Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique

Abstract— We present a new device aimed at being used for upper limb rehabilitation. Our main focus was to design a robot capable of working in both the passive mode (ie the robot shall be strong enough to generate human-like movements while guiding the weak arm of a ...

While physical interaction with robots is becoming common in many domains, numerous devices are not appropriated by their
users and remain unused in the cupboard. This phenomenon is particularly observed with robotic devices which interact closely
with the body, especially if they are designed to compensate for a loss of sensory or motor capacity. This article uses the quite
extreme example of prosthetics to highlight the socio-anthropological and cultural phenomena affecting the appropriation and use
of technical objects which interact with the body as much as (or even more than) their technical performance. Considering these
complementary points of views and theories in the design of such devices could be a way of improving their appropriation.

Striatal output neurons (SONs) integrate glutamatergic synaptic inputs originating from the cerebral cortex. In vivo electrophysiological data have shown that a prior depolarization of SONs induced a short-term (</=1 sec) increase in their membrane excitability, which facilitated the ability of corticostriatal synaptic potentials to induce firing. Here we propose, using a computational model of SONs, that the use-dependent, short-term increase in the responsiveness of SONs mainly results from the slow kinetics of a voltage-dependent, slowly inactivating potassium A-current. This mechanism confers on SONs a form of intrinsic short-term memory that optimizes the synaptic input-output relationship as a function of their past activation.