motor commands in a context- and learning-dependent manne ...
Nerve injuries cause permanent neurological disability due to limited axonal regeneration. Injury-dependent and-independent mechanisms have provided important insight into neuronal regeneration, however, common denominators underpinning regeneration remain ...
When a traumatic event causes complete denervation, muscle functional recovery is highly compromised. A possible solution to this issue is the implantation of a biodegradable polymeric tubular scaffold, providing a biomimetic environment to support the ner ...
Engineered grafts constitute an alternative to autologous transplant for repairing severe peripheral nerve injuries. However, current clinically available solutions have substantial limitations and are not suited for the repair of long nerve defects. A nov ...
Spinal cord injury (SCI) interrupts axonal connections between the brain and the spinal cord, and is characterized by a spectrum of sensorimotor and autonomic impairments. While spontaneous recovery is limited, recent studies have shown that functional imp ...
The peripheral nervous system (PNS) regulates the exchange of sensory information and
motor commands between the body and the central nervous system. Further, through the
autonomic nervous system, the PNS plays a pivotal role in controlling vital physiolog ...
Studies showed that motor expertise was found to induce improvement in language processing. Grounded and situated approaches attributed this effect to an underlying automatic simulation of the motor experience elicited by action words, similar to motor ima ...
The premotor (PM) and primary motor (M1) cortical areas broadcast voluntary motor commands through multiple neuronal pathways, including the corticorubral projection that reaches the red nucleus (RN). However, the respective contribution of M1 and PM to co ...
Nerve conduits may represent a valuable alternative to autograft for the regeneration of long-gap damages. However, no NCs have currently reached market approval for the regeneration of limiting gap lesions, which still represents the very bottleneck of th ...
Molecular machines offer many opportunities for the development of responsive materials and introduce autono-mous motion in molecular systems. While basic molecular switches and motors carry out one type of motion upon being exposed to an external stimulus ...
Motor learning allows animals, including human beings, to acquire skills that are es-sential for efficient interactions with the environment. This ability to learn new motor skills is of great practical relevance for daily-life activities (such as when lea ...
The modern world is heavily reliant on electromagnetic devices to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa. These devices are fundamental to powering our society, and the growing need for automated production lines and electrified tr ...
Multi-polar stimulation protocols have been used in the past to increase the selectivity of electrical stimulation of the nervous system. Nonetheless, the number of possible multipolar stimulation protocols is prohibitively large and cannot be explored dur ...
