NeuroHaptics: Touch with the Brain
Organizers:
Prof. S. Farokh Atashzar, New York University, USA
Prof. Mohamad Eid, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Abstract:
Neurohaptics, bringing new perspectives in the synergy between haptics and neuroscience, has emerged as a field of study that strives to understand the complex neural representation provoked in response to touch stimuli. Advancements in haptic technologies (such as wearable haptics, rehabilitation robotics, and neurorobotics combined with virtual and augmented reality), as well as brain scanning technologies, have powered an accelerated surge in neuroscience focusing on various modalities of haptics. A fundamental challenge in haptic research is the reliance on subjective self-report or behavioral assessments, limiting the generalizability of the conclusions and increasing the uncertainty, variability, and susceptibility of the assessments to cognitive, memory, and communication barriers and increasing the sensitivity to the timing of answer collection.
A fundamentally different approach to evaluate human haptic experience is to directly measure and encode brain activities while users interact with a haptic device. More recent efforts are focused on studying central neural responses to shed light on the neurophysiology of haptics and to better understand the functionality of the human nervous system related to haptics. In order to measure brain activities, electroencephalography (EEG) and functional MRI (fMRI) have attracted a great deal of interest in recent studies to probe human neural functions during haptics exploration and experiments. This will eventually allow for a better understanding of haptics and subtle underlying mechanisms that could not be detected using subjective methods.
This workshop seeks to present and discuss the most recent novel efforts related to neuroscientific models for the human sense of touch and the combination of haptics and advanced neurorehabilitation robotics technologies. The goal is to bring together diverse leading researchers and young investigators from both haptics and neuroscience in order to explore how to maximize the progress in this multidisciplinary area and inform and further accelerate research in both the haptics and neuroscience communities.
In this workshop, we aim at encouraging an interactive and interdisciplinary dialog between leading researchers, young researchers, and the clinical and industrial sectors. Topics to be covered in this workshop include, but are not limited to:
- Haptics in AR/VR and Neuro-representation
- Tactile Communications and Neuroscience
- Tactile perception and Neuroscience
- Brain-Computer Interface and Haptics
- Neurorobotics and haptics
- Neurorehabilitation and Haptics
- Haptics-enabled neurorehabilitation robotics
- Haptics communication and mutual adaptation