MRI: Acquisition of a Movement Tracking System to Explore Embodiment and Cognition

一个多学科研究团队将获得一个动作捕捉系统，该系统能够精确跟踪人体运动，同时记录大脑活动和眼球运动。该设备将详细了解神经系统在计划和产生运动中的作用，以及人类大脑如何感知自己的身体。具有心理学、神经科学、计算机科学、康复工程和语言学等专业知识的科学家将使用该系统回答一系列基础研究问题，重点关注认知过程如何与运动动作动态联系。这项研究将推动低成本虚拟现实技术、运动缺陷患者的神经康复方法以及支持与年龄相关的注意力变化的辅助框架的基本进展。该设备还将支持K-12、本科生和研究生的跨学科教育和培训机会，以及社会认知偏见、人机交互、工作场所偏见和互动艺术方面的工作。具有64通道无线脑电图和无线眼动追踪的36个摄像头运动捕捉系统将提供运动身体的详细测量，包括关节轨迹、运动路径效率和定时信息。运动信息与使用无线脑电图（EEG）技术的非侵入式可穿戴头帽捕获的大脑活动记录同步。脑电图测量颅骨电活动的变化，这表明大脑活动水平的变化。有计划的研究包括不受约束的运动，以探索化身的概念，这是一个人在物体上发展自我意识的过程。研究人员将探索截肢者对假肢的体现以及虚拟现实系统用户对虚拟身体的体现。对手指和嘴部运动的精确跟踪将有助于研究说话过程中的手势，以及它们与体现概念的关系，重点是手势语言如何随着听力和注意力的年龄下降而变化。这项工作还将描述体现的问题如何导致幻肢痛，这是大多数截肢者都会经历的一种疼痛综合征。这项由该设备实现的研究将改变科学家对大脑和身体如何相互作用以产生平稳有效运动的理解。长期影响将推动人机界面、神经康复技术、注意力缺陷对策和虚拟现实系统的技术进步。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A multidisciplinary research team will acquire a motion capture system capable of precisely tracking human body movements while simultaneously recording brain activity and eye movements. The equipment will provide detailed insight into the nervous system’s role in planning and generating movements, as well as how the human mind perceives its own body. Scientists with expertise spanning psychology, neuroscience, computer science, rehabilitation engineering, and linguistics will use the system to answer a range of foundational research questions focusing on how cognitive processes are dynamically linked with motor action. The research will drive fundamental advances in low-cost virtual reality technologies, neurorehabilitation approaches for patients with motor deficits, and assistive frameworks for supporting age-related changes in attention. The equipment will also support cross-disciplinary educational and training opportunities for K-12, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as work in social cognition biases, human-robot interaction, workplace prejudice, and interactive art.The 36-camera motion capture system with 64-channel wireless EEG and wireless eye tracking will provide detailed measurements of the moving body, including joint trajectories, motor path efficiencies, and timing information. The movement information is synchronized with brain activity recordings captured with a non-invasive wearable headcap using wireless electroencephalography (EEG) technology. EEG measures changes in electrical activity across the skull which indicate changes in brain activity levels. Planned research studies involve untethered movements to enable exploration of the concept of embodiment, which is the process by which a person develops a sense of self over an object. The researchers will explore embodiment of prosthetic limbs by amputees and embodiment of virtual bodies by users of virtual reality systems. Precise tracking of finger and mouth movements will enable the study of gestures during speech, and how they relate to the concept of embodiment, with an emphasis on how gestured speech changes with age-related declines in hearing and attention. The work will also describe how problems with embodiment lead to phantom limb pain, a pain syndrome experienced by a majority of people with amputations. The research enabled by this equipment will transform scientists’ understanding of how the brain and body interact to generate smooth and effective movements. Long-term impacts will fuel technological advances in human-computer interfaces, neurorehabilitation techniques, attentional-deficiency countermeasures, and virtual reality systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.