Cortical learning via sensorimotor experiences evoked by bodily movements begins as early as the foetal period. However, the learning mechanisms by which sensorimotor experiences guide cortical learning remain unknown owing to technical and ethical difficulties. To bridge this gap, we present an embodied brain model of a human foetus as a coupled brain-body-environment system by integrating anatomical/physiological data. Using this model, we show how intrauterine sensorimotor experiences related to bodily movements induce specific statistical regularities in somatosensory feedback that facilitate cortical learning of body representations and subsequent visual-somatosensory integration. We also show how extrauterine sensorimotor experiences affect these processes. Our embodied brain model can provide a novel computational approach to the mechanistic understanding of cortical learning based on sensorimotor experiences mediated by complex interactions between the body, environment and nervous system.
Complex kinetic behaviors in the thermal dehydration of CaSO4∙2H2O under varying water vapor pressure (p(H2O)) conditions impel researchers in the field of solid-state kinetics to gain a more comprehensive understanding....
The electronic structure of BaFe2X3 (X = S and Se) and CsFe2Se3 in which two-leg ladders are formed by the Fe sites are studied by means of x-ray absorption and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy. The x-ray absorption spectra at the Fe L edges for BaFe2X3 exhibit two components, indicating that itinerant and localized Fe 3d sites coexist. Substantial x-ray linear dichroism is observed in polarization dependent spectra, indicating the existence of orbital order or fluctuation in the Fe-ladder even above the Néel temperature TN. Direct exchange interaction along the legs of the Fe-ladder stabilizes the orbital and antiferromagnetic orders in BaFe2S3, while the ferromagnetic molecular orbitals are realized between the rungs in CsFe2Se3.
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