Lee E. Miller, Ph.D.

Imagine you are playing the guitar. You’re seated, supporting the instrument’s weight across your lap. One hand strums; the other presses strings against the guitar’s neck to play chords. Your vision tracks sheet music on a page, and your hearing lets you listen to the sound. In addition, two other senses make playing this instrument possible. One of them, touch, tells you about your interactions with the guitar. Another, proprioception, tells you about your arms’ and hands’ positions and movements as you play. Together, these two capacities combine into what scientists call somatosensation, or body perception.

Our skin and muscles have millions of sensors that contribute to somatosensation. Yet our brain does not become overwhelmed by the barrage of these inputs—or from any of our other senses, for that matter. You’re not distracted by the pinch of your shoes or the tug of the guitar strap as you play; you focus only on the sensory inputs that matter. The brain expertly enhances some signals and filters out others so that we can ignore distractions and focus on the most important details… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the pending induction of Lee E. Miller, Ph.D., Edgar C. Stuntz Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, Departments of Physiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Miller was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows For outstanding contributions to the neuroscience and engineering involved in the development of brain-machine interfaces for the control of movement.