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kestrellBoth of the following links were posted to the GimpGirl LJ community
1. Okay, here's something I learned a long time ago: never arm wrestle a guy who uses a handcycle. Handcycles are those wheelchairs which are stripped down, low to the ground, and propelled by the person pushing the wheels. These guys are faaaast. And they tend to be seriously ripped. (Okay, so when I say "never" I actually mean "unless you enjoy losing arm wrestling matches to guys who are seriously ripped").
Still, imagine propelling yourself across Alaska. At high speed. Against your fellow speed demons. The Web site for this race calls it the "Toughest Race in the World" and I believe it: this is probably the only instance in which I am really impressed by a guy's wheels.
Check it out
http://www.sadlersakchallenge.org/
2. Brain can develop motor memory for prosthetics
by Rob Gerth - Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 11:50 AM
block quote start
The Reeve Foundation is always on the look out for amazing young scientists.
We funded the principal investigator for the research described below, Jose
Carmena, a UC Berkeley assistant professor, several times in his career.
The excerpt below is from UC Berkeley's website. You can also read the
NYTimes article Researchers Train Minds to Move Matter
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/health/21brai.html?_r=1
In this study, to be published July 21 in the open-access journal PLoS
Biology, macaque monkeys using brain signals learned how to move a computer
cursor to various targets. What the researchers learned was that the brain
could develop a mental map of a solution to achieve the task with high
proficiency, and that it adhered to that neural pattern without deviation,
much like a driver sticks to a given route commuting to work.
The study, conducted by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley,
addresses a fundamental question about whether the brain can establish a
stable, neural map of a motor task to make control of an artificial limb more
intuitive.
"When your own body performs motor tasks repeatedly, the movements become
almost automatic," said study principal investigator Jose Carmena, a UC
Berkeley assistant professor with joint appointments in the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, the Helen Wills Neuroscience
Institute, and the Program in Cognitive Science. "The profound part of our
study is that this is all happening with something that is not part of one's
own body. We have demonstrated that the brain is able to form a motor memory
to control a disembodied device in a way that mirrors how it controls its own
body. That has never been shown before."Read the whole piece
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/20_motormemory.shtml
block quote end
1. Okay, here's something I learned a long time ago: never arm wrestle a guy who uses a handcycle. Handcycles are those wheelchairs which are stripped down, low to the ground, and propelled by the person pushing the wheels. These guys are faaaast. And they tend to be seriously ripped. (Okay, so when I say "never" I actually mean "unless you enjoy losing arm wrestling matches to guys who are seriously ripped").
Still, imagine propelling yourself across Alaska. At high speed. Against your fellow speed demons. The Web site for this race calls it the "Toughest Race in the World" and I believe it: this is probably the only instance in which I am really impressed by a guy's wheels.
Check it out
http://www.sadlersakchallenge.org/
2. Brain can develop motor memory for prosthetics
by Rob Gerth - Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 11:50 AM
block quote start
The Reeve Foundation is always on the look out for amazing young scientists.
We funded the principal investigator for the research described below, Jose
Carmena, a UC Berkeley assistant professor, several times in his career.
The excerpt below is from UC Berkeley's website. You can also read the
NYTimes article Researchers Train Minds to Move Matter
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/health/21brai.html?_r=1
In this study, to be published July 21 in the open-access journal PLoS
Biology, macaque monkeys using brain signals learned how to move a computer
cursor to various targets. What the researchers learned was that the brain
could develop a mental map of a solution to achieve the task with high
proficiency, and that it adhered to that neural pattern without deviation,
much like a driver sticks to a given route commuting to work.
The study, conducted by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley,
addresses a fundamental question about whether the brain can establish a
stable, neural map of a motor task to make control of an artificial limb more
intuitive.
"When your own body performs motor tasks repeatedly, the movements become
almost automatic," said study principal investigator Jose Carmena, a UC
Berkeley assistant professor with joint appointments in the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, the Helen Wills Neuroscience
Institute, and the Program in Cognitive Science. "The profound part of our
study is that this is all happening with something that is not part of one's
own body. We have demonstrated that the brain is able to form a motor memory
to control a disembodied device in a way that mirrors how it controls its own
body. That has never been shown before."Read the whole piece
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/20_motormemory.shtml
block quote end
