title: The Muscle Sensor for on-site neuroscience lectures to pave the way for a better understanding of brain-machine-interface research.
abstract: Neuroscience is an expanding field of science to investigate enigmas of brain and human body function. However, the majority of the public have never had the chance to learn the basics of neuroscience and new knowledge from advanced neuroscience research through hands-on experience. Here, we report that we produced the Muscle Sensor, a simplified electromyography, to promote educational understanding in neuroscience. The Muscle Sensor can detect myoelectric potentials which are filtered and processed as 3-V pulse signals to shine a light bulb and emit beep sounds. With this educational tool, we delivered "On-Site Neuroscience Lectures" in Japanese junior-high schools to facilitate hands-on experience of neuroscientific electrophysiology and to connect their text-book knowledge to advanced neuroscience researches. On-site neuroscience lectures with the Muscle Sensor pave the way for a better understanding of the basics of neuroscience and the latest topics such as how brain-machine-interface technology could help patients with disabilities such as spinal cord injuries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 38 Nishigonaka, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan; Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Okazaki, Japan; Center for Science Communication, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: amane@nips.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Amane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koizumi
authors.affiliation: Technical Department, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 38 Nishigonaka, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nagata
authors.affiliation: Technical Department, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 38 Nishigonaka, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.
authors.forename: Morio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Togawa
authors.affiliation: Technical Department, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 38 Nishigonaka, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sazi
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D062207:Brain-Computer Interfaces; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000193:education*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Brain–machine interface; Education; Junior high school; On-site neuroscience lecture