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To investigate the dynamic effects of external forces on the displacement of the otolith membrane and subsequent neuronal responses of otoliths, we performed numerical analyses of otolith membrane displacements. In these studies we included the full geometry of the human otolith maculae, including their 3D curvature. The first part focuses on mechanical aspects of the otolith membrane. While it was found that the mechanical coupling of distant parts of the otolith membrane is only weak, these simulations indicate that curvature may have considerable local effects on displacements. They further suggest that the movements of the otoconia, embedded in the interotoconial matrix, show a resonance in a range between 100 and 2000 Hz. In the second part of the article we also investigate the tonic-phasic responses in the vestibular nerve emanating from hair cells in the striola region. Small head tilts away from head upright position are used. The simulations indicate that the direction of head tilt is coded in characteristic response patterns along the striola

Causal relationship between physical activity and prevention of several diseases has been known for some time. Recently, attempts to quantify dose-response relationship between physical activity and health show that automatic tracking and quantification of the exercise efforts not only help in motivating people but improve health conditions as well. However, no commercial devices are available for weight training and calisthenics. This work tries to overcome this limit, exploiting machine learning technique (particularly Linear Discriminant Analysis, LDA) for analyzing data coming from wearable inertial measurement units, (IMUs) and classifying/counting such exercises. Computational requirements are compatible with embedded implementation and reported results confirm the feasibility of the proposed approach, offering an average accuracy in the detection of exercises on the order of 85%.

To investigate the dynamic effects of external forces on the displacement of the otolith membrane and subsequent neuronal responses of otoliths, we performed numerical analyses of otolith membrane displacements. In these studies we included the full geometry of the human otolith maculae, including their 3D curvature. The first part focuses on mechanical aspects of the otolith membrane. While it was found that the mechanical coupling of distant parts of the otolith membrane is only weak, these simulations indicate that curvature may have considerable local effects on displacements. They further suggest that the movements of the otoconia, embedded in the interotoconial matrix, show a resonance in a range between 100 and 2000 Hz. In the second part of the article we also investigate the tonic-phasic responses in the vestibular nerve emanating from hair cells in the striola region. Small head tilts away from head upright position are used. The simulations indicate that the direction of head tilt is coded in characteristic response patterns along the striola

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