Positive Technology Journal

Via we-make-money-not-art 

 

Movement & Perception Lab, affiliated to CNRS and University of the Mediterranean is offering a permanent position, at the level of Assistant Professor. The lab's main topic is the study of central and peripheral mechanisms for the control and perception of human movements.

The candidate will be part of the development of Virtual Reality (Movelite) and Motion Analysis (Vicon) technological platforms, designed for experimental investigations of human movement production and perception.

Research topics include (but not limited to): Visual control of displacement, Spatial orientation, multi-sensory integration, immersion and presence, models of human motion

As concerns teaching, the candidate will be involved in Sports Sciences and in Human Movement Sciences courses. Teaching fields will include Neuroscience and Psychology. One objective will be to organize a course in Virtual Reality applied to the above scientific domains. The candidate will demonstrate his/her competence in Neuroscience and Psychology. Experience in Virtual Reality will be appreciated. International experience and indexed publications will be a plus.

Motor learning: its relevance to stroke recovery and neurorehabilitation

Curr Opin Neurol. 2006 Feb;19(1):84-90

Authors: Krakauer JW

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Much of neurorehabilitation rests on the assumption that patients can improve with practice. This review will focus on arm movements and address the following questions: (i) What is motor learning? (ii) Do patients with hemiparesis have a learning deficit? (iii) Is recovery after injury a form of motor learning? (iv) Are approaches based on motor learning principles useful for rehabilitation? RECENT FINDINGS: Motor learning can be broken into kinematic and dynamic components. Studies in healthy subjects suggest that retention of motor learning is best accomplished with variable training schedules. Animal models and functional imaging in humans show that the mature brain can undergo plastic changes during both learning and recovery. Quantitative motor control approaches allow differentiation between compensation and true recovery, although both improve with practice. Several promising new rehabilitation approaches are based on theories of motor learning. These include impairment oriented-training (IOT), constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT), electromyogram (EMG)-triggered neuromuscular stimulation, robotic interactive therapy and virtual reality (VR). SUMMARY: Motor learning mechanisms are operative during spontaneous stroke recovery and interact with rehabilitative training. For optimal results, rehabilitation techniques should be geared towards patients' specific motor deficits and possibly combined, for example, CIMT with VR. Two critical questions that should always be asked of a rehabilitation technique are whether gains persist for a significant period after training and whether they generalize to untrained tasks.

Via Pasta and Vinegar

Building a lightweight eyetracker by Jason S.Babcock & Jeff B. Pelz from Rochester Institute of Technology:

CYNETart has been showing new trends of cultural developments in the media arts since 1997. The consequences of the prevailing progress of civilisation and the introduction of new information technologies in all fields of social life lead to the disembodiment of perception triggering the examination of a new sensitivity for physical experience and for the perception of one's own body. The international festival focuses on the changed perception of the body caused by new information technologies. At this, the performance of the new technologie is less important, it is rather about their cultural potential for mediation. This applies f.i. to linkages between existential questions of humankind and their perception. It also applies to a more sensual approach to scientific methods of research and the interconnections between the arts.

All in all, CYNETart 2006 presents three awards. The CYNETart award donated by the Stiftung für Kunst & Kultur der Stadtsparkasse Dresden is endowed with 5,000 Euros. The CYNETart award donated by T-Systems Multimedia Solutions is endowed with 5,000 Euros. The sponsorship award of the Saxon Ministry of Science and the Fine Arts is endowed with 10,000 Euros. The award-winning works are selected from the submissions by an international expert jury. Application form online. The deadline for submissions is March 20, 2006!

Organiser: Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau e.V. and The City of Dresden, Culture Office in co-operation with the European Centre for the Arts Hellerau

You get further information on www.cynetart.de and from
Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau e.V.
Festspielhaus Hellerau, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 56
01109 Dresden, GERMANY
Tel. +49-351-889 6665
Fax +49-351-34 000 33