The embodied brain: Bridging the brain, body, and behavior with neuromechanical digital twins

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Wang-Chen, Sibo, Ramdya, Pavan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Wang-Chen, Sibo
Ramdya, Pavan
author_facet Wang-Chen, Sibo
Ramdya, Pavan
contents Animal behavior reflects interactions between the nervous system, body, and environment. Therefore, biomechanics and environmental context must be considered to understand algorithms for behavioral control. Neuromechanical digital twins, namely computational models that embed artificial neural controllers within realistic body models in simulated environments, are a powerful tool for this purpose. Here, we review advances in neuromechanical digital twins while also highlighting emerging opportunities ahead. We first show how these models enable inference of biophysical variables that are difficult to measure experimentally. Through systematic perturbation, one can generate new experimentally testable hypotheses through these models. We then examine how neuromechanical twins facilitate the exchange between neuroscience, robotics, and machine learning, and showcase their applications in healthcare. We envision that coupling experimental studies with active probing of their neuromechanical twins will significantly accelerate progress in neuroscience.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_08056
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The embodied brain: Bridging the brain, body, and behavior with neuromechanical digital twins
Wang-Chen, Sibo
Ramdya, Pavan
Neurons and Cognition
Robotics
Animal behavior reflects interactions between the nervous system, body, and environment. Therefore, biomechanics and environmental context must be considered to understand algorithms for behavioral control. Neuromechanical digital twins, namely computational models that embed artificial neural controllers within realistic body models in simulated environments, are a powerful tool for this purpose. Here, we review advances in neuromechanical digital twins while also highlighting emerging opportunities ahead. We first show how these models enable inference of biophysical variables that are difficult to measure experimentally. Through systematic perturbation, one can generate new experimentally testable hypotheses through these models. We then examine how neuromechanical twins facilitate the exchange between neuroscience, robotics, and machine learning, and showcase their applications in healthcare. We envision that coupling experimental studies with active probing of their neuromechanical twins will significantly accelerate progress in neuroscience.
title The embodied brain: Bridging the brain, body, and behavior with neuromechanical digital twins
topic Neurons and Cognition
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08056