Event:

Title: "Technological Embodiment: Neuroscience considerations for the future body"

Abstract: To successfully design devices for the human body, engineers often view the body itself as the ideal design template. Similarly, for individuals missing a limb, the development of artificial prosthetic limbs often centers on embodiment as the goal: focusing device design and control on becoming more like our biological bodies. But ultimately, the success of artificial limb will critically depend on its neural representation in our brains. Importantly, neurocognitive resources might differ radically, depending on the user’s life experiences and needs. Here I will present a series of studies where we investigated the neural basis of artificial limb use for both substitution and augmentation technologies. We find that contrary to folk wisdom, the brain does not assimilate neural representations for the artificial limb with those for the biological body, creating opportunities for novel technological interfaces. Collectively, these 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 successful human-device interface.

Biography: Prof. Tamar Makin is a neuroscientist at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, heading the Plasticity Lab. Her main interest is in understanding the key drivers and limitations of reorganisation in the adult brain. Her primary model for this work is studying individuals with a hand loss. A particular focus is on how habitual behaviour, such as prosthesis usage, shapes brain reorganisation. For this purpose, she integrates methods from the fields of neuroscience, experimental psychology and rehabilitation. Her research thus lays the scientific groundworks to to enable clinicians to guide amputees and related clinical populations to take advantage of the benefits of brain reorganisation, rather than to suffer from their adverse effects.