PhD projects (if you are interested in)

(1) Chemical reaction to mechanical energy of the self-oscillating hydrogel towards a model of heart cells

Living systems are complex, and are based on the basic building blocks of genes, proteins, chemical reactions, and physical forces. Yet, out of this complexity, with remarkable robustness and precision, cells orchestrate the cooperative action of thousands of specific molecular reactions and interactions to carry out mechanical tasks requiring a much higher-order of organization. Examples of such tasks include cell motility, cell division and DNA replication. For example, 100 billion heart cells can synchronise their oscillation to generate a single pulse.

To understand the fundamental principles that govern cooperative processes in living systems, it is of critical importance to develop an understanding of the underlying physio-chemical processes (in the framework of non-equilibrium physics), because living systems are also subject to laws in physical systems. Such inherently non-equilibrium processes suggest approaches for developing biomimetic active materials which can transform the chemical energy to the mechanical energy. Being actively driven, these materials are not constrained by the laws of equilibrium statistical mechanics, and can thus exhibit properties such as autonomous motility, internally generated flows and self-organised beating.

The aim of this project is to understand the fundamental microscopic mechanism of the transformation from chemical to mechanical reactions, and develop a physio-chemical model to study the mechanism of the synchronisation in relevant biological systems.

(2) How can we enhance both skill transfer and adaptability to others?

Since birth, we have been learning how to control our body, using motor skills and embodying tools as if there were a part of our body. Motor learning is defined as a set of internal processes within the brain associated with exercise, leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for new motor skills. Generally speaking, we learn a skillset from only an expert. However, the focus of research has been the improved performance of the novice, and, the actual nature of the joint action or mutual interactions between the expert and novices has been often neglected. In particular, these studies have revealed that the best performances in a joint task are possible when the training is performed with an expert. However, novices trained with an expert are not able to perform the task well when the expert is removed; in other words the motor skills are not properly transferred from the expert to the novice. More controversially, novices who had a chance to do a task on their own as a solo performer before Novice-Expert (N-E) training could demonstrate better performance than the ones under only N-E training. We think that the nature of the joint actions plays an important role in the skill transfer via mutual interactions.

In the proposed project, we will provide an unified perspective in the learning process in skill transfer and adaptability to others, considering that novice-to-novice interactions allows exploration of the unknown dynamics of the task, and that it can provide a vivid experience of a wide variety of the motor coordination, training oneself on how to predict the other’s motion. Recently we found that the novice-to-novice interactions might result in enhancing adaptability to the others in general. As this includes adaptability to the expert, which might result in the higher skill transfer. In summary, from the perspective of novice wanting to learn the skillset, the underlying mechanism is to find the optimal trade-off between;

(1) Exploration of the unknown dynamics of the task by solo performance or with the novice, but accepting low performance levels;

(2) Exploitation of the assisting action of the expert that may improve performance, but also, reduce the chance of the novice to experience a wide range of dynamic contingencies;

(3) Adaptability by increasing the ability of prediction of how the partner moves in the cooperative task.

The optimal balance of these three factors is crucial for acquiring skillsets to a high standard as well as adaptability to others.

(3) Interbrain dynamical functions in two brains under mutual interactions

How can we communicate with other members of society, synchronise our motion in real-time despite the time-delay in the sensory-motor systems? Crucial to a sense of communication is the ability to entrain perceptually with other members of society, i.e., to be able to follow, to lead, and anticipate others to synchronise their motion. However, the reorganisation of the brain activity under real-time coordinated motion has never been investigated in terms of simultaneous scanning/analysis of two brains. The aim of this project is to reveal neurological foundations and dynamical functions of two human brains for anticipatory synchronisation during a coordinated activity.

For social animals, moving bodies together in harmony plays an important role to facilitate the social interactions. In humans, such coordinated actions are common in group activities such as playing music and dancing. In the evolutionary process, many social interactions should rely on synchronisation of motion to ground the mutual information exchange in the closed loop of brain and body. To coordinate one’s own motion in harmony with a partner’s motion, anticipating the motion at the next moment is crucial to overcome a substantial time delay between the perception and the actuation of the body motion. In evolutionary sense, the mirror-neuron system, the neuronal population which fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another, should facilitate the higher cognition such as language acquisition, interpersonal coordination, and social perception.

However, how the mirror neuron system functions under realtime interactions with another mirror-neuron system has not been revealed. In this proposed project, the novel framework of the experimental set-up is that it can take account of dynamical aspects of two brains influencing each other in real-time, i.e., simultaneously scanning the two brains when the pair participants are under corporative task.

Aim: Based on the novel experimental paradigm of mutual tracking and simultaneous EEG measurement, this project will reveal the neuronal foundation for mutual anticipating synchronisation, using the interdisciplinary approach in neuroscience and nonlinear physics.