rubber hand
Restoration of Reduced Self-Efficacy Caused by Chronic Pain through Manipulated Sensory Discrepancy
Itkonen, Matti, Kawabata, Riku, Yamauchi, Satsuki, Okajima, Shotaro, Hirata, Hitoshi, Shimoda, Shingo
Abstract-- Human physical function is governed by selfefficacy, the belief in one's motor capacity. In chronic pain patients, this capacity may remain reduced long after the damage causing the pain has been cured. Chronic pain alters body schema, affecting how patients perceive the dimension and pose of their bodies. We exploit this deficit using robotic manipulation technology and augmented sensory stimuli through virtual reality technology. We propose a sensory stimuli manipulation method aimed at modifying body schema to restore lost selfefficacy. Pharmaceuticals alone cannot cure this complex condition, which is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors [1].
Scientific discoveries inspire amid a turbulent 2016
A number of the notable science stories of the past year are, quite literally, out of this world. For me, the story of the year has to be the August discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting the closest star to our own. The star, Proxima Centauri, is just 4.2 light-years from Earth. The planet circling that star has been named Proxima Centauri b. Proxima Centauri b was discovered by astronomers working on a project called Pale Red Dot, who reported that the planet lies in the star's habitable zone, meaning that it could possess water and, maybe, life.
What is it like to be a bot? The strange world of telerobotics
"What is it like to be a bat?" the philosopher Thomas Nagel wondered in 1974. But something essential about the experience was off limits to his imagination. "I am restricted to the resources of my own mind, and those resources are inadequate to the task." Nagel's famous essay considered a sticky problem: what is the relationship between our body and our mind? The question of what it's like to be someone, or something, else, has continued to tantalise. Now, research into making telerobotics happen may offer a weird and cool possibility – that of beginning to understand, if only a little, the experience of entities that are not at all like us.