Multisensory Control Of Posture

From recent developments in the rapidly growing area of neuroscience it has become increasingly clear that a simplistic description of brain function as a broad collection of simple input-output relations is quite inadequate. Introspection already tells us that our motor behavior is guided by a complex interplay between many inputs from the outside world and from our internal "milieu," internal models of ourselves and the outside world, memory content, directed attention, volition, and so forth. Also, our motor activity normally involves more than a circumscribed group of muscles, even if we intend to move only one effector organ. For example, a reaching movement or a reorientation of a sensory organ almost invariably requires a pattern of preparatory or assisting activities in other parts of the body, like the ones that maintain the body's equilibrium. The present volume is a summary of the papers presented at the symposium "Sensory Interaction in Posture and Movement Control" that was held at Smolenice Castle near Bratislava, Slovakia, as a Satellite Symposium to the ENA Meeting 1994 in Vienna. The focus of this meeting was not only restricted to the "classical" sensory interactions such as between vestibular and visual signals, or between otolith and semicircular canal inputs. Rather, the symposium tried to consider also the interplay between perception and action, between reflexive and volitional motor acts as well as between sensory driven or self-initi ated motor acts and reafferent inputs.

This text offers a comprehensive survey of neurophysiological, behavioural and biomechanical aspects of motor function. Adopting an integrative approach, it examines the full range of key topics in contemporary human movement studies, explaining motor behaviour in depth from the molecular level to behavioural consequences.

The International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics, and Informatics (NEUROTECHNIX) took place in Algarve, Portugal in September of 2013. The congress provided a meeting point of academics and clinical and engineering professionals, promoting translational discussions on how research and technology can meet the needs of clinical practitioners and patients. NEUROTECHNIX emphasized research and application of neurotechnologies to various neurological disorders, including neuromuscular diseases, Parkinson's disease, developmental disorders, dementia, epilepsy, sleep disorders, Multiple Sclerosis, neuroinfections, brain tumors, stroke, traumatic brain injuries, Cerebral Palsy, spinal cord injury and vision and hearing disorders. Authors were invited to submit innovative research work that highlighted new advancements of neurotechnology. Papers describing case studies, advanced prototypes, systems, tools and techniques and general survey papers indicating future directions were encouraged. This book contains a limited selection of extended and revised versions of the best papers presented at the congress, by regular and keynote speakers.

The diagnosis and treatment of the patient with critically impaired walking abilities present the busy physician with a formidable challenge. This book provides a comprehensive account of the various balance, posture and gait disorders, and of the methods for Their effective Read More ...management. The text is divided into five sections dealing wi

The control of balance by the central nervous system is crucial to maintain our posture and perform efficiently our daily motor tasks. This control requires the development of dynamical phenomena sub-served by highly-coordinated patterns of muscle activation/deactivation disseminated throughout the whole-body and called “postural adjustments”. Establishing the interaction between balance control, locomotion and cognition has important clinical implication, especially in term of falls prevention, and will improve our knowledge on the underlying neural correlates. This Research Topic provides an up-to-date picture of the relationship between postural adjustments, body balance and motor performance in healthy (young and older adults) and pathological participants. It includes 36 contributions (1 editorial, 28 original articles, 4 reviews and 3 methods articles) which are separated into four sections: 1. Postural maintenance and multisensory integration, 2. Anticipatory postural adjustments associated with voluntary movement, 3. Postural adjustments associated with predictable and unpredictable external perturbation, 4. Gait assessment and rehabilitation in aging. Beside their basic interest of unveiling the mechanisms behind motor control, results from the investigations of this topic are relevant to develop new methods or tools to improve postural stability and motor performance, with applications in the fields of neurodegenerative conditions, rehabilitation, ergonomics and sports sciences.

The concept of posture control has morphed over the past century from a reflex, hierarchically controlled, innate behavior to a complex and adaptable motor act highly influenced by cognitive processes as well as confidence and attentiveness of the performer. In addition, multisensory control of posture has been recognized as a process of fusion and integration rather than summation and inhibition. Advances in computational modeling and imaging have revealed that higher cortical centers are involved in production of what were previously believed to be stereotypical, triggered reactions. Emerging evidence now supports the idea that postural behaviors are regulated by distributed control in the neuraxis and shaped by dynamic interactions of sensorimotor processes in a task- and context-dependent manner.

Volume I, entitled “Augmentation of Brain Functions: Brain-Machine Interfaces”, is a collection of articles on neuroprosthetic technologies that utilize brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). BMIs strive to augment the brain by linking neural activity, recorded invasively or noninvasively, to external devices, such as arm prostheses, exoskeletons that enable bipedal walking, means of communication and technologies that augment attention. In addition to many practical applications, BMIs provide useful research tools for basic science. Several articles cover challenges and controversies in this rapidly developing field, such as ways to improve information transfer rate. BMIs can be applied to the awake state of the brain and to the sleep state, as well. BMIs can augment action planning and decision making. Importantly, BMI operations evoke brain plasticity, which can have long-lasting effects. Advanced neural decoding algorithms that utilize optimal feedback controllers are key to the BMI performance. BMI approach can be combined with the other augmentation methods; such systems are called hybrid BMIs. Overall, it appears that BMI will lead to many powerful and practical brain-augmenting technologies in the future.