In the 1950’s, Alan Turing famously asked, “Can machines think?” Decades later, artificial intelligence a term coined after Turing’s death has become a facet of our everyday lives. .
Credit: University of Basel, Biozentrum
Writing, driving a screw or throwing darts are only some of the activities that demand a high level of skill. How the brain masters such exquisite movements has now been described in the journal
Nature by a team of researchers at the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research. A map of brainstem circuits reveals which neurons control the fine motor skills of the arm and hand.
Picking up a pen and writing our name or reaching for a fork to eat spaghetti with tomato sauce are things we take for granted. However, holding a pen properly or bringing spaghetti to the mouth without making a mess requires precise arm movements and a high level of skill.