Nidhi Seethapathi
@nidhise.bsky.social
📤 477
📥 225
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assistant professor at MIT building computational models to understand human movement
pinned post!
Excited that this work discovering cross-species signatures of stabilizing foot placement control is now out in PNAS!
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
@antoinecomite.bsky.social
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Yttri Lab
about 2 months ago
I hope this new-ish paper will challenge people to think about the interpretations of our models STRIATUM SUPPORTS REINFORCEMENT AND NOT ACTION SELECTION (!!!)
tinyurl.com/HodgeAndYttri
@cmuscience.bsky.social
@cmu-neuroscience.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
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Striatal modulation supports context-specific reinforcement and not action selection
Hodge et al. used closed-loop optogenetic stimulation and naturalistic behaviors to determine that striatal activity does not select the action to perform but rather biases performance through reinfor...
https://tinyurl.com/HodgeAndYttri
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Yang Tan Collective
30 days ago
Yang ICoN researchers are revealing the shared rules of balance across species. 🧠🚶♀️🐭🪰 Humans, mice, and flies all use the same error-correction strategy to stay upright, thanks to new work led by ICoN Center’s
@nidhise.bsky.social
& ICoN Fellow
@antoinecomite.bsky.social
.
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Staying stable
Scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute have determined that animals with very different bodies likely use a shared strategy to balance themselves when they walk.
https://news.mit.edu/2025/staying-stable-animal-balance-1203
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Sjoerd Bruijn
about 1 month ago
New preprint; Shared feedback control principles across standing and walking. With Yang Geng and
@jvandieen.bsky.social
. Feedback welcome!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Shared feedback control principles across standing and walking
Feedback control is required to maintain stability in both walking and standing, whereas the control parameters may differ due to the inherently different characteristics of these tasks. How feedback ...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690121v1
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Konrad Kording
about 1 month ago
Let's compare our world models. I find that different people seem to have rather distinct internal world models. E.g. I personally have neither visual imagination nor an inner voice, found it weird others do. Here is a quick google forms to check idea:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
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World-models in your head
Talking with a lot of people, they have rather shocking different kinds of world-models. I believe that people have somewhat specialized simulators. Let me list some and then give you the chance to ad...
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSca2Wo7PbIvowxUIAFxdnu8KYOOqEj4ZogBbOtds8V7Hum1-Q/viewform?usp=header
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The best place in the world to be at the cutting edge of muscle models!
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Konrad Kording
about 1 month ago
I think almost all scientific projects should be planned carefully. And I think an app can dramatically improve that. So I wrote an app for that (free for now, if you can fund this let me know). I tested it quite a bit (>8000 users in beta so far). try it:
planyourscience.com
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Anne Koelewijn
about 1 month ago
My research group has an open position for a postdoc! Interested in investigating the postural transition towards mammalian gait using movement simulations? We might have the right position for you! More details and application info here:
www.asm.tf.fau.de/en/2025/11/1...
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Postdoctoral researcher for DFG-funded project “FossilGaitSim”
The Biomechanical Motion Analysis and Creation (BioMAC) group at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) invites applications for a postdoctoral position with the goal to…
https://www.asm.tf.fau.de/en/2025/11/19/postdoctoral-researcher-for-dfg-funded-project-fossilgaitsim/
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Dan Goodman
about 2 months ago
On a similar note, I feel like we ought to stop writing papers as flowing text and instead just have the bullet points you would have used as a prompt. I'm actually not joking.
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Sam McDougle
about 2 months ago
MLMC2025 is tomorrow! For those joining remotely, here is the link for the meeting:
harvard.zoom.us/j/9544921964...
Reminder, the conference will start promptly at 9am PST. Please visit the website for additional information, schedule, registration, etc!
motor-conference.org/openconf.php
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Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.
https://harvard.zoom.us/j/95449219646?pwd=fXkfxcETHa0kj6DlNw3WJWcThljKSC.1
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Gabriel Stine
about 2 months ago
Come to my poster at SfN on Wednesday morning! I'll present my work on how the cerebellum uses internal models to control neocortical dynamics in a non-motor learning task. I'm biased, but I think it's pretty exciting!
www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/21171...
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Program Planner
https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/21171/presentation/37799
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Nidhi Seethapathi
The Associated Press
2 months ago
India won the Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time with a 52-run victory over South Africa on Sunday.
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India wins Women’s Cricket World Cup for first time with 52-run victory over South Africa
India has won the Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time with a 52-run victory over South Africa on Sunday.
https://bit.ly/3LDOKtw
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Britton Sauerbrei
6 months ago
1/N How do neural dynamics in motor cortex interact with those in subcortical networks to flexibly control movement? I’m beyond thrilled to share our work on this problem, led by Eric Kirk
@eric-kirk.bsky.social
with help from Kangjia Cai!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Nidhi Seethapathi
5 months ago
We are excited to share our new paper that dives into how ongoing decision deliberation reflects ongoing movements: (
jneurosci.org/content/45/3...
A tour-de-force by the incredible Jan Calalo.
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Jonathan Tsay
4 months ago
The cerebellum isn’t just about coordinating movement. It’s implicated in nearly every domain of cognition—from language to social behavior. But how exactly does the cerebellum contribute to action and cognition? 🧵 Check out our new paper w/ Rich Ivry.
arxiv.org/abs/2509.09818
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Cerebellar Contributions to Action and Cognition: Prediction, Timescale, and Continuity
The cerebellum is implicated in nearly every domain of human cognition, yet our understanding of how this subcortical structure contributes to cognition remains elusive. Efforts on this front have ten...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09818
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Andrew Pruszynski
2 months ago
Stoked to see our study out in final form! Big kudos to
@jonathanamichaels.bsky.social
for driving this along for the past 5 years.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Adrian Haith
2 months ago
New Pre-Print:
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
We’re all familiar with having to practice a new skill to get better at it, but what really happens during practice? The answer, I propose, is reinforcement learning - specifically policy-gradient reinforcement learning. Overview 🧵 below...
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Policy-Gradient Reinforcement Learning as a General Theory of Practice-Based Motor Skill Learning
Mastering any new skill requires extensive practice, but the computational principles underlying this learning are not clearly understood. Existing theories of motor learning can explain short-term ad...
https://www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2025.10.17.682587v1
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Our 2024 paper showed that policy gradient RL (with performance-based memory updates) predicts long-horizon motor learning. Now,
@adrianhaith.bsky.social
shows that policy-gradient RL also explains learning in other shorter horizon tasks. Exciting!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Policy-Gradient Reinforcement Learning as a General Theory of Practice-Based Motor Skill Learning
Mastering any new skill requires extensive practice, but the computational principles underlying this learning are not clearly understood. Existing theories of motor learning can explain short-term ad...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.17.682587v1.abstract
2 months ago
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Monica Daley
2 months ago
Important work by
@nidhise.bsky.social
discovering signatures of control for stable locomotion across species. Excited to see the models applied to diverse species as part of IMSI
@movementscience.bsky.social
add a skeleton here at some point
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Abhilasha Joshi, PhD
2 months ago
Check out this
#incredible
work on
#stability
and
#control
during movement across
#humans
,
#mice
, and
#flies
. Congratulations
@nidhise.bsky.social
and
@antoinecomite.bsky.social
👏🏽⭐
add a skeleton here at some point
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Excited that this work discovering cross-species signatures of stabilizing foot placement control is now out in PNAS!
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
@antoinecomite.bsky.social
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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Alexander Mathis
3 months ago
Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex actions are naturally exhibited in kitchens from chopping to 🧽!
arxiv.org/abs/2506.01608
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EPFL-Smart-Kitchen-30: Densely annotated cooking dataset with 3D kinematics to challenge video and language models
Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01608
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Crista Falk
7 months ago
Last week, I had the incredible privilege of talking with the
@mit.edu
first-generation, low income graduating class of 2025 as the event's keynote speaker. (1/n)
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Christian Hubicki
4 months ago
The NSF Integrative Movement Sciences Institute (IMSI) is a major biology research center spanning over 20 US institutions. The Mission: To understand why we move like we do--from molecules to muscles to our environment. At our Summer Institute, we train new students in our labs--like Hannah Chow:
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In Nov last year, we published a predictive theory of locomotor adaptation to novel environments, capturing learning and generalization phenomena in over ten experiments:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I'm honored to be featured on the 2025 Innovators Under 35 list for this work.
ter.li/7c0jek
4 months ago
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Noga Zaslavsky
5 months ago
We test this by considering a cross-linguistic dataset of locomotion naming 🏃♀️💃🚶 We find that even in this challenging dynamical multi-modal domain, systems of semantic categories across languages are significantly efficient 7/n
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Mike Frank
5 months ago
Cogsci and AI: two different approaches as articulated by Josh Tenenbaum
#cogsci2025
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Tim Behrens
7 months ago
This is what the science machine does. No massive breakthrough. No single cure. Just lots and lots of cumulative knowledge that makes things better…
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
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UK cancer survival rate doubles since 1970s amid ‘golden age’, report says
Half of those diagnosed will now survive for 10 years or more after advances in diagnosis and treatment
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/03/uk-cancer-survival-rate-doubles-1970s-golden-age-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Ida Momennejad
8 months ago
Ugh… there’s also what I call messianic AI, the fantasy that AI will “solve” science. Treating science like a vending machine for solitons/profit & scientists as human cogs replaceable by machinery. But Science is a living culture of critical discussion, mentorship, shared community values &methods.
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Nancy Kanwisher
8 months ago
100%! Universities and scientists should not cave, THE PUBLIC IS WITH US! We much FIGHT BACK against efforts to demolish US universities and US science, two things that actually make America great.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Dynamic Walking 25
9 months ago
📢📢 Abstract submission extended 📢📢 The new deadline for your abstract submission is the 30th of April ‼️ All you need to do is submit your 1-minute video on what you'd talk about using this link:
forms.gle/rk9GGtwDCPtN...
Dynamic Walking 2025 is in Aachen, Germany on the 14th - 17th of July. 🦿🦵
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DW25 Abstract Submission
The conference will take place in Aachen, Germany (on the border with the Netherlands) from July 14 to 17, 2025. We’ll be based in one location, with easy access to three different countries! Contact:...
https://forms.gle/rk9GGtwDCPtNc9yPA
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Dynamic Walking 25
9 months ago
It's what you've all been waiting and hoping for; the deets on Dynamic Walking 2025! 🚶🎉 The when: July 14th - 17th The Where: Aachen (Germany, but bordering the Netherlands) The submission process:
dynamicwalking2025.org
The deadline: April 25th 🚶♀️Hope to see you soon <3 🚶
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DW25 Abstract Submission
The conference will take place in Aachen, Germany (on the border with the Netherlands) from July 14 to 17, 2025. We’ll be based in one location, with easy access to three different countries! Contact:...
http://dynamicwalking2025.org/
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Dynamic Walking 25
9 months ago
Only two weeks left to submit your video abstract for Dynamic Walking!🚶♀️🚶♂️ Are you planning something creative for your video? How likely do you think it is that someone will use the medium of interpretive dance? 💃🕺 Submission portal and details:
dynamicwalking2025.org
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https://dynamicwalking2025.org
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Andrew Pruszynski
9 months ago
Check out the latest Superlab guest speaker. We were lucky to host
@aniladmello.bsky.social
who gave a fascinating presentation about the cerebellum and its relationship to autism.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzOe...
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Anila D'Mello (UT - Southwestern)
YouTube video by Andrew Pruszynski
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzOe2-20d58
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Monica Daley
10 months ago
We are recruiting trainees for the Integrative Movement Sciences Summer Institute. Students will gain research experience in dynamic muscular control of movement across organizational scales from molecular mechanisms to whole-body movement in complex environments. Learn more:
tinyurl.com/5n7w6pey
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IMSI Summer Institute 2025: Now Recruiting Trainees! – Center for Integrative Movement Science
https://cims.uci.edu/imsi-summer-institute-2025-now-recruiting-trainees/
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my inbox tryin' to balance the calm and the crazy
10 months ago
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Neuroethology ftw!
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Nancy Kanwisher
about 1 year ago
Very proud of MIT for waiving tuition for any student from a family making less than $200K.
abcnews.go.com/US/massachus...
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology to waive tuition for families making less than $200K
MIT tuition was $57,986 for the 2022-2023 school year, which is higher than the average for four-year private institutions in the U.S.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/massachusetts-institute-technology-waive-tuition-families-making-200k/story?id=116054921
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Konrad Kording
12 months ago
Announcing a new week-long program for young computational neuroscience/ behavior professors to talk about rigorous science, mentoring, lab management, and networking in a stunning retreat setting. Do great science as a community and have fun doing so.
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I've noticed that journals hold theory papers to experiment-centric standards, stifling idea generation. JEB has launched an article type for theory+modeling that will address this. A bold move and sign of thoughtful leadership -- will other journals follow?
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
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JEB launches a new article type for theory and modelling studies
JEB recently launched a new article type called Theory & Modelling. With this new article type, we address the need across the fields of comparative physiology and biomechanics to publish research tha...
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/227/24/jeb249988/363431
11 months ago
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Jenny Leestma, PhD
about 1 year ago
Hello to all the new Bluesky-ers! I’m a postdoc at Harvard working to improve neural interfaces using implantable devices and neurosurgical reconstruction. I wrapped up my PhD in Robotics earlier this year, where I worked on augmenting human locomotor balance using intelligent wearable robots.
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Lena Ting
about 1 year ago
I’m giving a career talk for SfN Online this afternoon at 1pm EST. Free for members or $15.
neuronline.sfn.org/scientific-r...
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Finding Balance Outside the Box: Neuromechanics of Skilled and Impaired Movements
<p>Just as the unique experiences of each individual shape the way they move, this session will recount how interdisciplinary training in biomechanics, neurophysiology, and engineering, coupled with d...
https://neuronline.sfn.org/scientific-research/finding-balance-outside-the-box
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Ida Momennejad
about 1 year ago
Persian/islamic scientists & philosophers that I grew up reading about made their breakthroughs while searching in the space between math, alchemy, poetry, philosophy, medicine. Newton mostly worked on esoteric knowledge & collected crystals. To turn the ship around, we need paradigm shifts.
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Nidhi Seethapathi
James Finley
about 1 year ago
Some thoughts on the value of exploratory studies in movement science. A thread. tl;dr Most studies in our field are exploratory, not confirmatory, and that’s okay. However, we could all benefit from rethinking how we do, report, and interpret this exploratory work.
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How do animals walk stably in the presence of intrinsic noise or external perturbations?
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We lack a unified answer to this question across species. In this preprint, we find that legged species use a shared strategy for stable locomotion: foot placement control! (1/6)
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| bioRxiv
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.10.612345v1…
over 1 year ago
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Steve Collins
about 2 years ago
The
addbiomechanics.org
tool is now citable! Article:
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Automatic model scaling for more accurate inverse kinematics and dynamics, in minutes. Fun collab led by Karen Liu, kicked off by a survey here :-) Much improved in past few months. Give it a try!
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Lena Ting
about 2 years ago
I'm happy that my debut post is to announce that our long-awaited Gait Signatures paper is finally out. Kudos to the perseverance and talent of Taniel Winner for driving this collaboration with
@gordonberman.bsky.social
and Trisha Kesar. Individual differences in movement are real!
add a skeleton here at some point
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Nidhi Seethapathi
Nataliya Rokhmanova
over 2 years ago
@jenniferleestma.bsky.social
@schulzscience.bsky.social
@jamesbtracy.bsky.social
@peabody124.bsky.social
@jamesmfinley.bsky.social
@birdbiomech.bsky.social
@pcfino.bsky.social
@doctorbobg.bsky.social
@nidhise.bsky.social
@markrubin.bsky.social
+ any others I missed?
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Nidhi Seethapathi
JJ
over 2 years ago
Using principles of motor control to analyze performance of human machine interfaces
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40446-5
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40446-5
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