Neuroscience |
As humans, we use touch to feel, to communicate, to move, to explore the environment around us, and to protect us from danger. What may seem like instinctive reactions are in fact the result of a complex interplay between our brain, nerves and touch receptors in our skin.
How does the pattern of electrical impulses that arise from touch receptors give rise to our rich perception of the world around us? What can we do when communication in these systems is disrupted through injury? Can artificial sensors and control algorithms for prosthesis and robotic manipulators be created to truly resemble the remarkable functionality of the human hand?
These are the questions that drive our sensory neuroscience research. To answer them we take a cross-disciplinary approach linking neurophysiology, clinical neurology, and biomedical engineering.
Current projects
Tactile information encoding and sensorimotor control: fundamental neuroscience, medicine, bionics and robots (Honours/Masters/PhD)
Highlighted publications
Our experts
A/Prof Ingvars Birznieks - Group Leader
Dr Ingvars Birznieks is a sensory neurophysiologist interested in sensory information encoding mechanisms. His research primarily comprises range of studies related to the function of tactile receptors and sensorimotor control of the human hand. However, his ultimate goal is to use this fundamental knowledge and develop two branches of collaborative networks - one with clinicians, which would be aimed to develop new methods for evaluation of sensorimotor function in different groups of patients, while the second branch would be aimed to work with biomedical engineers to create artificial sensors and control algorithms for prosthesis and robotic manipulators resembling functionality of the human hand.
A/Prof Richard Vickery - Group Leader
I am a researcher and educator focussed on understanding the internal language of the brain: its neural code, to enable us to improve brain-machine interfaces such as a bionic hand.
My broad aim is to understand the neural mechanisms that give rise to sensory perception. I work on tactile perception and cortical coding in the somatosensory system, and on tactile prostheses to restore touch to amputees. I use electrophysiological recordings to collect real-time neural data, and integrate this with behavioural and psychophysical studies to break the neural code.
Team members
- Dr Ismail Devecioglu
- Alwin So (PhD student)
Honor students
- Isabella Pejkovic
- Raiyaan Ruhi
- Nicole Cho
- Jia Yao Foong
Research Theme