Exploring Vestibulo-Ocular Adaptation in a Closed-Loop Neuro-Robotic Experiment Using STDP. A Simulation Study
Abstract
Studying and understanding the computational primitives of our neural system requires for a diverse and complementary set of techniques. In this work, we use the Neuro-robotic Platform (NRP)to evaluate the vestibulo ocular cerebellar adaptatIon (Vestibulo-ocular reflex, VOR)mediated by two STDP mechanisms located at the cerebellar molecular layer and the vestibular nuclei respectively. This simulation study adopts an experimental setup (rotatory VOR)widely used by neuroscientists to better understand the contribution of certain specific cerebellar properties (i.e. distributed STDP, neural properties, coding cerebellar topology, etc.)to r-VOR adaptation. The work proposes and describes an embodiment solution for which we endow a simulated humanoid robot (iCub)with a spiking cerebellar model by means of the NRP, and we face the humanoid to an r-VOR task. The results validate the adaptive capabilities of the spiking cerebellar model (with STDP)in a perception-action closed-loop (r- VOR)causing the simulated iCub robot to mimic a human behavior.
Francisco Naveros
Postdoctoral Researcher
Senior postdoc at the Applied Computational Neuroscience Research Group at the University of Granada.
Jesús Garrido
Associate Professor
Associate professor in Computation technology, senior researcher at the Computational Neuroscience and Neurorobotics Lab and principal investigator of the VALERIA lab of the University of Granada.
Eduardo Ros
Full Professor
Full professor in computer architecture, principal investigator at the Computational Neuroscience and Neurorobotics Lab and principal investigator of the VALERIA lab of the University of Granada.
Niceto Luque
Associate Professor
Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Engineering, Automation and Robotics and Principal Investigator at the Applied Computational Neuroscience Group.