MRI: Acquisition of robotic tools for studying brain, behavior and embodied cognition

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This project will make a new robotic exoskeleton arm with integrated virtual reality and eye-tracking facilities available to researchers for the study of human embodied and situated cognition at UC Merced, the tenth and newest campus of the University of California system. The equipment would enable cutting-edge research in the study of human cognition using tools from robotics benefitting a range of Faculty and students across various departments including Cognitive & Information Sciences, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and Digital Humanities. The equipment will catalyze research in several directions including 1) Human Motor Control & Action Dynamics with applications for physical rehabilitation 2) Embodied Cognition and Action 3) Brain-behavior interactions 4) Fundamental human-inspired robotics research 5) Human-machine interactions 6) Language, Communication & Gesture. The robotic arm will provide a sophisticated platform to monitor and manipulate the upper limb, providing a broad range of hand and joint-based kinesthetic information and gaze information. With built in virtual/augmented reality, the robot arm system will allow for altering visual information to be presented to human participants while manipulating their arm movements. The work will help build institutional capacity in an area of strategic focus at UC Merced and will result in direct collaborations between scientists and students across various departments on campus. The impact of the training resulting from the equipment is expected to be particularly broad at UC Merced due to its exceptionally diverse student body and the large number of programs focused on increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities.Researchers including the PI: Balasubramaniam and Co-PIs Spivey and Carpin also plan on perturbing neural activity using techniques such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and recording brain activity during the perturbation of arm movements using the robotic device. The transformative aspect of this research comes from its ability to observe and manipulate brain activity and complex motor behavior simultaneously.