Positive Psychology: Sensorimotor Learning Group (Wolpert-lab)

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Sensorimotor Learning Group (Wolpert-lab)

Sensorimotor Learning Group (Wolpertlab)

Movement is the only way we have of interacting with the world, whether foraging for food or attracting a waiter's attention. Indeed, all communication, including speech, sign language, gestures and writing, is mediated via the motor system.

Taking this viewpoint, the purpose of the human brain is to use sensory signals to determine future actions. The goal of our lab is to understand the computational principles underlying human sensorimotor control.

In the group we use theoretical studies, computer simulations, human experiments to examine the basis of skilled motor behaviour.

News

May 12	Gergő Orbán received a prestigious 'Momentum' Young Investigator Award to take up Faculty Position at Department of Theoretical Physics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest.
May 12	Ian Howard to take up a Senior Lectureship in Software Engineering and Cognitive Robotics at the University of Plymouth.
Apr 12	Daniel Wolpert elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
Feb 12	Daniel Wolpert receives a 7-year Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award
Nov 11	Daniel Wolpert's TED talk "The real reason for brains" appears on TED.com and on YouTube
Nov 11	Daniel Wolpert receives the Minerva Foundation Golden Brain Award
July 10	David Franklin awarded a 5-year Research Career Development Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Science from the Wellcome Trust
March 10	Lab featured in the Kavli Foundation Newsletter
Dec 09	Daniel Wolpert appears on the Charlie Rose Bloomberg TV Special on The Acting Brain with Eric Kandel, John Krakauer, Tom Jessell and Robert Brown. Watch the special here.
Oct 09	Daniel Wolpert gives the Fred Kavli Distinguished International Scientist Lecture at the 2009 Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago. Video now available.
Sept 09	Arbora Resulaj's paper on changes-of-mind appears in Nature with a story behind the paper
Aug 09	Daniel Braun awarded Hans Spemann prize from the Alberts-Ludwig-Universität Freiburg for his PhD.
July 09	Aldo Faisal to take up Lectureship in Neuroscience at Imperial College London jointly between the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science.
May 09	Daniel Wolpert gives a Plenary talk at 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2009) Kobe, Japan

Lab Support

The Wellcome Trust
Human Frontiers Science Program

Source @ Cambridge University, UK
Sensorimotor Learning Group (Wolpert-lab)

Link:
http://cbl.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/Wolpert/WebHome

Positive Psychology given credence by Academia:

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Commentators on the subject Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, note that:

"The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).

At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.

At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation,tolerance, and work ethic."