Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Selected Publications

Review Papers:

J. Mongeau, Y. Yang, I. Escalante, N. J. Cowan, and K. Jayaram, “Moving in an Uncertain World: Robust and Adaptive Control of Locomotion from Organisms to Machine Intelligence,” Integr Comp Biol, p. icae121, 2024.

M. S. Madhav and N. J. Cowan, “The synergy between neuroscience and control theory: the nervous system as inspiration for hard control challenges,” Annu Rev Control Robot Auton Syst, vol. 3, pp. 243-267, 2020.

E. Roth, S. Sponberg, and N. J. Cowan, “A Comparative Approach to Closed-Loop Computation,” Curr Opin Neurobiol, vol. 25, pp. 54-62, 2014.

N. J. Cowan, M. M. Ankarali, J. P. Dyhr, M. S. Madhav, E. Roth, S. Sefati, S. Sponberg, S. A. Stamper, E. S. Fortune, and T. L. Daniel, “Feedback Control as a Framework for Understanding Tradeoffs in Biology,” Integr Comp Biol, vol. 54, iss. 2, pp. 223-237, 2014.

R. P. Jayakumar, Y. Sueoka, M. K. Ferreyros, B. Y. Li, M. S. Madhav, X. Chen, J. J. Knierim, and N. J. Cowan, “Simultaneous path-integration recalibration in head direction and place cells,” Curr Biol, vol. 36, iss. 7, p. 1644-1658.e5, 2026.

M. Mordad, K. Behzad, D. Biswas, N. J. Cowan, and M. Siami, “Bio-inspired event-based visual servoing for ground robots,” IEEE Control Syst Lett, 2026.

K. M. Mills, N. J. Cowan, and M. P. Suver, “Multisensory integration for active mechanosensation in Drosophila flight,” Curr Biol, vol. 36, iss. 1, pp. 93-109.e4, 2026.

Y. Yang, A. Oliveira, L. L. Whitcomb, F. Pait, M. Sznaier, and N. J. Cowan, “Modeling Adaptive Tracking of Predictable Stimuli in Electric Fish,” IEEE Control Syst Lett, pp. 1-1, 2025.

B. M. Woronowicz, N. C. Graber, S. G. Lashkari, and N. J. Cowan, “Resourcefulness, Robustness, and Recovery: Tail Use during Climbing in Rats,” Integr Comp Biol, vol. 65, iss. 6, pp. 1635-1648, 2025.

W. P. Olson, V. B. Chokshi, J. J. Kim, N. J. Cowan, and D. H. O’Connor, “Muscle spindles provide flexible sensory feedback for movement sequences,” Cell Rep, vol. 44, iss. 11, p. 116452, 2025.

D. Biswas, E. D. Sontag, and N. J. Cowan, “An exact active sensing strategy for a class of bio-inspired systems,” Euro J Control, vol. 86, p. 101361, 2025.

Y. Sueoka, R. P. Jayakumar, M. S. Madhav, F. Savelli, N. J. Cowan, and J. J. Knierim, “Allothetic and idiothetic spatial cues control the multiplexed theta phase coding of place cells,” Nat Neurosci, vol. 28, iss. 10, p. 2106–2117, 2025.

G. Secer, J. J. Knierim, and N. J. Cowan, “Explicit error coding can mediate gain recalibration in continuous bump attractor networks,” Nat Commun, vol. 16, iss. 9215, 2025.

K. Oh, D. Cao, N. Cowan, and A. J. Bastian, “Cerebellar Reaching Ataxia is Exacerbated by Timing Demands and Assistive Interaction Torques,” Sci Rep, vol. 15, iss. 1, p. 22129, 2025.

M. G. T. Wilkinson, X. Wang, N. J. Cowan, and C. F. Moss, “Echolocating bats adjust sonar call features and head/ear position as they track moving targets in the presence of clutter,” J Acoust Soc Am, vol. 157, iss. 3, pp. 2236-2247, 2025.

J. Carducci, N. J. Cowan, and J. D. Brown, “Teleoperator Coupling Dynamics Impact Human Motor Control Across Pursuit Tracking Speeds,” IEEE Trans Haptics, vol. 18, iss. 1, pp. 20-31, 2025.

R. Shi, K. Chen, J. Fern, S. Deng, Y. Liu, D. Scalise, Q. Huang, N. J. Cowan, D. H. Gracias, and R. Schulman, “Programming gel automata shapes using DNA instructions,” Nat Commun, vol. 15, iss. 1, p. 7773, 2024.

Y. Yang, D. G. Yared, E. S. Fortune, and N. J. Cowan, “Sensorimotor adaptation to destabilizing dynamics in weakly electric fish,” Curr Biol, vol. 34, iss. 10, pp. 2118-2131, 2024.

M. S. Madhav, R. P. Jayakumar, B. Y. Li, S. G. Lashkari, K. Wright, F. Savelli, J. J. Knierim, and N. J. Cowan, “Control and recalibration of path integration in place cells using optic flow,” Nat Neurosci, vol. 27, iss. 8, p. 1599–1608, 2024.

D. Biswas, A. Lamperski, Y. Yang, K. Hoffman, J. Guckenheimer, E. S. Fortune, and N. J. Cowan, “Mode switching in organisms for solving explore-versus-exploit problems,” Nat Mach Intell, vol. 5, iss. 11, p. 1285–1296, 2023.

For a complete list, see here:

https://limbs.lcsr.jhu.edu/publications/