Towards Optimal control of anxiety: computational modeling and neural substrates of anxiety-related motor effects

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25282248
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Basic / Social brain science
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Gowrishankar Ganesh 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 知能システム研究部門, 国際客員研究員 (10570244)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): Haruno Masahiko 国立研究開発法人情報通信研究機構, 脳情報通信融合研究センター, PI (40395124)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Ikegami Tsuyoshi 国立研究開発法人情報通信研究機構, 脳情報通信融合研究センター, 研究者 (20588660)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: anxiety / motor neuroscience

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research study we studied why Anxiety (緊張) affects our motor abilities. We show that increased anxiety excites cognitive motor control processes, which then interfere with low level motor control leading to a deterioration of motor performance. The sumamry of the results are 1)We designed an experiment to understand anxiety related motor deterioration in humans. 2) We understood how observation of other’s actions during sports leads to cognitive anxiety and affect one’s own motor performance. 3)We analyzed the computational processes for the above effects and, 4) investigate the neural correlates of anxiety related motor deterioration.

Free Research Field

Motor neuroscience and robotics