The BIOTACT Project comprises nine institutions from seven countires. Please use the links to view details about the contribution of each to BIOTACT, and visit the various homepages for further information.Â
The University of Sheffield is one of the UK’s leading universities with an international reputation for excellence in research. The Department of Psychology, which has particular strengths in systems neuroscience, computational neuroscience, and brain imaging, received 'excellent' (5A) ratings in all 5 UK research assessment exercises in the last 20 years.
Main tasks
USFD will co-ordinate the BIOTACT project, develop novel computational models, and conduct empirical studies of the rat vibrissal system. Modelling will focus on whisker control, and tactile coding/decision-making. USFD will also lead the integration of contributions.
Research experience
Two research groups from Psychology will be involved: the Adaptive Behaviour Research Group (ABRG) and the Neural Algorithms Group (NARG). Both groups undertake theoretical, computational, and neuroscientific work directed at understanding control architectures in mammalian nervous systems. Recent work has focused on the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and visual and vibrissal sensory systems. Both have also pioneered the use of robotics to transfer insights from brain modelling into engineering.
BCCN-Berlin was recently established with support from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research to integrate research in computational neuroscience at the Charité, Freie Universität Berlin (FU), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), Technische Universität Berlin (TU), Fraunhofer FIRST, the Max-Delbrueck-Center and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
Main tasks
The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin (BCCN-Berlin) will play an integrative role in BIOTACT focusing on a combined analysis of behaviour, single neuron properties, and overall system performance investigating strategies for active sensor control, object recognition, and orienting/tracking.
Research experience
The BCCN research group analyses cellular mechanisms underlying sensorimotor integration focusing on the mammalian vibrissal active touch system. BCCN pursue research from a strictly systemic, neuroethological perspective posing a wide range of questions to understand better the systemic performance of active touch mediated by the vibrissae. Determining the role of single neurons in behaviour is a central goal of this research. This problem is addressed by stimulating single cortical neurons and testing the effect on movement, sensation and learning. This approach reverses conventional physiological research, where action potentials are studied as correlates of sensorimotor processing. This novel way of studying brain function is implemented by the development and application of new stimulation techniques in the rodent sensory and motor cortices.
The International School for Advanced Studies (known by its Italian acronym, SISSA) is the top-ranked Italian university according to the recent analysis of the National Committee for Evaluation of Research Quality. SISSA comprises eight sectors. The Tactile Perception and Learning Laboratory (TPLL) is within the Cognitive Neuroscience Sector.
Main tasks
The TPLL will play a major role in all aspects of BIOTACT dealing with the relation between neuronal activity and tactile sensation. This includes recording and analysis of neuronal signals from multiple brain regions during tactile discrimination tasks. TPPL will also be involved with the study of whisker motion and sensorimotor integration, and will be responsible for shared development of behavioural, physiological, and whisker-monitoring methods, and for preparing experimental data for modelling.
Research experience
TPLL was established in 1996. Its research has been aimed from the outset at understanding how brain activity gives rise to touch sensation and how tactile performance is modified by experience. One line of research uses the rat whisker sensory system while a second line of research uses the human fingertip sensory system to test the generality of findings from the animal research. Experimental work is guided by a strategy of full quantification, whereby computational methods such as information theory are continuously developed to provide the deepest possible treatment of physiological data.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel is one of the world’s top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutes. Research in the Department of Neurobiology of the Institute encompasses a wide variety of subjects, in areas including brain imaging (fMRI, optical and to-photon), cellular and molecular biology, computational neuroscience, neuroanatomy, physiology, pharmacology, psychophysics, and systems neuroscience. The Adaptive Perceptual Processing Laboratory (APPL) is part of the Dept. of Neurobiology.
Main tasks
The APPL will play a major role in the neurobiological components of the project including mechanophysiological studies of whisker motion and contact, neurophysiological studies of the vibrissal sensory-motor loops and neuroethological studies of whisking. APPL will also contribute to modelling various system components.
Research experience
The APPL was established in 1992 to study the neuronal mechanisms of adaptive perceptual processing via active sensing, focusing on the rat vibrissal system. Additional efforts are dedicated to studying human active touch and active vision. The APPL employs techniques of multiple-site single-unit recordings together with accurate tracking of whisker kinematics in order to reveal neuronal mechanisms underlying active vibrissal touch. The lab pioneered the method of single-unit recording in artificially-whisking rats which is currently the standard method for studying active vibrissal touch in animals.
The Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) is a joint venture between the University of the West of England, Bristol, and the University of Bristol. BRL and is the leading and largest academic centre for multi-disciplinary robotics research in the UK with a core of 25 members and a further 25 associated staff. The laboratory has workshop and rapid prototyping facilities covering an area of over 1000sq.m.. BRL has strong links with the emerging advanced robotics manufacturing community, and also has regular contact with larger international organisations that have a robotics interest.
Main tasks
BRL will be responsible for the majority of the robotics aspects of BIOTACT. It will also play a leading role in integrating the project in terms of parallelisation, hardware acceleration, and robot embedding of computational models.
Research experience
BRL has a track record in developing autonomous robots with embedded intelligence. Members of BRL are involved in projects funded by a range of UK and EU sources studying human-robot interaction, energy autonomy, collective locomotion, tactile sensors and haptic feedback systems, motion tracking/positioning systems, swarming behaviour, dependability, wearable and pervasive systems, and bio-inspired architectures.
The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the ETH Zurich have a joint government board and are considered the top Technical Universities in Switzerland. Moreover, the EPFL School of Computer and Communication Sciences is ranked amongst the top 10 European Institutions and amongst the top 100 institutions world wide. The Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience (LCN) is part of the School of Computer and Communications Sciences as well as part of the Brain-Mind Institute in the School of Life Sciences of the EPFL.
Main tasks
EPFL will be in charge of modelling work using networks of spiking neurons and will be involved with conceptual modelling related to learning and memory. The emphasis will be on modelling biological data, particularly that generated by SISSA.
Research experience
The LCN has a long tradition in modelling spiking neurons and spiking neuronal networks, spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP), and systems-level modelling of brain systems underlying rodent navigation (e.g. hippocampus). A particular focus has been the formulation and analysis of spike-time based learning rules. It has been shown that these rules can be used to learn spatio-temporal spike patterns or navigational strategies. The group has also been involved in modelling rodent navigation behavior in a Morris water maze or on a linear track.
The Ben-Gurion University is one of the seven research universities in Israel. The Department of Physiology at BGU has nine faculty members that belong to the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience. The Zlotowski Center has neuroscience activities ranging from subcellular, over cellular, network and system levels up to cognitive neuroscience. Centre members use research methods from biology, physics, engineering and psychology.
Main tasks
BGU will be responsible for computational neuroscience modelling, at the biophysical and network levels, of whisking pattern generation and sensorimotor loops.
Research experience
The Laboratory of Neurophysics has been studying the dynamics of neurons, networks and systems for the last 12 years. The main research goal has been to define the relationship between the components of the neuronal systems and the dynamical behaviour of their firing patterns. Specifically, the Laboratory has investigated propagation of pulses and waves in cortical neurons, synchrony in large cortical networks with chemical and electrical synaptic coupling, and firing patterns of single neurons. Recently, the focus of the laboratory has switched to the investigation of information processing in the rodent vibrissal system. Projects have been carried out using analytical methods taken from the theory of dynamical systems and statistical physics, together with extensive numerical simulations.
Main tasks
BVS will share with BRL the role of designing and constructing the BIOTACT sensor. Particular focuses will include sensor transduction and actuation, the development of custom microelectronics (ASICs), and the technological enhancement of sensor design.
Research experience
BCS demonstrated the first operational Generic Visual Perception Processor (GVPP) chip with the ability to locate and track user-selected objects as they move within images in real-time. The GVPP is based on biomimetic models of processing in the human visual system, its most significant technical breakthrough, and basic building block, being the successful electronic modelling of a spatiotemporal neuron. BVS began parallel research on vibrissal sensor design in 2006 and has developed a novel prototype device based on ‘conductive elastomer’ technology. BVS has previous and current collaborations/consultancies with a number of academic groups including the French National Institute of Health and Medicine (INSERM), and the Animat Lab at UPMC. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP recently estimated a possible 100 applications of the GVPP chip in 10 different industries.
Northwestern University is a private institution founded in 1851 that includes two campuses: a 25-acre campus in Chicago, and a 240-acre campus in Evanston, a suburb just north of Chicago. Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the world-renowned Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago provide clinical expertise that complement the strong research focus of the university. The McCormick school of engineering recently began a thrust in Neural Engineering, which seeks to extend, develop, and apply basic knowledge of nervous systems into useful technology, including bio-inspired sensing, control, and movement systems.
Main tasks
The school of engineering at NU will play a key role in developing hardware and software models of whisking behaviour and early sensory processing, work on vestibular and whisker integration, and perform cerebellar electrophysiology to investigate candidate computational algorithms.
Research experience
The school of engineering has been studying the mechanics and neurobiology of active sensing behaviour for the last four years. The main research goal has been to quantify the spatiotemporal structure of incoming data to the whisker array and test hypotheses in hardware (robotic) and software models. This has required a detailed investigation of whisker mechanics, coupled with behavioural experiments, and electrophysiology.
 University of Sheffield: http://www.shef.ac.uk
Adaptive Behavioral Research Group: http://www.abrg.group.shef.ac.uk
Bristol Robotics Laboratory: http://www.brl.ac.uk
