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Funato Lab
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The lab investigates the brain's mechanisms of prediction, learning, and adaptation through movement measurement and control theory.
AboutAbout the lab
Uncovering how humans and animals are able to move around freely
The Funato Lab combines measurement of movement and neural activity in humans and animals, mechanical analysis, control theory, and simulation to study the brain's mechanisms of prediction, learning, and adaptation.
The lab moves back and forth between three approaches: measuring human movement, verifying with mathematical models, and investigating the brain using model animals.
In addition to movement analysis of healthy people and patients with cerebellar disease, the lab conducts experiments using rats and monkeys.
The lab hopes that clarifying how the brain generates movement will lead to robots that move around freely and to effective rehabilitation methods for patients with movement disorders.
Key terms
- Cerebellum
- The part of the brain responsible for motor learning. The lab studies its function through the movements of animals and patients with damage to it.
- Control law
- A rule that the brain is thought to use, for example to stabilize movement. The lab hypothesizes it from movement analysis and confirms it with simulation.
- Tendon transfer
- A surgery that changes the site where a muscle attaches. It is also performed to restore motor function lost through accidents and other causes.
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The lab investigates how humans and animals generate movement while predicting future states, from both the measurement of movement and neural activity and the standpoint of control theory. By going back and forth between searching for control laws in experiments and verifying them with mechanical simulation, it aims to clarify the principles of gait stabilization and the mechanisms of movement disorders caused by neurological diseases.
*Illustrative imagePrinciples of Prediction-Based Postural Control
The lab studies predictive postural control, in which the body is tilted or muscles are tensed before the floor tilts when a tilt is expected. Through movement measurement and analysis of humans and patients, together with mechanical simulation, it approaches the principles at work in the brain.
*Illustrative imageLearning of Postural Control in Rats
The lab studies how rats learn the relationship between a cue and a perturbation that follows it, and use that to stabilize their posture. It approaches this from two sides: measurements of rats with cerebellar or cerebral damage, and learning control models built with machine learning.
*Illustrative imageRecovery of Movement After Changes to the Body
Using a monkey model of tendon transfer, in which the sites where muscles attach are changed by surgery, the lab measures brain activity, muscle activity, and movement during the recovery period and investigates the laws of adaptation to the altered body.
*Illustrative imagePredictive Control of Walking in a Mixed Reality (MR) Environment
The lab conducts experiments in which participants avoid virtually appearing obstacles in an MR environment. It measures and analyzes the small changes in movement that occur before avoidance, using motion capture, electromyography sensors, and a treadmill with built-in force plates.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Funato Lab are faculty members, project researchers, visiting researchers, administrative assistants, and students in the master's program and the undergraduate program.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorTetsuro Funato
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “CerebellumSlice” Caldwbr / CC0 (cropped)
- Principles of Prediction-Based Postural Control: “City of Cairns tilt train Roma St Platform 10 DSCF4063” John Robert McPherson / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Learning of Postural Control in Rats: “Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) also called Norway Rat or Common Rat -with food container - Mathias Baldwin Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA” Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Recovery of Movement After Changes to the Body: “Body Motion Capture” Raíssa Ruschel / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Predictive Control of Walking in a Mixed Reality (MR) Environment: “Obstacle avoidance robot car” Anani A. George / CC0 (cropped)
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