Output variability across animals and levels in a motor system

PubMed Central

Norris, Brian J; Günay, Cengiz; Kueh, Daniel

2018-01-01

Rhythmic behaviors vary across individuals. We investigated the sources of this output variability across a motor system, from the central pattern generator (CPG) to the motor plant. In the bilaterally symmetric leech heartbeat system, the CPG orchestrates two coordinations in the bilateral hearts with different intersegmental phase relations (Δϕ) and periodic side-to-side switches. Population variability is large. We show that the system is precise within a coordination, that differences in repetitions of a coordination contribute little to population output variability, but that differences between bilaterally homologous cells may contribute to some of this variability. Nevertheless, much output variability is likely associated with genetic and life history differences among individuals. Variability of Δϕ were coordination-specific: similar at all levels in one, but significantly lower for the motor pattern than the CPG pattern in the other. Mechanisms that transform CPG output to motor neurons may limit output variability in the motor pattern. PMID:29345614

Spinal Locomotor Circuits Develop Using Hierarchical Rules Based on Motorneuron Position and Identity.

PubMed

Hinckley, Christopher A; Alaynick, William A; Gallarda, Benjamin W; Hayashi, Marito; Hilde, Kathryn L; Driscoll, Shawn P; Dekker, Joseph D; Tucker, Haley O; Sharpee, Tatyana O; Pfaff, Samuel L

2015-09-02

The coordination of multi-muscle movements originates in the circuitry that regulates the firing patterns of spinal motorneurons. Sensory neurons rely on the musculotopic organization of motorneurons to establish orderly connections, prompting us to examine whether the intraspinal circuitry that coordinates motor activity likewise uses cell position as an internal wiring reference. We generated a motorneuron-specific GCaMP6f mouse line and employed two-photon imaging to monitor the activity of lumbar motorneurons. We show that the central pattern generator neural network coordinately drives rhythmic columnar-specific motorneuron bursts at distinct phases of the locomotor cycle. Using multiple genetic strategies to perturb the subtype identity and orderly position of motorneurons, we found that neurons retained their rhythmic activity-but cell position was decoupled from the normal phasing pattern underlying flexion and extension. These findings suggest a hierarchical basis of motor circuit formation that relies on increasingly stringent matching of neuronal identity and position. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural basis of singing in crickets: central pattern generation in abdominal ganglia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schöneich, Stefan; Hedwig, Berthold

2011-12-01

The neural mechanisms underlying cricket singing behavior have been the focus of several studies, but the central pattern generator (CPG) for singing has not been localized conclusively. To test if the abdominal ganglia contribute to the singing motor pattern and to analyze if parts of the singing CPG are located in these ganglia, we systematically truncated the abdominal nerve cord of fictively singing crickets while recording the singing motor pattern from a front-wing nerve. Severing the connectives anywhere between terminal ganglion and abdominal ganglion A3 did not preclude singing, although the motor pattern became more variable and failure-prone as more ganglia were disconnected. Singing terminated immediately and permanently after transecting the connectives between the metathoracic ganglion complex and the first unfused abdominal ganglion A3. The contribution of abdominal ganglia for singing pattern generation was confirmed by intracellular interneuron recordings and current injections. During fictive singing, an ascending interneuron with its soma and dendrite in A3 depolarized rhythmically. It spiked 10 ms before the wing-opener activity and hyperpolarized in phase with the wing-closer activity. Depolarizing current injection elicited rhythmic membrane potential oscillations and spike bursts that elicited additional syllables and reliably reset the ongoing chirp rhythm. Our results disclose that the abdominal ganglion A3 is directly involved in generating the singing motor pattern, whereas the more posterior ganglia seem to provide only stabilizing feedback to the CPG circuit. Localizing the singing CPG in the anterior abdominal neuromeres now allows analyzing its circuitry at the level of identified interneurons in subsequent studies.

Cellular basis for singing motor pattern generation in the field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus DeGeer)

PubMed Central

Schöneich, Stefan; Hedwig, Berthold

2012-01-01

The singing behavior of male crickets allows analyzing a central pattern generator (CPG) that was shaped by sexual selection for reliable production of species-specific communication signals. After localizing the essential ganglia for singing in Gryllus bimaculatus, we now studied the calling song CPG at the cellular level. Fictive singing was initiated by pharmacological brain stimulation. The motor pattern underlying syllables and chirps was recorded as alternating spike bursts of wing-opener and wing-closer motoneurons in a truncated wing nerve; it precisely reflected the natural calling song. During fictive singing, we intracellularly recorded and stained interneurons in thoracic and abdominal ganglia and tested their impact on the song pattern by intracellular current injections. We identified three interneurons of the metathoracic and first unfused abdominal ganglion that rhythmically de- and hyperpolarized in phase with the syllable pattern and spiked strictly before the wing-opener motoneurons. Depolarizing current injection in two of these opener interneurons caused additional rhythmic singing activity, which reliably reset the ongoing chirp rhythm. The closely intermeshing arborizations of the singing interneurons revealed the dorsal midline neuropiles of the metathoracic and three most anterior abdominal neuromeres as the anatomical location of singing pattern generation. In the same neuropiles, we also recorded several closer interneurons that rhythmically hyper- and depolarized in the syllable rhythm and spiked strictly before the wing-closer motoneurons. Some of them received pronounced inhibition at the beginning of each chirp. Hyperpolarizing current injection in the dendrite revealed postinhibitory rebound depolarization as one functional mechanism of central pattern generation in singing crickets. PMID:23170234

Neuromuscular-skeletal origins of predominant patterns of coordination in rhythmic two-joint arm movement.

PubMed

de Rugy, Aymar; Riek, Stephan; Carson, Richard G

2006-01-01

The authors tested for predominant patterns of coordination in the combination of rhythmic flexion-extension (FE) and supination- (SP) at the elbow-joint complex. Participants (N=10) spontaneously established in-phase (supination synchronized with flexion) and antiphase (pronation synchronized with flexion) patterns. In addition, the authors used a motorized robot arm to generate involuntary SP movements with different phase relations with respect to voluntary FE. The involuntarily induced in-phase pattern was accentuated and was more consistent than other patterns. The result provides evidence that the predominance of the in-phase pattern originates in the influence of neuromuscular-skeletal constraints rather than in a preference dictated by perceptual-cognitive factors implicated in voluntary control. Neuromuscular-skeletal constraints involved in the predominance of the in-phase and the antiphase patterns are discussed.

Motor Performance and Rhythmic Perception of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disability and Developmental Coordination Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kartasidou, Lefkothea; Varsamis, Panagiotis; Sampsonidou, Anna

2012-01-01

Professionals who work with children presenting intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are concerned with their motor development and their rhythmic perception. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between a motor performance test and a music rhythmic test that measures…

Rhythmic motor activity and interlimb co-ordination in the developing pouch young of a wallaby (Macropus eugenii).

PubMed Central

Ho, S M

1997-01-01

1. The forelimb motor behaviour of developing wallaby was studied. A clock-like alternating movement was reactivated whenever the animal was removed from the pouch. 2. Forelimb stepping frequency increased during the first 3 weeks of development, while the phase relationship remained constant. Forelimb activity could be affected by altering the afferent feedback from the contralateral limb, or an increase in ambient temperature. 3. In vitro experiments were performed using an isolated brainstem-spinal cord preparation from animals up to 6 weeks postnatal. Fictive locomotor activity could be evoked by electrical stimulation or bath-applied NMDA (< 10 microM). 4. Bath-applied strychnine (10-25 microM) and bicuculline (10-50 microM) disrupted the phase relationship between motor pools, while rhythmic motor discharge remained in the absence of these inhibitory pathways. 5. The present findings indicate that the pattern generator that underlies the robust forelimb movement during the first journey to the pouch is retained for different motor functions during in-pouch development. The neural network that underlies such behaviour can be divided into two major components, a rhythm generator within each hemicord, and a pattern co-ordinating pathway which involve both glycinergic and GABAergic interneurones. PMID:9218221

Time-varying motor control of autotomized leopard gecko tails: multiple inputs and behavioral modulation.

PubMed

Higham, Timothy E; Russell, Anthony P

2012-02-01

Autotomy (voluntary loss of an appendage) is common among diverse groups of vertebrates and invertebrates, and much attention has been given to ecological and developmental aspects of tail autotomy in lizards. Although most studies have focused on the ramifications for the lizard (behavior, biomechanics, energetics, etc.), the tail itself can exhibit interesting behaviors once segregated from the body. For example, recent work highlighted the ability of leopard gecko tails to jump and flip, in addition to being able to swing back and forth. Little is known, however, about the control mechanisms underlying these movements. Using electromyography, we examined the time-varying in vivo motor patterns at four sites (two proximal and two distal) in the tail of the leopard gecko, Eublepharis macularius, following autotomy. Using these data we tested the hypothesis that the disparity in movements results simply from overlapping pattern generators within the tail. We found that burst duration, but not cycle duration, of the rhythmic swings reached a plateau at approximately 150 s following autotomy. This is likely because of physiological changes related to muscle fatigue and ischemia. For flips and jumps, burst and cycle duration exhibited no regular pattern. The coefficient of variation in motor patterns was significantly greater for jumps and flips than for rhythmic swings. This supports the conclusion that the different tail behaviors do not stem from overlapping pattern generators, but that they rely upon independent neural circuits. The signal controlling jumps and flips may be modified by sensory information from the environment. Finally, we found that jumps and flips are initiated using relatively synchronous activity between the two sides of the tail. In contrast, alternating activation of the right and left sides of the tail result in rhythmic swings. The mechanism underlying this change in tail behavior is comparable to locomotor gait changes in vertebrates.

Neuronal activity in the isolated mouse spinal cord during spontaneous deletions in fictive locomotion: insights into locomotor central pattern generator organization

PubMed Central

Zhong, Guisheng; Shevtsova, Natalia A; Rybak, Ilya A; Harris-Warrick, Ronald M

2012-01-01

We explored the organization of the spinal central pattern generator (CPG) for locomotion by analysing the activity of spinal interneurons and motoneurons during spontaneous deletions occurring during fictive locomotion in the isolated neonatal mouse spinal cord, following earlier work on locomotor deletions in the cat. In the isolated mouse spinal cord, most spontaneous deletions were non-resetting, with rhythmic activity resuming after an integer number of cycles. Flexor and extensor deletions showed marked asymmetry: flexor deletions were accompanied by sustained ipsilateral extensor activity, whereas rhythmic flexor bursting was not perturbed during extensor deletions. Rhythmic activity on one side of the cord was not perturbed during non-resetting spontaneous deletions on the other side, and these deletions could occur with no input from the other side of the cord. These results suggest that the locomotor CPG has a two-level organization with rhythm-generating (RG) and pattern-forming (PF) networks, in which only the flexor RG network is intrinsically rhythmic. To further explore the neuronal organization of the CPG, we monitored activity of motoneurons and selected identified interneurons during spontaneous non-resetting deletions. Motoneurons lost rhythmic synaptic drive during ipsilateral deletions. Flexor-related commissural interneurons continued to fire rhythmically during non-resetting ipsilateral flexor deletions. Deletion analysis revealed two classes of rhythmic V2a interneurons. Type I V2a interneurons retained rhythmic synaptic drive and firing during ipsilateral motor deletions, while type II V2a interneurons lost rhythmic synaptic input and fell silent during deletions. This suggests that the type I neurons are components of the RG, whereas the type II neurons are components of the PF network. We propose a computational model of the spinal locomotor CPG that reproduces our experimental results. The results may provide novel insights into the organization of spinal locomotor networks. PMID:22869012

The central pattern generator underlying swimming in Dendronotus iris: a simple half-center network oscillator with a twist.

PubMed

Sakurai, Akira; Katz, Paul S

2016-10-01

The nudibranch mollusc, Dendronotus iris, swims by rhythmically flexing its body from left to right. We identified a bilaterally represented interneuron, Si3, that provides strong excitatory drive to the previously identified Si2, forming a half-center oscillator, which functions as the central pattern generator (CPG) underlying swimming. As with Si2, Si3 inhibited its contralateral counterpart and exhibited rhythmic bursts in left-right alternation during the swim motor pattern. Si3 burst almost synchronously with the contralateral Si2 and was coactive with the efferent impulse activity in the contralateral body wall nerve. Perturbation of bursting in either Si3 or Si2 by current injection halted or phase-shifted the swim motor pattern, suggesting that they are both critical CPG members. Neither Si2 nor Si3 exhibited endogenous bursting properties when activated alone; activation of all four neurons was necessary to initiate and maintain the swim motor pattern. Si3 made a strong excitatory synapse onto the contralateral Si2 to which it is also electrically coupled. When Si3 was firing tonically but not exhibiting bursting, artificial enhancement of the Si3-to-Si2 synapse using dynamic clamp caused all four neurons to burst. In contrast, negation of the Si3-to-Si2 synapse by dynamic clamp blocked ongoing swim motor patterns. Together, these results suggest that the Dendronotus swim CPG is organized as a "twisted" half-center oscillator in which each "half" is composed of two excitatory-coupled neurons from both sides of the brain, each of which inhibits its contralateral counterpart. Consisting of only four neurons, this is perhaps the simplest known network oscillator for locomotion. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Perturbations of Respiratory Rhythm and Pattern by Disrupting Synaptic Inhibition within Pre-Bötzinger and Bötzinger Complexes123

PubMed Central

Koizumi, Hidehiko; Mosher, Bryan; Tariq, Mohammad F.; Zhang, Ruli; Molkov, Yaroslav I.

2016-01-01

The pre-Bötzinger (pre-BötC) and Bötzinger (BötC) complexes are the brainstem compartments containing interneurons considered to be critically involved in generating respiratory rhythm and motor pattern in mammals. Current models postulate that both generation of the rhythm and coordination of the inspiratory-expiratory pattern involve inhibitory synaptic interactions within and between these regions. Both regions contain glycinergic and GABAergic neurons, and rhythmically active neurons in these regions receive appropriately coordinated phasic inhibition necessary for generation of the normal three-phase respiratory pattern. However, recent experiments attempting to disrupt glycinergic and GABAergic postsynaptic inhibition in the pre-BötC and BötC in adult rats in vivo have questioned the critical role of synaptic inhibition in these regions, as well as the importance of the BötC, which contradicts previous physiological and pharmacological studies. To further evaluate the roles of synaptic inhibition and the BötC, we bilaterally microinjected the GABAA receptor antagonist gabazine and glycinergic receptor antagonist strychnine into the pre-BötC or BötC in anesthetized adult rats in vivo and in perfused in situ brainstem–spinal cord preparations from juvenile rats. Muscimol was microinjected to suppress neuronal activity in the pre-BötC or BötC. In both preparations, disrupting inhibition within pre-BötC or BötC caused major site-specific perturbations of the rhythm and disrupted the three-phase motor pattern, in some experiments terminating rhythmic motor output. Suppressing BötC activity also potently disturbed the rhythm and motor pattern. We conclude that inhibitory circuit interactions within and between the pre-BötC and BötC critically regulate rhythmogenesis and are required for normal respiratory motor pattern generation. PMID:27200412

Motor Neurons Tune Premotor Activity in a Vertebrate Central Pattern Generator

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Central patterns generators (CPGs) are neural circuits that drive rhythmic motor output without sensory feedback. Vertebrate CPGs are generally believed to operate in a top-down manner in which premotor interneurons activate motor neurons that in turn drive muscles. In contrast, the frog (Xenopus laevis) vocal CPG contains a functionally unexplored neuronal projection from the motor nucleus to the premotor nucleus, indicating a recurrent pathway that may contribute to rhythm generation. In this study, we characterized the function of this bottom-up connection. The X. laevis vocal CPG produces a 50–60 Hz “fast trill” song used by males during courtship. We recorded “fictive vocalizations” in the in vitro CPG from the laryngeal nerve while simultaneously recording premotor activity at the population and single-cell level. We show that transecting the motor-to-premotor projection eliminated the characteristic firing rate of premotor neurons. Silencing motor neurons with the intracellular sodium channel blocker QX-314 also disrupted premotor rhythms, as did blockade of nicotinic synapses in the motor nucleus (the putative location of motor neuron-to-interneuron connections). Electrically stimulating the laryngeal nerve elicited primarily IPSPs in premotor neurons that could be blocked by a nicotinic receptor antagonist. Our results indicate that an inhibitory signal, activated by motor neurons, is required for proper CPG function. To our knowledge, these findings represent the first example of a CPG in which precise premotor rhythms are tuned by motor neuron activity. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Central pattern generators (CPGs) are neural circuits that produce rhythmic behaviors. In vertebrates, motor neurons are not commonly known to contribute to CPG function, with the exception of a few spinal circuits where the functional significance of motor neuron feedback is still poorly understood. The frog hindbrain vocal circuit contains a previously unexplored connection from the motor to premotor region. Our results indicate that motor neurons activate this bottom-up connection, and blocking this signal eliminates normal premotor activity. These findings may promote increased awareness of potential involvement of motor neurons in a wider range of CPGs, perhaps clarifying our understanding of network principles underlying motor behaviors in numerous organisms, including humans. PMID:28219984

Differential processing of melodic, rhythmic and simple tone deviations in musicians--an MEG study.

PubMed

Lappe, Claudia; Lappe, Markus; Pantev, Christo

2016-01-01

Rhythm and melody are two basic characteristics of music. Performing musicians have to pay attention to both, and avoid errors in either aspect of their performance. To investigate the neural processes involved in detecting melodic and rhythmic errors from auditory input we tested musicians on both kinds of deviations in a mismatch negativity (MMN) design. We found that MMN responses to a rhythmic deviation occurred at shorter latencies than MMN responses to a melodic deviation. Beamformer source analysis showed that the melodic deviation activated superior temporal, inferior frontal and superior frontal areas whereas the activation pattern of the rhythmic deviation focused more strongly on inferior and superior parietal areas, in addition to superior temporal cortex. Activation in the supplementary motor area occurred for both types of deviations. We also recorded responses to similar pitch and tempo deviations in a simple, non-musical repetitive tone pattern. In this case, there was no latency difference between the MMNs and cortical activation was smaller and mostly limited to auditory cortex. The results suggest that prediction and error detection of musical stimuli in trained musicians involve a broad cortical network and that rhythmic and melodic errors are processed in partially different cortical streams. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bridging music and speech rhythm: rhythmic priming and audio-motor training affect speech perception.

PubMed

Cason, Nia; Astésano, Corine; Schön, Daniele

2015-02-01

Following findings that musical rhythmic priming enhances subsequent speech perception, we investigated whether rhythmic priming for spoken sentences can enhance phonological processing - the building blocks of speech - and whether audio-motor training enhances this effect. Participants heard a metrical prime followed by a sentence (with a matching/mismatching prosodic structure), for which they performed a phoneme detection task. Behavioural (RT) data was collected from two groups: one who received audio-motor training, and one who did not. We hypothesised that 1) phonological processing would be enhanced in matching conditions, and 2) audio-motor training with the musical rhythms would enhance this effect. Indeed, providing a matching rhythmic prime context resulted in faster phoneme detection, thus revealing a cross-domain effect of musical rhythm on phonological processing. In addition, our results indicate that rhythmic audio-motor training enhances this priming effect. These results have important implications for rhythm-based speech therapies, and suggest that metrical rhythm in music and speech may rely on shared temporal processing brain resources. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Music Games: Potential Application and Considerations for Rhythmic Training

PubMed Central

Bégel, Valentin; Di Loreto, Ines; Seilles, Antoine; Dalla Bella, Simone

2017-01-01

Rhythmic skills are natural and widespread in the general population. The majority can track the beat of music and move along with it. These abilities are meaningful from a cognitive standpoint given their tight links with prominent motor and cognitive functions such as language and memory. When rhythmic skills are challenged by brain damage or neurodevelopmental disorders, remediation strategies based on rhythm can be considered. For example, rhythmic training can be used to improve motor performance (e.g., gait) as well as cognitive and language skills. Here, we review the games readily available in the market and assess whether they are well-suited for rhythmic training. Games that train rhythm skills may serve as useful tools for retraining motor and cognitive functions in patients with motor or neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, dyslexia, or ADHD). Our criteria were the peripheral used to capture and record the response, the type of response and the output measure. None of the existing games provides sufficient temporal precision in stimulus presentation and/or data acquisition. In addition, games do not train selectively rhythmic skills. Hence, the available music games, in their present form, are not satisfying for training rhythmic skills. Yet, some features such as the device used, the interface or the game scenario provide good indications for devising efficient training protocols. Guidelines are provided for devising serious music games targeting rhythmic training in the future. PMID:28611610

Music Games: Potential Application and Considerations for Rhythmic Training.

PubMed

Bégel, Valentin; Di Loreto, Ines; Seilles, Antoine; Dalla Bella, Simone

2017-01-01

Rhythmic skills are natural and widespread in the general population. The majority can track the beat of music and move along with it. These abilities are meaningful from a cognitive standpoint given their tight links with prominent motor and cognitive functions such as language and memory. When rhythmic skills are challenged by brain damage or neurodevelopmental disorders, remediation strategies based on rhythm can be considered. For example, rhythmic training can be used to improve motor performance (e.g., gait) as well as cognitive and language skills. Here, we review the games readily available in the market and assess whether they are well-suited for rhythmic training. Games that train rhythm skills may serve as useful tools for retraining motor and cognitive functions in patients with motor or neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., Parkinson's disease, dyslexia, or ADHD). Our criteria were the peripheral used to capture and record the response, the type of response and the output measure. None of the existing games provides sufficient temporal precision in stimulus presentation and/or data acquisition. In addition, games do not train selectively rhythmic skills. Hence, the available music games, in their present form, are not satisfying for training rhythmic skills. Yet, some features such as the device used, the interface or the game scenario provide good indications for devising efficient training protocols. Guidelines are provided for devising serious music games targeting rhythmic training in the future.

Information to cerebellum on spinal motor networks mediated by the dorsal spinocerebellar tract

PubMed Central

Stecina, Katinka; Fedirchuk, Brent; Hultborn, Hans

2013-01-01

The main objective of this review is to re-examine the type of information transmitted by the dorsal and ventral spinocerebellar tracts (DSCT and VSCT respectively) during rhythmic motor actions such as locomotion. Based on experiments in the 1960s and 1970s, the DSCT was viewed as a relay of peripheral sensory input to the cerebellum in general, and during rhythmic movements such as locomotion and scratch. In contrast, the VSCT was seen as conveying a copy of the output of spinal neuronal circuitry, including those circuits generating rhythmic motor activity (the spinal central pattern generator, CPG). Emerging anatomical and electrophysiological information on the putative subpopulations of DSCT and VSCT neurons suggest differentiated functions for some of the subpopulations. Multiple lines of evidence support the notion that sensory input is not the only source driving DSCT neurons and, overall, there is a greater similarity between DSCT and VSCT activity than previously acknowledged. Indeed the majority of DSCT cells can be driven by spinal CPGs for locomotion and scratch without phasic sensory input. It thus seems natural to propose the possibility that CPG input to some of these neurons may contribute to distinguishing sensory inputs that are a consequence of the active locomotion from those resulting from perturbations in the external world. PMID:23613538

Intraluminal pressure patterns in the human colon assessed by high-resolution manometry

PubMed Central

Chen, Ji-Hong; Yu, Yuanjie; Yang, Zixian; Yu, Wen-Zhen; Chen, Wu Lan; Yu, Hui; Kim, Marie Jeong-Min; Huang, Min; Tan, Shiyun; Luo, Hesheng; Chen, Jianfeng; Chen, Jiande D. Z.; Huizinga, Jan D.

2017-01-01

Assessment of colonic motor dysfunction is rarely done because of inadequate methodology and lack of knowledge about normal motor patterns. Here we report on elucidation of intraluminal pressure patterns using High Resolution Colonic Manometry during a baseline period and in response to a meal, in 15 patients with constipation, chronically dependent on laxatives, 5 healthy volunteers and 9 patients with minor, transient, IBS-like symptoms but no sign of constipation. Simultaneous pressure waves (SPWs) were the most prominent propulsive motor pattern, associated with gas expulsion and anal sphincter relaxation, inferred to be associated with fast propagating contractions. Isolated pressure transients occurred in most sensors, ranging in amplitude from 5–230 mmHg. Rhythmic haustral boundary pressure transients occurred at sensors about 4–5 cm apart. Synchronized haustral pressure waves, covering 3–5 cm of the colon occurred to create a characteristic intrahaustral cyclic motor pattern at 3–6 cycles/min, propagating in mixed direction. This activity abruptly alternated with erratic patterns resembling the segmentation motor pattern of the small intestine. High amplitude propagating pressure waves (HAPWs) were too rare to contribute to function assessment in most subjects. Most patients, dependent on laxatives for defecation, were able to generate normal motor patterns in response to a meal. PMID:28216670

Role of the dorsal premotor cortex in rhythmic auditory-motor entrainment: a perturbational approach by rTMS.

PubMed

Giovannelli, Fabio; Innocenti, Iglis; Rossi, Simone; Borgheresi, Alessandra; Ragazzoni, Aldo; Zaccara, Gaetano; Viggiano, Maria Pia; Cincotta, Massimo

2014-04-01

Synchronization of body movements to an external beat is a universal human ability, which has also been recently documented in nonhuman species. The neural substrates of this rhythmic motor entrainment are still under investigation. Correlational neuroimaging data suggest an involvement of the dorsal premotor cortex (dPMC) and the supplementary motor area (SMA). In 14 healthy volunteers, we more specifically investigated the neural network underlying this phenomenon using a causal approach by an established 1-Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) protocol, which produces a focal suppression of cortical excitability outlasting the stimulation period. Synchronization accuracy between rhythmic cues and right index finger tapping, as measured by the mean time lag (asynchrony) between motor and auditory events, was significantly affected when the right dPMC function was transiently perturbed by "off-line" focal rTMS, whereas the reproduction of the rhythmic sequence per se (inter-tap-interval) was spared. This approach affected metrical rhythms of different complexity, but not non-metrical or isochronous sequences. Conversely, no change in auditory-motor synchronization was observed with rTMS of the SMA, of the left dPMC or over a control site (midline occipital area). Our data strongly support the view that the right dPMC is crucial for rhythmic auditory-motor synchronization in humans.

Testing the hypothesis of neurodegeneracy in respiratory network function with a priori transected arterially perfused brain stem preparation of rat

PubMed Central

Jones, Sarah E.

2016-01-01

Degeneracy of respiratory network function would imply that anatomically discrete aspects of the brain stem are capable of producing respiratory rhythm. To test this theory we a priori transected brain stem preparations before reperfusion and reoxygenation at 4 rostrocaudal levels: 1.5 mm caudal to obex (n = 5), at obex (n = 5), and 1.5 (n = 7) and 3 mm (n = 6) rostral to obex. The respiratory activity of these preparations was assessed via recordings of phrenic and vagal nerves and lumbar spinal expiratory motor output. Preparations with a priori transection at level of the caudal brain stem did not produce stable rhythmic respiratory bursting, even when the arterial chemoreceptors were stimulated with sodium cyanide (NaCN). Reperfusion of brain stems that preserved the pre-Bötzinger complex (pre-BötC) showed spontaneous and sustained rhythmic respiratory bursting at low phrenic nerve activity (PNA) amplitude that occurred simultaneously in all respiratory motor outputs. We refer to this rhythm as the pre-BötC burstlet-type rhythm. Conserving circuitry up to the pontomedullary junction consistently produced robust high-amplitude PNA at lower burst rates, whereas sequential motor patterning across the respiratory motor outputs remained absent. Some of the rostrally transected preparations expressed both burstlet-type and regular PNA amplitude rhythms. Further analysis showed that the burstlet-type rhythm and high-amplitude PNA had 1:2 quantal relation, with burstlets appearing to trigger high-amplitude bursts. We conclude that no degenerate rhythmogenic circuits are located in the caudal medulla oblongata and confirm the pre-BötC as the primary rhythmogenic kernel. The absence of sequential motor patterning in a priori transected preparations suggests that pontine circuits govern respiratory pattern formation. PMID:26888109

Testing the hypothesis of neurodegeneracy in respiratory network function with a priori transected arterially perfused brain stem preparation of rat.

PubMed

Jones, Sarah E; Dutschmann, Mathias

2016-05-01

Degeneracy of respiratory network function would imply that anatomically discrete aspects of the brain stem are capable of producing respiratory rhythm. To test this theory we a priori transected brain stem preparations before reperfusion and reoxygenation at 4 rostrocaudal levels: 1.5 mm caudal to obex (n = 5), at obex (n = 5), and 1.5 (n = 7) and 3 mm (n = 6) rostral to obex. The respiratory activity of these preparations was assessed via recordings of phrenic and vagal nerves and lumbar spinal expiratory motor output. Preparations with a priori transection at level of the caudal brain stem did not produce stable rhythmic respiratory bursting, even when the arterial chemoreceptors were stimulated with sodium cyanide (NaCN). Reperfusion of brain stems that preserved the pre-Bötzinger complex (pre-BötC) showed spontaneous and sustained rhythmic respiratory bursting at low phrenic nerve activity (PNA) amplitude that occurred simultaneously in all respiratory motor outputs. We refer to this rhythm as the pre-BötC burstlet-type rhythm. Conserving circuitry up to the pontomedullary junction consistently produced robust high-amplitude PNA at lower burst rates, whereas sequential motor patterning across the respiratory motor outputs remained absent. Some of the rostrally transected preparations expressed both burstlet-type and regular PNA amplitude rhythms. Further analysis showed that the burstlet-type rhythm and high-amplitude PNA had 1:2 quantal relation, with burstlets appearing to trigger high-amplitude bursts. We conclude that no degenerate rhythmogenic circuits are located in the caudal medulla oblongata and confirm the pre-BötC as the primary rhythmogenic kernel. The absence of sequential motor patterning in a priori transected preparations suggests that pontine circuits govern respiratory pattern formation. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Rhythmic motor entrainment in children with speech and language impairments: tapping to the beat.

PubMed

Corriveau, Kathleen H; Goswami, Usha

2009-01-01

In prior work (Corriveau et al., 2007), we showed that children with speech and language impairments (SLI) were significantly less sensitive than controls to two auditory cues to rhythmic timing, amplitude envelope rise time and duration. Here we explore whether rhythmic problems extend to rhythmic motor entrainment. Tapping in synchrony with a beat has been described as the simplest rhythmic act that humans perform. We explored whether tapping to a beat would be impaired in children for whom auditory rhythmic timing is impaired. Children with SLI were indeed found to be impaired in a range of measures of paced rhythmic tapping, but were not equally impaired in tapping in an unpaced control condition requiring an internally-generated rhythm. The severity of impairment in paced tapping was linked to language and literacy outcomes.

Rate and Timing Precision of Motor Coordination in Developmental Dyslexia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolff, Peter H.; And Others

1990-01-01

Adolescents and young adults with developmental dyslexia and matched normal and disabled controls were asked to tap in time to a metronome at three rates by moving the index fingers of both hands in unison, in rhythmical alternation, or in more complex bimanual patterns. Dyslexic subjects showed significant deficits on asynchronous, but not…

Time-varying spectral analysis revealing differential effects of sevoflurane anaesthesia: non-rhythmic-to-rhythmic ratio.

PubMed

Lin, Y-T; Wu, H-T; Tsao, J; Yien, H-W; Hseu, S-S

2014-02-01

Heart rate variability (HRV) may reflect various physiological dynamics. In particular, variation of R-R peak interval (RRI) of electrocardiography appears regularly oscillatory in deeper levels of anaesthesia and less regular in lighter levels of anaesthesia. We proposed a new index, non-rhythmic-to-rhythmic ratio (NRR), to quantify this feature and investigated its potential to estimate depth of anaesthesia. Thirty-one female patients were enrolled in this prospective study. The oscillatory pattern transition of RRI was visualised by the time-varying power spectrum and quantified by NRR. The prediction of anaesthetic events, including skin incision, first reaction of motor movement during emergence period, loss of consciousness (LOC) and return of consciousness (ROC) by NRR were evaluated by serial prediction probability (PK ) analysis; the ability to predict the decrease of effect-site sevoflurane concentration was also evaluated. The results were compared with Bispectral Index (BIS). NRR well-predicted first reaction (PK  > 0.90) 30 s ahead, earlier than BIS and significantly better than HRV indices. NRR well-correlated with sevoflurane concentration, although its correlation was inferior to BIS, while HRV indices had no such correlation. BIS indicated LOC and ROC best. Our findings suggest that NRR provides complementary information to BIS regarding the differential effects of anaesthetics on the brain, especially the subcortical motor activity. © 2014 The Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Removal of spike frequency adaptation via neuromodulation intrinsic to the Tritonia escape swim central pattern generator.

PubMed

Katz, P S; Frost, W N

1997-10-15

For the mollusc Tritonia diomedea to generate its escape swim motor pattern, interneuron C2, a crucial member of the central pattern generator (CPG) for this rhythmic behavior, must fire repetitive bursts of action potentials. Yet, before swimming, repeated depolarizing current pulses injected into C2 at periods similar those in the swim motor program are incapable of mimicking the firing rate attained by C2 on each cycle of a swim motor program. This resting level of C2 inexcitability is attributable to its own inherent spike frequency adaptation (SFA). Clearly, this property must be altered for the swim behavior to occur. The pathway for initiation of the swimming behavior involves activation of the serotonergic dorsal swim interneurons (DSIs), which are also intrinsic members of the swim CPG. Physiologically appropriate DSI stimulation transiently decreases C2 SFA, allowing C2 to fire at higher rates even when repeatedly depolarized at short intervals. The increased C2 excitability caused by DSI stimulation is mimicked and occluded by serotonin application. Furthermore, the change in excitability is not caused by the depolarization associated with DSI stimulation or serotonin application but is correlated with a decrease in C2 spike afterhyperpolarization. This suggests that the DSIs use serotonin to evoke a neuromodulatory action on a conductance in C2 that regulates its firing rate. This modulatory action of one CPG neuron on another is likely to play a role in configuring the swim circuit into its rhythmic pattern-generating mode and maintaining it in that state.

Auditory priming improves neural synchronization in auditory-motor entrainment.

PubMed

Crasta, Jewel E; Thaut, Michael H; Anderson, Charles W; Davies, Patricia L; Gavin, William J

2018-05-22

Neurophysiological research has shown that auditory and motor systems interact during movement to rhythmic auditory stimuli through a process called entrainment. This study explores the neural oscillations underlying auditory-motor entrainment using electroencephalography. Forty young adults were randomly assigned to one of two control conditions, an auditory-only condition or a motor-only condition, prior to a rhythmic auditory-motor synchronization condition (referred to as combined condition). Participants assigned to the auditory-only condition auditory-first group) listened to 400 trials of auditory stimuli presented every 800 ms, while those in the motor-only condition (motor-first group) were asked to tap rhythmically every 800 ms without any external stimuli. Following their control condition, all participants completed an auditory-motor combined condition that required tapping along with auditory stimuli every 800 ms. As expected, the neural processes for the combined condition for each group were different compared to their respective control condition. Time-frequency analysis of total power at an electrode site on the left central scalp (C3) indicated that the neural oscillations elicited by auditory stimuli, especially in the beta and gamma range, drove the auditory-motor entrainment. For the combined condition, the auditory-first group had significantly lower evoked power for a region of interest representing sensorimotor processing (4-20 Hz) and less total power in a region associated with anticipation and predictive timing (13-16 Hz) than the motor-first group. Thus, the auditory-only condition served as a priming facilitator of the neural processes in the combined condition, more so than the motor-only condition. Results suggest that even brief periods of rhythmic training of the auditory system leads to neural efficiency facilitating the motor system during the process of entrainment. These findings have implications for interventions using rhythmic auditory stimulation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Model of rhythmic ball bouncing using a visually controlled neural oscillator.

PubMed

Avrin, Guillaume; Siegler, Isabelle A; Makarov, Maria; Rodriguez-Ayerbe, Pedro

2017-10-01

The present paper investigates the sensory-driven modulations of central pattern generator dynamics that can be expected to reproduce human behavior during rhythmic hybrid tasks. We propose a theoretical model of human sensorimotor behavior able to account for the observed data from the ball-bouncing task. The novel control architecture is composed of a Matsuoka neural oscillator coupled with the environment through visual sensory feedback. The architecture's ability to reproduce human-like performance during the ball-bouncing task in the presence of perturbations is quantified by comparison of simulated and recorded trials. The results suggest that human visual control of the task is achieved online. The adaptive behavior is made possible by a parametric and state control of the limit cycle emerging from the interaction of the rhythmic pattern generator, the musculoskeletal system, and the environment. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The study demonstrates that a behavioral model based on a neural oscillator controlled by visual information is able to accurately reproduce human modulations in a motor action with respect to sensory information during the rhythmic ball-bouncing task. The model attractor dynamics emerging from the interaction between the neuromusculoskeletal system and the environment met task requirements, environmental constraints, and human behavioral choices without relying on movement planning and explicit internal models of the environment. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

Rhythmic Auditory Cueing in Motor Rehabilitation for Stroke Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Yoo, Ga Eul; Kim, Soo Ji

2016-01-01

Given the increasing evidence demonstrating the effects of rhythmic auditory cueing for motor rehabilitation of stroke patients, this synthesized analysis is needed in order to improve rehabilitative practice and maximize clinical effectiveness. This study aimed to systematically analyze the literature on rhythmic auditory cueing for motor rehabilitation of stroke patients by highlighting the outcome variables, type of cueing, and stage of stroke. A systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized controlled or clinically controlled trials was conducted. Electronic databases and music therapy journals were searched for studies including stroke, the use of rhythmic auditory cueing, and motor outcomes, such as gait and upper-extremity function. A total of 10 studies (RCT or CCT) with 356 individuals were included for meta-analysis. There were large effect sizes (Hedges's g = 0.984 for walking velocity; Hedges's g = 0.840 for cadence; Hedges's g = 0.760 for stride length; and Hedges's g = 0.456 for Fugl-Meyer test scores) in the use of rhythmic auditory cueing. Additional subgroup analysis demonstrated that although the type of rhythmic cueing and stage of stroke did not lead to statistically substantial group differences, the effect sizes and heterogeneity values in each subgroup implied possible differences in treatment effect. This study corroborates the beneficial effects of rhythmic auditory cueing, supporting its expanded application to broadened areas of rehabilitation for stroke patients. Also, it suggests the future investigation of the differential outcomes depending on how rhythmic auditory cueing is provided in terms of type and intensity implemented. © the American Music Therapy Association 2016. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Separate representations of dynamics in rhythmic and discrete movements: evidence from motor learning

PubMed Central

Ingram, James N.; Wolpert, Daniel M.

2011-01-01

Rhythmic and discrete arm movements occur ubiquitously in everyday life, and there is a debate as to whether these two classes of movements arise from the same or different underlying neural mechanisms. Here we examine interference in a motor-learning paradigm to test whether rhythmic and discrete movements employ at least partially separate neural representations. Subjects were required to make circular movements of their right hand while they were exposed to a velocity-dependent force field that perturbed the circularity of the movement path. The direction of the force-field perturbation reversed at the end of each block of 20 revolutions. When subjects made only rhythmic or only discrete circular movements, interference was observed when switching between the two opposing force fields. However, when subjects alternated between blocks of rhythmic and discrete movements, such that each was uniquely associated with one of the perturbation directions, interference was significantly reduced. Only in this case did subjects learn to corepresent the two opposing perturbations, suggesting that different neural resources were employed for the two movement types. Our results provide further evidence that rhythmic and discrete movements employ at least partially separate control mechanisms in the motor system. PMID:21273324

Lower limb motor restlessness in Asperger's disorder, measured using actometry.

PubMed

Tuisku, Katinka; Tani, Pekka; Nieminen-von Wendt, Taina; von Wendt, Lennart; Holi, Matti Mikael; Porkka-Heiskanen, Tarja; Lauerma, Hannu; Lindberg, Nina; Appelberg, Björn; Wahlbeck, Kristian

2004-08-30

The movement disturbances and brain imaging findings in Asperger's disorder (AD) suggest a dopaminergic deficit in movement regulation. Movement disorders of different etiologies have been quantified and specified with actometry. We compared 10 AD patients with 10 healthy controls, measuring their rest-activities by actometry. The lower limb motor activity was significantly higher in the AD group. They also displayed a rhythmic, periodic movement pattern similar to akathisia. These findings suggest a hypothesis of idiopathic akathisia and a special sensitivity to adverse effects of neuroleptic drugs.

Neurobiology of rhythmic motor entrainment.

PubMed

Molinari, Marco; Leggio, Maria G; De Martin, Martina; Cerasa, Antonio; Thaut, Michael

2003-11-01

Timing is extremely important for movement, and understanding the neurobiological basis of rhythm perception and reproduction can be helpful in addressing motor recovery after brain lesions. In this quest, the science of music might provide interesting hints for better understanding the brain timing mechanism. The report focuses on the neurobiological substrate of sensorimotor transformation of time data, highlighting the power of auditory rhythmic stimuli in guiding motor acts. The cerebellar role of timing is addressed in subjects with cerebellar damage; subsequently, cerebellar timing processing is highlighted through an fMRI study of professional musicians. The two approaches converge to demonstrate that different levels of time processing exist, one conscious and one not, and to support the idea that timing is a distributed function. The hypothesis that unconscious motor responses to auditory rhythmic stimuli can be relevant in guiding motor recovery and modulating music perception is advanced and discussed.

The effect of rhythmic-cued motor imagery on walking, fatigue and quality of life in people with multiple sclerosis: A randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Seebacher, Barbara; Kuisma, Raija; Glynn, Angela; Berger, Thomas

2017-02-01

Motor imagery and rhythmic auditory stimulation are physiotherapy strategies for walking rehabilitation. To investigate the effect of motor imagery combined with rhythmic cueing on walking, fatigue and quality of life (QoL) in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Individuals with MS and Expanded Disability Status Scale scores of 1.5-4.5 were randomised into one of three groups: 17 minutes of motor imagery, six times per week, for 4 weeks, with music (A) or metronome cues (B), both with verbal cueing, and (C) controls. Primary outcomes were walking speed (Timed 25-Foot Walk) and distance (6-Minute Walk Test). Secondary outcomes were walking perception (Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale-12), fatigue (Modified Fatigue Impact Scale) and QoL (Short Form-36 Health Survey, Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale-29, Euroquol-5D-3L Questionnaire). Of the 112 participants randomised, 101 completed the study. Compared to controls, both interventions significantly improved walking speed, distance and perception. Significant improvements in cognitive but not psychosocial fatigue were seen in the intervention groups, and physical fatigue improved only in the music-based group. Both interventions improved QoL; however, music-cued motor imagery was superior at improving health-related QoL. Rhythmic-cued motor imagery improves walking, fatigue and QoL in people with MS, with music-cued motor imagery being more effective.

On the Role of Sensory Feedbacks in Rowat–Selverston CPG to Improve Robot Legged Locomotion

PubMed Central

Amrollah, Elmira; Henaff, Patrick

2010-01-01

This paper presents the use of Rowat and Selverston-type of central pattern generator (CPG) to control locomotion. It focuses on the role of afferent exteroceptive and proprioceptive signals in the dynamic phase synchronization in CPG legged robots. The sensori-motor neural network architecture is evaluated to control a two-joint planar robot leg that slips on a rail. Then, the closed loop between the CPG and the mechanical system allows to study the modulation of rhythmic patterns and the effect of the sensing loop via sensory neurons during the locomotion task. Firstly simulations show that the proposed architecture easily allows to modulate rhythmic patterns of the leg, and therefore the velocity of the robot. Secondly, simulations show that sensori-feedbacks from foot/ground contact of the leg make the hip velocity smoother and larger. The results show that the Rowat–Selverston-type CPG with sensory feedbacks is an effective choice for building adaptive neural CPGs for legged robots. PMID:21228904

Rodent ultrasonic vocalizations are bound to active sniffing behavior

PubMed Central

Sirotin, Yevgeniy B.; Costa, Martín Elias; Laplagne, Diego A.

2014-01-01

During rodent active behavior, multiple orofacial sensorimotor behaviors, including sniffing and whisking, display rhythmicity in the theta range (~5–10 Hz). During specific behaviors, these rhythmic patterns interlock, such that execution of individual motor programs becomes dependent on the state of the others. Here we performed simultaneous recordings of the respiratory cycle and ultrasonic vocalization emission by adult rats and mice in social settings. We used automated analysis to examine the relationship between breathing patterns and vocalization over long time periods. Rat ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs, “50 kHz”) were emitted within stretches of active sniffing (5–10 Hz) and were largely absent during periods of passive breathing (1–4 Hz). Because ultrasound was tightly linked to the exhalation phase, the sniffing cycle segmented vocal production into discrete calls and imposed its theta rhythmicity on their timing. In turn, calls briefly prolonged exhalations, causing an immediate drop in sniffing rate. Similar results were obtained in mice. Our results show that ultrasonic vocalizations are an integral part of the rhythmic orofacial behavioral ensemble. This complex behavioral program is thus involved not only in active sensing but also in the temporal structuring of social communication signals. Many other social signals of mammals, including monkey calls and human speech, show structure in the theta range. Our work points to a mechanism for such structuring in rodent ultrasonic vocalizations. PMID:25477796

Gender Differences in Musical Aptitude, Rhythmic Ability and Motor Performance in Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pollatou, Elisana; Karadimou, Konstantina; Gerodimos, Vasilios

2005-01-01

Most of the preschool curricula involve integrated movement activities that combine music, rhythm and locomotor skills. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether there are any differences between boys and girls at the age of five concerning their musical aptitude, rhythmic ability and performance in gross motor skills. Ninety-five…

Generating Spatiotemporal Joint Torque Patterns from Dynamical Synchronization of Distributed Pattern Generators

PubMed Central

Pitti, Alexandre; Lungarella, Max; Kuniyoshi, Yasuo

2009-01-01

Pattern generators found in the spinal cord are no more seen as simple rhythmic oscillators for motion control. Indeed, they achieve flexible and dynamical coordination in interaction with the body and the environment dynamics giving to rise motor synergies. Discovering the mechanisms underlying the control of motor synergies constitutes an important research question not only for neuroscience but also for robotics: the motors coordination of high dimensional robotic systems is still a drawback and new control methods based on biological solutions may reduce their overall complexity. We propose to model the flexible combination of motor synergies in embodied systems via partial phase synchronization of distributed chaotic systems; for specific coupling strength, chaotic systems are able to phase synchronize their dynamics to the resonant frequencies of one external force. We take advantage of this property to explore and exploit the intrinsic dynamics of one specified embodied system. In two experiments with bipedal walkers, we show how motor synergies emerge when the controllers phase synchronize to the body's dynamics, entraining it to its intrinsic behavioral patterns. This stage is characterized by directed information flow from the sensors to the motors exhibiting the optimal situation when the body dynamics drive the controllers (mutual entrainment). Based on our results, we discuss the relevance of our findings for modeling the modular control of distributed pattern generators exhibited in the spinal cord, and for exploring the motor synergies in robots. PMID:20011216

Different corticospinal control between discrete and rhythmic movement of the ankle.

PubMed

Goto, Yumeno; Jono, Yasutomo; Hatanaka, Ryota; Nomura, Yoshifumi; Tani, Keisuke; Chujo, Yuta; Hiraoka, Koichi

2014-01-01

We investigated differences in corticospinal and spinal control between discrete and rhythmic ankle movements. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the tibialis anterior and soleus muscles and soleus H-reflex were elicited in the middle of the plantar flexion phase during discrete ankle movement or in the initial or later cycles of rhythmic ankle movement. The H-reflex was evoked at an intensity eliciting a small M-wave and MEPs were elicited at an intensity of 1.2 times the motor threshold of the soleus MEPs. Only trials in which background EMG level, ankle angle, and ankle velocity were similar among the movement conditions were included for data analysis. In addition, only trials with a similar M-wave were included for data analysis in the experiment evoking H-reflexes. Results showed that H reflex and MEP amplitudes in the soleus muscle during discrete movement were not significantly different from those during rhythmic movement. MEP amplitude in the tibialis anterior muscle during the later cycles of rhythmic movement was significantly larger than that during the initial cycle of the rhythmic movement or during discrete movement. Higher corticospinal excitability in the tibialis anterior muscle during the later cycles of rhythmic movement may reflect changes in corticospinal control from the initial cycle to the later cycles of rhythmic movement.

Different corticospinal control between discrete and rhythmic movement of the ankle

PubMed Central

Goto, Yumeno; Jono, Yasutomo; Hatanaka, Ryota; Nomura, Yoshifumi; Tani, Keisuke; Chujo, Yuta; Hiraoka, Koichi

2014-01-01

We investigated differences in corticospinal and spinal control between discrete and rhythmic ankle movements. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the tibialis anterior and soleus muscles and soleus H-reflex were elicited in the middle of the plantar flexion phase during discrete ankle movement or in the initial or later cycles of rhythmic ankle movement. The H-reflex was evoked at an intensity eliciting a small M-wave and MEPs were elicited at an intensity of 1.2 times the motor threshold of the soleus MEPs. Only trials in which background EMG level, ankle angle, and ankle velocity were similar among the movement conditions were included for data analysis. In addition, only trials with a similar M-wave were included for data analysis in the experiment evoking H-reflexes. Results showed that H reflex and MEP amplitudes in the soleus muscle during discrete movement were not significantly different from those during rhythmic movement. MEP amplitude in the tibialis anterior muscle during the later cycles of rhythmic movement was significantly larger than that during the initial cycle of the rhythmic movement or during discrete movement. Higher corticospinal excitability in the tibialis anterior muscle during the later cycles of rhythmic movement may reflect changes in corticospinal control from the initial cycle to the later cycles of rhythmic movement. PMID:25126066

The Human Central Pattern Generator for Locomotion.

PubMed

Minassian, Karen; Hofstoetter, Ursula S; Dzeladini, Florin; Guertin, Pierre A; Ijspeert, Auke

2017-03-01

The ability of dedicated spinal circuits, referred to as central pattern generators (CPGs), to produce the basic rhythm and neural activation patterns underlying locomotion can be demonstrated under specific experimental conditions in reduced animal preparations. The existence of CPGs in humans is a matter of debate. Equally elusive is the contribution of CPGs to normal bipedal locomotion. To address these points, we focus on human studies that utilized spinal cord stimulation or pharmacological neuromodulation to generate rhythmic activity in individuals with spinal cord injury, and on neuromechanical modeling of human locomotion. In the absence of volitional motor control and step-specific sensory feedback, the human lumbar spinal cord can produce rhythmic muscle activation patterns that closely resemble CPG-induced neural activity of the isolated animal spinal cord. In this sense, CPGs in humans can be defined by the activity they produce. During normal locomotion, CPGs could contribute to the activation patterns during specific phases of the step cycle and simplify supraspinal control of step cycle frequency as a feedforward component to achieve a targeted speed. Determining how the human CPGs operate will be essential to advance the theory of neural control of locomotion and develop new locomotor neurorehabilitation paradigms.

Distinct Functional Modules for Discrete and Rhythmic Forelimb Movements in the Mouse Motor Cortex.

PubMed

Hira, Riichiro; Terada, Shin-Ichiro; Kondo, Masashi; Matsuzaki, Masanori

2015-09-30

Movements of animals are composed of two fundamental dynamics: discrete and rhythmic movements. Although the movements with distinct dynamics are thought to be differently processed in the CNS, it is unclear how they are represented in the cerebral cortex. Here, we investigated the cortical representation of movement dynamics by developing prolonged transcranial optogenetic stimulation (pTOS) using awake, channelrhodopsin-2 transgenic mice. We found two domains that induced discrete forelimb movements in the forward and backward directions, and these sandwiched a domain that generated rhythmic forelimb movements. The forward discrete movement had an intrinsic velocity profile and the rhythmic movement had an intrinsic oscillation frequency. Each of the forward discrete and rhythmic domains possessed intracortical synaptic connections within its own domain, independently projected to the spinal cord, and weakened the neuronal activity and movement induction of the other domain. pTOS-induced movements were also classified as ethologically relevant movements. Forepaw-to-mouth movement was mapped in a part of the forward discrete domain, while locomotion-like movement was in a part of the rhythmic domain. Interestingly, photostimulation of the rhythmic domain resulted in a nonrhythmic, continuous lever-pull movement when a lever was present. The motor cortex possesses functional modules for distinct movement dynamics, and these can adapt to environmental constraints for purposeful movements. Significance statement: Animal behavior has discrete and rhythmic components, such as reaching and locomotion. It is unclear how these movements with distinct dynamics are represented in the cerebral cortex. We investigated the dynamics of movements induced by long-duration transcranial photostimulation on the dorsal cortex of awake channelrhodopsin-2 transgenic mice. We found two domains causing forward and backward discrete forelimb movements and a domain for rhythmic forelimb movements. A domain for forward discrete movement and a domain for rhythmic movement mutually weakened neuronal activity and movement size. The photostimulation of the rhythmic domain also induced nonrhythmic, lever-pull movement, when the lever was present. Thus, the motor cortex has functional modules with distinct dynamics, and each module retains flexibility for adaptation to different environments. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3513311-12$15.00/0.

Spontaneous motor rhythms of the back and legs in a patient with a complete spinal cord transection.

PubMed

Nadeau, Sylvie; Jacquemin, Géraldine; Fournier, Christine; Lamarre, Yves; Rossignol, Serge

2010-05-01

Spontaneous activity originating from the spinal cord has been sporadically reported in humans. Investigation of such rhythmic activity of the trunk and legs in a 49-year-old male patient who had a complete severance of the spinal cord at the fifth thoracic vertebra. A multichannel electromyography (EMG) study was performed together with kinematics measurements obtained from an Optotrak system. Episodes of rhythmic trunk and lower limb movements started 6 to 7 years after the spinal lesion, recurred at 2 to 3 month intervals, and continued uninterrupted for 2 to 3 days despite continuous delivery of intrathecal baclofen. Several muscles discharged more or less synchronously on both sides but others clearly alternated, for instance, between hip flexors and knee or ankle extensors. Sensory stimuli (hip repositioning or skin pinch) altered significantly the baseline rhythm of about 1 Hz. The patient had both hips injected with corticosteroids and was free of these episodic rhythmic crises for more than 6 months. The rhythmic activity observed in the patient appeared related to the activation of a spinal pattern generator akin to what has been described in most animal species after complete spinal lesions.

Speech Rhythm: Its Relation to Performance Universals and Articulatory Timing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, George D.

1975-01-01

The relationship between the rhythms of spoken language and the rhythms of other human behavior is examined in terms of: (1) types of rhythmic structures observed, (2) rate of succession of rhythmic units, (3) a perceptual tendency equalization of physically unequal intervals, and (4) the variability of rhythmic motor action. (Author/RM)

A Cholinergic-Regulated Circuit Coordinates the Maintenance and Bi-Stable States of a Sensory-Motor Behavior during Caenorhabditis elegans Male Copulation

PubMed Central

Liu, Yishi; LeBeouf, Brigitte; Guo, Xiaoyan; Correa, Paola A.; Gualberto, Daisy G.; Lints, Robyn; Garcia, L. Rene

2011-01-01

Penetration of a male copulatory organ into a suitable mate is a conserved and necessary behavioral step for most terrestrial matings; however, the detailed molecular and cellular mechanisms for this distinct social interaction have not been elucidated in any animal. During mating, the Caenorhabditis elegans male cloaca is maintained over the hermaphrodite's vulva as he attempts to insert his copulatory spicules. Rhythmic spicule thrusts cease when insertion is sensed. Circuit components consisting of sensory/motor neurons and sex muscles for these steps have been previously identified, but it was unclear how their outputs are integrated to generate a coordinated behavior pattern. Here, we show that cholinergic signaling between the cloacal sensory/motor neurons and the posterior sex muscles sustains genital contact between the sexes. Simultaneously, via gap junctions, signaling from these muscles is transmitted to the spicule muscles, thus coupling repeated spicule thrusts with vulval contact. To transit from rhythmic to sustained muscle contraction during penetration, the SPC sensory-motor neurons integrate the signal of spicule's position in the vulva with inputs from the hook and cloacal sensilla. The UNC-103 K+ channel maintains a high excitability threshold in the circuit, so that sustained spicule muscle contraction is not stimulated by fewer inputs. We demonstrate that coordination of sensory inputs and motor outputs used to initiate, maintain, self-monitor, and complete an innate behavior is accomplished via the coupling of a few circuit components. PMID:21423722

Arm coordination in octopus crawling involves unique motor control strategies.

PubMed

Levy, Guy; Flash, Tamar; Hochner, Binyamin

2015-05-04

To cope with the exceptional computational complexity that is involved in the control of its hyper-redundant arms [1], the octopus has adopted unique motor control strategies in which the central brain activates rather autonomous motor programs in the elaborated peripheral nervous system of the arms [2, 3]. How octopuses coordinate their eight long and flexible arms in locomotion is still unknown. Here, we present the first detailed kinematic analysis of octopus arm coordination in crawling. The results are surprising in several respects: (1) despite its bilaterally symmetrical body, the octopus can crawl in any direction relative to its body orientation; (2) body and crawling orientation are monotonically and independently controlled; and (3) contrasting known animal locomotion, octopus crawling lacks any apparent rhythmical patterns in limb coordination, suggesting a unique non-rhythmical output of the octopus central controller. We show that this uncommon maneuverability is derived from the radial symmetry of the arms around the body and the simple pushing-by-elongation mechanism by which the arms create the crawling thrust. These two together enable a mechanism whereby the central controller chooses in a moment-to-moment fashion which arms to recruit for pushing the body in an instantaneous direction. Our findings suggest that the soft molluscan body has affected in an embodied way [4, 5] the emergence of the adaptive motor behavior of the octopus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rhythm perception, production, and synchronization during the perinatal period

PubMed Central

Provasi, Joëlle; Anderson, David I.; Barbu-Roth, Marianne

2014-01-01

Sensori-motor synchronization (SMS) is the coordination of rhythmic movement with an external rhythm. It plays a central role in motor, cognitive, and social behavior. SMS is commonly studied in adults and in children from four years of age onward. Prior to this age, the ability has rarely been investigated due to a lack of available methods. The present paper reviews what is known about SMS in young children, infants, newborns, and fetuses. The review highlights fetal and infant perception of rhythm and cross modal perception of rhythm, fetal, and infant production of rhythm and cross modal production of rhythm, and the contexts in which production of rhythm can be observed in infants. A primary question is whether infants, even newborns, can modify their spontaneous rhythmical motor behavior in response to external rhythmical stimulation. Spontaneous sucking, crying, and leg movements have been studied in the presence or absence of rhythmical auditory stimulation. Findings suggest that the interaction between movement and sound is present at birth and that SMS can be observed in special conditions and within a narrow range of tempi, particularly near the infant’s own spontaneous motor tempo. The discussion centers on the fundamental role of SMS in interaction and communication at the beginning of life. PMID:25278929

Impaired movement timing in neurological disorders: rehabilitation and treatment strategies.

PubMed

Hove, Michael J; Keller, Peter E

2015-03-01

Timing abnormalities have been reported in many neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease (PD). In PD, motor-timing impairments are especially debilitating in gait. Despite impaired audiomotor synchronization, PD patients' gait improves when they walk with an auditory metronome or with music. Building on that research, we make recommendations for optimizing sensory cues to improve the efficacy of rhythmic cuing in gait rehabilitation. Adaptive rhythmic metronomes (that synchronize with the patient's walking) might be especially effective. In a recent study we showed that adaptive metronomes synchronized consistently with PD patients' footsteps without requiring attention; this improved stability and reinstated healthy gait dynamics. Other strategies could help optimize sensory cues for gait rehabilitation. Groove music strongly engages the motor system and induces movement; bass-frequency tones are associated with movement and provide strong timing cues. Thus, groove and bass-frequency pulses could deliver potent rhythmic cues. These strategies capitalize on the close neural connections between auditory and motor networks; and auditory cues are typically preferred. However, moving visual cues greatly improve visuomotor synchronization and could warrant examination in gait rehabilitation. Together, a treatment approach that employs groove, auditory, bass-frequency, and adaptive (GABA) cues could help optimize rhythmic sensory cues for treating motor and timing deficits. © 2014 New York Academy of Sciences.

The Effects of Rhythmicity and Amplitude on Transfer of Motor Learning

PubMed Central

Ben-Tov, Mor; Levy-Tzedek, Shelly; Karniel, Amir

2012-01-01

We perform rhythmic and discrete arm movements on a daily basis, yet the motor control literature is not conclusive regarding the mechanisms controlling these movements; does a single mechanism generate both movement types, or are they controlled by separate mechanisms? A recent study reported partial asymmetric transfer of learning from discrete movements to rhythmic movements. Other studies have shown transfer of learning between large-amplitude to small-amplitude movements. The goal of this study is to explore which aspect is important for learning to be transferred from one type of movement to another: rhythmicity, amplitude or both. We propose two hypotheses: (1) Rhythmic and discrete movements are generated by different mechanisms; therefore we expect to see a partial or no transfer of learning between the two types of movements; (2) Within each movement type (rhythmic/discrete), there will be asymmetric transition of learning from larger movements to smaller ones. We used a learning-transfer paradigm, in which 70 participants performed flexion/extension movements with their forearm, and switched between types of movement, which differed in amplitude and/or rhythmicity. We found partial transfer of learning between discrete and rhythmic movements, and an asymmetric transfer of learning from larger movements to smaller movements (within the same type of movement). Our findings suggest that there are two different mechanisms underlying the generation of rhythmic and discrete arm movements, and that practicing on larger movements helps perform smaller movements; the latter finding might have implications for rehabilitation. PMID:23056549

The effects of rhythmicity and amplitude on transfer of motor learning.

PubMed

Ben-Tov, Mor; Levy-Tzedek, Shelly; Karniel, Amir

2012-01-01

We perform rhythmic and discrete arm movements on a daily basis, yet the motor control literature is not conclusive regarding the mechanisms controlling these movements; does a single mechanism generate both movement types, or are they controlled by separate mechanisms? A recent study reported partial asymmetric transfer of learning from discrete movements to rhythmic movements. Other studies have shown transfer of learning between large-amplitude to small-amplitude movements. The goal of this study is to explore which aspect is important for learning to be transferred from one type of movement to another: rhythmicity, amplitude or both. We propose two hypotheses: (1) Rhythmic and discrete movements are generated by different mechanisms; therefore we expect to see a partial or no transfer of learning between the two types of movements; (2) Within each movement type (rhythmic/discrete), there will be asymmetric transition of learning from larger movements to smaller ones. We used a learning-transfer paradigm, in which 70 participants performed flexion/extension movements with their forearm, and switched between types of movement, which differed in amplitude and/or rhythmicity. We found partial transfer of learning between discrete and rhythmic movements, and an asymmetric transfer of learning from larger movements to smaller movements (within the same type of movement). Our findings suggest that there are two different mechanisms underlying the generation of rhythmic and discrete arm movements, and that practicing on larger movements helps perform smaller movements; the latter finding might have implications for rehabilitation.

[Motor disorders in neurodevelopmental disorders. Tics and stereotypies].

PubMed

Eirís-Puñal, Jesús

2014-02-24

Tics are repetitive, sharp, rapid, non-rhythmic movements or utterances that are the result of sudden, abrupt and involuntary muscular contractions. Stereotypies are repetitive, apparently impulsive, rhythmic, purposeless movements that follow an individual repertoire that is specific to each individual and that occur under a variable time pattern, which may be either transient or persistent. Both are included in the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), among the neurodevelopmental disorders, and together with coordination development disorder go to make up the group of motor disorders. For tics, the categories of 'Tourette's disorder', 'chronic motor or vocal tic disorder' and 'unspecified tic disorder' have been maintained, whereas the category 'transient tics' has disappeared and 'provisional tic disorder' and 'other specified tic disorders' have been incorporated. Within stereotypic movement disorder, the DSM-5 replaces 'non-functional' by 'apparently purposeless'; the thresholds of the need for medical care are withdrawn and replaced with the manual's standard involvement criterion; mental retardation is no longer mentioned and emphasis is placed on the severity of the stereotypic movement; and a criterion concerning the onset of symptoms and specifiers of the existence or not of self-injurious behaviours have been added, together with the association with genetic or general medical diseases or extrinsic factors. Moreover, a categorisation depending on severity has also been included.

Distinguishing synchronous and time-varying synergies using point process interval statistics: motor primitives in frog and rat

PubMed Central

Hart, Corey B.; Giszter, Simon F.

2013-01-01

We present and apply a method that uses point process statistics to discriminate the forms of synergies in motor pattern data, prior to explicit synergy extraction. The method uses electromyogram (EMG) pulse peak timing or onset timing. Peak timing is preferable in complex patterns where pulse onsets may be overlapping. An interval statistic derived from the point processes of EMG peak timings distinguishes time-varying synergies from synchronous synergies (SS). Model data shows that the statistic is robust for most conditions. Its application to both frog hindlimb EMG and rat locomotion hindlimb EMG show data from these preparations is clearly most consistent with synchronous synergy models (p < 0.001). Additional direct tests of pulse and interval relations in frog data further bolster the support for synchronous synergy mechanisms in these data. Our method and analyses support separated control of rhythm and pattern of motor primitives, with the low level execution primitives comprising pulsed SS in both frog and rat, and both episodic and rhythmic behaviors. PMID:23675341

Dissociation between sustained single-neuron spiking and transient β-LFP oscillations in primate motor cortex

PubMed Central

Rule, Michael E.; Vargas-Irwin, Carlos E.; Donoghue, John P.

2017-01-01

Determining the relationship between single-neuron spiking and transient (20 Hz) β-local field potential (β-LFP) oscillations is an important step for understanding the role of these oscillations in motor cortex. We show that whereas motor cortex firing rates and beta spiking rhythmicity remain sustained during steady-state movement preparation periods, β-LFP oscillations emerge, in contrast, as short transient events. Single-neuron mean firing rates within and outside transient β-LFP events showed no differences, and no consistent correlation was found between the beta oscillation amplitude and firing rates, as was the case for movement- and visual cue-related β-LFP suppression. Importantly, well-isolated single units featuring beta-rhythmic spiking (43%, 125/292) showed no apparent or only weak phase coupling with the transient β-LFP oscillations. Similar results were obtained for the population spiking. These findings were common in triple microelectrode array recordings from primary motor (M1), ventral (PMv), and dorsal premotor (PMd) cortices in nonhuman primates during movement preparation. Although beta spiking rhythmicity indicates strong membrane potential fluctuations in the beta band, it does not imply strong phase coupling with β-LFP oscillations. The observed dissociation points to two different sources of variation in motor cortex β-LFPs: one that impacts single-neuron spiking dynamics and another related to the generation of mesoscopic β-LFP signals. Furthermore, our findings indicate that rhythmic spiking and diverse neuronal firing rates, which encode planned actions during movement preparation, may naturally limit the ability of different neuronal populations to strongly phase-couple to a single dominant oscillation frequency, leading to the observed spiking and β-LFP dissociation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We show that whereas motor cortex spiking rates and beta (~20 Hz) spiking rhythmicity remain sustained during steady-state movement preparation periods, β-local field potential (β-LFP) oscillations emerge, in contrast, as transient events. Furthermore, the β-LFP phase at which neurons spike drifts: phase coupling is typically weak or absent. This dissociation points to two sources of variation in the level of motor cortex beta: one that impacts single-neuron spiking and another related to the generation of measured mesoscopic β-LFPs. PMID:28100654

Motor facilitation during real-time movement imitation in Parkinson's disease: a virtual reality study.

PubMed

Robles-García, Verónica; Arias, Pablo; Sanmartín, Gabriel; Espinosa, Nelson; Flores, Julian; Grieve, Kenneth L; Cudeiro, Javier

2013-12-01

Impaired temporal stability and poor motor unit recruitment are key impairments in Parkinsonian motor control during a whole spectrum of rhythmic movements, from simple finger tapping to gait. Therapies based on imitation can be designed for patients with motor impairments and virtual-reality (VR) offers a new perspective. Motor actions are known to depend upon the dopaminergic system, whose involvement in imitation is unknown. We sought to understand this role and the underlying possibilities for motor rehabilitation, by observing the execution of different motor-patterns during imitation in a VR environment in subjects with and without dopaminergic deficits. 10 OFF-dose idiopathic Parkinson's Disease patients (PD), 9 age-matched and 9 young-subjects participated. Subjects performed finger-tapping at their "comfort" and "slow-comfort" rates, while immersed in VR presenting their "avatar" in 1st person perspective. Imitation was evaluated by asking subjects to replicate finger-tapping patterns different to their natural one. The finger-pattern presented matched their comfort and comfort-slow rates, but without a pause on the table (continuously moving). Patients were able to adapt their finger-tapping correctly, showing that in comparison with the control groups, the dopaminergic deficiency of PD did not impair imitation. During imitation the magnitude of EMG increased and the temporal variability of movement decreased. PD-patients have unaltered ability to imitate instructed motor-patterns, suggesting that a fully-functional dopaminergic system is not essential for such imitation. It should be further investigated if imitation training over a period of time induces positive off-line motor adaptations with transfer to non-imitation tasks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optogenetic dissection reveals multiple rhythmogenic modules underlying locomotion

PubMed Central

Hägglund, Martin; Dougherty, Kimberly J.; Borgius, Lotta; Itohara, Shigeyoshi; Iwasato, Takuji; Kiehn, Ole

2013-01-01

Neural networks in the spinal cord known as central pattern generators produce the sequential activation of muscles needed for locomotion. The overall locomotor network architectures in limbed vertebrates have been much debated, and no consensus exists as to how they are structured. Here, we use optogenetics to dissect the excitatory and inhibitory neuronal populations and probe the organization of the mammalian central pattern generator. We find that locomotor-like rhythmic bursting can be induced unilaterally or independently in flexor or extensor networks. Furthermore, we show that individual flexor motor neuron pools can be recruited into bursting without any activity in other nearby flexor motor neuron pools. Our experiments differentiate among several proposed models for rhythm generation in the vertebrates and show that the basic structure underlying the locomotor network has a distributed organization with many intrinsically rhythmogenic modules. PMID:23798384

Adaptive walking of a quadrupedal robot based on layered biological reflexes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xiuli; Mingcheng, E.; Zeng, Xiangyu; Zheng, Haojun

2012-07-01

A multiple-legged robot is traditionally controlled by using its dynamic model. But the dynamic-model-based approach fails to acquire satisfactory performances when the robot faces rough terrains and unknown environments. Referring animals' neural control mechanisms, a control model is built for a quadruped robot walking adaptively. The basic rhythmic motion of the robot is controlled by a well-designed rhythmic motion controller(RMC) comprising a central pattern generator(CPG) for hip joints and a rhythmic coupler (RC) for knee joints. CPG and RC have relationships of motion-mapping and rhythmic couple. Multiple sensory-motor models, abstracted from the neural reflexes of a cat, are employed. These reflex models are organized and thus interact with the CPG in three layers, to meet different requirements of complexity and response time to the tasks. On the basis of the RMC and layered biological reflexes, a quadruped robot is constructed, which can clear obstacles and walk uphill and downhill autonomously, and make a turn voluntarily in uncertain environments, interacting with the environment in a way similar to that of an animal. The paper provides a biologically inspired architecture, with which a robot can walk adaptively in uncertain environments in a simple and effective way, and achieve better performances.

Processing Rhythmic Pattern during Chinese Sentence Reading: An Eye Movement Study

PubMed Central

Luo, Yingyi; Duan, Yunyan; Zhou, Xiaolin

2015-01-01

Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O) combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010). Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2 + 1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively) and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1 + 1] or [2 + 2]). This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader's eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed), less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis processing at the later stage of sentence integration. Thus, rhythmic pattern in Chinese can dynamically affect both local phrase analysis and global sentence integration during silent reading. PMID:26696942

Processing Rhythmic Pattern during Chinese Sentence Reading: An Eye Movement Study.

PubMed

Luo, Yingyi; Duan, Yunyan; Zhou, Xiaolin

2015-01-01

Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O) combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010). Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2 + 1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively) and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1 + 1] or [2 + 2]). This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader's eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed), less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis processing at the later stage of sentence integration. Thus, rhythmic pattern in Chinese can dynamically affect both local phrase analysis and global sentence integration during silent reading.

Influence of Internal and External Noise on Spontaneous Visuomotor Synchronization.

PubMed

Varlet, Manuel; Schmidt, R C; Richardson, Michael J

2016-01-01

Historically, movement noise or variability is considered to be an undesirable property of biological motor systems. In particular, noise is typically assumed to degrade the emergence and stability of rhythmic motor synchronization. Recently, however, it has been suggested that small levels of noise might actually improve the functioning of motor systems and facilitate their adaptation to environmental events. Here, the authors investigated whether noise can facilitate spontaneous rhythmic visuomotor synchronization. They examined the influence of internal noise in the rhythmic limb movements of participants and external noise in the movement of an oscillating visual stimulus on the occurrence of spontaneous synchronization. By indexing the natural frequency variability of participants and manipulating the frequency variability of the visual stimulus, the authors demonstrated that both internal and external noise degrade synchronization when the participants' and stimulus movement frequencies are similar, but can actually facilitate synchronization when the frequencies are different. Furthermore, the two kinds of noise interact with each other. Internal noise facilitates synchronization only when external noise is minimal and vice versa. Too much internal and external noise together degrades synchronization. These findings open new perspectives for better understanding the role of noise in human rhythmic coordination.

Tonic nanomolar dopamine enables an activity-dependent phase recovery mechanism that persistently alters the maximal conductance of the hyperpolarization-activated current in a rhythmically active neuron.

PubMed

Rodgers, Edmund W; Fu, Jing Jing; Krenz, Wulf-Dieter C; Baro, Deborah J

2011-11-09

The phases at which network neurons fire in rhythmic motor outputs are critically important for the proper generation of motor behaviors. The pyloric network in the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion generates a rhythmic motor output wherein neuronal phase relationships are remarkably invariant across individuals and throughout lifetimes. The mechanisms for maintaining these robust phase relationships over the long-term are not well described. Here we show that tonic nanomolar dopamine (DA) acts at type 1 DA receptors (D1Rs) to enable an activity-dependent mechanism that can contribute to phase maintenance in the lateral pyloric (LP) neuron. The LP displays continuous rhythmic bursting. The activity-dependent mechanism was triggered by a prolonged decrease in LP burst duration, and it generated a persistent increase in the maximal conductance (G(max)) of the LP hyperpolarization-activated current (I(h)), but only in the presence of steady-state DA. Interestingly, micromolar DA produces an LP phase advance accompanied by a decrease in LP burst duration that abolishes normal LP network function. During a 1 h application of micromolar DA, LP phase recovered over tens of minutes because, the activity-dependent mechanism enabled by steady-state DA was triggered by the micromolar DA-induced decrease in LP burst duration. Presumably, this mechanism restored normal LP network function. These data suggest steady-state DA may enable homeostatic mechanisms that maintain motor network output during protracted neuromodulation. This DA-enabled, activity-dependent mechanism to preserve phase may be broadly relevant, as diminished dopaminergic tone has recently been shown to reduce I(h) in rhythmically active neurons in the mammalian brain.

Can Birds Perceive Rhythmic Patterns? A Review and Experiments on a Songbird and a Parrot Species

PubMed Central

ten Cate, Carel; Spierings, Michelle; Hubert, Jeroen; Honing, Henkjan

2016-01-01

While humans can easily entrain their behavior with the beat in music, this ability is rare among animals. Yet, comparative studies in non-human species are needed if we want to understand how and why this ability evolved. Entrainment requires two abilities: (1) recognizing the regularity in the auditory stimulus and (2) the ability to adjust the own motor output to the perceived pattern. It has been suggested that beat perception and entrainment are linked to the ability for vocal learning. The presence of some bird species showing beat induction, and also the existence of vocal learning as well as vocal non-learning bird taxa, make them relevant models for comparative research on rhythm perception and its link to vocal learning. Also, some bird vocalizations show strong regularity in rhythmic structure, suggesting that birds might perceive rhythmic structures. In this paper we review the available experimental evidence for the perception of regularity and rhythms by birds, like the ability to distinguish regular from irregular stimuli over tempo transformations and report data from new experiments. While some species show a limited ability to detect regularity, most evidence suggests that birds attend primarily to absolute and not relative timing of patterns and to local features of stimuli. We conclude that, apart from some large parrot species, there is limited evidence for beat and regularity perception among birds and that the link to vocal learning is unclear. We next report the new experiments in which zebra finches and budgerigars (both vocal learners) were first trained to distinguish a regular from an irregular pattern of beats and then tested on various tempo transformations of these stimuli. The results showed that both species reduced the discrimination after tempo transformations. This suggests that, as was found in earlier studies, they attended mainly to local temporal features of the stimuli, and not to their overall regularity. However, some individuals of both species showed an additional sensitivity to the more global pattern if some local features were left unchanged. Altogether our study indicates both between and within species variation, in which birds attend to a mixture of local and to global rhythmic features. PMID:27242635

Musically cued gait-training improves both perceptual and motor timing in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Benoit, Charles-Etienne; Dalla Bella, Simone; Farrugia, Nicolas; Obrig, Hellmuth; Mainka, Stefan; Kotz, Sonja A

2014-01-01

It is well established that auditory cueing improves gait in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). Disease-related reductions in speed and step length can be improved by providing rhythmical auditory cues via a metronome or music. However, effects on cognitive aspects of motor control have yet to be thoroughly investigated. If synchronization of movement to an auditory cue relies on a supramodal timing system involved in perceptual, motor, and sensorimotor integration, auditory cueing can be expected to affect both motor and perceptual timing. Here, we tested this hypothesis by assessing perceptual and motor timing in 15 IPD patients before and after a 4-week music training program with rhythmic auditory cueing. Long-term effects were assessed 1 month after the end of the training. Perceptual and motor timing was evaluated with a battery for the assessment of auditory sensorimotor and timing abilities and compared to that of age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls. Prior to training, IPD patients exhibited impaired perceptual and motor timing. Training improved patients' performance in tasks requiring synchronization with isochronous sequences, and enhanced their ability to adapt to durational changes in a sequence in hand tapping tasks. Benefits of cueing extended to time perception (duration discrimination and detection of misaligned beats in musical excerpts). The current results demonstrate that auditory cueing leads to benefits beyond gait and support the idea that coupling gait to rhythmic auditory cues in IPD patients relies on a neuronal network engaged in both perceptual and motor timing.

Motor contributions to the temporal precision of auditory attention

PubMed Central

Morillon, Benjamin; Schroeder, Charles E.; Wyart, Valentin

2014-01-01

In temporal—or dynamic—attending theory, it is proposed that motor activity helps to synchronize temporal fluctuations of attention with the timing of events in a task-relevant stream, thus facilitating sensory selection. Here we develop a mechanistic behavioural account for this theory by asking human participants to track a slow reference beat, by noiseless finger pressing, while extracting auditory target tones delivered on-beat and interleaved with distractors. We find that overt rhythmic motor activity improves the segmentation of auditory information by enhancing sensitivity to target tones while actively suppressing distractor tones. This effect is triggered by cyclic fluctuations in sensory gain locked to individual motor acts, scales parametrically with the temporal predictability of sensory events and depends on the temporal alignment between motor and attention fluctuations. Together, these findings reveal how top-down influences associated with a rhythmic motor routine sharpen sensory representations, enacting auditory ‘active sensing’. PMID:25314898

Motor contributions to the temporal precision of auditory attention.

PubMed

Morillon, Benjamin; Schroeder, Charles E; Wyart, Valentin

2014-10-15

In temporal-or dynamic-attending theory, it is proposed that motor activity helps to synchronize temporal fluctuations of attention with the timing of events in a task-relevant stream, thus facilitating sensory selection. Here we develop a mechanistic behavioural account for this theory by asking human participants to track a slow reference beat, by noiseless finger pressing, while extracting auditory target tones delivered on-beat and interleaved with distractors. We find that overt rhythmic motor activity improves the segmentation of auditory information by enhancing sensitivity to target tones while actively suppressing distractor tones. This effect is triggered by cyclic fluctuations in sensory gain locked to individual motor acts, scales parametrically with the temporal predictability of sensory events and depends on the temporal alignment between motor and attention fluctuations. Together, these findings reveal how top-down influences associated with a rhythmic motor routine sharpen sensory representations, enacting auditory 'active sensing'.

Use of Sine Shaped High-Frequency Rhythmic Visual Stimuli Patterns for SSVEP Response Analysis and Fatigue Rate Evaluation in Normal Subjects

PubMed Central

Keihani, Ahmadreza; Shirzhiyan, Zahra; Farahi, Morteza; Shamsi, Elham; Mahnam, Amin; Makkiabadi, Bahador; Haidari, Mohsen R.; Jafari, Amir H.

2018-01-01

Background: Recent EEG-SSVEP signal based BCI studies have used high frequency square pulse visual stimuli to reduce subjective fatigue. However, the effect of total harmonic distortion (THD) has not been considered. Compared to CRT and LCD monitors, LED screen displays high-frequency wave with better refresh rate. In this study, we present high frequency sine wave simple and rhythmic patterns with low THD rate by LED to analyze SSVEP responses and evaluate subjective fatigue in normal subjects. Materials and Methods: We used patterns of 3-sequence high-frequency sine waves (25, 30, and 35 Hz) to design our visual stimuli. Nine stimuli patterns, 3 simple (repetition of each of above 3 frequencies e.g., P25-25-25) and 6 rhythmic (all of the frequencies in 6 different sequences e.g., P25-30-35) were chosen. A hardware setup with low THD rate (<0.1%) was designed to present these patterns on LED. Twenty two normal subjects (aged 23–30 (25 ± 2.1) yrs) were enrolled. Visual analog scale (VAS) was used for subjective fatigue evaluation after presentation of each stimulus pattern. PSD, CCA, and LASSO methods were employed to analyze SSVEP responses. The data including SSVEP features and fatigue rate for different visual stimuli patterns were statistically evaluated. Results: All 9 visual stimuli patterns elicited SSVEP responses. Overall, obtained accuracy rates were 88.35% for PSD and > 90% for CCA and LASSO (for TWs > 1 s). High frequency rhythmic patterns group with low THD rate showed higher accuracy rate (99.24%) than simple patterns group (98.48%). Repeated measure ANOVA showed significant difference between rhythmic pattern features (P < 0.0005). Overall, there was no significant difference between the VAS of rhythmic [3.85 ± 2.13] compared to the simple patterns group [3.96 ± 2.21], (P = 0.63). Rhythmic group had lower within group VAS variation (min = P25-30-35 [2.90 ± 2.45], max = P35-25-30 [4.81 ± 2.65]) as well as least individual pattern VAS (P25-30-35). Discussion and Conclusion: Overall, rhythmic and simple pattern groups had higher and similar accuracy rates. Rhythmic stimuli patterns showed insignificantly lower fatigue rate than simple patterns. We conclude that both rhythmic and simple visual high frequency sine wave stimuli require further research for human subject SSVEP-BCI studies. PMID:29892219

Use of Sine Shaped High-Frequency Rhythmic Visual Stimuli Patterns for SSVEP Response Analysis and Fatigue Rate Evaluation in Normal Subjects.

PubMed

Keihani, Ahmadreza; Shirzhiyan, Zahra; Farahi, Morteza; Shamsi, Elham; Mahnam, Amin; Makkiabadi, Bahador; Haidari, Mohsen R; Jafari, Amir H

2018-01-01

Background: Recent EEG-SSVEP signal based BCI studies have used high frequency square pulse visual stimuli to reduce subjective fatigue. However, the effect of total harmonic distortion (THD) has not been considered. Compared to CRT and LCD monitors, LED screen displays high-frequency wave with better refresh rate. In this study, we present high frequency sine wave simple and rhythmic patterns with low THD rate by LED to analyze SSVEP responses and evaluate subjective fatigue in normal subjects. Materials and Methods: We used patterns of 3-sequence high-frequency sine waves (25, 30, and 35 Hz) to design our visual stimuli. Nine stimuli patterns, 3 simple (repetition of each of above 3 frequencies e.g., P25-25-25) and 6 rhythmic (all of the frequencies in 6 different sequences e.g., P25-30-35) were chosen. A hardware setup with low THD rate (<0.1%) was designed to present these patterns on LED. Twenty two normal subjects (aged 23-30 (25 ± 2.1) yrs) were enrolled. Visual analog scale (VAS) was used for subjective fatigue evaluation after presentation of each stimulus pattern. PSD, CCA, and LASSO methods were employed to analyze SSVEP responses. The data including SSVEP features and fatigue rate for different visual stimuli patterns were statistically evaluated. Results: All 9 visual stimuli patterns elicited SSVEP responses. Overall, obtained accuracy rates were 88.35% for PSD and > 90% for CCA and LASSO (for TWs > 1 s). High frequency rhythmic patterns group with low THD rate showed higher accuracy rate (99.24%) than simple patterns group (98.48%). Repeated measure ANOVA showed significant difference between rhythmic pattern features ( P < 0.0005). Overall, there was no significant difference between the VAS of rhythmic [3.85 ± 2.13] compared to the simple patterns group [3.96 ± 2.21], ( P = 0.63). Rhythmic group had lower within group VAS variation (min = P25-30-35 [2.90 ± 2.45], max = P35-25-30 [4.81 ± 2.65]) as well as least individual pattern VAS (P25-30-35). Discussion and Conclusion: Overall, rhythmic and simple pattern groups had higher and similar accuracy rates. Rhythmic stimuli patterns showed insignificantly lower fatigue rate than simple patterns. We conclude that both rhythmic and simple visual high frequency sine wave stimuli require further research for human subject SSVEP-BCI studies.

[Central Pattern Generators: Mechanisms of the Activity and Their Role in the Control of "Automatic" Movements].

PubMed

Arshavsky, I; Deliagina, T G; Orlovsky, G N

2015-01-01

Central pattern generators (CPGs) are a set of interconnected neurons capable of generating a basic pattern of motor output underlying "automatic" movements (breathing, locomotion, chewing, swallowing, and so on) in the absence of afferent signals from the executive motor apparatus. They can be divided into the constitutive CPGs active throughout the entire lifetime (respiratory CPGs) and conditional CPGs controlling episodic movements (locomotion, chewing, swallowing, and others). Since a motor output of CPGs is determined by their internal organization, the activities of the conditional CPGs are initiated by simple commands coming from higher centers. We describe the structural and functional organization of the locomotor CPGs in the marine mollusk Clione limacina, lamprey, frog embryo, and laboratory mammals (cat, mouse, and rat), CPGs controlling the respiratory and swallowing movements in mammals, and CPGs controlling discharges of the electric organ in the gymnotiform fish. It is shown that in all these cases, the generation of rhythmic motor output is based both on the endogenous (pacemaker) activity of specific groups of interneurons and on interneural interactions. These two interrelated mechanisms complement each other, ensuring the high reliability of CPG functionality. We discuss how the experience obtained in studying CPGs can be used to understand mechanisms of more complex functions of the brain, including its cognitive functions.

Neuromodulation to the Rescue: Compensation of Temperature-Induced Breakdown of Rhythmic Motor Patterns via Extrinsic Neuromodulatory Input

PubMed Central

Städele, Carola; Heigele, Stefanie; Stein, Wolfgang

2015-01-01

Stable rhythmic neural activity depends on the well-coordinated interplay of synaptic and cell-intrinsic conductances. Since all biophysical processes are temperature dependent, this interplay is challenged during temperature fluctuations. How the nervous system remains functional during temperature perturbations remains mostly unknown. We present a hitherto unknown mechanism of how temperature-induced changes in neural networks are compensated by changing their neuromodulatory state: activation of neuromodulatory pathways establishes a dynamic coregulation of synaptic and intrinsic conductances with opposing effects on neuronal activity when temperature changes, hence rescuing neuronal activity. Using the well-studied gastric mill pattern generator of the crab, we show that modest temperature increase can abolish rhythmic activity in isolated neural circuits due to increased leak currents in rhythm-generating neurons. Dynamic clamp-mediated addition of leak currents was sufficient to stop neuronal oscillations at low temperatures, and subtraction of additional leak currents at elevated temperatures was sufficient to rescue the rhythm. Despite the apparent sensitivity of the isolated nervous system to temperature fluctuations, the rhythm could be stabilized by activating extrinsic neuromodulatory inputs from descending projection neurons, a strategy that we indeed found to be implemented in intact animals. In the isolated nervous system, temperature compensation was achieved by stronger extrinsic neuromodulatory input from projection neurons or by augmenting projection neuron influence via bath application of the peptide cotransmitter Cancer borealis tachykinin-related peptide Ia (CabTRP Ia). CabTRP Ia activates the modulator-induced current IMI (a nonlinear voltage-gated inward current) that effectively acted as a negative leak current and counterbalanced the temperature-induced leak to rescue neuronal oscillations. Computational modelling revealed the ability of IMI to reduce detrimental leak-current influences on neuronal networks over a broad conductance range and indicated that leak and IMI are closely coregulated in the biological system to enable stable motor patterns. In conclusion, these results show that temperature compensation does not need to be implemented within the network itself but can be conditionally provided by extrinsic neuromodulatory input that counterbalances temperature-induced modifications of circuit-intrinsic properties. PMID:26417944

Spatiotemporal dynamics of rhythmic spinal interneurons measured with two-photon calcium imaging and coherence analysis.

PubMed

Kwan, Alex C; Dietz, Shelby B; Zhong, Guisheng; Harris-Warrick, Ronald M; Webb, Watt W

2010-12-01

In rhythmic neural circuits, a neuron often fires action potentials with a constant phase to the rhythm, a timing relationship that can be functionally significant. To characterize these phase preferences in a large-scale, cell type-specific manner, we adapted multitaper coherence analysis for two-photon calcium imaging. Analysis of simulated data showed that coherence is a simple and robust measure of rhythmicity for calcium imaging data. When applied to the neonatal mouse hindlimb spinal locomotor network, the phase relationships between peak activity of >1,000 ventral spinal interneurons and motor output were characterized. Most interneurons showed rhythmic activity that was coherent and in phase with the ipsilateral motor output during fictive locomotion. The phase distributions of two genetically identified classes of interneurons were distinct from the ensemble population and from each other. There was no obvious spatial clustering of interneurons with similar phase preferences. Together, these results suggest that cell type, not neighboring neuron activity, is a better indicator of an interneuron's response during fictive locomotion. The ability to measure the phase preferences of many neurons with cell type and spatial information should be widely applicable for studying other rhythmic neural circuits.

Disturbed jaw behavior in whiplash-associated disorders during rhythmic jaw movements.

PubMed

Häggman-Henrikson, B; Zafar, H; Eriksson, P-O

2002-11-01

As shown previously, "functional jaw movements" are the result of coordinated activation of jaw as well as neck muscles, leading to simultaneous movements in the temporomandibular, atlanto-occipital, and cervical spine joints. In this study, the effect of neck trauma on natural jaw function was evaluated in 12 individuals suffering from whiplash-associated disorders (WAD). Spatiotemporal characteristics of mandibular and concomitant head movements were evaluated for three different modes of rhythmic jaw activities: self-paced continuous maximal jaw-opening/-closing movements, paced continuous maximal jaw-opening/-closing movements at 50 cycles/minute, and unilateral chewing. Compared with healthy subjects, the WAD group showed smaller magnitude and altered coordination pattern (a change in temporal relations) of mandibular and head movements. In conclusion, these results show that neck trauma can derange integrated jaw and neck behavior, and underline the functional coupling between the jaw and head-neck motor systems.

A ‘tool box’ for deciphering neuronal circuits in the developing chick spinal cord

PubMed Central

Hadas, Yoav; Etlin, Alex; Falk, Haya; Avraham, Oshri; Kobiler, Oren; Panet, Amos; Lev-Tov, Aharon; Klar, Avihu

2014-01-01

The genetic dissection of spinal circuits is an essential new means for understanding the neural basis of mammalian behavior. Molecular targeting of specific neuronal populations, a key instrument in the genetic dissection of neuronal circuits in the mouse model, is a complex and time-demanding process. Here we present a circuit-deciphering ‘tool box’ for fast, reliable and cheap genetic targeting of neuronal circuits in the developing spinal cord of the chick. We demonstrate targeting of motoneurons and spinal interneurons, mapping of axonal trajectories and synaptic targeting in both single and populations of spinal interneurons, and viral vector-mediated labeling of pre-motoneurons. We also demonstrate fluorescent imaging of the activity pattern of defined spinal neurons during rhythmic motor behavior, and assess the role of channel rhodopsin-targeted population of interneurons in rhythmic behavior using specific photoactivation. PMID:25147209

Functional characterization of dI6 interneurons in the neonatal mouse spinal cord.

PubMed

Dyck, Jason; Lanuza, Guillermo M; Gosgnach, Simon

2012-06-01

Our understanding of the neural control of locomotion has been greatly enhanced by the ability to identify and manipulate genetically defined populations of interneurons that comprise the locomotor central pattern generator (CPG). To date, the dI6 interneurons are one of the few populations that settle in the ventral region of the postnatal spinal cord that have not been investigated. In the present study, we utilized a novel transgenic mouse line to electrophysiologically characterize dI6 interneurons located close to the central canal and study their function during fictive locomotion. The majority of dI6 cells investigated were found to be rhythmically active during fictive locomotion and could be divided into two electrophysiologically distinct populations of interneurons. The first population fired rhythmic trains of action potentials that were loosely coupled to ventral root output and contained several intrinsic membrane properties of rhythm-generating neurons, raising the possibility that these cells may be involved in the generation of rhythmic activity in the locomotor CPG. The second population fired rhythmic trains of action potentials that were tightly coupled to ventral root output and lacked intrinsic oscillatory mechanisms, indicating that these neurons may be driven by a rhythm-generating network. Together these results indicate that dI6 neurons comprise an important component of the locomotor CPG that participate in multiple facets of motor behavior.

Functional characterization of dI6 interneurons in the neonatal mouse spinal cord

PubMed Central

Dyck, Jason; Lanuza, Guillermo M.

2012-01-01

Our understanding of the neural control of locomotion has been greatly enhanced by the ability to identify and manipulate genetically defined populations of interneurons that comprise the locomotor central pattern generator (CPG). To date, the dI6 interneurons are one of the few populations that settle in the ventral region of the postnatal spinal cord that have not been investigated. In the present study, we utilized a novel transgenic mouse line to electrophysiologically characterize dI6 interneurons located close to the central canal and study their function during fictive locomotion. The majority of dI6 cells investigated were found to be rhythmically active during fictive locomotion and could be divided into two electrophysiologically distinct populations of interneurons. The first population fired rhythmic trains of action potentials that were loosely coupled to ventral root output and contained several intrinsic membrane properties of rhythm-generating neurons, raising the possibility that these cells may be involved in the generation of rhythmic activity in the locomotor CPG. The second population fired rhythmic trains of action potentials that were tightly coupled to ventral root output and lacked intrinsic oscillatory mechanisms, indicating that these neurons may be driven by a rhythm-generating network. Together these results indicate that dI6 neurons comprise an important component of the locomotor CPG that participate in multiple facets of motor behavior. PMID:22442567

Multi-segmental movement patterns reflect juggling complexity and skill level.

PubMed

Zago, Matteo; Pacifici, Ilaria; Lovecchio, Nicola; Galli, Manuela; Federolf, Peter Andreas; Sforza, Chiarella

2017-08-01

The juggling action of six experts and six intermediates jugglers was recorded with a motion capture system and decomposed into its fundamental components through Principal Component Analysis. The aim was to quantify trends in movement dimensionality, multi-segmental patterns and rhythmicity as a function of proficiency level and task complexity. Dimensionality was quantified in terms of Residual Variance, while the Relative Amplitude was introduced to account for individual differences in movement components. We observed that: experience-related modifications in multi-segmental actions exist, such as the progressive reduction of error-correction movements, especially in complex task condition. The systematic identification of motor patterns sensitive to the acquisition of specific experience could accelerate the learning process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Variation in vocal-motor development in infant siblings of children with autism.

PubMed

Iverson, Jana M; Wozniak, Robert H

2007-01-01

In this study we examined early motor, vocal, and communicative development in a group of younger siblings of children diagnosed with autism (Infant Siblings). Infant Siblings and no-risk comparison later-born infants were videotaped at home with a primary caregiver each month from 5 to 14 months, with follow-up at 18 months. As a group, Infant Siblings were delayed in the onset of early developmental milestones and spent significantly less time in a greater number of postures, suggestive of relative postural instability. In addition, they demonstrated attenuated patterns of change in rhythmic arm activity around the time of reduplicated babble onset; and they were highly likely to exhibit delayed language development at 18 months.

Frontotemporal oxyhemoglobin dynamics predict performance accuracy of dance simulation gameplay: temporal characteristics of top-down and bottom-up cortical activities.

PubMed

Ono, Yumie; Nomoto, Yasunori; Tanaka, Shohei; Sato, Keisuke; Shimada, Sotaro; Tachibana, Atsumichi; Bronner, Shaw; Noah, J Adam

2014-01-15

We utilized the high temporal resolution of functional near-infrared spectroscopy to explore how sensory input (visual and rhythmic auditory cues) are processed in the cortical areas of multimodal integration to achieve coordinated motor output during unrestricted dance simulation gameplay. Using an open source clone of the dance simulation video game, Dance Dance Revolution, two cortical regions of interest were selected for study, the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and the frontopolar cortex (FPC). We hypothesized that activity in the FPC would indicate top-down regulatory mechanisms of motor behavior; while that in the MTG would be sustained due to bottom-up integration of visual and auditory cues throughout the task. We also hypothesized that a correlation would exist between behavioral performance and the temporal patterns of the hemodynamic responses in these regions of interest. Results indicated that greater temporal accuracy of dance steps positively correlated with persistent activation of the MTG and with cumulative suppression of the FPC. When auditory cues were eliminated from the simulation, modifications in cortical responses were found depending on the gameplay performance. In the MTG, high-performance players showed an increase but low-performance players displayed a decrease in cumulative amount of the oxygenated hemoglobin response in the no music condition compared to that in the music condition. In the FPC, high-performance players showed relatively small variance in the activity regardless of the presence of auditory cues, while low-performance players showed larger differences in the activity between the no music and music conditions. These results suggest that the MTG plays an important role in the successful integration of visual and rhythmic cues and the FPC may work as top-down control to compensate for insufficient integrative ability of visual and rhythmic cues in the MTG. The relative relationships between these cortical areas indicated high- to low-performance levels when performing cued motor tasks. We propose that changes in these relationships can be monitored to gauge performance increases in motor learning and rehabilitation programs. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fractal Patterns of Neural Activity Exist within the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus and Require Extrinsic Network Interactions

PubMed Central

Hu, Kun; Meijer, Johanna H.; Shea, Steven A.; vanderLeest, Henk Tjebbe; Pittman-Polletta, Benjamin; Houben, Thijs; van Oosterhout, Floor; Deboer, Tom; Scheer, Frank A. J. L.

2012-01-01

The mammalian central circadian pacemaker (the suprachiasmatic nucleus, SCN) contains thousands of neurons that are coupled through a complex network of interactions. In addition to the established role of the SCN in generating rhythms of ∼24 hours in many physiological functions, the SCN was recently shown to be necessary for normal self-similar/fractal organization of motor activity and heart rate over a wide range of time scales—from minutes to 24 hours. To test whether the neural network within the SCN is sufficient to generate such fractal patterns, we studied multi-unit neural activity of in vivo and in vitro SCNs in rodents. In vivo SCN-neural activity exhibited fractal patterns that are virtually identical in mice and rats and are similar to those in motor activity at time scales from minutes up to 10 hours. In addition, these patterns remained unchanged when the main afferent signal to the SCN, namely light, was removed. However, the fractal patterns of SCN-neural activity are not autonomous within the SCN as these patterns completely broke down in the isolated in vitro SCN despite persistence of circadian rhythmicity. Thus, SCN-neural activity is fractal in the intact organism and these fractal patterns require network interactions between the SCN and extra-SCN nodes. Such a fractal control network could underlie the fractal regulation observed in many physiological functions that involve the SCN, including motor control and heart rate regulation. PMID:23185285

Evaluating the importance of social motor synchronization and motor skill for understanding autism.

PubMed

Fitzpatrick, Paula; Romero, Veronica; Amaral, Joseph L; Duncan, Amie; Barnard, Holly; Richardson, Michael J; Schmidt, R C

2017-10-01

Impairments in social interaction and communicating with others are core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the specific processes underlying such social competence impairments are not well understood. An important key for increasing our understanding of ASD-specific social deficits may lie with the social motor synchronization that takes place when we implicitly coordinate our bodies with others. Here, we tested whether dynamical measures of synchronization differentiate children with ASD from controls and further explored the relationships between synchronization ability and motor control problems. We found (a) that children with ASD exhibited different and less stable patterns of social synchronization ability than controls; (b) children with ASD performed motor movements that were slower and more variable in both spacing and timing; and (c) some social synchronization that involved motor timing was related to motor ability but less rhythmic synchronization was not. These findings raise the possibility that objective dynamical measures of synchronization ability and motor skill could provide new insights into understanding the social deficits in ASD that could ultimately aid clinical diagnosis and prognosis. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1687-1699. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[Motor behavior of human fetuses during the second trimester of gestation: a longitudinal ultrasound study].

PubMed

Reynoso, C; Crespo-Eguílaz, N; Alcázar, J L; Narbona, J

2015-03-01

The aim of this research is to contribute to knowledge of the normal spontaneous motor behavior of the human fetus during the second trimester of pregnancy. This study focuses on five patterns of spontaneous fetal movement: startle (S), axo-rhizomelic rhythmia (ARR), axial stretching (AS), general movement (GM), and diaphragmatic contraction (DC). A cohort of 13 subjects was followed up using 2D obstetrical ultrasound images at 12, 16, 20, and 24 weeks of gestation. As inclusion criteria, neonatal neurological examination and general movements after eutocic delivery at term were normal in all of the subjects, and their neuromotor and cognitive development until the end of pre-school age were also normal. All these five motor patterns are present at the beginning of the 2(nd) gestational trimester, but their quantitative and qualitative traits are diverse according to gestational ages. The phasic, isolated or rhythmically repeated movements, S and ARR, are prominent at 12 and 16 weeks of gestation, and then their presence gradually diminishes. By contrast, tonic and complex AS and GM movements increase their presence and quality at 20 and 24 weeks. RAR constitute a particular periodic motor pattern not described in previous literature. Moreover, the incidence of DC is progressive throughout the trimester, in clusters of 2-6 arrhythmic and irregular beats. Fetal heart rate increases during fetal motor active periods. All five normal behavioral patterns observed in the ultrasounds reflect the progressive tuning of motor generators in human nervous system during mid-pregnancy. Copyright © 2014 Asociación Española de Pediatría. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Performance-based robotic assistance during rhythmic arm exercises.

PubMed

Leconte, Patricia; Ronsse, Renaud

2016-09-13

Rhythmic and discrete upper-limb movements are two fundamental motor primitives controlled by different neural pathways, at least partially. After stroke, both primitives can be impaired. Both conventional and robot-assisted therapies mainly train discrete functional movements like reaching and grasping. However, if the movements form two distinct neural and functional primitives, both should be trained to recover the complete motor repertoire. Recent studies show that rhythmic movements tend to be less impaired than discrete ones, so combining both movement types in therapy could support the execution of movements with a higher degree of impairment by movements that are performed more stably. A new performance-based assistance method was developed to train rhythmic movements with a rehabilitation robot. The algorithm uses the assist-as-needed paradigm by independently assessing and assisting movement features of smoothness, velocity, and amplitude. The method relies on different building blocks: (i) an adaptive oscillator captures the main movement harmonic in state variables, (ii) custom metrics measure the movement performance regarding the three features, and (iii) adaptive forces assist the patient. The patient is encouraged to improve performance regarding these three features with assistance forces computed in parallel to each other. The method was tested with simulated jerky signals and a pilot experiment with two stroke patients, who were instructed to make circular movements with an end-effector robot with assistance during half of the trials. Simulation data reveal sensitivity of the metrics for assessing the features while limiting interference between them. The assistance's effectiveness with stroke patients is established since it (i) adapts to the patient's real-time performance, (ii) improves patient motor performance, and (iii) does not lead the patient to slack. The smoothness assistance was by far the most used by both patients, while it provided no active mechanical work to the patient on average. Our performance-based assistance method for training rhythmic movements is a viable candidate to complement robot-assisted upper-limb therapies for training a larger motor repertoire.

Jaw-opening reflex and corticobulbar motor excitability changes during quiet sleep in non-human primates.

PubMed

Yao, Dongyuan; Lavigne, Gilles J; Lee, Jye-Chang; Adachi, Kazunori; Sessle, Barry J

2013-02-01

To test the hypothesis that the reflex and corticobulbar motor excitability of jaw muscles is reduced during sleep. Polysomnographic recordings in the electrophysiological study. University sleep research laboratories. The reflex and corticobulbar motor excitability of jaw muscles was determined during the quiet awake state (QW) and quiet sleep (QS) in monkeys (n = 4). During QS sleep, compared to QW periods, both tongue stimulation-evoked jaw-opening reflex peak and root mean square amplitudes were significantly decreased with stimulations at 2-3.5 × thresholds (P < 0.001). The jaw-opening reflex latency during sleep was also significantly longer than during QW. Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) within the cortical masticatory area induced rhythmic jaw movements at a stable threshold (≤ 60 μA) during QW; but during QS, ICMS failed to induce any rhythmic jaw movements at the maximum ICMS intensity used, although sustained jaw-opening movements were evoked at significantly increased threshold (P < 0.001) in one of the monkeys. Similarly, during QW, ICMS within face primary motor cortex induced orofacial twitches at a stable threshold (≤ 35 μA), but the ICMS thresholds were elevated during QS. Soon after the animal awoke, rhythmic jaw movements and orofacial twitches could be evoked at thresholds similar to those before QS. The results suggest that the excitability of reflex and corticobulbar-evoked activity in the jaw motor system is depressed during QS.

A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) can keep the beat: motor entrainment to rhythmic auditory stimuli in a non vocal mimic.

PubMed

Cook, Peter; Rouse, Andrew; Wilson, Margaret; Reichmuth, Colleen

2013-11-01

Is the ability to entrain motor activity to a rhythmic auditory stimulus, that is "keep a beat," dependent on neural adaptations supporting vocal mimicry? That is the premise of the vocal learning and synchronization hypothesis, recently advanced to explain the basis of this behavior (A. Patel, 2006, Musical Rhythm, Linguistic Rhythm, and Human Evolution, Music Perception, 24, 99-104). Prior to the current study, only vocal mimics, including humans, cockatoos, and budgerigars, have been shown to be capable of motoric entrainment. Here we demonstrate that a less vocally flexible animal, a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), can learn to entrain head bobbing to an auditory rhythm meeting three criteria: a behavioral response that does not reproduce the stimulus; performance transfer to a range of novel tempos; and entrainment to complex, musical stimuli. These findings show that the capacity for entrainment of movement to rhythmic sounds does not depend on a capacity for vocal mimicry, and may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously hypothesized.

Auditory rhythmic cueing in movement rehabilitation: findings and possible mechanisms

PubMed Central

Schaefer, Rebecca S.

2014-01-01

Moving to music is intuitive and spontaneous, and music is widely used to support movement, most commonly during exercise. Auditory cues are increasingly also used in the rehabilitation of disordered movement, by aligning actions to sounds such as a metronome or music. Here, the effect of rhythmic auditory cueing on movement is discussed and representative findings of cued movement rehabilitation are considered for several movement disorders, specifically post-stroke motor impairment, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. There are multiple explanations for the efficacy of cued movement practice. Potentially relevant, non-mutually exclusive mechanisms include the acceleration of learning; qualitatively different motor learning owing to an auditory context; effects of increased temporal skills through rhythmic practices and motivational aspects of musical rhythm. Further considerations of rehabilitation paradigm efficacy focus on specific movement disorders, intervention methods and complexity of the auditory cues. Although clinical interventions using rhythmic auditory cueing do not show consistently positive results, it is argued that internal mechanisms of temporal prediction and tracking are crucial, and further research may inform rehabilitation practice to increase intervention efficacy. PMID:25385780

Dissociation between melodic and rhythmic processing during piano performance from musical scores.

PubMed

Bengtsson, Sara L; Ullén, Fredrik

2006-03-01

When performing or perceiving music, we experience the melodic (spatial) and rhythmic aspects as a unified whole. Moreover, the motor program theory stipulates that the relative timing and the serial order of the movement are invariant features of a motor program. Still, clinical and psychophysical observations suggest independent processing of these two aspects, in both production and perception. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to dissociate between brain areas processing the melodic and the rhythmic aspects during piano playing from musical scores. This behavior requires that the pianist decodes two types of information from the score in order to produce the desired piece of music. The spatial location of a note head determines which piano key to strike, and the various features of the note, such as the stem and flags determine the timing of each key stroke. We found that the medial occipital lobe, the superior temporal lobe, the rostral cingulate cortex, the putamen and the cerebellum process the melodic information, whereas the lateral occipital and the inferior temporal cortex, the left supramarginal gyrus, the left inferior and ventral frontal gyri, the caudate nucleus, and the cerebellum process the rhythmic information. Thus, we suggest a dissociate involvement of the dorsal visual stream in the spatial pitch processing and the ventral visual stream in temporal movement preparation. We propose that this dissociate organization may be important for fast learning and flexibility in motor control.

Early childhood sleep and eating problems as predictors of adolescent and adult mood and anxiety disorders.

PubMed

Ong, Say How; Wickramaratne, Priya; Tang, Min; Weissman, Myrna M

2006-11-01

Recent studies have suggested that eating and sleep problems during early childhood may pose as risk factors for mood and anxiety disorders in later life. We aim to study the associations between early childhood sleep and eating problems, specifically high motor activity during sleep and irregularities in sleep/eating schedules, and lifetime history of mood and anxiety disorders. We followed up 164 offspring, who were at high and low risk for major depression by virtue of their parental history (at least one parent had Major Depressive Disorder). Target sleep and eating problems were measured using Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS). The offspring were blindly assessed at 3 times over 20 years using a structured diagnostic interview. Irregularities in sleeping and eating schedules in childhood (low rhythmicity) was associated with adolescent-onset major depression and anxiety disorder, as well as childhood-onset anxiety disorder. High motor activity level during sleep was associated with both childhood-onset and adolescent-onset dysthymic disorder. Neither childhood sleep nor eating irregularities were associated with adult onset psychopathology. Retrospective reports of childhood sleep and eating patterns were derived from parent-reports. Reported problems may overlap with clinical diagnoses. Clinicians should be alerted to parental reports of children's sleep and eating problems suggesting low rhythmicity, as well as high motor activity levels during sleep. These early behaviors may be predictive of subsequent mood and anxiety disorders in childhood and adolescence.

Rhythmic Oscillations of Visual Contrast Sensitivity Synchronized with Action

PubMed Central

Tomassini, Alice; Spinelli, Donatella; Jacono, Marco; Sandini, Giulio; Morrone, Maria Concetta

2016-01-01

It is well known that the motor and the sensory systems structure sensory data collection and cooperate to achieve an efficient integration and exchange of information. Increasing evidence suggests that both motor and sensory functions are regulated by rhythmic processes reflecting alternating states of neuronal excitability, and these may be involved in mediating sensory-motor interactions. Here we show an oscillatory fluctuation in early visual processing time locked with the execution of voluntary action, and, crucially, even for visual stimuli irrelevant to the motor task. Human participants were asked to perform a reaching movement toward a display and judge the orientation of a Gabor patch, near contrast threshold, briefly presented at random times before and during the reaching movement. When the data are temporally aligned to the onset of movement, visual contrast sensitivity oscillates with periodicity within the theta band. Importantly, the oscillations emerge during the motor planning stage, ~500 ms before movement onset. We suggest that brain oscillatory dynamics may mediate an automatic coupling between early motor planning and early visual processing, possibly instrumental in linking and closing up the visual-motor control loop. PMID:25948254

Kinematic primitives for walking and trotting gaits of a quadruped robot with compliant legs.

PubMed

Spröwitz, Alexander T; Ajallooeian, Mostafa; Tuleu, Alexandre; Ijspeert, Auke Jan

2014-01-01

In this work we research the role of body dynamics in the complexity of kinematic patterns in a quadruped robot with compliant legs. Two gait patterns, lateral sequence walk and trot, along with leg length control patterns of different complexity were implemented in a modular, feed-forward locomotion controller. The controller was tested on a small, quadruped robot with compliant, segmented leg design, and led to self-stable and self-stabilizing robot locomotion. In-air stepping and on-ground locomotion leg kinematics were recorded, and the number and shapes of motion primitives accounting for 95% of the variance of kinematic leg data were extracted. This revealed that kinematic patterns resulting from feed-forward control had a lower complexity (in-air stepping, 2-3 primitives) than kinematic patterns from on-ground locomotion (νm4 primitives), although both experiments applied identical motor patterns. The complexity of on-ground kinematic patterns had increased, through ground contact and mechanical entrainment. The complexity of observed kinematic on-ground data matches those reported from level-ground locomotion data of legged animals. Results indicate that a very low complexity of modular, rhythmic, feed-forward motor control is sufficient for level-ground locomotion in combination with passive compliant legged hardware.

Kinematic primitives for walking and trotting gaits of a quadruped robot with compliant legs

PubMed Central

Spröwitz, Alexander T.; Ajallooeian, Mostafa; Tuleu, Alexandre; Ijspeert, Auke Jan

2014-01-01

In this work we research the role of body dynamics in the complexity of kinematic patterns in a quadruped robot with compliant legs. Two gait patterns, lateral sequence walk and trot, along with leg length control patterns of different complexity were implemented in a modular, feed-forward locomotion controller. The controller was tested on a small, quadruped robot with compliant, segmented leg design, and led to self-stable and self-stabilizing robot locomotion. In-air stepping and on-ground locomotion leg kinematics were recorded, and the number and shapes of motion primitives accounting for 95% of the variance of kinematic leg data were extracted. This revealed that kinematic patterns resulting from feed-forward control had a lower complexity (in-air stepping, 2–3 primitives) than kinematic patterns from on-ground locomotion (νm4 primitives), although both experiments applied identical motor patterns. The complexity of on-ground kinematic patterns had increased, through ground contact and mechanical entrainment. The complexity of observed kinematic on-ground data matches those reported from level-ground locomotion data of legged animals. Results indicate that a very low complexity of modular, rhythmic, feed-forward motor control is sufficient for level-ground locomotion in combination with passive compliant legged hardware. PMID:24639645

Rhythmic Bimanual Coordination Is Impaired in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isenhower, Robert W.; Marsh, Kerry L.; Richardson, Michael J.; Helt, Molly; Schmidt, R. C.; Fein, Deborah

2012-01-01

Impairments in motor coordination are a common behavioral manifestation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We, therefore, used a drumming methodology to examine rhythmic bimanual coordination in children diagnosed with ASD (M = 47.3 months) and age-matched typically developing (TD) children (M = 42.6 months). Both groups were instructed to drum on…

Movement Rate Is Encoded and Influenced by Widespread, Coherent Activity of Cerebellar Molecular Layer Interneurons.

PubMed

Gaffield, Michael A; Christie, Jason M

2017-05-03

Inhibition from molecular layer interneurons (MLIs) is thought to play an important role in cerebellar function by sharpening the precision of Purkinje cell spike output. Yet the coding features of MLIs during behavior are poorly understood. To study MLI activity, we used in vivo Ca 2+ imaging in head-fixed mice during the performance of a rhythmic motor behavior, licking during water consumption. MLIs were robustly active during lick-related movement across a lobule-specific region of the cerebellum showing high temporal correspondence within their population. Average MLI Ca 2+ activity strongly correlated with movement rate but not to the intentional, or unexpected, adjustment of lick position or to sensory feedback that varied with task condition. Chemogenetic suppression of MLI output reduced lick rate and altered tongue movements, indicating that activity of these interneurons not only encodes temporal aspects of movement kinematics but also influences motor outcome pointing to an integral role in online control of rhythmic behavior. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The cerebellum helps fine-tune coordinated motor actions via signaling from projection neurons called Purkinje cells. Molecular layer interneurons (MLIs) provide powerful inhibition onto Purkinje cells, but little is understood about how this inhibitory circuit is engaged during behavior or what type of information is transmitted through these neurons. Our work establishes that MLIs in the lateral cerebellum are broadly activated during movement with calcium activity corresponding to movement rate. We also show that suppression of MLI output slows and disorganizes the precise movement pattern. Therefore, MLIs are an important circuit element in the cerebellum allowing for accurate motor control. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/374751-15$15.00/0.

The discovery of human auditory-motor entrainment and its role in the development of neurologic music therapy.

PubMed

Thaut, Michael H

2015-01-01

The discovery of rhythmic auditory-motor entrainment in clinical populations was a historical breakthrough in demonstrating for the first time a neurological mechanism linking music to retraining brain and behavioral functions. Early pilot studies from this research center were followed up by a systematic line of research studying rhythmic auditory stimulation on motor therapies for stroke, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and other movement disorders. The comprehensive effects on improving multiple aspects of motor control established the first neuroscience-based clinical method in music, which became the bedrock for the later development of neurologic music therapy. The discovery of entrainment fundamentally shifted and extended the view of the therapeutic properties of music from a psychosocially dominated view to a view using the structural elements of music to retrain motor control, speech and language function, and cognitive functions such as attention and memory. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Periodic modulation of repetitively elicited monosynaptic reflexes of the human lumbosacral spinal cord

PubMed Central

Danner, Simon M.; Freundl, Brigitta; Binder, Heinrich; Mayr, Winfried; Rattay, Frank; Minassian, Karen

2015-01-01

In individuals with motor-complete spinal cord injury, epidural stimulation of the lumbosacral spinal cord at 2 Hz evokes unmodulated reflexes in the lower limbs, while stimulation at 22–60 Hz can generate rhythmic burstlike activity. Here we elaborated on an output pattern emerging at transitional stimulation frequencies with consecutively elicited reflexes alternating between large and small. We analyzed responses concomitantly elicited in thigh and leg muscle groups bilaterally by epidural stimulation in eight motor-complete spinal cord-injured individuals. Periodic amplitude modulation of at least 20 successive responses occurred in 31.4% of all available data sets with stimulation frequency set at 5–26 Hz, with highest prevalence at 16 Hz. It could be evoked in a single muscle group only but was more strongly expressed and consistent when occurring in pairs of antagonists or in the same muscle group bilaterally. Latencies and waveforms of the modulated reflexes corresponded to those of the unmodulated, monosynaptic responses to 2-Hz stimulation. We suggest that the cyclical changes of reflex excitability resulted from the interaction of facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms emerging after specific delays and with distinct durations, including postactivation depression, recurrent inhibition and facilitation, as well as reafferent feedback activation. The emergence of large responses within the patterns at a rate of 5.5/s or 8/s may further suggest the entrainment of spinal mechanisms as involved in clonus. The study demonstrates that the human lumbosacral spinal cord can organize a simple form of rhythmicity through the repetitive activation of spinal reflex circuits. PMID:25904708

Rhythmic arm movements are less affected than discrete ones after a stroke.

PubMed

Leconte, Patricia; Orban de Xivry, Jean-Jacques; Stoquart, Gaëtan; Lejeune, Thierry; Ronsse, Renaud

2016-06-01

Recent reports indicate that rhythmic and discrete upper-limb movements are two different motor primitives which recruit, at least partially, distinct neural circuitries. In particular, rhythmic movements recruit a smaller cortical network than discrete movements. The goal of this paper is to compare the levels of disability in performing rhythmic and discrete movements after a stroke. More precisely, we tested the hypothesis that rhythmic movements should be less affected than discrete ones, because they recruit neural circuitries that are less likely to be damaged by the stroke. Eleven stroke patients and eleven age-matched control subjects performed discrete and rhythmic movements using an end-effector robot (REAplan). The rhythmic movement condition was performed with and without visual targets to further decrease cortical recruitment. Movement kinematics was analyzed through specific metrics, capturing the degree of smoothness and harmonicity. We reported three main observations: (1) the movement smoothness of the paretic arm was more severely degraded for discrete movements than rhythmic movements; (2) most of the patients performed rhythmic movements with a lower harmonicity than controls; and (3) visually guided rhythmic movements were more altered than non-visually guided rhythmic movements. These results suggest a hierarchy in the levels of impairment: Discrete movements are more affected than rhythmic ones, which are more affected if they are visually guided. These results are a new illustration that discrete and rhythmic movements are two fundamental primitives in upper-limb movements. Moreover, this hierarchy of impairment opens new post-stroke rehabilitation perspectives.

Losing dexterity: patterns of impaired coordination of finger movements in musician’s dystonia

PubMed Central

Furuya, Shinichi; Tominaga, Kenta; Miyazaki, Fumio; Altenmüller, Eckart

2015-01-01

Extensive training can bring about highly-skilled action, but may also impair motor dexterity by producing involuntary movements and muscular cramping, as seen in focal dystonia (FD) and tremor. To elucidate the underlying neuroplastic mechanisms of FD, the present study addressed the organization of finger movements during piano performance in pianists suffering from the condition. Principal component (PC) analysis identified three patterns of fundamental joint coordination constituting finger movements in both patients and controls. The first two coordination patterns described less individuated movements between the “dystonic” finger and key-striking fingers for patients compared to controls. The third coordination pattern, representing the individuation of movements between the middle and ring fingers, was evident during a sequence of strikes with these fingers in controls, which was absent in the patients. Consequently, rhythmic variability of keystrokes was more pronounced during this sequence of strikes for the patients. A stepwise multiple-regression analysis further identified greater variability of keystrokes for individuals displaying less individuated movements between the affected and striking fingers. The findings suggest that FD alters dexterous joint coordination so as to lower independent control of finger movements, and thereby degrades fine motor control. PMID:26289433

Differential effects of rhythmic auditory stimulation and neurodevelopmental treatment/Bobath on gait patterns in adults with cerebral palsy: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Kim, Soo Ji; Kwak, Eunmi E; Park, Eun Sook; Cho, Sung-Rae

2012-10-01

To investigate the effects of rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) on gait patterns in comparison with changes after neurodevelopmental treatment (NDT/Bobath) in adults with cerebral palsy. A repeated-measures analysis between the pretreatment and posttreatment tests and a comparison study between groups. Human gait analysis laboratory. Twenty-eight cerebral palsy patients with bilateral spasticity participated in this study. The subjects were randomly allocated to either neurodevelopmental treatment (n = 13) or rhythmic auditory stimulation (n = 15). Gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation or neurodevelopmental treatment was performed three sessions per week for three weeks. Temporal and kinematic data were analysed before and after the intervention. Rhythmic auditory stimulation was provided using a combination of a metronome beat set to the individual's cadence and rhythmic cueing from a live keyboard, while neurodevelopmental treatment was implemented following the traditional method. Temporal data, kinematic parameters and gait deviation index as a measure of overall gait pathology were assessed. Temporal gait measures revealed that rhythmic auditory stimulation significantly increased cadence, walking velocity, stride length, and step length (P < 0.05). Kinematic data demonstrated that anterior tilt of the pelvis and hip flexion during a gait cycle was significantly ameliorated after rhythmic auditory stimulation (P < 0.05). Gait deviation index also showed modest improvement in cerebral palsy patients treated with rhythmic auditory stimulation (P < 0.05). However, neurodevelopmental treatment showed that internal and external rotations of hip joints were significantly improved, whereas rhythmic auditory stimulation showed aggravated maximal internal rotation in the transverse plane (P < 0.05). Gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation or neurodevelopmental treatment elicited differential effects on gait patterns in adults with cerebral palsy.

Learning and Discrimination of Audiovisual Events in Human Infants: The Hierarchical Relation between Intersensory Temporal Synchrony and Rhythmic Pattern Cues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewkowicz, David J.

2003-01-01

Three experiments examined 4- to 10-month-olds' perception of audio-visual (A-V) temporal synchrony cues in the presence or absence of rhythmic pattern cues. Results established that infants of all ages could discriminate between two different audio-visual rhythmic events. Only 10-month-olds detected a desynchronization of the auditory and visual…

Nonparametric methods in actigraphy: An update

PubMed Central

Gonçalves, Bruno S.B.; Cavalcanti, Paula R.A.; Tavares, Gracilene R.; Campos, Tania F.; Araujo, John F.

2014-01-01

Circadian rhythmicity in humans has been well studied using actigraphy, a method of measuring gross motor movement. As actigraphic technology continues to evolve, it is important for data analysis to keep pace with new variables and features. Our objective is to study the behavior of two variables, interdaily stability and intradaily variability, to describe rest activity rhythm. Simulated data and actigraphy data of humans, rats, and marmosets were used in this study. We modified the method of calculation for IV and IS by modifying the time intervals of analysis. For each variable, we calculated the average value (IVm and ISm) results for each time interval. Simulated data showed that (1) synchronization analysis depends on sample size, and (2) fragmentation is independent of the amplitude of the generated noise. We were able to obtain a significant difference in the fragmentation patterns of stroke patients using an IVm variable, while the variable IV60 was not identified. Rhythmic synchronization of activity and rest was significantly higher in young than adults with Parkinson׳s when using the ISM variable; however, this difference was not seen using IS60. We propose an updated format to calculate rhythmic fragmentation, including two additional optional variables. These alternative methods of nonparametric analysis aim to more precisely detect sleep–wake cycle fragmentation and synchronization. PMID:26483921

Frontal theta activation during motor synchronization in autism.

PubMed

Kawasaki, Masahiro; Kitajo, Keiichi; Fukao, Kenjiro; Murai, Toshiya; Yamaguchi, Yoko; Funabiki, Yasuko

2017-11-08

Autism is characterized by two primary characteristics: deficits in social interaction and repetitive behavioral patterns. Because interpersonal communication is extremely complicated, its underlying brain mechanisms remain unclear. Here we showed that both characteristics can be explained by a unifying underlying mechanism related to difficulties with irregularities. To address the issues, we measured electroencephalographm during a cooperative tapping task, which required participants to tap a key alternately and synchronously with constant rhythmic a PC program, a variable rhythmic PC program, or a human partner. We found that people with autism had great difficulty synchronizing tapping behavior with others, and exhibited greater than normal theta-wave (6 Hz) activity in the frontal cortex during the task, especially when their partner behaved somewhat irregularly (i.e. a variable rhythmic PC program or a human partner). Importantly, the higher theta-wave activity was related to the severity of autism, not the performance on the task. This indicates that people with autism need to use intense cognition when trying to adapt to irregular behavior and can easily become overtaxed. Difficulty adapting to irregular behavior in others is likely related to their own tendencies for repetitive and regular behaviors. Thus, while the two characteristics of autism have been comprehended separately, our unifying theory makes understanding the condition and developing therapeutic strategies more tractable.

Functional Interactions between Mammalian Respiratory Rhythmogenic and Premotor Circuitry

PubMed Central

Song, Hanbing; Hayes, John A.; Vann, Nikolas C.; Wang, Xueying; LaMar, M. Drew

2016-01-01

Breathing in mammals depends on rhythms that originate from the preBötzinger complex (preBötC) of the ventral medulla and a network of brainstem and spinal premotor neurons. The rhythm-generating core of the preBötC, as well as some premotor circuits, consist of interneurons derived from Dbx1-expressing precursors (Dbx1 neurons), but the structure and function of these networks remain incompletely understood. We previously developed a cell-specific detection and laser ablation system to interrogate respiratory network structure and function in a slice model of breathing that retains the preBötC, the respiratory-related hypoglossal (XII) motor nucleus and XII premotor circuits. In spontaneously rhythmic slices, cumulative ablation of Dbx1 preBötC neurons decreased XII motor output by ∼50% after ∼15 cell deletions, and then decelerated and terminated rhythmic function altogether as the tally increased to ∼85 neurons. In contrast, cumulatively deleting Dbx1 XII premotor neurons decreased motor output monotonically but did not affect frequency nor stop XII output regardless of the ablation tally. Here, we couple an existing preBötC model with a premotor population in several topological configurations to investigate which one may replicate the laser ablation experiments best. If the XII premotor population is a “small-world” network (rich in local connections with sparse long-range connections among constituent premotor neurons) and connected with the preBötC such that the total number of incoming synapses remains fixed, then the in silico system successfully replicates the in vitro laser ablation experiments. This study proposes a feasible configuration for circuits consisting of Dbx1-derived interneurons that generate inspiratory rhythm and motor pattern. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To produce a breathing-related motor pattern, a brainstem core oscillator circuit projects to a population of premotor interneurons, but the assemblage of this network remains incompletely understood. Here we applied network modeling and numerical simulation to discover respiratory circuit configurations that successfully replicate photonic cell ablation experiments targeting either the core oscillator or premotor network, respectively. If premotor neurons are interconnected in a so-called “small-world” network with a fixed number of incoming synapses balanced between premotor and rhythmogenic neurons, then our simulations match their experimental benchmarks. These results provide a framework of experimentally testable predictions regarding the rudimentary structure and function of respiratory rhythm- and pattern-generating circuits in the brainstem of mammals. PMID:27383596

Split-arm swinging: the effect of arm swinging manipulation on interlimb coordination during walking.

PubMed

Bondi, Moshe; Zeilig, Gabi; Bloch, Ayala; Fasano, Alfonso; Plotnik, Meir

2017-08-01

Human locomotion is defined by bilateral coordination of gait (BCG) and shared features with the fore-hindlimb coordination of quadrupeds. The objective of the present study is to explore the influence of arm swinging (AS) on BCG. Sixteen young, healthy individuals (eight women; eight right motor-dominant, eight left-motor dominant) participated. Participants performed 10 walking trials (2 min). In each of the trials AS was unilaterally manipulated (e.g., arm restriction, weight on the wrist), bilaterally manipulated, or not manipulated. The order of trials was random. Walking trials were performed on a treadmill. Gait kinematics were recorded by a motion capture system. Using feedback-controlled belt speed allowed the participants to walk at a self-determined gait speed. Effects of the manipulations were assessed by AS amplitudes and the phase coordination index (PCI), which quantifies the left-right anti-phased stepping pattern. Most of the AS manipulations caused an increase in PCI values (i.e., reduced lower limb coordination). Unilateral AS manipulation had a reciprocal effect on the AS amplitude of the other arm such that, for example, over-swinging of the right arm led to a decrease in the AS amplitude of the left arm. Side of motor dominance was not found to have a significant impact on PCI and AS amplitude. The present findings suggest that lower limb BCG is markedly influenced by the rhythmic AS during walking. It may thus be important for gait rehabilitation programs targeting BCG to take AS into account. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Control mechanisms for four-limb coordination in human locomotion are not fully known. To study the influence of arm swinging (AS) on bilateral coordination of the lower limbs during walking, we introduced a split-AS paradigm in young, healthy adults. AS manipulations caused deterioration in the anti-phased stepping pattern and impacted the AS amplitudes for the contralateral arm, suggesting that lower limb coordination is markedly influenced by the rhythmic AS during walking. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

Rhythmic engagement with music in infancy

PubMed Central

Zentner, Marcel; Eerola, Tuomas

2010-01-01

Humans have a unique ability to coordinate their motor movements to an external auditory stimulus, as in music-induced foot tapping or dancing. This behavior currently engages the attention of scholars across a number of disciplines. However, very little is known about its earliest manifestations. The aim of the current research was to examine whether preverbal infants engage in rhythmic behavior to music. To this end, we carried out two experiments in which we tested 120 infants (aged 5–24 months). Infants were exposed to various excerpts of musical and rhythmic stimuli, including isochronous drumbeats. Control stimuli consisted of adult- and infant-directed speech. Infants’ rhythmic movements were assessed by multiple methods involving manual coding from video excerpts and innovative 3D motion-capture technology. The results show that (i) infants engage in significantly more rhythmic movement to music and other rhythmically regular sounds than to speech; (ii) infants exhibit tempo flexibility to some extent (e.g., faster auditory tempo is associated with faster movement tempo); and (iii) the degree of rhythmic coordination with music is positively related to displays of positive affect. The findings are suggestive of a predisposition for rhythmic movement in response to music and other metrically regular sounds. PMID:20231438

Rhythmic engagement with music in infancy.

PubMed

Zentner, Marcel; Eerola, Tuomas

2010-03-30

Humans have a unique ability to coordinate their motor movements to an external auditory stimulus, as in music-induced foot tapping or dancing. This behavior currently engages the attention of scholars across a number of disciplines. However, very little is known about its earliest manifestations. The aim of the current research was to examine whether preverbal infants engage in rhythmic behavior to music. To this end, we carried out two experiments in which we tested 120 infants (aged 5-24 months). Infants were exposed to various excerpts of musical and rhythmic stimuli, including isochronous drumbeats. Control stimuli consisted of adult- and infant-directed speech. Infants' rhythmic movements were assessed by multiple methods involving manual coding from video excerpts and innovative 3D motion-capture technology. The results show that (i) infants engage in significantly more rhythmic movement to music and other rhythmically regular sounds than to speech; (ii) infants exhibit tempo flexibility to some extent (e.g., faster auditory tempo is associated with faster movement tempo); and (iii) the degree of rhythmic coordination with music is positively related to displays of positive affect. The findings are suggestive of a predisposition for rhythmic movement in response to music and other metrically regular sounds.

Rhythmic Engagement with Music in Early Childhood: A Replication and Extension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ilari, Beatriz

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend previous findings on spontaneous movement and rhythmic engagement with music in infancy. Using the identical stimuli and procedures from the original study, I investigated spontaneous rhythmic movements in response to music, infant-directed speech, and contrasting rhythmic patterns in 30…

Different types of theta rhythmicity are induced by social and fearful stimuli in a network associated with social memory.

PubMed

Tendler, Alex; Wagner, Shlomo

2015-02-16

Rhythmic activity in the theta range is thought to promote neuronal communication between brain regions. In this study, we performed chronic telemetric recordings in socially behaving rats to monitor electrophysiological activity in limbic brain regions linked to social behavior. Social encounters were associated with increased rhythmicity in the high theta range (7-10 Hz) that was proportional to the stimulus degree of novelty. This modulation of theta rhythmicity, which was specific for social stimuli, appeared to reflect a brain-state of social arousal. In contrast, the same network responded to a fearful stimulus by enhancement of rhythmicity in the low theta range (3-7 Hz). Moreover, theta rhythmicity showed different pattern of coherence between the distinct brain regions in response to social and fearful stimuli. We suggest that the two types of stimuli induce distinct arousal states that elicit different patterns of theta rhythmicity, which cause the same brain areas to communicate in different modes.

Noninvasive fractal biomarker of clock neurotransmitter disturbance in humans with dementia

PubMed Central

Hu, Kun; Harper, David G.; Shea, Steven A.; Stopa, Edward G.; Scheer, Frank A. J. L.

2013-01-01

Human motor activity has a robust, intrinsic fractal structure with similar patterns from minutes to hours. The fractal activity patterns appear to be physiologically important because the patterns persist under different environmental conditions but are significantly altered/reduced with aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we report that dementia patients, known to have disrupted circadian rhythmicity, also have disrupted fractal activity patterns and that the disruption is more pronounced in patients with more amyloid plaques (a marker of AD severity). Moreover, the degree of fractal activity disruption is strongly associated with vasopressinergic and neurotensinergic neurons (two major circadian neurotransmitters) in postmortem suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), and can better predict changes of the two neurotransmitters than traditional circadian measures. These findings suggest that the SCN impacts human activity regulation at multiple time scales and that disrupted fractal activity may serve as a non-invasive biomarker of SCN neurodegeneration in dementia. PMID:23863985

Motor Prediction at the Edge of Instability: Alteration of Grip Force Control during Changes in Bimanual Coordination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danion, Frederic; Jirsa, Viktor K.

2010-01-01

Predicting the consequences of actions is fundamental for skilled motor behavior. We investigated whether motor prediction is influenced by the fact that some movements are easier to perform and stabilize than others. Twelve subjects performed a bimanual rhythmical task either symmetrically or asymmetrically (the latter being more difficult and…

Preclinical evidence supporting the clinical development of central pattern generator-modulating therapies for chronic spinal cord-injured patients

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Ambulation or walking is one of the main gaits of locomotion. In terrestrial animals, it may be defined as a series of rhythmic and bilaterally coordinated movement of the limbs which creates a forward movement of the body. This applies regardless of the number of limbs—from arthropods with six or more limbs to bipedal primates. These fundamental similarities among species may explain why comparable neural systems and cellular properties have been found, thus far, to control in similar ways locomotor rhythm generation in most animal models. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the known structural and functional features associated with central nervous system (CNS) networks that are involved in the control of ambulation and other stereotyped motor patterns—specifically Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) that produce basic rhythmic patterned outputs for locomotion, micturition, ejaculation, and defecation. Although there is compelling evidence of their existence in humans, CPGs have been most studied in reduced models including in vitro isolated preparations, genetically-engineered mice and spinal cord-transected animals. Compared with other structures of the CNS, the spinal cord is generally considered as being well-preserved phylogenetically. As such, most animal models of spinal cord-injured (SCI) should be considered as valuable tools for the development of novel pharmacological strategies aimed at modulating spinal activity and restoring corresponding functions in chronic SCI patients. PMID:24910602

Rhythmic EEG patterns in extremely preterm infants: Classification and association with brain injury and outcome.

PubMed

Weeke, Lauren C; van Ooijen, Inge M; Groenendaal, Floris; van Huffelen, Alexander C; van Haastert, Ingrid C; van Stam, Carolien; Benders, Manon J; Toet, Mona C; Hellström-Westas, Lena; de Vries, Linda S

2017-12-01

Classify rhythmic EEG patterns in extremely preterm infants and relate these to brain injury and outcome. Retrospective analysis of 77 infants born <28 weeks gestational age (GA) who had a 2-channel EEG during the first 72 h after birth. Patterns detected by the BrainZ seizure detection algorithm were categorized: ictal discharges, periodic epileptiform discharges (PEDs) and other waveforms. Brain injury was assessed with sequential cranial ultrasound (cUS) and MRI at term-equivalent age. Neurodevelopmental outcome was assessed with the BSITD-III (2 years) and WPPSI-III-NL (5 years). Rhythmic patterns were observed in 62.3% (ictal 1.3%, PEDs 44%, other waveforms 86.3%) with multiple patterns in 36.4%. Ictal discharges were only observed in one and excluded from further analyses. The EEG location of the other waveforms (p<0.05), but not PEDs (p=0.238), was significantly associated with head position. No relation was found between the median total duration of each pattern and injury on cUS and MRI or cognition at 2 and 5 years. Clear ictal discharges are rare in extremely preterm infants. PEDs are common but their significance is unclear. Rhythmic waveforms related to head position are likely artefacts. Rhythmic EEG patterns may have a different significance in extremely preterm infants. Copyright © 2017 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Jaw-Opening Reflex and Corticobulbar Motor Excitability Changes During Quiet Sleep in Non-Human Primates

PubMed Central

Yao, Dongyuan; Lavigne, Gilles J.; Lee, Jye-Chang; Adachi, Kazunori; Sessle, Barry J.

2013-01-01

Study Objective: To test the hypothesis that the reflex and corticobulbar motor excitability of jaw muscles is reduced during sleep. Design: Polysomnographic recordings in the electrophysiological study. Setting: University sleep research laboratories. Participants and Interventions: The reflex and corticobulbar motor excitability of jaw muscles was determined during the quiet awake state (QW) and quiet sleep (QS) in monkeys (n = 4). Measurements and Results: During QS sleep, compared to QW periods, both tongue stimulation-evoked jaw-opening reflex peak and root mean square amplitudes were significantly decreased with stimulations at 2-3.5 × thresholds (P < 0.001). The jaw-opening reflex latency during sleep was also significantly longer than during QW. Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) within the cortical masticatory area induced rhythmic jaw movements at a stable threshold (≤ 60 μA) during QW; but during QS, ICMS failed to induce any rhythmic jaw movements at the maximum ICMS intensity used, although sustained jaw-opening movements were evoked at significantly increased threshold (P < 0.001) in one of the monkeys. Similarly, during QW, ICMS within face primary motor cortex induced orofacial twitches at a stable threshold (≤ 35 μA), but the ICMS thresholds were elevated during QS. Soon after the animal awoke, rhythmic jaw movements and orofacial twitches could be evoked at thresholds similar to those before QS. Conclusions: The results suggest that the excitability of reflex and corticobulbar-evoked activity in the jaw motor system is depressed during QS. Citation: Yao D; Lavigne GJ; Lee JC; Adachi K; Sessle BJ. Jaw-opening reflex and corticobulbar motor excitability changes during quiet sleep in non-human primates. SLEEP 2013;36(2):269-280. PMID:23372275

Association of Periodic and Rhythmic Electroencephalographic Patterns With Seizures in Critically Ill Patients.

PubMed

Rodriguez Ruiz, Andres; Vlachy, Jan; Lee, Jong Woo; Gilmore, Emily J; Ayer, Turgay; Haider, Hiba Arif; Gaspard, Nicolas; Ehrenberg, J Andrew; Tolchin, Benjamin; Fantaneanu, Tadeu A; Fernandez, Andres; Hirsch, Lawrence J; LaRoche, Suzette

2017-02-01

Periodic and rhythmic electroencephalographic patterns have been associated with risk of seizures in critically ill patients. However, specific features that confer higher seizure risk remain unclear. To analyze the association of distinct characteristics of periodic and rhythmic patterns with seizures. We reviewed electroencephalographic recordings from 4772 critically ill adults in 3 academic medical centers from February 2013 to September 2015 and performed a multivariate analysis to determine features associated with seizures. Continuous electroencephalography. Association of periodic and rhythmic patterns and specific characteristics, such as pattern frequency (hertz), Plus modifier, prevalence, and stimulation-induced patterns, and the risk for seizures. Of the 4772 patients included in our study, 2868 were men and 1904 were women. Lateralized periodic discharges (LPDs) had the highest association with seizures regardless of frequency and the association was greater when the Plus modifier was present (58%; odds ratio [OR], 2.00, P < .001). Generalized periodic discharges (GPDs) and lateralized rhythmic delta activity (LRDA) were associated with seizures in a frequency-dependent manner (1.5-2 Hz: GPDs, 24%,OR, 2.31, P = .02; LRDA, 24%, OR, 1.79, P = .05; ≥ 2 Hz: GPDs, 32%, OR, 3.30, P < .001; LRDA, 40%, OR, 3.98, P < .001) as was the association with Plus (GPDs, 28%, OR, 3.57, P < .001; LRDA, 40%, P < .001). There was no difference in seizure incidence in patients with generalized rhythmic delta activity compared with no periodic or rhythmic pattern (13%, OR, 1.18, P = .26). Higher prevalence of LPDs and GPDs also conferred increased seizure risk (37% frequent vs 45% abundant/continuous, OR, 1.64, P = .03 for difference; 8% rare/occasional vs 15% frequent, OR, 2.71, P = .03, vs 23% abundant/continuous, OR, 1.95, P = .04). Patterns associated with stimulation did not show an additional risk for seizures from the underlying pattern risk (P > .10). In this study, LPDs, LRDA, and GPDs were associated with seizures while generalized rhythmic delta activity was not. Lateralized periodic discharges were associated with seizures at all frequencies with and without Plus modifier, but LRDA and GPDs were associated with seizures when the frequency was 1.5 Hz or faster or when associated with a Plus modifier. Increased pattern prevalence was associated with increased risk for seizures in LPDs and GPDs. Stimulus-induced patterns were not associated with such risk. These findings highlight the importance of detailed electroencephalographic interpretation using standardized nomenclature for seizure risk stratification and clinical decision making.

Primary Auditory Cortex is Required for Anticipatory Motor Response.

PubMed

Li, Jingcheng; Liao, Xiang; Zhang, Jianxiong; Wang, Meng; Yang, Nian; Zhang, Jun; Lv, Guanghui; Li, Haohong; Lu, Jian; Ding, Ran; Li, Xingyi; Guang, Yu; Yang, Zhiqi; Qin, Han; Jin, Wenjun; Zhang, Kuan; He, Chao; Jia, Hongbo; Zeng, Shaoqun; Hu, Zhian; Nelken, Israel; Chen, Xiaowei

2017-06-01

The ability of the brain to predict future events based on the pattern of recent sensory experience is critical for guiding animal's behavior. Neocortical circuits for ongoing processing of sensory stimuli are extensively studied, but their contributions to the anticipation of upcoming sensory stimuli remain less understood. We, therefore, used in vivo cellular imaging and fiber photometry to record mouse primary auditory cortex to elucidate its role in processing anticipated stimulation. We found neuronal ensembles in layers 2/3, 4, and 5 which were activated in relationship to anticipated sound events following rhythmic stimulation. These neuronal activities correlated with the occurrence of anticipatory motor responses in an auditory learning task. Optogenetic manipulation experiments revealed an essential role of such neuronal activities in producing the anticipatory behavior. These results strongly suggest that the neural circuits of primary sensory cortex are critical for coding predictive information and transforming it into anticipatory motor behavior. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Music therapy in neurological rehabilitation settings.

PubMed

Galińska, Elżbieta

2015-01-01

The neurologic music therapy is a new scope of music therapy. Its techniques deal with dysfunctions resulting from diseases of the human nervous system. Music can be used as an alternative modality to access functions unavailable through non-musical stimulus. Processes in the brain activated by the influence of music can be generalized and transferred to non-musical functions. Therefore, in clinical practice, the translation of non-musical therapeutic exercises into analogous, isomorphic musical exercises is performed. They make use of the executive peculiarity of musical instruments and musical structures to prime, cue and coordinate movements. Among musical components, a repetitive rhythm plays a significant role. It regulates physiologic and behavioural functions through the mechanism of entrainment (synchronization of biological rhythms with musical rhythm based on acoustic resonance). It is especially relevant for patients with a deficient internal timing system in the brain. Additionally, regular rhythmic patterns facilitate memory encoding and decoding of non-musical information hence music is an efficient mnemonic tool. The music as a hierarchical, compound language of time, with its unique ability to access affective/motivational systems in the brain, provides time structures enhancing perception processes, mainly in the range of cognition, language and motor learning. It allows for emotional expression and improvement of the motivation for rehabilitation activities. The new technologies of rhythmic sensory stimulation (i.e. Binaural Beat Stimulation) or rhythmic music in combination with rhythmic light therapy appear. This multimodal forms of stimulation are used in the treatment of stroke, brain injury, dementia and other cognitive deficits. Clinical outcome studies provide evidence of the significant superiority of rehabilitation with music over the one without music.

An fMRI study comparing rhythmic finger tapping in children and adults

PubMed Central

De Guio, François; Jacobson, Sandra W.; Molteno, Christopher D.; Jacobson, Joseph L.; Meintjes, Ernesta M.

2011-01-01

This study compared brain activations during unpaced rhythmic finger tapping in 12-year old children with those of adults. The subject pressed a button at a pace initially indicated by a metronome (12 consecutive tones) and then continued for 16 seconds of unpaced tapping to provide an assessment of his/her ability to maintain a steady rhythm. In particular, the analyses focused on the superior vermis of the cerebellum, which is known to play a key role in timing. 12 adults and 12 children performed this rhythmic finger tapping task in a 3T scanner. Whole-brain analyses were performed in Brain Voyager with a random effects analysis of variance using the general linear model. A dedicated cerebellar atlas was used to localise cerebellar activations. As in adults, unpaced rhythmic finger tapping in children showed activations in the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, and cerebellum. However, overall activation was different in that adults showed much more deactivation in response to the task, particularly in the occipital and frontal cortex. The other main differences were additional recruitment of motor and premotor areas in children compared to adults along with increased activity in the vermal region of the cerebellum. These findings suggest that the timing component of the unpaced rhythmic finger tapping task is less efficient and automatic in children, who needed to recruit the superior vermis more intensively to maintain the rhythm, even though they performed somewhat more poorly than the adults. PMID:22264703

Functional magnetic resonance imaging study comparing rhythmic finger tapping in children and adults.

PubMed

De Guio, François; Jacobson, Sandra W; Molteno, Christopher D; Jacobson, Joseph L; Meintjes, Ernesta M

2012-02-01

This study compared brain activation during unpaced rhythmic finger tapping in 12-year-old children with that of adults. Subjects pressed a button at a pace initially indicated by a metronome (12 consecutive tones), and then continued for 16 seconds of unpaced tapping to provide an assessment of their ability to maintain a steady rhythm. These analyses focused on the superior vermis of the cerebellum, which is known to play a key role in timing. Twelve adults and 12 children performed this rhythmic finger tapping task in a 3 T scanner. Whole-brain analyses were performed in Brain Voyager, with a random-effects analysis of variance using a general linear model. A dedicated cerebellar atlas was used to localize cerebellar activations. As in adults, unpaced rhythmic finger tapping in children demonstrated activations in the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, and cerebellum. However, overall activation was different, in that adults demonstrated much more deactivation in response to the task, particularly in the occipital and frontal cortices. The other main differences involved the additional recruitment of motor and premotor areas in children compared with adults, and increased activity in the vermal region of the cerebellum. These findings suggest that the timing component of the unpaced rhythmic finger tapping task is less efficient and automatic in children, who need to recruit the superior vermis more intensively to maintain the rhythm, although they performed somewhat more poorly than adults. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anomalous Putamen Volume in Children with Complex Motor Stereotypies

PubMed Central

Mahone, E. Mark; Crocetti, Deana; Tochen, Laura; Kline, Tina; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Singer, Harvey S.

2016-01-01

Introduction Complex motor stereotypies in children are repetitive, rhythmic movements that have a predictable pattern and location, seem purposeful, but serve no obvious function, tend to be prolonged, and stop with distraction, e.g., arm/hand flapping, waving. They occur in both “primary” (otherwise typically developing) and secondary conditions. These movements are best defined as habitual behaviors and therefore pathophysiologically hypothesized to reside in premotor to posterior putamen circuits. This study sought to clarify the underlying neurobiological abnormality in children with primary complex motor stereotypies using structural neuroimaging, emphasizing brain regions hypothesized to underlie these atypical behaviors. Methods High-resolution anatomical MRI images, acquired at 3.0T, were analyzed in children ages 8–12 years (20 with primary complex motor stereotypies, 20 typically developing). Frontal lobe sub-regions and striatal structures were delineated for analysis. Results Significant reductions (p=0.045) in the stereotypies group were identified in total putamen volume, but not caudate, nucleus accumbens or frontal sub-regions. There were no group differences in total cerebral volume. Conclusion Findings of a smaller putamen provide preliminary evidence suggesting the potential involvement of the habitual pathway as the underlying anatomical site in primary complex motor stereotypies. PMID:27751663

Evidence that a Motor Timing Deficit Is a Factor in the Development of Stuttering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olander, Lindsey; Smith, Anne; Zelaznik, Howard N.

2010-01-01

Purpose: To determine whether young children who stutter have a basic motor timing and/or a coordination deficit. Method: Between-hands coordination and variability of rhythmic motor timing were assessed in 17 children who stutter (4-6 years of age) and 13 age-matched controls. Children clapped in rhythm with a metronome with a 600-ms interbeat…

Influence of Brain Stem on Axial and Hindlimb Spinal Locomotor Rhythm Generating Circuits of the Neonatal Mouse.

PubMed

Jean-Xavier, Céline; Perreault, Marie-Claude

2018-01-01

The trunk plays a pivotal role in limbed locomotion. Yet, little is known about how the brain stem controls trunk activity during walking. In this study, we assessed the spatiotemporal activity patterns of axial and hindlimb motoneurons (MNs) during drug-induced fictive locomotor-like activity (LLA) in an isolated brain stem-spinal cord preparation of the neonatal mouse. We also evaluated the extent to which these activity patterns are affected by removal of brain stem. Recordings were made in the segments T7, L2, and L5 using calcium imaging from individual axial MNs in the medial motor column (MMC) and hindlimb MNs in lateral motor column (LMC). The MN activities were analyzed during both the rhythmic and the tonic components of LLA, the tonic component being used as a readout of generalized increase in excitability in spinal locomotor networks. The most salient effect of brain stem removal was an increase in locomotor rhythm frequency and a concomitant reduction in burst durations in both MMC and LMC MNs. The lack of effect on the tonic component of LLA indicated specificity of action during the rhythmic component. Cooling-induced silencing of the brain stem reproduced the increase in rhythm frequency and accompanying decrease in burst durations in L2 MMC and LMC, suggesting a dependency on brain stem neuron activity. The work supports the idea that the brain stem locomotor circuits are operational already at birth and further suggests an important role in modulating trunk activity. The brain stem may influence the axial and hindlimb spinal locomotor rhythm generating circuits by extending their range of operation. This may represent a critical step of locomotor development when learning how to walk in different conditions and environments is a major endeavor.

Influence of Brain Stem on Axial and Hindlimb Spinal Locomotor Rhythm Generating Circuits of the Neonatal Mouse

PubMed Central

Jean-Xavier, Céline; Perreault, Marie-Claude

2018-01-01

The trunk plays a pivotal role in limbed locomotion. Yet, little is known about how the brain stem controls trunk activity during walking. In this study, we assessed the spatiotemporal activity patterns of axial and hindlimb motoneurons (MNs) during drug-induced fictive locomotor-like activity (LLA) in an isolated brain stem-spinal cord preparation of the neonatal mouse. We also evaluated the extent to which these activity patterns are affected by removal of brain stem. Recordings were made in the segments T7, L2, and L5 using calcium imaging from individual axial MNs in the medial motor column (MMC) and hindlimb MNs in lateral motor column (LMC). The MN activities were analyzed during both the rhythmic and the tonic components of LLA, the tonic component being used as a readout of generalized increase in excitability in spinal locomotor networks. The most salient effect of brain stem removal was an increase in locomotor rhythm frequency and a concomitant reduction in burst durations in both MMC and LMC MNs. The lack of effect on the tonic component of LLA indicated specificity of action during the rhythmic component. Cooling-induced silencing of the brain stem reproduced the increase in rhythm frequency and accompanying decrease in burst durations in L2 MMC and LMC, suggesting a dependency on brain stem neuron activity. The work supports the idea that the brain stem locomotor circuits are operational already at birth and further suggests an important role in modulating trunk activity. The brain stem may influence the axial and hindlimb spinal locomotor rhythm generating circuits by extending their range of operation. This may represent a critical step of locomotor development when learning how to walk in different conditions and environments is a major endeavor. PMID:29479302

From movement to pain: a tribute to professor James P. Lund.

PubMed

Westberg, Karl-Gunnar; McFarland, David; Kolta, Arlette; Stohler, Christian; Feine, Jocelyne; Woda, Alain

2008-01-01

This tribute article to Professor James P. Lund stems from 6 of the presentations delivered at the July 1, 2008, symposium that honored 3 "giants" in orofacial neuroscience: B. J. Sessle, A. G. Hannam, and J. P. Lund. It was noted that soon after his training as a dentist in Australia, Jim Lund became interested in research. At the time he decided to do a PhD, there was a lot of discussion about how rhythmic movements were programmed. The early belief, based on Sherrington's studies of motor systems, was that these movements were simply an alternating series of reflexes. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some still shared this belief, whereas others favored Graham Brown's hypothesis that repetitive movements were centrally programmed and did not depend on reflexes triggered by sensory inputs. There was no strong evidence then for either scenario except for the rhythmic movements of respiration. Lund's pioneering work during his PhD proved the existence of a central pattern generator (CPG) for mastication in the brainstem. Since then he has been interested in understanding how CPGs function and how sensory feedback works to adjust the motor patterns that they produce. Sections in this tribute article to Lund are written by some of his close collaborators and reflect the evolution of his work throughout the years. The first 4 presentations in this article (by K.-G. Westberg, D. McFarland, A. Kolta, and C. Stohler) highlight various aspects of these interests, and the final 2 presentations (by J. Feine and A. Woda) focus especially on clinical aspects of Lund's interests. The last section of this article is a final commentary from Professor Lund.

Reorganization of the human central nervous system.

PubMed

Schalow, G; Zäch, G A

2000-10-01

The key strategies on which the discovery of the functional organization of the central nervous system (CNS) under physiologic and pathophysiologic conditions have been based included (1) our measurements of phase and frequency coordination between the firings of alpha- and gamma-motoneurons and secondary muscle spindle afferents in the human spinal cord, (2) knowledge on CNS reorganization derived upon the improvement of the functions of the lesioned CNS in our patients in the short-term memory and the long-term memory (reorganization), and (3) the dynamic pattern approach for re-learning rhythmic coordinated behavior. The theory of self-organization and pattern formation in nonequilibrium systems is explicitly related to our measurements of the natural firing patterns of sets of identified single neurons in the human spinal premotor network and re-learned coordinated movements following spinal cord and brain lesions. Therapy induced cell proliferation, and maybe, neurogenesis seem to contribute to the host of structural changes during the process of re-learning of the lesioned CNS. So far, coordinated functions like movements could substantially be improved in every of the more than 100 patients with a CNS lesion by applying coordination dynamic therapy. As suggested by the data of our patients on re-learning, the human CNS seems to have a second integrative strategy for learning, re-learning, storing and recalling, which makes an essential contribution of the functional plasticity following a CNS lesion. A method has been developed by us for the simultaneous recording with wire electrodes of extracellular action potentials from single human afferent and efferent nerve fibres of undamaged sacral nerve roots. A classification scheme of the nerve fibres in the human peripheral nervous system (PNS) could be set up in which the individual classes of nerve fibres are characterized by group conduction velocities and group nerve fibre diameters. Natural impulse patterns of several identified single afferent and efferent nerve fibres (motoneuron axons) were extracted from multi-unit impulse patterns, and human CNS functions could be analyzed under physiologic and pathophysiologic conditions. With our discovery of premotor spinal oscillators it became possible to judge upon CNS neuronal network organization based on the firing patterns of these spinal oscillators and their driving afferents. Since motoneurons fire occasionally for low activation and oscillatory for high activation, the coherent organization of subnetworks to generate macroscopic function is very complex and for the time being, may be best described by the theory of coordination dynamics. Since oscillatory firing has also been observed by us in single motor unit firing patterns measured electromyographically, it seems possible to follow up therapeutic intervention in patients with spinal cord and brain lesions not only based on the activity levels and phases of motor programs during locomotion but also based on the physiologic and pathophysiologic firing patterns and recruitment of spinal oscillators. The improvement of the coordination dynamics of the CNS can be partly measured directly by rhythmicity upon the patient performing rhythmic movements coordinated up to milliseconds. Since rhythmic dynamic, coordinated, stereotyped movements are mainly located in the spinal cord and only little supraspinal drive is necessary to initiate, maintain, and terminate them, rhythmic, dynamic, coordinated movements were used in therapy to enforce reorganization of the lesioned CNS by improving the self-organization and relative coordination of spinal oscillators (and their interactions with occasionally firing motoneurons) which became pathologic in their firing following CNS lesion. Paraparetic, tetraparetic spinal cord and brain-lesioned patients re-learned running and other movements by an oscillator formation and coordination dynamic therapy. Our development in neurorehabilitation is in accordance with those of theoretical and computational neurosciences which deal with the self-organization of neuronal networks. In particular, jumping on a springboard 'in-phase' and in 'anti-phase' to re-learn phase relations of oscillator coupling can be understood in the framework of the Haken-Kelso-Bunz coordination dynamic model. By introducing broken symmetry, intention, learning and spasticity in the landscape of the potential function of the integrated CNS activity, the change in self-organization becomes understandable. Movement patterns re-learned by oscillator formation and coordination dynamic therapy evolve from reorganization and regeneration of the lesioned CNS by cooperative and competitive interplay between intrinsic coordination dynamics, extrinsic therapy related inputs with physiologic re-afferent input, including intention, motivation, supervised learning, interpersonal coordination, and genetic constraints including neurogenesis. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

The impact of the perception of rhythmic music on self-paced oscillatory movements

PubMed Central

Peckel, Mathieu; Pozzo, Thierry; Bigand, Emmanuel

2014-01-01

Inspired by theories of perception-action coupling and embodied music cognition, we investigated how rhythmic music perception impacts self-paced oscillatory movements. In a pilot study, we examined the kinematic parameters of self-paced oscillatory movements, walking and finger tapping using optical motion capture. In accordance with biomechanical constraints accounts of motion, we found that movements followed a hierarchical organization depending on the proximal/distal characteristic of the limb used. Based on these findings, we were interested in knowing how and when the perception of rhythmic music could resonate with the motor system in the context of these constrained oscillatory movements. In order to test this, we conducted an experiment where participants performed four different effector-specific movements (lower leg, whole arm and forearm oscillation and finger tapping) while rhythmic music was playing in the background. Musical stimuli consisted of computer-generated MIDI musical pieces with a 4/4 metrical structure. The musical tempo of each song increased from 60 BPM to 120 BPM by 6 BPM increments. A specific tempo was maintained for 20 s before a 2 s transition to the higher tempo. The task of the participant was to maintain a comfortable pace for the four movements (self-paced) while not paying attention to the music. No instruction on whether to synchronize with the music was given. Results showed that participants were distinctively influenced by the background music depending on the movement used with the tapping task being consistently the most influenced. Furthermore, eight strategies put in place by participants to cope with the task were unveiled. Despite not instructed to do so, participants also occasionally synchronized with music. Results are discussed in terms of the link between perception and action (i.e., motor/perceptual resonance). In general, our results give support to the notion that rhythmic music is processed in a motoric fashion. PMID:25278924

Attentional Demands on Motor-Respiratory Coordination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hessler, Eric E.; Amazeen, Polemnia G.

2009-01-01

Athletic performance requires the pacing of breathing with exercise, known as motor-respiratory coordination (MRC). In this study, we added cognitive and physical constraints while participants intentionally controlled their breathing locations during rhythmic arm movement. This is the first study to examine a cognitive constraint on MRC.…

Biases in rhythmic sensorimotor coordination: effects of modality and intentionality.

PubMed

Debats, Nienke B; Ridderikhoff, Arne; de Boer, Betteco J; Peper, C Lieke E

2013-08-01

Sensorimotor biases were examined for intentional (tracking task) and unintentional (distractor task) rhythmic coordination. The tracking task involved unimanual tracking of either an oscillating visual signal or the passive movements of the contralateral hand (proprioceptive signal). In both conditions the required coordination patterns (isodirectional and mirror-symmetric) were defined relative to the body midline and the hands were not visible. For proprioceptive tracking the two patterns did not differ in stability, whereas for visual tracking the isodirectional pattern was performed more stably than the mirror-symmetric pattern. However, when visual feedback about the unimanual hand movements was provided during visual tracking, the isodirectional pattern ceased to be dominant. Together these results indicated that the stability of the coordination patterns did not depend on the modality of the target signal per se, but on the combination of sensory signals that needed to be processed (unimodal vs. cross-modal). The distractor task entailed rhythmic unimanual movements during which a rhythmic visual or proprioceptive distractor signal had to be ignored. The observed biases were similar as for intentional coordination, suggesting that intentionality did not affect the underlying sensorimotor processes qualitatively. Intentional tracking was characterized by active sensory pursuit, through muscle activity in the passively moved arm (proprioceptive tracking task) and rhythmic eye movements (visual tracking task). Presumably this pursuit afforded predictive information serving the coordination process. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Are non-human primates capable of rhythmic entrainment? Evidence for the gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis.

PubMed

Merchant, Hugo; Honing, Henkjan

2013-01-01

We propose a decomposition of the neurocognitive mechanisms that might underlie interval-based timing and rhythmic entrainment. Next to reviewing the concepts central to the definition of rhythmic entrainment, we discuss recent studies that suggest rhythmic entrainment to be specific to humans and a selected group of bird species, but, surprisingly, is not obvious in non-human primates. On the basis of these studies we propose the gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis that suggests that humans fully share interval-based timing with other primates, but only partially share the ability of rhythmic entrainment (or beat-based timing). This hypothesis accommodates the fact that non-human primates (i.e., macaques) performance is comparable to humans in single interval tasks (such as interval reproduction, categorization, and interception), but show differences in multiple interval tasks (such as rhythmic entrainment, synchronization, and continuation). Furthermore, it is in line with the observation that macaques can, apparently, synchronize in the visual domain, but show less sensitivity in the auditory domain. And finally, while macaques are sensitive to interval-based timing and rhythmic grouping, the absence of a strong coupling between the auditory and motor system of non-human primates might be the reason why macaques cannot rhythmically entrain in the way humans do.

Jazz drummers recruit language-specific areas for the processing of rhythmic structure.

PubMed

Herdener, Marcus; Humbel, Thierry; Esposito, Fabrizio; Habermeyer, Benedikt; Cattapan-Ludewig, Katja; Seifritz, Erich

2014-03-01

Rhythm is a central characteristic of music and speech, the most important domains of human communication using acoustic signals. Here, we investigated how rhythmical patterns in music are processed in the human brain, and, in addition, evaluated the impact of musical training on rhythm processing. Using fMRI, we found that deviations from a rule-based regular rhythmic structure activated the left planum temporale together with Broca's area and its right-hemispheric homolog across subjects, that is, a network also crucially involved in the processing of harmonic structure in music and the syntactic analysis of language. Comparing the BOLD responses to rhythmic variations between professional jazz drummers and musical laypersons, we found that only highly trained rhythmic experts show additional activity in left-hemispheric supramarginal gyrus, a higher-order region involved in processing of linguistic syntax. This suggests an additional functional recruitment of brain areas usually dedicated to complex linguistic syntax processing for the analysis of rhythmical patterns only in professional jazz drummers, who are especially trained to use rhythmical cues for communication.

From intentions to actions: Neural oscillations encode motor processes through phase, amplitude and phase-amplitude coupling.

PubMed

Combrisson, Etienne; Perrone-Bertolotti, Marcela; Soto, Juan Lp; Alamian, Golnoush; Kahane, Philippe; Lachaux, Jean-Philippe; Guillot, Aymeric; Jerbi, Karim

2017-02-15

Goal-directed motor behavior is associated with changes in patterns of rhythmic neuronal activity across widely distributed brain areas. In particular, movement initiation and execution are mediated by patterns of synchronization and desynchronization that occur concurrently across distinct frequency bands and across multiple motor cortical areas. To date, motor-related local oscillatory modulations have been predominantly examined by quantifying increases or suppressions in spectral power. However, beyond signal power, spectral properties such as phase and phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) have also been shown to carry information with regards to the oscillatory dynamics underlying motor processes. Yet, the distinct functional roles of phase, amplitude and PAC across the planning and execution of goal-directed motor behavior remain largely elusive. Here, we address this question with unprecedented resolution thanks to multi-site intracerebral EEG recordings in human subjects while they performed a delayed motor task. To compare the roles of phase, amplitude and PAC, we monitored intracranial brain signals from 748 sites across six medically intractable epilepsy patients at movement execution, and during the delay period where motor intention is present but execution is withheld. In particular, we used a machine-learning framework to identify the key contributions of various neuronal responses. We found a high degree of overlap between brain network patterns observed during planning and those present during execution. Prominent amplitude increases in the delta (2-4Hz) and high gamma (60-200Hz) bands were observed during both planning and execution. In contrast, motor alpha (8-13Hz) and beta (13-30Hz) power were suppressed during execution, but enhanced during the delay period. Interestingly, single-trial classification revealed that low-frequency phase information, rather than spectral power change, was the most discriminant feature in dissociating action from intention. Additionally, despite providing weaker decoding, PAC features led to statistically significant classification of motor states, particularly in anterior cingulate cortex and premotor brain areas. These results advance our understanding of the distinct and partly overlapping involvement of phase, amplitude and the coupling between them, in the neuronal mechanisms underlying motor intentions and executions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Artifact suppression and analysis of brain activities with electroencephalography signals.

PubMed

Rashed-Al-Mahfuz, Md; Islam, Md Rabiul; Hirose, Keikichi; Molla, Md Khademul Islam

2013-06-05

Brain-computer interface is a communication system that connects the brain with computer (or other devices) but is not dependent on the normal output of the brain (i.e., peripheral nerve and muscle). Electro-oculogram is a dominant artifact which has a significant negative influence on further analysis of real electroencephalography data. This paper presented a data adaptive technique for artifact suppression and brain wave extraction from electroencephalography signals to detect regional brain activities. Empirical mode decomposition based adaptive thresholding approach was employed here to suppress the electro-oculogram artifact. Fractional Gaussian noise was used to determine the threshold level derived from the analysis data without any training. The purified electroencephalography signal was composed of the brain waves also called rhythmic components which represent the brain activities. The rhythmic components were extracted from each electroencephalography channel using adaptive wiener filter with the original scale. The regional brain activities were mapped on the basis of the spatial distribution of rhythmic components, and the results showed that different regions of the brain are activated in response to different stimuli. This research analyzed the activities of a single rhythmic component, alpha with respect to different motor imaginations. The experimental results showed that the proposed method is very efficient in artifact suppression and identifying individual motor imagery based on the activities of alpha component.

Differentiating maturational and training influences on fMRI activation during music processing.

PubMed

Ellis, Robert J; Norton, Andrea C; Overy, Katie; Winner, Ellen; Alsop, David C; Schlaug, Gottfried

2012-04-15

Two major influences on how the brain processes music are maturational development and active musical training. Previous functional neuroimaging studies investigating music processing have typically focused on either categorical differences between "musicians versus nonmusicians" or "children versus adults." In the present study, we explored a cross-sectional data set (n=84) using multiple linear regression to isolate the performance-independent effects of age (5 to 33 years) and cumulative duration of musical training (0 to 21,000 practice hours) on fMRI activation similarities and differences between melodic discrimination (MD) and rhythmic discrimination (RD). Age-related effects common to MD and RD were present in three left hemisphere regions: temporofrontal junction, ventral premotor cortex, and the inferior part of the intraparietal sulcus, regions involved in active attending to auditory rhythms, sensorimotor integration, and working memory transformations of pitch and rhythmic patterns. By contrast, training-related effects common to MD and RD were localized to the posterior portion of the left superior temporal gyrus/planum temporale, an area implicated in spectrotemporal pattern matching and auditory-motor coordinate transformations. A single cluster in right superior temporal gyrus showed significantly greater activation during MD than RD. This is the first fMRI which has distinguished maturational from training effects during music processing. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Optogenetic stimulation of cortex to map evoked whisker movements in awake head-restrained mice.

PubMed

Auffret, Matthieu; Ravano, Veronica L; Rossi, Giulia M C; Hankov, Nicolas; Petersen, Merissa F A; Petersen, Carl C H

2018-01-01

Whisker movements are used by rodents to touch objects in order to extract spatial and textural tactile information about their immediate surroundings. To understand the mechanisms of such active sensorimotor processing it is important to investigate whisker motor control. The activity of neurons in the neocortex affects whisker movements, but many aspects of the organization of cortical whisker motor control remain unknown. Here, we filmed whisker movements evoked by sequential optogenetic stimulation of different locations across the left dorsal sensorimotor cortex of awake head-restrained mice. Whisker movements were evoked by optogenetic stimulation of many regions in the dorsal sensorimotor cortex. Optogenetic stimulation of whisker sensory barrel cortex evoked retraction of the contralateral whisker after a short latency, and a delayed rhythmic protraction of the ipsilateral whisker. Optogenetic stimulation of frontal cortex evoked rhythmic bilateral whisker protraction with a longer latency compared to stimulation of sensory cortex. Compared to frontal cortex stimulation, larger amplitude bilateral rhythmic whisking in a less protracted position was evoked at a similar latency by stimulating a cortical region posterior to Bregma and close to the midline. These data suggest that whisker motor control might be broadly distributed across the dorsal mouse sensorimotor cortex. Future experiments must investigate the complex neuronal circuits connecting specific cell-types in various cortical regions with the whisker motor neurons located in the facial nucleus. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Mondia whitei (Periplocaceae) prevents and Guibourtia tessmannii (Caesalpiniaceae) facilitates fictive ejaculation in spinal male rats

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Mondia whitei and Guibourtia tessmannii are used in Cameroon traditional medicine as aphrodisiacs. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the pro-ejaculatory effects of the aqueous and organic solvent extracts of these plants in spinal male rats. Methods In spinal cord transected and urethane-anesthetized rats, two electrodes where inserted into the bulbospongiosus muscles and the ejaculatory motor pattern was recorded on a polygraph after urethral and penile stimulations, intravenous injection of saline (0.1 ml/100 g), dopamine (0.1 μM/kg), aqueous and organic solvent plant extracts (20 mg/kg). Results In all spinal rats, urethral and penile stimulations always induced the ejaculatory motor pattern. Aqueous or hexane extract of Mondia whitei (20 mg/kg) prevented the expression of the ejaculatory motor pattern. The pro-ejaculatory effects of dopamine (0.1 μM/kg) were not abolished in spinal rats pre-treated with Mondia whitei extracts. Aqueous and methanolic stem bark extracts of Guibourtia tessmannii (20 mg/kg) induced fictive ejaculation characterized by rhythmic contractions of the bulbospongiosus muscles followed sometimes with expulsion of seminal plugs. In rats pre-treated with haloperidol (0.26 μM/kg), no ejaculatory motor pattern was recorded after intravenous injection of Guibourtia tessmannii extracts (20 mg/kg). Conclusion These results show that Mondia whitei possesses preventive effects on the expression of fictive ejaculation in spinal male rats, which is not mediated through dopaminergic pathway; on the contrary, the pro-ejaculatory activities of Guibourtia tessmannii require the integrity of dopaminergic system to exert its effects. The present findings further justify the ethno-medicinal claims of Mondia whitei and Guibourtia tessmannii. PMID:23295154

Brainstem Circuits that Control Mastication: Do They Have Anything to Say during Speech?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lund, James P.; Kolta, Arlette

2006-01-01

Mastication results from the interaction of an intrinsic rhythmical neural pattern and sensory feedback from the mouth, muscles and joints. The pattern is matched to the physical characteristics of food, but also varies with age. There are large differences in masticatory movements among subjects. The intrinsic rhythmical pattern is generated by…

Effects of Kindermusik Training on Infants' Rhythmic Enculturation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerry, David W.; Faux, Ashley L.; Trainor, Laurel J.

2010-01-01

Phillips-Silver and Trainor (2005) demonstrated a link between movement and the metrical interpretation of rhythm patterns in 7-month-old infants. Infants bounced on every second beat of a rhythmic pattern with no auditory accents later preferred to listen to an accented version of the pattern with accents every second beat (duple or march meter),…

Motor Stereotypies in Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldman, Sylvie; Wang, Cuiling; Salgado, Miran W.; Greene, Paul E.; Kim, Mimi; Rapin, Isabelle

2009-01-01

The purpose of the study was to count and characterize the range of stereotypies--repetitive rhythmical, apparently purposeless movements--in developmentally impaired children with and without autism, and to determine whether some types are more prevalent and diagnostically useful in children with autism. We described each motor stereotypy…

Examining the Potential of Web-Based Multimedia to Support Complex Fine Motor Skill Learning: An Empirical Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papastergiou, Marina; Pollatou, Elisana; Theofylaktou, Ioannis; Karadimou, Konstantina

2014-01-01

Research on the utilization of the Web for complex fine motor skill learning that involves whole body movements is still scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the introduction of a multimedia web-based learning environment, which was targeted at a rhythmic gymnastics routine consisting of eight fine motor skills, into an…

Finding the Beat: From Socially Coordinated Vocalizations in Songbirds to Rhythmic Entrainment in Humans.

PubMed

Benichov, Jonathan I; Globerson, Eitan; Tchernichovski, Ofer

2016-01-01

Humans and oscine songbirds share the rare capacity for vocal learning. Songbirds have the ability to acquire songs and calls of various rhythms through imitation. In several species, birds can even coordinate the timing of their vocalizations with other individuals in duets that are synchronized with millisecond-accuracy. It is not known, however, if songbirds can perceive rhythms holistically nor if they are capable of spontaneous entrainment to complex rhythms, in a manner similar to humans. Here we review emerging evidence from studies of rhythm generation and vocal coordination across songbirds and humans. In particular, recently developed experimental methods have revealed neural mechanisms underlying the temporal structure of song and have allowed us to test birds' abilities to predict the timing of rhythmic social signals. Surprisingly, zebra finches can readily learn to anticipate the calls of a "vocal robot" partner and alter the timing of their answers to avoid jamming, even in reference to complex rhythmic patterns. This capacity resembles, to some extent, human predictive motor response to an external beat. In songbirds, this is driven, at least in part, by the forebrain song system, which controls song timing and is essential for vocal learning. Building upon previous evidence for spontaneous entrainment in human and non-human vocal learners, we propose a comparative framework for future studies aimed at identifying shared mechanism of rhythm production and perception across songbirds and humans.

Neuromorphic walking gait control.

PubMed

Still, Susanne; Hepp, Klaus; Douglas, Rodney J

2006-03-01

We present a neuromorphic pattern generator for controlling the walking gaits of four-legged robots which is inspired by central pattern generators found in the nervous system and which is implemented as a very large scale integrated (VLSI) chip. The chip contains oscillator circuits that mimic the output of motor neurons in a strongly simplified way. We show that four coupled oscillators can produce rhythmic patterns with phase relationships that are appropriate to generate all four-legged animal walking gaits. These phase relationships together with frequency and duty cycle of the oscillators determine the walking behavior of a robot driven by the chip, and they depend on a small set of stationary bias voltages. We give analytic expressions for these dependencies. This chip reduces the complex, dynamic inter-leg control problem associated with walking gait generation to the problem of setting a few stationary parameters. It provides a compact and low power solution for walking gait control in robots.

A glycine receptor is involved in the organization of swimming movements in an invertebrate chordate.

PubMed

Nishino, Atsuo; Okamura, Yasushi; Piscopo, Stefania; Brown, Euan R

2010-01-19

Rhythmic motor patterns for locomotion in vertebrates are generated in spinal cord neural networks known as spinal Central Pattern Generators (CPGs). A key element in pattern generation is the role of glycinergic synaptic transmission by interneurons that cross the cord midline and inhibit contralaterally-located excitatory neurons. The glycinergic inhibitory drive permits alternating and precisely timed motor output during locomotion such as walking or swimming. To understand better the evolution of this system we examined the physiology of the neural network controlling swimming in an invertebrate chordate relative of vertebrates, the ascidian larva Ciona intestinalis. A reduced preparation of the larva consisting of nerve cord and motor ganglion generates alternating swimming movements. Pharmacological and genetic manipulation of glycine receptors shows that they are implicated in the control of these locomotory movements. Morphological molecular techniques and heterologous expression experiments revealed that glycine receptors are inhibitory and are present on both motoneurones and locomotory muscle while putative glycinergic interneurons were identified in the nerve cord by labeling with an anti-glycine antibody. In Ciona intestinalis, glycine receptors, glycinergic transmission and putative glycinergic interneurons, have a key role in coordinating swimming movements through a simple CPG that is present in the motor ganglion and nerve cord. Thus, the strong association between glycine receptors and vertebrate locomotory networks may now be extended to include the phylum chordata. The results suggest that the basic network for 'spinal-like' locomotion is likely to have existed in the common ancestor of extant chordates some 650 M years ago.

A glycine receptor is involved in the organization of swimming movements in an invertebrate chordate

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Rhythmic motor patterns for locomotion in vertebrates are generated in spinal cord neural networks known as spinal Central Pattern Generators (CPGs). A key element in pattern generation is the role of glycinergic synaptic transmission by interneurons that cross the cord midline and inhibit contralaterally-located excitatory neurons. The glycinergic inhibitory drive permits alternating and precisely timed motor output during locomotion such as walking or swimming. To understand better the evolution of this system we examined the physiology of the neural network controlling swimming in an invertebrate chordate relative of vertebrates, the ascidian larva Ciona intestinalis. Results A reduced preparation of the larva consisting of nerve cord and motor ganglion generates alternating swimming movements. Pharmacological and genetic manipulation of glycine receptors shows that they are implicated in the control of these locomotory movements. Morphological molecular techniques and heterologous expression experiments revealed that glycine receptors are inhibitory and are present on both motoneurones and locomotory muscle while putative glycinergic interneurons were identified in the nerve cord by labeling with an anti-glycine antibody. Conclusions In Ciona intestinalis, glycine receptors, glycinergic transmission and putative glycinergic interneurons, have a key role in coordinating swimming movements through a simple CPG that is present in the motor ganglion and nerve cord. Thus, the strong association between glycine receptors and vertebrate locomotory networks may now be extended to include the phylum chordata. The results suggest that the basic network for 'spinal-like' locomotion is likely to have existed in the common ancestor of extant chordates some 650 M years ago. PMID:20085645

Order restricted inference for oscillatory systems for detecting rhythmic signals

PubMed Central

Larriba, Yolanda; Rueda, Cristina; Fernández, Miguel A.; Peddada, Shyamal D.

2016-01-01

Motivation: Many biological processes, such as cell cycle, circadian clock, menstrual cycles, are governed by oscillatory systems consisting of numerous components that exhibit rhythmic patterns over time. It is not always easy to identify such rhythmic components. For example, it is a challenging problem to identify circadian genes in a given tissue using time-course gene expression data. There is a great potential for misclassifying non-rhythmic as rhythmic genes and vice versa. This has been a problem of considerable interest in recent years. In this article we develop a constrained inference based methodology called Order Restricted Inference for Oscillatory Systems (ORIOS) to detect rhythmic signals. Instead of using mathematical functions (e.g. sinusoidal) to describe shape of rhythmic signals, ORIOS uses mathematical inequalities. Consequently, it is robust and not limited by the biologist's choice of the mathematical model. We studied the performance of ORIOS using simulated as well as real data obtained from mouse liver, pituitary gland and data from NIH3T3, U2OS cell lines. Our results suggest that, for a broad collection of patterns of gene expression, ORIOS has substantially higher power to detect true rhythmic genes in comparison to some popular methods, while also declaring substantially fewer non-rhythmic genes as rhythmic. Availability and Implementation: A user friendly code implemented in R language can be downloaded from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/bb/staff/peddada/index.cfm. Contact: peddada@niehs.nih.gov PMID:27596593

Rhythmic entrainment as a musical affect induction mechanism.

PubMed

J Trost, W; Labbé, C; Grandjean, D

2017-02-01

One especially important feature of metrical music is that it contains periodicities that listeners' bodily rhythms can adapt to. Recent psychological frameworks have introduced the notion of rhythmic entrainment, among other mechanisms, as an emotion induction principle. In this review paper, we discuss rhythmic entrainment as an affect induction mechanism by differentiating four levels of entrainment in humans-perceptual, autonomic physiological, motor, and social-all of which could contribute to a subjective feeling component. We review the theoretical and empirical literature on rhythmic entrainment to music that supports the existence of these different levels of entrainment by describing the phenomena and characterizing the associated underlying brain processes. The goal of this review is to present the theoretical implications and empirical findings about rhythmic entrainment as an important principle at the basis of affect induction via music, since it rests upon the temporal dimension of music, which is a specificity of music as an affective stimulus. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The ecology of entrainment: Foundations of coordinated rhythmic movement.

PubMed

Phillips-Silver, Jessica; Aktipis, C Athena; Bryant, Gregory A

2010-09-01

Entrainment has been studied in a variety of contexts including music perception, dance, verbal communication and motor coordination more generally. Here we seek to provide a unifying framework that incorporates the key aspects of entrainment as it has been studied in these varying domains. We propose that there are a number of types of entrainment that build upon pre-existing adaptations that allow organisms to perceive stimuli as rhythmic, to produce periodic stimuli, and to integrate the two using sensory feedback. We suggest that social entrainment is a special case of spatiotemporal coordination where the rhythmic signal originates from another individual. We use this framework to understand the function and evolutionary basis for coordinated rhythmic movement and to explore questions about the nature of entrainment in music and dance. The framework of entrainment presented here has a number of implications for the vocal learning hypothesis and other proposals for the evolution of coordinated rhythmic behavior across an array of species.

The evolution of locomotor rhythmicity in tetrapods.

PubMed

Ross, Callum F; Blob, Richard W; Carrier, David R; Daley, Monica A; Deban, Stephen M; Demes, Brigitte; Gripper, Janaya L; Iriarte-Diaz, Jose; Kilbourne, Brandon M; Landberg, Tobias; Polk, John D; Schilling, Nadja; Vanhooydonck, Bieke

2013-04-01

Differences in rhythmicity (relative variance in cycle period) among mammal, fish, and lizard feeding systems have been hypothesized to be associated with differences in their sensorimotor control systems. We tested this hypothesis by examining whether the locomotion of tachymetabolic tetrapods (birds and mammals) is more rhythmic than that of bradymetabolic tetrapods (lizards, alligators, turtles, salamanders). Species averages of intraindividual coefficients of variation in cycle period were compared while controlling for gait and substrate. Variance in locomotor cycle periods is significantly lower in tachymetabolic than in bradymetabolic animals for datasets that include treadmill locomotion, non-treadmill locomotion, or both. When phylogenetic relationships are taken into account the pooled analyses remain significant, whereas the non-treadmill and the treadmill analyses become nonsignificant. The co-occurrence of relatively high rhythmicity in both feeding and locomotor systems of tachymetabolic tetrapods suggests that the anatomical substrate of rhythmicity is in the motor control system, not in the musculoskeletal components. © 2012 The Author(s). Evolution© 2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Sleep-Related Rhythmic Movement Disorder and Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Five Adult Patients

PubMed Central

Chiaro, Giacomo; Maestri, Michelangelo; Riccardi, Silvia; Haba-Rubio, José; Miano, Silvia; Bassetti, Claudio L.; Heinzer, Raphaël C.; Manconi, Mauro

2017-01-01

Sleep-related rhythmic movements (SRRMs) are typical in infancy and childhood, where they usually occur at the wake-to-sleep transition. However, they have rarely been observed in adults, where they can be idiopathic or associated with other sleep disorders including sleep apnea. We report a case series of 5 adults with sleep-related rhythmic movement disorder, 4 of whom had a previous history of SRRMs in childhood. SRRMs mostly occurred in consolidated sleep, in association with pathological respiratory events, predominantly longer ones, especially during stage R sleep, and recovered in 1 patient with continuous positive airway pressure therapy. We hypothesize that sleep apneas may act as a trigger of rhythmic motor events through a respiratory-related arousal mechanism in genetically predisposed subjects. Citation: Chiaro G, Maestri M, Riccardi S, Haba-Rubio J, Miano S, Bassetti CL, Heinzer RC, Manconi M. Sleep-related rhythmic movement disorder and obstructive sleep apnea in five adult patients. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(10):1213–1217. PMID:28859719

The ecology of entrainment: Foundations of coordinated rhythmic movement

PubMed Central

Phillips-Silver, Jessica; Aktipis, C. Athena; Bryant, Gregory A.

2011-01-01

Entrainment has been studied in a variety of contexts including music perception, dance, verbal communication and motor coordination more generally. Here we seek to provide a unifying framework that incorporates the key aspects of entrainment as it has been studied in these varying domains. We propose that there are a number of types of entrainment that build upon pre-existing adaptations that allow organisms to perceive stimuli as rhythmic, to produce periodic stimuli, and to integrate the two using sensory feedback. We suggest that social entrainment is a special case of spatiotemporal coordination where the rhythmic signal originates from another individual. We use this framework to understand the function and evolutionary basis for coordinated rhythmic movement and to explore questions about the nature of entrainment in music and dance. The framework of entrainment presented here has a number of implications for the vocal learning hypothesis and other proposals for the evolution of coordinated rhythmic behavior across an array of species. PMID:21776183

Analysis of correlations and search for evidence of deterministic chaos in rhythmic motor control by the human brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roberts, Sean; Eykholt, R.; Thaut, Michael H.

2000-08-01

We investigate rhythmic finger tapping in both the presence and the absence of a metronome. We examine both the time intervals between taps and the time lags between the stimulus tones from the metronome and the response taps by the subject. We analyze the correlations in these data sets, and we search for evidence of deterministic chaos, as opposed to randomness, in the fluctuations.

Rhythmic patterning in Malaysian and Singapore English.

PubMed

Tan, Rachel Siew Kuang; Low, Ee-Ling

2014-06-01

Previous work on the rhythm of Malaysian English has been based on impressionistic observations. This paper utilizes acoustic analysis to measure the rhythmic patterns of Malaysian English. Recordings of the read speech and spontaneous speech of 10 Malaysian English speakers were analyzed and compared with recordings of an equivalent sample of Singaporean English speakers. Analysis was done using two rhythmic indexes, the PVI and VarcoV. It was found that although the rhythm of read speech of the Singaporean speakers was syllable-based as described by previous studies, the rhythm of the Malaysian speakers was even more syllable-based. Analysis of the syllables in specific utterances showed that Malaysian speakers did not reduce vowels as much as Singaporean speakers in cases of syllables in utterances. Results of the spontaneous speech confirmed the findings for the read speech; that is, the same rhythmic patterning was found which normally triggers vowel reductions.

Where Is the Beat? The Neural Correlates of Lexical Stress and Rhythmical Well-formedness in Auditory Story Comprehension.

PubMed

Kandylaki, Katerina D; Henrich, Karen; Nagels, Arne; Kircher, Tilo; Domahs, Ulrike; Schlesewsky, Matthias; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Wiese, Richard

2017-07-01

While listening to continuous speech, humans process beat information to correctly identify word boundaries. The beats of language are stress patterns that are created by combining lexical (word-specific) stress patterns and the rhythm of a specific language. Sometimes, the lexical stress pattern needs to be altered to obey the rhythm of the language. This study investigated the interplay of lexical stress patterns and rhythmical well-formedness in natural speech with fMRI. Previous electrophysiological studies on cases in which a regular lexical stress pattern may be altered to obtain rhythmical well-formedness showed that even subtle rhythmic deviations are detected by the brain if attention is directed toward prosody. Here, we present a new approach to this phenomenon by having participants listen to contextually rich stories in the absence of a task targeting the manipulation. For the interaction of lexical stress and rhythmical well-formedness, we found one suprathreshold cluster localized between the cerebellum and the brain stem. For the main effect of lexical stress, we found higher BOLD responses to the retained lexical stress pattern in the bilateral SMA, bilateral postcentral gyrus, bilateral middle fontal gyrus, bilateral inferior and right superior parietal lobule, and right precuneus. These results support the view that lexical stress is processed as part of a sensorimotor network of speech comprehension. Moreover, our results connect beat processing in language to domain-independent timing perception.

Genome-wide profiling of 24 hr diel rhythmicity in the water flea, Daphnia pulex: network analysis reveals rhythmic gene expression and enhances functional gene annotation.

PubMed

Rund, Samuel S C; Yoo, Boyoung; Alam, Camille; Green, Taryn; Stephens, Melissa T; Zeng, Erliang; George, Gary F; Sheppard, Aaron D; Duffield, Giles E; Milenković, Tijana; Pfrender, Michael E

2016-08-18

Marine and freshwater zooplankton exhibit daily rhythmic patterns of behavior and physiology which may be regulated directly by the light:dark (LD) cycle and/or a molecular circadian clock. One of the best-studied zooplankton taxa, the freshwater crustacean Daphnia, has a 24 h diel vertical migration (DVM) behavior whereby the organism travels up and down through the water column daily. DVM plays a critical role in resource tracking and the behavioral avoidance of predators and damaging ultraviolet radiation. However, there is little information at the transcriptional level linking the expression patterns of genes to the rhythmic physiology/behavior of Daphnia. Here we analyzed genome-wide temporal transcriptional patterns from Daphnia pulex collected over a 44 h time period under a 12:12 LD cycle (diel) conditions using a cosine-fitting algorithm. We used a comprehensive network modeling and analysis approach to identify novel co-regulated rhythmic genes that have similar network topological properties and functional annotations as rhythmic genes identified by the cosine-fitting analyses. Furthermore, we used the network approach to predict with high accuracy novel gene-function associations, thus enhancing current functional annotations available for genes in this ecologically relevant model species. Our results reveal that genes in many functional groupings exhibit 24 h rhythms in their expression patterns under diel conditions. We highlight the rhythmic expression of immunity, oxidative detoxification, and sensory process genes. We discuss differences in the chronobiology of D. pulex from other well-characterized terrestrial arthropods. This research adds to a growing body of literature suggesting the genetic mechanisms governing rhythmicity in crustaceans may be divergent from other arthropod lineages including insects. Lastly, these results highlight the power of using a network analysis approach to identify differential gene expression and provide novel functional annotation.

A little elastic for a better performance: kinesiotaping of the motor effector modulates neural mechanisms for rhythmic movements.

PubMed

Bravi, Riccardo; Quarta, Eros; Cohen, Erez J; Gottard, Anna; Minciacchi, Diego

2014-01-01

A rhythmic motor performance is brought about by an integration of timing information with movements. Investigations on the millisecond time scale distinguish two forms of time control, event-based timing and emergent timing. While event-based timing asserts the existence of a central internal timekeeper for the control of repetitive movements, the emergent timing perspective claims that timing emerges from dynamic control of nontemporal movements parameters. We have recently demonstrated that the precision of an isochronous performance, defined as performance of repeated movements having a uniform duration, was insensible to auditory stimuli of various characteristics (Bravi et al., 2014). Such finding has led us to investigate whether the application of an elastic therapeutic tape (Kinesio® Tex taping; KTT) used for treating athletic injuries and a variety of physical disorders, is able to reduce the timing variability of repetitive rhythmic movement. Young healthy subjects, tested with and without KTT, have participated in sessions in which sets of repeated isochronous wrist's flexion-extensions (IWFEs) were performed under various auditory conditions and during their recall. Kinematics was recorded and temporal parameters were extracted and analyzed. Our results show that the application of KTT decreases the variability of rhythmic movements by a 2-fold effect: on the one hand KTT provides extra proprioceptive information activating cutaneous mechanoreceptors, on the other KTT biases toward the emergent timing thus modulating the processes for rhythmic movements. Therefore, KTT appears able to render movements less audio dependent by relieving, at least partially, the central structures from time control and making available more resources for an augmented performance.

A common neural element receiving rhythmic arm and leg activity as assessed by reflex modulation in arm muscles

PubMed Central

Tazoe, Toshiki; Nakajima, Tsuyoshi; Futatsubashi, Genki; Ohtsuka, Hiroyuki; Suzuki, Shinya; Zehr, E. Paul; Komiyama, Tomoyoshi

2016-01-01

Neural interactions between regulatory systems for rhythmic arm and leg movements are an intriguing issue in locomotor neuroscience. Amplitudes of early latency cutaneous reflexes (ELCRs) in stationary arm muscles are modulated during rhythmic leg or arm cycling but not during limb positioning or voluntary contraction. This suggests that interneurons mediating ELCRs to arm muscles integrate outputs from neural systems controlling rhythmic limb movements. Alternatively, outputs could be integrated at the motoneuron and/or supraspinal levels. We examined whether a separate effect on the ELCR pathways and cortico-motoneuronal excitability during arm and leg cycling is integrated by neural elements common to the lumbo-sacral and cervical spinal cord. The subjects performed bilateral leg cycling (LEG), contralateral arm cycling (ARM), and simultaneous contralateral arm and bilateral leg cycling (A&L), while ELCRs in the wrist flexor and shoulder flexor muscles were evoked by superficial radial (SR) nerve stimulation. ELCR amplitudes were facilitated by cycling tasks and were larger during A&L than during ARM and LEG. A low stimulus intensity during ARM or LEG generated a larger ELCR during A&L than the sum of ELCRs during ARM and LEG. We confirmed this nonlinear increase in single motor unit firing probability following SR nerve stimulation during A&L. Furthermore, motor-evoked potentials following transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation did not show nonlinear potentiation during A&L. These findings suggest the existence of a common neural element of the ELCR reflex pathway that is active only during rhythmic arm and leg movement and receives convergent input from contralateral arms and legs. PMID:26961103

Does Epileptiform Activity Represent a Failure of Neuromodulation to Control Central Pattern Generator-Like Neocortical Behavior?

PubMed Central

Traub, Roger D.; Whittington, Miles A.; Hall, Stephen P.

2017-01-01

Rhythmic motor patterns in invertebrates are often driven by specialized “central pattern generators” (CPGs), containing small numbers of neurons, which are likely to be “identifiable” in one individual compared with another. The dynamics of any particular CPG lies under the control of modulatory substances, amines, or peptides, entering the CPG from outside it, or released by internal constituent neurons; consequently, a particular CPG can generate a given rhythm at different frequencies and amplitudes, and perhaps even generate a repertoire of distinctive patterns. The mechanisms exploited by neuromodulators in this respect are manifold: Intrinsic conductances (e.g., calcium, potassium channels), conductance state of postsynaptic receptors, degree of plasticity, and magnitude and kinetics of transmitter release can all be affected. The CPG concept has been generalized to vertebrate motor pattern generating circuits (e.g., for locomotion), which may contain large numbers of neurons – a construct that is sensible, if there is enough redundancy: that is, the large number of neurons consists of only a small number of classes, and the cells within any one class act stereotypically. Here we suggest that CPG and modulator ideas may also help to understand cortical oscillations, normal ones, and particularly transition to epileptiform pathology. Furthermore, in the case illustrated, the mechanism of the transition appears to be an exaggerated form of a normal modulatory action used to influence sensory processing. PMID:29093667

Assessment of rhythmic entrainment at multiple timescales in dyslexia: evidence for disruption to syllable timing.

PubMed

Leong, Victoria; Goswami, Usha

2014-02-01

Developmental dyslexia is associated with rhythmic difficulties, including impaired perception of beat patterns in music and prosodic stress patterns in speech. Spoken prosodic rhythm is cued by slow (<10 Hz) fluctuations in speech signal amplitude. Impaired neural oscillatory tracking of these slow amplitude modulation (AM) patterns is one plausible source of impaired rhythm tracking in dyslexia. Here, we characterise the temporal profile of the dyslexic rhythm deficit by examining rhythmic entrainment at multiple speech timescales. Adult dyslexic participants completed two experiments aimed at testing the perception and production of speech rhythm. In the perception task, participants tapped along to the beat of 4 metrically-regular nursery rhyme sentences. In the production task, participants produced the same 4 sentences in time to a metronome beat. Rhythmic entrainment was assessed using both traditional rhythmic indices and a novel AM-based measure, which utilised 3 dominant AM timescales in the speech signal each associated with a different phonological grain-sized unit (0.9-2.5 Hz, prosodic stress; 2.5-12 Hz, syllables; 12-40 Hz, phonemes). The AM-based measure revealed atypical rhythmic entrainment by dyslexic participants to syllable patterns in speech, in perception and production. In the perception task, both groups showed equally strong phase-locking to Syllable AM patterns, but dyslexic responses were entrained to a significantly earlier oscillatory phase angle than controls. In the production task, dyslexic utterances showed shorter syllable intervals, and differences in Syllable:Phoneme AM cross-frequency synchronisation. Our data support the view that rhythmic entrainment at slow (∼5 Hz, Syllable) rates is atypical in dyslexia, suggesting that neural mechanisms for syllable perception and production may also be atypical. These syllable timing deficits could contribute to the atypical development of phonological representations for spoken words, the central cognitive characteristic of developmental dyslexia across languages. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessment of rhythmic entrainment at multiple timescales in dyslexia: Evidence for disruption to syllable timing☆

PubMed Central

Leong, Victoria; Goswami, Usha

2014-01-01

Developmental dyslexia is associated with rhythmic difficulties, including impaired perception of beat patterns in music and prosodic stress patterns in speech. Spoken prosodic rhythm is cued by slow (<10 Hz) fluctuations in speech signal amplitude. Impaired neural oscillatory tracking of these slow amplitude modulation (AM) patterns is one plausible source of impaired rhythm tracking in dyslexia. Here, we characterise the temporal profile of the dyslexic rhythm deficit by examining rhythmic entrainment at multiple speech timescales. Adult dyslexic participants completed two experiments aimed at testing the perception and production of speech rhythm. In the perception task, participants tapped along to the beat of 4 metrically-regular nursery rhyme sentences. In the production task, participants produced the same 4 sentences in time to a metronome beat. Rhythmic entrainment was assessed using both traditional rhythmic indices and a novel AM-based measure, which utilised 3 dominant AM timescales in the speech signal each associated with a different phonological grain-sized unit (0.9–2.5 Hz, prosodic stress; 2.5–12 Hz, syllables; 12–40 Hz, phonemes). The AM-based measure revealed atypical rhythmic entrainment by dyslexic participants to syllable patterns in speech, in perception and production. In the perception task, both groups showed equally strong phase-locking to Syllable AM patterns, but dyslexic responses were entrained to a significantly earlier oscillatory phase angle than controls. In the production task, dyslexic utterances showed shorter syllable intervals, and differences in Syllable:Phoneme AM cross-frequency synchronisation. Our data support the view that rhythmic entrainment at slow (∼5 Hz, Syllable) rates is atypical in dyslexia, suggesting that neural mechanisms for syllable perception and production may also be atypical. These syllable timing deficits could contribute to the atypical development of phonological representations for spoken words, the central cognitive characteristic of developmental dyslexia across languages. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled . PMID:23916752

The role of auditory cortex in retention of rhythmic patterns as studied in patients with temporal lobe removals including Heschl's gyrus.

PubMed

Penhune, V B; Zatorre, R J; Feindel, W H

1999-03-01

This experiment examined the participation of the auditory cortex of the temporal lobe in the perception and retention of rhythmic patterns. Four patient groups were tested on a paradigm contrasting reproduction of auditory and visual rhythms: those with right or left anterior temporal lobe removals which included Heschl's gyrus (HG), the region of primary auditory cortex (RT-A and LT-A); and patients with right or left anterior temporal lobe removals which did not include HG (RT-a and LT-a). Estimation of lesion extent in HG using an MRI-based probabilistic map indicated that, in the majority of subjects, the lesion was confined to the anterior secondary auditory cortex located on the anterior-lateral extent of HG. On the rhythm reproduction task, RT-A patients were impaired in retention of auditory but not visual rhythms, particularly when accurate reproduction of stimulus durations was required. In contrast, LT-A patients as well as both RT-a and LT-a patients were relatively unimpaired on this task. None of the patient groups was impaired in the ability to make an adequate motor response. Further, they were unimpaired when using a dichotomous response mode, indicating that they were able to adequately differentiate the stimulus durations and, when given an alternative method of encoding, to retain them. Taken together, these results point to a specific role for the right anterior secondary auditory cortex in the retention of a precise analogue representation of auditory tonal patterns.

Biologically-variable rhythmic auditory cues are superior to isochronous cues in fostering natural gait variability in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Dotov, D G; Bayard, S; Cochen de Cock, V; Geny, C; Driss, V; Garrigue, G; Bardy, B; Dalla Bella, S

2017-01-01

Rhythmic auditory cueing improves certain gait symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Cues are typically stimuli or beats with a fixed inter-beat interval. We show that isochronous cueing has an unwanted side-effect in that it exacerbates one of the motor symptoms characteristic of advanced PD. Whereas the parameters of the stride cycle of healthy walkers and early patients possess a persistent correlation in time, or long-range correlation (LRC), isochronous cueing renders stride-to-stride variability random. Random stride cycle variability is also associated with reduced gait stability and lack of flexibility. To investigate how to prevent patients from acquiring a random stride cycle pattern, we tested rhythmic cueing which mimics the properties of variability found in healthy gait (biological variability). PD patients (n=19) and age-matched healthy participants (n=19) walked with three rhythmic cueing stimuli: isochronous, with random variability, and with biological variability (LRC). Synchronization was not instructed. The persistent correlation in gait was preserved only with stimuli with biological variability, equally for patients and controls (p's<0.05). In contrast, cueing with isochronous or randomly varying inter-stimulus/beat intervals removed the LRC in the stride cycle. Notably, the individual's tendency to synchronize steps with beats determined the amount of negative effects of isochronous and random cues (p's<0.05) but not the positive effect of biological variability. Stimulus variability and patients' propensity to synchronize play a critical role in fostering healthier gait dynamics during cueing. The beneficial effects of biological variability provide useful guidelines for improving existing cueing treatments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Theta-rhythmic drive between medial septum and hippocampus in slow-wave sleep and microarousal: a Granger causality analysis.

PubMed

Kang, D; Ding, M; Topchiy, I; Shifflett, L; Kocsis, B

2015-11-01

Medial septum (MS) plays a critical role in controlling the electrical activity of the hippocampus (HIPP). In particular, theta-rhythmic burst firing of MS neurons is thought to drive lasting HIPP theta oscillations in rats during waking motor activity and REM sleep. Less is known about MS-HIPP interactions in nontheta states such as non-REM sleep, in which HIPP theta oscillations are absent but theta-rhythmic burst firing in subsets of MS neurons is preserved. The present study used Granger causality (GC) to examine the interaction patterns between MS and HIPP in slow-wave sleep (SWS, a nontheta state) and during its short interruptions called microarousals (a transient theta state). We found that during SWS, while GC revealed a unidirectional MS→HIPP influence over a wide frequency band (2-12 Hz, maximum: ∼8 Hz), there was no theta peak in the hippocampal power spectra, indicating a lack of theta activity in HIPP. In contrast, during microarousals, theta peaks were seen in both MS and HIPP power spectra and were accompanied by bidirectional GC with MS→HIPP and HIPP→MS theta drives being of equal magnitude. Thus GC in a nontheta state (SWS) vs. a theta state (microarousal) primarily differed in the level of HIPP→MS. The present findings suggest a modification of our understanding of the role of MS as the theta generator in two regards. First, a MS→HIPP theta drive does not necessarily induce theta field oscillations in the hippocampus, as found in SWS. Second, HIPP theta oscillations entail bidirectional theta-rhythmic interactions between MS and HIPP. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

Underlying mechanism of the cyclic migrating motor complex in Suncus murinus: a change in gastrointestinal pH is the key regulator.

PubMed

Mondal, Anupom; Koyama, Kouhei; Mikami, Takashi; Horita, Taichi; Takemi, Shota; Tsuda, Sachiko; Sakata, Ichiro; Sakai, Takafumi

2017-01-01

In the fasted gastrointestinal (GI) tract, a characteristic cyclical rhythmic migrating motor complex (MMC) occurs in an ultradian rhythm, at 90-120 min time intervals, in many species. However, the underlying mechanism directing this ultradian rhythmic MMC pattern is yet to be completely elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the possible causes or factors that involve in the occurrence of the fasting gastric contractions by using Suncus murinus a small model animal featuring almost the same rhythmic MMC as that found in humans and dogs. We observed that either intraduodenal infusion of saline at pH 8 evoked the strong gastric contraction or continuously lowering duodenal pH to 3-evoked gastric phase II-like and phase III-like contractions, and both strong contractions were essentially abolished by the intravenous administration of MA 2029 (motilin receptor antagonist) and D-Lys3-GHRP6 (ghrelin receptor antagonist) in a vagus-independent manner. Moreover, we observed that the prostaglandin E2-alpha (PGE2 - α) and serotonin type 4 (5HT4) receptors play important roles as intermediate molecules in changes in GI pH and motilin release. These results suggest a clear insight mechanism that change in the duodenal pH to alkaline condition is an essential factor for stimulating the endogenous release of motilin and governs the fasting MMC in a vagus-independent manner. Finally, we believe that the changes in duodenal pH triggered by flowing gastric acid and the release of duodenal bicarbonate through the involvement of PGE2 - α and 5HT4 receptor are the key events in the occurrence of the MMC. © 2017 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society.

Age-Related Changes in Bimanual Instrument Playing with Rhythmic Cueing

PubMed Central

Kim, Soo Ji; Cho, Sung-Rae; Yoo, Ga Eul

2017-01-01

Deficits in bimanual coordination of older adults have been demonstrated to significantly limit their functioning in daily life. As a bimanual sensorimotor task, instrument playing has great potential for motor and cognitive training in advanced age. While the process of matching a person’s repetitive movements to auditory rhythmic cueing during instrument playing was documented to involve motor and attentional control, investigation into whether the level of cognitive functioning influences the ability to rhythmically coordinate movement to an external beat in older populations is relatively limited. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine how timing accuracy during bimanual instrument playing with rhythmic cueing differed depending on the degree of participants’ cognitive aging. Twenty one young adults, 20 healthy older adults, and 17 older adults with mild dementia participated in this study. Each participant tapped an electronic drum in time to the rhythmic cueing provided using both hands simultaneously and in alternation. During bimanual instrument playing with rhythmic cueing, mean and variability of synchronization errors were measured and compared across the groups and the tempo of cueing during each type of tapping task. Correlations of such timing parameters with cognitive measures were also analyzed. The results showed that the group factor resulted in significant differences in the synchronization errors-related parameters. During bimanual tapping tasks, cognitive decline resulted in differences in synchronization errors between younger adults and older adults with mild dimentia. Also, in terms of variability of synchronization errors, younger adults showed significant differences in maintaining timing performance from older adults with and without mild dementia, which may be attributed to decreased processing time for bimanual coordination due to aging. Significant correlations were observed between variability of synchronization errors and performance of cognitive tasks involving executive control and cognitive flexibility when asked for bimanual coordination in response to external timing cues at adjusted tempi. Also, significant correlations with cognitive measures were more prevalent in variability of synchronization errors during alternative tapping compared to simultaneous tapping. The current study supports that bimanual tapping may be predictive of cognitive processing of older adults. Also, tempo and type of movement required for instrument playing both involve cognitive and motor loads at different levels, and such variables could be important factors for determining the complexity of the task and the involved task requirements for interventions using instrument playing. PMID:29085309

Quadruped robots' modular trajectories: Stability issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinto, Carla M. A.

2012-09-01

Pinto, Santos, Rocha and Matos [13, 12] study a CPG model for the generation of modular trajectories of quadruped robots. They consider that each movement is composed of two types of primitives: rhythmic and discrete. The rhythmic primitive models the periodic patterns and the discrete primitive is inserted as a perturbation of those patterns. In this paper we begin to tackle numerically the problem of the stability of that mathematical model. We observe that if the discrete part is inserted in all limbs, with equal values, and as an offset of the rhythmic part, the obtained gait is stable and has the same spatial and spatio-temporal symmetry groups as the purely rhythmic gait, differing only on the value of the offset.

Reciprocal links between metabolic and ionic events in islet cells. Their relevance to the rhythmics of insulin release.

PubMed

Malaisse, W J

1998-02-01

The notion of reciprocal links between metabolic and ionic events in islet cells and the rhythmics of insulin release is based on (i) the rhythmic pattern of hormonal release from isolated perfused rat pancreas, which supports the concept of an intrapancreatic pacemaker; (ii) the assumption that this phasic pattern is due to the integration of secretory activity in distinct functional units, e.g. distinct islets; and (iii) the fact that reciprocal coupling between metabolic and ionic events is operative in the secretory sequence.

Rhythmic movement disorder (head banging) in an adult during rapid eye movement sleep.

PubMed

Anderson, Kirstie N; Smith, Ian E; Shneerson, John M

2006-06-01

Sleep-related rhythmic movements (head banging or body rocking) are extremely common in normal infants and young children, but less than 5% of children over the age of 5 years old exhibit these stereotyped motor behaviors. They characteristically occur during drowsiness or sleep onset rather than in deep sleep or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We present a 27-year-old man with typical rhythmic movement disorder that had persisted into adult life and was restricted to REM sleep. This man is the oldest subject with this presentation reported to date and highlights the importance of recognizing this nocturnal movement disorder when it does occur in adults.

Dietary Habits and Physical Self-Concept of Elite Rhythmic Gymnasts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boros, Szilvia

2009-01-01

Study aim: To identify main differences in nutrient patterns, food preferences and physical self-concept between the world's elite rhythmic gymnasts and untrained controls. Material and methods: A group of elite rhythmic gymnasts (n = 103) aged 15-21 years volunteered to participate in the study during the 2003 World Championships in Rhythmic…

Comparison between treadmill training with rhythmic auditory stimulation and ground walking with rhythmic auditory stimulation on gait ability in chronic stroke patients: A pilot study.

PubMed

Park, Jin; Park, So-yeon; Kim, Yong-wook; Woo, Youngkeun

2015-01-01

Generally, treadmill training is very effective intervention, and rhythmic auditory stimulation is designed to feedback during gait training in stroke patients. The purpose of this study was to compare the gait abilities in chronic stroke patients following either treadmill walking training with rhythmic auditory stimulation (TRAS) or over ground walking training with rhythmic auditory stimulation (ORAS). Nineteen subjects were divided into two groups: a TRAS group (9 subjects) and an ORAS group (10 subjects). Temporal and spatial gait parameters and motor recovery ability were measured before and after the training period. Gait ability was measured by the Biodex Gait trainer treadmill system, Timed up and go test (TUG), 6 meter walking distance (6MWD) and Functional gait assessment (FGA). After the training periods, the TRAS group showed a significant improvement in walking speed, step cycle, step length of the unaffected limb, coefficient of variation, 6MWD, and, FGA when compared to the ORAS group (p <  0.05). Treadmill walking training during the rhythmic auditory stimulation may be useful for rehabilitation of patients with chronic stroke.

Respiratory Patterns and Strategies during Feeding in Preterm Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vice, Frank L.; Gewolb, Ira H.

2008-01-01

Because patterns of integration of respiration into rhythmic suck-swallow efforts are highly variable, we examined the vagaries of respiratory efforts as they evolve from the first tentative attempts at integration through more complex rhythmic interactions, with a focus on several strategies in which breathing and suck-swallow are coordinated.…

Anomalous Putamen Volume in Children With Complex Motor Stereotypies.

PubMed

Mahone, E Mark; Crocetti, Deana; Tochen, Laura; Kline, Tina; Mostofsky, Stewart H; Singer, Harvey S

2016-12-01

Complex motor stereotypies in children are repetitive rhythmic movements that have a predictable pattern and location, seem purposeful, but serve no obvious function, tend to be prolonged, and stop with distraction, e.g., arm or hand flapping, waving. They occur in both "primary" (otherwise typically developing) and secondary conditions. These movements are best defined as habitual behaviors and therefore pathophysiologically hypothesized to reside in premotor to posterior putamen circuits. This study sought to clarify the underlying neurobiologic abnormality in children with primary complex motor stereotypies using structural neuroimaging, emphasizing brain regions hypothesized to underlie these atypical behaviors. High-resolution anatomic magnetic resonance images, acquired at 3.0 T, were analyzed in children aged eight to twelve years (20 with primary complex motor stereotypies and 20 typically developing). Frontal lobe subregions and striatal structures were delineated for analysis. Significant reductions (P = 0.045) in the stereotypies group were identified in total putamen volume but not in caudate, nucleus accumbens, or frontal subregions. There were no group differences in total cerebral volume. Findings of a smaller putamen provide preliminary evidence suggesting the potential involvement of the habitual pathway as the underlying anatomic site in primary complex motor stereotypies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hierarchy of orofacial rhythms revealed through whisking and breathing

PubMed Central

Moore, Jeffrey D.; Deschênes, Martin; Furuta, Takahiro; Huber, Daniel; Smear, Matthew C.; Demers, Maxime; Kleinfeld, David

2014-01-01

Whisking and sniffing are predominant aspects of exploratory behavior in rodents, yet the neural mechanisms that generate their motor patterns remain largely uncharacterized. We use anatomical, behavioral, electrophysiological, and pharmacological tools to demonstrate that these patterns are coordinated by respiratory centers in the ventral medulla. We delineate a distinct region in the ventral medulla that provides rhythmic input to the facial motoneurons that drive protraction of the vibrissae. Neuronal output from this region is reset at each inspiration by direct input from the preBötzinger complex, such that high frequency sniffing has a one-to-one coordination with whisking while basal respiration is accompanied by intervening whisks that occur between breaths. We conjecture that the respiratory nuclei, which project to other premotor regions for oral and facial control, function as a master clock for behaviors that coordinate with breathing. PMID:23624373

Antisocial violent offenders with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder demonstrate akathisia-like hyperactivity in three-channel actometry.

PubMed

Tuisku, Katinka; Virkkunen, Matti; Holi, Matti; Lauerma, Hannu; Naukkarinen, Hannu; Rimon, Ranan; Wahlbeck, Kristian

2003-01-01

Actometry enables quantitative and qualitative analysis of various hyperactivity disorders. Antisocial violent offenders have demonstrated diurnal increases in motor activity that may be related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that often precedes antisocial development. Motor restlessness in ADHD has common features with neuroleptic-induced akathisia. In this study, three-channel actometry was used to compare 15 antisocial violent offenders who had a history of ADHD with 15 healthy control subjects and 10 akathisia patients. The Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS) was used for clinical evaluation of akathisia symptoms. Ankle movement indices and the ankle-waist ratio differentiated the antisocial patients from the healthy controls significantly, with no overlap, and the same parameters expectedly differentiated the akathisia patients from the healthy controls. The repetitive, rhythmic pattern of akathisia was found in 13 of the 15 antisocial patients. Nine of the antisocial patients scored 2 or 3 (mild to moderate akathisia) on the BARS. Thus, the motor hyperactivity of antisocial ADHD patients has common features with mild akathisia. This may be due to a common hypodopaminergic etiology of ADHD and akathisia.

Flight and Walking in Locusts–Cholinergic Co-Activation, Temporal Coupling and Its Modulation by Biogenic Amines

PubMed Central

Rillich, Jan; Stevenson, Paul A.; Pflueger, Hans-Joachim

2013-01-01

Walking and flying in locusts are exemplary rhythmical behaviors generated by central pattern generators (CPG) that are tuned in intact animals by phasic sensory inputs. Although these two behaviors are mutually exclusive and controlled by independent CPGs, leg movements during flight can be coupled to the flight rhythm. To investigate potential central coupling between the underlying CPGs, we used the muscarinic agonist pilocarpine and the amines octopamine and tyramine to initiate fictive flight and walking in deafferented locust preparations. Our data illustrate that fictive walking is readily evoked by comparatively lower concentrations of pilocarpine, whereas higher concentrations are required to elicit fictive flight. Interestingly, fictive flight did not suppress fictive walking so that the two patterns were produced simultaneously. Frequently, leg motor units were temporally coupled to the flight rhythm, so that each spike in a step cycle volley occurred synchronously with wing motor units firing at flight rhythm frequency. Similarly, tyramine also induced fictive walking and flight, but mostly without any coupling between the two rhythms. Octopamine in contrast readily evoked fictive flight but generally failed to elicit fictive walking. Despite this, numerous leg motor units were recruited, whereby each was temporarily coupled to the flight rhythm. Our results support the notion that the CPGs for walking and flight are largely independent, but that coupling can be entrained by aminergic modulation. We speculate that octopamine biases the whole motor machinery of a locust to flight whereas tyramine primarily promotes walking. PMID:23671643

Connecting Phrasal and Rhythmic Events: Evidence from Second Language Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nava, Emily Anne

2010-01-01

This dissertation investigates the relation between prosodic events at the phrasal level and component events at the rhythmic level. The overarching hypothesis is that the interaction among component rhythmic events gives rise to prosodic patterns at the phrasal level, while at the same time being constrained by the latter, and that in the case of…

Influence of circadian rhythms on the temporal features of motor imagery for older adult inpatients.

PubMed

Rulleau, Thomas; Mauvieux, Benoit; Toussaint, Lucette

2015-07-01

To examine the circadian modulation on motor imagery quality for older adult inpatients to determine the best time of day to use motor imagery in rehabilitation activities. Time series posttest only. Inpatient rehabilitation center. Participants included older adult inpatients (N=34) who were hospitalized for diverse geriatric or neurogeriatric reasons. They were able to sit without assistance, manipulate objects, and walk 10m in <30 seconds without technical help or with a walking stick. None. The executed and imagined durations of writing and walking movements were recorded 7 times a day (9:15 am-4:45 pm), at times compatible with the hours of rehabilitation activities. Motor imagery quality was evaluated by computing the isochrony index (ie, absolute difference between the average duration of executed and imagined actions) for each trial and each inpatient. The cosinor method was used to analyze the time series for circadian rhythmicity. Imagined movements duration and isochrony index exhibited circadian modulations, whereas no such rhythmic changes appeared for executed movements. Motor imagery quality was better late in the morning, at approximately 10:18 am and 12:10 pm for writing and walking, respectively. Cognitive and sensorimotor aspects of motor behaviors differed among the older adults. The temporal features of motor imagery showed a clear circadian variation. From a practical perspective, this study offers information on an effective schedule for motor imagery in rehabilitation activities with older adult inpatients. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A little elastic for a better performance: kinesiotaping of the motor effector modulates neural mechanisms for rhythmic movements

PubMed Central

Bravi, Riccardo; Quarta, Eros; Cohen, Erez J.; Gottard, Anna; Minciacchi, Diego

2014-01-01

A rhythmic motor performance is brought about by an integration of timing information with movements. Investigations on the millisecond time scale distinguish two forms of time control, event-based timing and emergent timing. While event-based timing asserts the existence of a central internal timekeeper for the control of repetitive movements, the emergent timing perspective claims that timing emerges from dynamic control of nontemporal movements parameters. We have recently demonstrated that the precision of an isochronous performance, defined as performance of repeated movements having a uniform duration, was insensible to auditory stimuli of various characteristics (Bravi et al., 2014). Such finding has led us to investigate whether the application of an elastic therapeutic tape (Kinesio® Tex taping; KTT) used for treating athletic injuries and a variety of physical disorders, is able to reduce the timing variability of repetitive rhythmic movement. Young healthy subjects, tested with and without KTT, have participated in sessions in which sets of repeated isochronous wrist's flexion-extensions (IWFEs) were performed under various auditory conditions and during their recall. Kinematics was recorded and temporal parameters were extracted and analyzed. Our results show that the application of KTT decreases the variability of rhythmic movements by a 2-fold effect: on the one hand KTT provides extra proprioceptive information activating cutaneous mechanoreceptors, on the other KTT biases toward the emergent timing thus modulating the processes for rhythmic movements. Therefore, KTT appears able to render movements less audio dependent by relieving, at least partially, the central structures from time control and making available more resources for an augmented performance. PMID:25309355

A common neural element receiving rhythmic arm and leg activity as assessed by reflex modulation in arm muscles.

PubMed

Sasada, Syusaku; Tazoe, Toshiki; Nakajima, Tsuyoshi; Futatsubashi, Genki; Ohtsuka, Hiroyuki; Suzuki, Shinya; Zehr, E Paul; Komiyama, Tomoyoshi

2016-04-01

Neural interactions between regulatory systems for rhythmic arm and leg movements are an intriguing issue in locomotor neuroscience. Amplitudes of early latency cutaneous reflexes (ELCRs) in stationary arm muscles are modulated during rhythmic leg or arm cycling but not during limb positioning or voluntary contraction. This suggests that interneurons mediating ELCRs to arm muscles integrate outputs from neural systems controlling rhythmic limb movements. Alternatively, outputs could be integrated at the motoneuron and/or supraspinal levels. We examined whether a separate effect on the ELCR pathways and cortico-motoneuronal excitability during arm and leg cycling is integrated by neural elements common to the lumbo-sacral and cervical spinal cord. The subjects performed bilateral leg cycling (LEG), contralateral arm cycling (ARM), and simultaneous contralateral arm and bilateral leg cycling (A&L), while ELCRs in the wrist flexor and shoulder flexor muscles were evoked by superficial radial (SR) nerve stimulation. ELCR amplitudes were facilitated by cycling tasks and were larger during A&L than during ARM and LEG. A low stimulus intensity during ARM or LEG generated a larger ELCR during A&L than the sum of ELCRs during ARM and LEG. We confirmed this nonlinear increase in single motor unit firing probability following SR nerve stimulation during A&L. Furthermore, motor-evoked potentials following transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation did not show nonlinear potentiation during A&L. These findings suggest the existence of a common neural element of the ELCR reflex pathway that is active only during rhythmic arm and leg movement and receives convergent input from contralateral arms and legs. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Comparison of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity during non-rapid eye movement sleep in guinea pigs and humans.

PubMed

Kato, Takafumi; Toyota, Risa; Haraki, Shingo; Yano, Hiroyuki; Higashiyama, Makoto; Ueno, Yoshio; Yano, Hiroshi; Sato, Fumihiko; Yatani, Hirofumi; Yoshida, Atsushi

2017-09-27

Rhythmic masticatory muscle activity can be a normal variant of oromotor activity, which can be exaggerated in patients with sleep bruxism. However, few studies have tested the possibility in naturally sleeping animals to study the neurophysiological mechanisms of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity. This study aimed to investigate the similarity of cortical, cardiac and electromyographic manifestations of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity occurring during non-rapid eye movement sleep between guinea pigs and human subjects. Polysomnographic recordings were made in 30 freely moving guinea pigs and in eight healthy human subjects. Burst cycle length, duration and activity of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity were compared with those for chewing. The time between R-waves in the electrocardiogram (RR interval) and electroencephalogram power spectrum were calculated to assess time-course changes in cardiac and cortical activities in relation to rhythmic masticatory muscle activity. In animals, in comparison with chewing, rhythmic masticatory muscle activity had a lower burst activity, longer burst duration and longer cycle length (P < 0.05), and greater variabilities were observed (P < 0.05). Rhythmic masticatory muscle activity occurring during non-rapid eye movement sleep [median (interquartile range): 5.2 (2.6-8.9) times per h] was preceded by a transient decrease in RR intervals, and was accompanied by a transient decrease in delta elelctroencephalogram power. In humans, masseter bursts of rhythmic masticatory muscle activity were characterized by a lower activity, longer duration and longer cycle length than those of chewing (P < 0.05). Rhythmic masticatory muscle activity during non-rapid eye movement sleep [1.4 (1.18-2.11) times per h] was preceded by a transient decrease in RR intervals and an increase in cortical activity. Rhythmic masticatory muscle activity in animals had common physiological components representing transient arousal-related rhythmic jaw motor activation in comparison to human subjects. © 2017 European Sleep Research Society.

EEG Oscillations Are Modulated in Different Behavior-Related Networks during Rhythmic Finger Movements.

PubMed

Seeber, Martin; Scherer, Reinhold; Müller-Putz, Gernot R

2016-11-16

Sequencing and timing of body movements are essential to perform motoric tasks. In this study, we investigate the temporal relation between cortical oscillations and human motor behavior (i.e., rhythmic finger movements). High-density EEG recordings were used for source imaging based on individual anatomy. We separated sustained and movement phase-related EEG source amplitudes based on the actual finger movements recorded by a data glove. Sustained amplitude modulations in the contralateral hand area show decrease for α (10-12 Hz) and β (18-24 Hz), but increase for high γ (60-80 Hz) frequencies during the entire movement period. Additionally, we found movement phase-related amplitudes, which resembled the flexion and extension sequence of the fingers. Especially for faster movement cadences, movement phase-related amplitudes included high β (24-30 Hz) frequencies in prefrontal areas. Interestingly, the spectral profiles and source patterns of movement phase-related amplitudes differed from sustained activities, suggesting that they represent different frequency-specific large-scale networks. First, networks were signified by the sustained element, which statically modulate their synchrony levels during continuous movements. These networks may upregulate neuronal excitability in brain regions specific to the limb, in this study the right hand area. Second, movement phase-related networks, which modulate their synchrony in relation to the movement sequence. We suggest that these frequency-specific networks are associated with distinct functions, including top-down control, sensorimotor prediction, and integration. The separation of different large-scale networks, we applied in this work, improves the interpretation of EEG sources in relation to human motor behavior. EEG recordings provide high temporal resolution suitable to relate cortical oscillations to actual movements. Investigating EEG sources during rhythmic finger movements, we distinguish sustained from movement phase-related amplitude modulations. We separate these two EEG source elements motivated by our previous findings in gait. Here, we found two types of large-scale networks, representing the right fingers in distinction from the time sequence of the movements. These findings suggest that EEG source amplitudes reconstructed in a cortical patch are the superposition of these simultaneously present network activities. Separating these frequency-specific networks is relevant for studying function and possible dysfunction of the cortical sensorimotor system in humans as well as to provide more advanced features for brain-computer interfaces. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/3611671-11$15.00/0.

Speech Rhythm of Monolingual and Bilingual Children at age 2;6: Cantonese and English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mok, Peggy P. K.

2013-01-01

Previous studies have showed that at age 3;0, monolingual children acquiring rhythmically different languages display distinct rhythmic patterns while the speech rhythm patterns of the languages of bilingual children are more similar. It is unclear whether the same observations can be found for younger children, at 2;6. This study compared five…

Intensive gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation in individuals with chronic hemiparetic stroke: a pilot randomized controlled study.

PubMed

Cha, Yuri; Kim, Young; Hwang, Sujin; Chung, Yijung

2014-01-01

Motor relearning protocols should involve task-oriented movement, focused attention, and repetition of desired movements. To investigate the effect of intensive gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation on postural control and gait performance in individuals with chronic hemiparetic stroke. Twenty patients with chronic hemiparetic stroke participated in this study. Subjects in the Rhythmic auditory stimulation training group (10 subjects) underwent intensive gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation for a period of 6 weeks (30 min/day, five days/week), while those in the control group (10 subjects) underwent intensive gait training for the same duration. Two clinical measures, Berg balance scale and stroke specific quality of life scale, and a 2-demensional gait analysis system, were used as outcome measure. To provide rhythmic auditory stimulation during gait training, the MIDI Cuebase musical instrument digital interface program and a KM Player version 3.3 was utilized for this study. Intensive gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation resulted in significant improvement in scores on the Berg balance scale, gait velocity, cadence, stride length and double support period in affected side, and stroke specific quality of life scale compared with the control group after training. Findings of this study suggest that intensive gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation improves balance and gait performance as well as quality of life, in individuals with chronic hemiparetic stroke.

Parallel pathways from motor and somatosensory cortex for controlling whisker movements in mice

PubMed Central

Sreenivasan, Varun; Karmakar, Kajari; Rijli, Filippo M; Petersen, Carl C H

2015-01-01

Mice can gather tactile sensory information by actively moving their whiskers to palpate objects in their immediate surroundings. Whisker sensory perception therefore requires integration of sensory and motor information, which occurs prominently in the neocortex. The signalling pathways from the neocortex for controlling whisker movements are currently poorly understood in mice. Here, we delineate two pathways, one originating from primary whisker somatosensory cortex (wS1) and the other from whisker motor cortex (wM1), that control qualitatively distinct movements of contralateral whiskers. Optogenetic stimulation of wS1 drove retraction of contralateral whiskers while stimulation of wM1 drove rhythmic whisker protraction. To map brainstem pathways connecting these cortical areas to whisker motor neurons, we used a combination of anterograde tracing using adenoassociated virus injected into neocortex and retrograde tracing using monosynaptic rabies virus injected into whisker muscles. Our data are consistent with wS1 driving whisker retraction by exciting glutamatergic premotor neurons in the rostral spinal trigeminal interpolaris nucleus, which in turn activate the motor neurons innervating the extrinsic retractor muscle nasolabialis. The rhythmic whisker protraction evoked by wM1 stimulation might be driven by excitation of excitatory and inhibitory premotor neurons in the brainstem reticular formation innervating both intrinsic and extrinsic muscles. Our data therefore begin to unravel the neuronal circuits linking the neocortex to whisker motor neurons. PMID:25476605

Rhythmic Layering in Danielson Crater on Mars

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-21

Rhythmic patterns of sedimentary layering in Danielson Crater on Mars result from periodic changes in climate related to changes in tilt of the planet in this image was taken by NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Effect of rhythmic auditory cueing on parkinsonian gait: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Ghai, Shashank; Ghai, Ishan; Schmitz, Gerd; Effenberg, Alfred O

2018-01-11

The use of rhythmic auditory cueing to enhance gait performance in parkinsonian patients' is an emerging area of interest. Different theories and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms have been suggested for ascertaining the enhancement in motor performance. However, a consensus as to its effects based on characteristics of effective stimuli, and training dosage is still not reached. A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out to analyze the effects of different auditory feedbacks on gait and postural performance in patients affected by Parkinson's disease. Systematic identification of published literature was performed adhering to PRISMA guidelines, from inception until May 2017, on online databases; Web of science, PEDro, EBSCO, MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE and PROQUEST. Of 4204 records, 50 studies, involving 1892 participants met our inclusion criteria. The analysis revealed an overall positive effect on gait velocity, stride length, and a negative effect on cadence with application of auditory cueing. Neurophysiological mechanisms, training dosage, effects of higher information processing constraints, and use of cueing as an adjunct with medications are thoroughly discussed. This present review bridges the gaps in literature by suggesting application of rhythmic auditory cueing in conventional rehabilitation approaches to enhance motor performance and quality of life in the parkinsonian community.

Rhythmic finger tapping reveals cerebellar dysfunction in essential tremor.

PubMed

Buijink, A W G; Broersma, M; van der Stouwe, A M M; van Wingen, G A; Groot, P F C; Speelman, J D; Maurits, N M; van Rootselaar, A F

2015-04-01

Cerebellar circuits are hypothesized to play a central role in the pathogenesis of essential tremor. Rhythmic finger tapping is known to strongly engage the cerebellar motor circuitry. We characterize cerebellar and, more specifically, dentate nucleus function, and neural correlates of cerebellar output in essential tremor during rhythmic finger tapping employing functional MRI. Thirty-one propranolol-sensitive essential tremor patients with upper limb tremor and 29 healthy controls were measured. T2*-weighted EPI sequences were acquired. The task consisted of alternating rest and finger tapping blocks. A whole-brain and region-of-interest analysis was performed, the latter focusing on the cerebellar cortex, dentate nucleus and inferior olive nucleus. Activations were also related to tremor severity. In patients, dentate activation correlated positively with tremor severity as measured by the tremor rating scale part A. Patients had reduced activation in widespread cerebellar cortical regions, and additionally in the inferior olive nucleus, and parietal and frontal cortex, compared to controls. The increase in dentate activation with tremor severity supports involvement of the dentate nucleus in essential tremor. Cortical and cerebellar changes during a motor timing task in essential tremor might point to widespread changes in cerebellar output in essential tremor. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rhythm and Motor Ability in Developmentally Disabled Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liemohn, Wendell

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between a developmentally disabled child's ability to perform (a) a simple rhythmic task, and (b) a series of gross and fine motor tasks. The subjects of this study were 77 boys aged 65 months (5.416 years) to 174 months (14.5 years). All were classified as educable mentally retarded,…

[Function of glutamate in pattern-gene-rating network is modified by nitric oxide NO].

PubMed

D'iakonova, T L; D'iakonova, V E

2007-03-01

In previous study on the terrestrial snail Helix pomatia, it has been shown that responsiveness of certain neurons to glutamate is controlled by NO; specifically, the donors of NO produced transformation of inhibitory responses to excitatory ones. Here, we extend this study to buccal neurons related to feeding behavior of the pond snail L. stagnalis. Glutamate is known to operate in the standard three-phase feeding pattern as a phase transmitter which mediates the effects of the second phase interneuron N2v. In isolated CNS, we recorded motor neuron B4 that was inhibited during firing of glutamatergic N2v, but expressed excitatory glutamate receptors as well. In some preparations (n = 17), bath application of 0.1 mM glutamate resulted in profound hyperpolarization of, and cessation of synaptic inputs to, the B4. Following treatment for 10-15 min with the NO donor sodium nitroprusside (n = 9), glutamate effect on B4 became excitatory, and a peculiar, sustained two-phase rhythmic activity of the pattern-generating network appeared. In other non-treated preparations (n = 12), 0.1 mM glutamate produced depolarization and excitation of B4, supplemented, in 8 cases, with emergence of the above mentioned two-phase rhythmic activity. Pretreatment for 10-20 min with the NO scavenger 2-phenyl-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide (n = 7) abolished these effects of glutamate. Our results suggest that 1) glutamate role in buccal rhythm generation depends on NO level, and 2) this mechanism is involved in modification of the feeding behavior in Lymnaea.

Rhythmic chewing with oral jaws in teleost fishes: a comparison with amniotes.

PubMed

Gintof, Chris; Konow, Nicolai; Ross, Callum F; Sanford, Christopher P J

2010-06-01

Intra-oral prey processing (chewing) using the mandibular jaws occurs more extensively among teleost fishes than previously documented. The lack of muscle spindles, gamma-motoneurons and periodontal afferents in fishes makes them useful for testing hypotheses regarding the relationship between these sensorimotor components and rhythmic chewing in vertebrates. Electromyography (EMG) data from the adductor mandibulae (AM) were used to quantify variation in chew cycle duration in the bowfin Amia, three osteoglossomorphs (bony-tongues), four salmonids and one esocid (pike). All species chewed prey using their oral jaw in repetitive trains of between 3 and 30 consecutive chews, a pattern that resembles cyclic chewing in amniote vertebrates. Variance in rhythmicity was compared within and between lineages using coefficients of variation and Levene's test for homogeneity of variance. These comparisons revealed that some teleosts exhibit degrees of rhythmicity that are comparable to mammalian mastication and higher than in lepidosaurs. Moreover, chew cycle durations in fishes, as in mammals, scale positively with mandible length. Chewing among basal teleosts may be rhythmic because it is stereotyped and inflexible, the result of patterned interactions between sensory feedback and a central pattern generator, because the lack of a fleshy tongue renders jaw-tongue coordination unnecessary and/or because stereotyped opening and closing movements are important for controlling fluid flow in the oral cavity.

CaV3.1 is a tremor rhythm pacemaker in the inferior olive

PubMed Central

Park, Young-Gyun; Park, Hye-Yeon; Lee, C. Justin; Choi, Soonwook; Jo, Seonmi; Choi, Hansol; Kim, Yang-Hann; Shin, Hee-Sup; Llinas, Rodolfo R.; Kim, Daesoo

2010-01-01

The rhythmic motor pathway activation by pacemaker neurons or circuits in the brain has been proposed as the mechanism for the timing of motor coordination, and the abnormal potentiation of this mechanism may lead to a pathological tremor. Here, we show that the potentiation of CaV3.1 T-type Ca2+ channels in the inferior olive contributes to the onset of the tremor in a pharmacological model of essential tremor. After administration of harmaline, 4- to 10-Hz synchronous neuronal activities arose from the IO and then propagated to cerebellar motor circuits in wild-type mice, but those rhythmic activities were absent in mice lacking CaV3.1 gene. Intracellular recordings in brain-stem slices revealed that the CaV3.1-deficient inferior olive neurons lacked the subthreshold oscillation of membrane potentials and failed to trigger 4- to 10-Hz rhythmic burst discharges in the presence of harmaline. In addition, the selective knockdown of CaV3.1 gene in the inferior olive by shRNA efficiently suppressed the harmaline-induced tremor in wild-type mice. A mathematical model constructed based on data obtained from patch-clamping experiments indicated that harmaline could efficiently potentiate CaV3.1 channels by changing voltage-dependent responsiveness in the hyperpolarizing direction. Thus, CaV3.1 is a molecular pacemaker substrate for intrinsic neuronal oscillations of inferior olive neurons, and the potentiation of this mechanism can be considered as a pathological cause of essential tremor. PMID:20498062

New perspectives concerning feedback influences on cardiorespiratory control during rhythmic exercise and on exercise performance.

PubMed

Dempsey, Jerome A

2012-09-01

The cardioaccelerator and ventilatory responses to rhythmic exercise in the human are commonly viewed as being mediated predominantly via feedforward 'central command' mechanisms, with contributions from locomotor muscle afferents to the sympathetically mediated pressor response. We have assessed the relative contributions of three types of feedback afferents on the cardiorespiratory response to voluntary, rhythmic exercise by inhibiting their normal 'tonic' activity in healthy animals and humans and in chronic heart failure. Transient inhibition of the carotid chemoreceptors during moderate intensity exercise reduced muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and increased limb vascular conductance and blood flow; and reducing the normal level of respiratory muscle work during heavier intensity exercise increased limb vascular conductance and blood flow. These cardiorespiratory effects were prevented via ganglionic blockade and were enhanced in chronic heart failure and in hypoxia. Blockade of μ opioid sensitive locomotor muscle afferents, with preservation of central motor output via intrathecal fentanyl: (a) reduced the mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), heart rate and ventilatory responses to all steady state exercise intensities; and (b) during sustained high intensity exercise, reduced O(2) transport, increased central motor output and end-exercise muscle fatigue and reduced endurance performance. We propose that these three afferent reflexes - probably acting in concert with feedforward central command - contribute significantly to preserving O(2) transport to locomotor and to respiratory muscles during exercise. Locomotor muscle afferents also appear to provide feedback concerning the metabolic state of the muscle to influence central motor output, thereby limiting peripheral fatigue development.

Toward Multimodal Human-Robot Interaction to Enhance Active Participation of Users in Gait Rehabilitation.

PubMed

Gui, Kai; Liu, Honghai; Zhang, Dingguo

2017-11-01

Robotic exoskeletons for physical rehabilitation have been utilized for retraining patients suffering from paraplegia and enhancing motor recovery in recent years. However, users are not voluntarily involved in most systems. This paper aims to develop a locomotion trainer with multiple gait patterns, which can be controlled by the active motion intention of users. A multimodal human-robot interaction (HRI) system is established to enhance subject's active participation during gait rehabilitation, which includes cognitive HRI (cHRI) and physical HRI (pHRI). The cHRI adopts brain-computer interface based on steady-state visual evoked potential. The pHRI is realized via admittance control based on electromyography. A central pattern generator is utilized to produce rhythmic and continuous lower joint trajectories, and its state variables are regulated by cHRI and pHRI. A custom-made leg exoskeleton prototype with the proposed multimodal HRI is tested on healthy subjects and stroke patients. The results show that voluntary and active participation can be effectively involved to achieve various assistive gait patterns.

Relationships between early literacy and nonlinguistic rhythmic processes in kindergarteners.

PubMed

Ozernov-Palchik, Ola; Wolf, Maryanne; Patel, Aniruddh D

2018-03-01

A growing number of studies report links between nonlinguistic rhythmic abilities and certain linguistic abilities, particularly phonological skills. The current study investigated the relationship between nonlinguistic rhythmic processing, phonological abilities, and early literacy abilities in kindergarteners. A distinctive aspect of the current work was the exploration of whether processing of different types of rhythmic patterns is differentially related to kindergarteners' phonological and reading-related abilities. Specifically, we examined the processing of metrical versus nonmetrical rhythmic patterns, that is, patterns capable of being subdivided into equal temporal intervals or not (Povel & Essens, 1985). This is an important comparison because most music involves metrical sequences, in which rhythm often has an underlying temporal grid of isochronous units. In contrast, nonmetrical sequences are arguably more typical to speech rhythm, which is temporally structured but does not involve an underlying grid of equal temporal units. A rhythm discrimination app with metrical and nonmetrical patterns was administered to 74 kindergarteners in conjunction with cognitive and preliteracy measures. Findings support a relationship among rhythm perception, phonological awareness, and letter-sound knowledge (an essential precursor of reading). A mediation analysis revealed that the association between rhythm perception and letter-sound knowledge is mediated through phonological awareness. Furthermore, metrical perception accounted for unique variance in letter-sound knowledge above all other language and cognitive measures. These results point to a unique role for temporal regularity processing in the association between musical rhythm and literacy in young children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparing motor performance, praxis, coordination, and interpersonal synchrony between children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

PubMed

Kaur, Maninderjit; M Srinivasan, Sudha; N Bhat, Anjana

2018-01-01

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have basic motor impairments in balance, gait, and coordination as well as autism-specific impairments in praxis/motor planning and interpersonal synchrony. Majority of the current literature focuses on isolated motor behaviors or domains. Additionally, the relationship between cognition, symptom severity, and motor performance in ASD is unclear. We used a comprehensive set of measures to compare gross and fine motor, praxis/imitation, motor coordination, and interpersonal synchrony skills across three groups of children between 5 and 12 years of age: children with ASD with high IQ (HASD), children with ASD with low IQ (LASD), and typically developing (TD) children. We used the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency and the Bilateral Motor Coordination subtest of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests to assess motor performance and praxis skills respectively. Children were also examined while performing simple and complex rhythmic upper and lower limb actions on their own (solo context) and with a social partner (social context). Both ASD groups had lower gross and fine motor scores, greater praxis errors in total and within various error types, lower movement rates, greater movement variability, and weaker interpersonal synchrony compared to the TD group. In addition, the LASD group had lower gross motor scores and greater mirroring errors compared to the HASD group. Overall, a variety of motor impairments are present across the entire spectrum of children with ASD, regardless of their IQ scores. Both, fine and gross motor performance significantly correlated with IQ but not with autism severity; however, praxis errors (mainly, total, overflow, and rhythmicity) strongly correlated with autism severity and not IQ. Our study findings highlight the need for clinicians and therapists to include motor evaluations and interventions in the standard-of-care of children with ASD and for the broader autism community to recognize dyspraxia as an integral part of the definition of ASD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dynamical entrainment of corticospinal excitability during rhythmic movement observation: a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation study.

PubMed

Varlet, Manuel; Novembre, Giacomo; Keller, Peter E

2017-06-01

Spontaneous modulations of corticospinal excitability during action observation have been interpreted as evidence for the activation of internal motor representations equivalent to the observed action. Alternatively or complementary to this perspective, growing evidence shows that motor activity during observation of rhythmic movements can be modulated by direct visuomotor couplings and dynamical entrainment. In-phase and anti-phase entrainment spontaneously occur, characterized by cyclic movements proceeding simultaneously in the same (in-phase) or opposite (anti-phase) direction. Here we investigate corticospinal excitability during the observation of vertical oscillations of an index finger using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from participants' flexor and extensor muscles of the right index finger, placed in either a maximal steady flexion or extension position, with stimulations delivered at maximal flexion, maximal extension or mid-trajectory of the observed finger oscillations. Consistent with the occurrence of dynamical motor entrainment, increased and decreased MEP responses - suggesting the facilitation of stable in-phase and anti-phase relations but not an unstable 90° phase relation - were found in participants' flexors. Anti-phase motor facilitation contrasts with the activation of internal motor representation as it involves activity in the motor system opposite from activity required for the execution of the observed movement. These findings demonstrate the relevance of dynamical entrainment theories and methods for understanding spontaneous motor activity in the brain during action observation and the mechanisms underpinning coordinated movements during social interaction. © 2017 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Even-Skipped(+) Interneurons Are Core Components of a Sensorimotor Circuit that Maintains Left-Right Symmetric Muscle Contraction Amplitude.

PubMed

Heckscher, Ellie S; Zarin, Aref Arzan; Faumont, Serge; Clark, Matthew Q; Manning, Laurina; Fushiki, Akira; Schneider-Mizell, Casey M; Fetter, Richard D; Truman, James W; Zwart, Maarten F; Landgraf, Matthias; Cardona, Albert; Lockery, Shawn R; Doe, Chris Q

2015-10-21

Bilaterally symmetric motor patterns--those in which left-right pairs of muscles contract synchronously and with equal amplitude (such as breathing, smiling, whisking, and locomotion)--are widespread throughout the animal kingdom. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the underlying neural circuits. We performed a thermogenetic screen to identify neurons required for bilaterally symmetric locomotion in Drosophila larvae and identified the evolutionarily conserved Even-skipped(+) interneurons (Eve/Evx). Activation or ablation of Eve(+) interneurons disrupted bilaterally symmetric muscle contraction amplitude, without affecting the timing of motor output. Eve(+) interneurons are not rhythmically active and thus function independently of the locomotor CPG. GCaMP6 calcium imaging of Eve(+) interneurons in freely moving larvae showed left-right asymmetric activation that correlated with larval behavior. TEM reconstruction of Eve(+) interneuron inputs and outputs showed that the Eve(+) interneurons are at the core of a sensorimotor circuit capable of detecting and modifying body wall muscle contraction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Activation and connectivity patterns of the presupplementary and dorsal premotor areas during free improvisation of melodies and rhythms.

PubMed

de Manzano, Örjan; Ullén, Fredrik

2012-10-15

Free, i.e. non-externally cued generation of movement sequences is fundamental to human behavior. We have earlier hypothesized that the dorsal premotor cortex (PMD), which has been consistently implicated in cognitive aspects of planning and selection of spatial motor sequences may be particularly important for the free generation of spatial movement sequences, whereas the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), which shows increased activation during perception, learning and reproduction of temporal sequences, may contribute more to the generation of temporal structures. Here we test this hypothesis using fMRI and musical improvisation in professional pianists as a model behavior. We employed a 2 × 2 factorial design with the factors Melody (Specified/Improvised) and Rhythm (Specified/Improvised). The main effect analyses partly confirmed our hypothesis: there was a main effect of Melody in the PMD; the pre-SMA was present in the main effect of Rhythm, as predicted, as well as in the main effect of Melody. A psychophysiological interaction analysis of functional connectivity demonstrated that the correlation in activity between the pre-SMA and cerebellum was higher during rhythmic improvisation than during the other conditions. In summary, there were only subtle differences in activity level between the pre-SMA and PMD during improvisation, regardless of condition. Consequently, the free generation of rhythmic and melodic structures, appears to be largely integrated processes but the functional connectivity between premotor areas and other regions may change during free generation in response to sequence-specific spatiotemporal demands. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A STRUCTURAL THEORY FOR THE PERCEPTION OF MORSE CODE SIGNALS AND RELATED RHYTHMIC PATTERNS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

WISH, MYRON

THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THIS DISSERTATION IS TO DEVELOP A STRUCTURAL THEORY, ALONG FACET-THEORETIC LINES, FOR THE PERCEPTION OF MORSE CODE SIGNALS AND RELATED RHYTHMIC PATTERNS. AS STEPS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS THEORY, MODELS FOR TWO SETS OF SIGNALS ARE PROPOSED AND TESTED. THE FIRST MODEL IS FOR A SET COMPRISED OF ALL SIGNALS OF THE…

Endogenous rhythmic growth in oak trees is regulated by internal clocks rather than resource availability

PubMed Central

Herrmann, S.; Recht, S.; Boenn, M.; Feldhahn, L.; Angay, O.; Fleischmann, F.; Tarkka, M T.; Grams, T.E.E.; Buscot, F.

2015-01-01

Common oak trees display endogenous rhythmic growth with alternating shoot and root flushes. To explore the mechanisms involved, microcuttings of the Quercus robur L. clone DF159 were used for 13C/15N labelling in combination with RNA sequencing (RNASeq) transcript profiling of shoots and roots. The effect of plant internal resource availability on the rhythmic growth of the cuttings was tested through inoculation with the ectomycorrhizal fungus Piloderma croceum. Shoot and root flushes were related to parallel shifts in above- and below-ground C and, to a lesser extent, N allocation. Increased plant internal resource availability by P. croceum inoculation with enhanced plant growth affected neither the rhythmic growth nor the associated resource allocation patterns. Two shifts in transcript abundance were identified during root and shoot growth cessation, and most concerned genes were down-regulated. Inoculation with P. croceum suppressed these transcript shifts in roots, but not in shoots. To identify core processes governing the rhythmic growth, functions [Gene Ontology (GO) terms] of the genes differentially expressed during the growth cessation in both leaves and roots of non-inoculated plants and leaves of P. croceum-inoculated plants were examined. Besides genes related to resource acquisition and cell development, which might reflect rather than trigger rhythmic growth, genes involved in signalling and/or regulated by the circadian clock were identified. The results indicate that rhythmic growth involves dramatic oscillations in plant metabolism and gene regulation between below- and above-ground parts. Ectomycorrhizal symbiosis may play a previously unsuspected role in smoothing these oscillations without modifying the rhythmic growth pattern. PMID:26320242

Neuropeptide Secreted from a Pacemaker Activates Neurons to Control a Rhythmic Behavior

PubMed Central

Wang, Han; Girskis, Kelly; Janssen, Tom; Chan, Jason P.; Dasgupta, Krishnakali; Knowles, James A.; Schoofs, Liliane; Sieburth, Derek

2013-01-01

Summary Background Rhythmic behaviors are driven by endogenous biological clocks in pacemakers, which must reliably transmit timing information to target tissues that execute rhythmic outputs. During the defecation motor program in C. elegans, calcium oscillations in the pacemaker (intestine), which occur about every 50 seconds, trigger rhythmic enteric muscle contractions through downstream GABAergic neurons that innervate enteric muscles. However, the identity of the timing signal released by the pacemaker and the mechanism underlying the delivery of timing information to the GABAergic neurons are unknown. Results Here we show that a neuropeptide-like protein (NLP-40) released by the pacemaker triggers a single rapid calcium transient in the GABAergic neurons during each defecation cycle. We find that mutants lacking nlp-40 have normal pacemaker function, but lack enteric muscle contractions. NLP-40 undergoes calcium-dependent release that is mediated by the calcium sensor, SNT-2/synaptotagmin. We identify AEX-2, the G protein-coupled receptor on the GABAergic neurons, as the receptor of NLP-40. Functional calcium imaging reveals that NLP-40 and AEX-2/GPCR are both necessary for rhythmic activation of these neurons. Furthermore, acute application of synthetic NLP-40-derived peptide depolarizes the GABAergic neurons in vivo. Conclusions Our results show that NLP-40 carries the timing information from the pacemaker via calcium-dependent release and delivers it to the GABAergic neurons by instructing their activation. Thus, we propose that rhythmic release of neuropeptides can deliver temporal information from pacemakers to downstream neurons to execute rhythmic behaviors. PMID:23583549

Changes in neuromagnetic beta-band oscillation after music-supported stroke rehabilitation.

PubMed

Fujioka, Takako; Ween, Jon Erik; Jamali, Shahab; Stuss, Donald T; Ross, Bernhard

2012-04-01

Precise timing of sound is crucial in music for both performing and listening. Indeed, listening to rhythmic sound sequences activates not only the auditory system but also the sensorimotor system. Previously, we showed the significance of neural beta-band oscillations (15-30 Hz) for the timing processing that involves such auditory-motor coordination. Thus, we hypothesized that motor rehabilitation training incorporating music playing will stimulate and enhance auditory-motor interaction in stroke patients. We examined three chronic patients who received Music-Supported Therapy following the protocols practiced by Schneider. Neuromagnetic beta-band activity was remarkably alike during passive listening to a metronome and during finger tapping, with or without the metronome, for either the paretic or nonparetic hand, suggesting a shared mechanism of the beta modulation. In the listening task, the magnitude of the beta decrease after the tone onset was more pronounced at the posttraining time point and was accompanied by improved arm and hand skills. The present case data give insight into the neural underpinnings of rehabilitation with music making and rhythmic auditory stimulation. © 2012 New York Academy of Sciences.

Theta oscillations locked to intended actions rhythmically modulate perception.

PubMed

Tomassini, Alice; Ambrogioni, Luca; Medendorp, W Pieter; Maris, Eric

2017-07-07

Ongoing brain oscillations are known to influence perception, and to be reset by exogenous stimulations. Voluntary action is also accompanied by prominent rhythmic activity, and recent behavioral evidence suggests that this might be coupled with perception. Here, we reveal the neurophysiological underpinnings of this sensorimotor coupling in humans. We link the trial-by-trial dynamics of EEG oscillatory activity during movement preparation to the corresponding dynamics in perception, for two unrelated visual and motor tasks. The phase of theta oscillations (~4 Hz) predicts perceptual performance, even >1 s before movement. Moreover, theta oscillations are phase-locked to the onset of the movement. Remarkably, the alignment of theta phase and its perceptual relevance unfold with similar non-monotonic profiles, suggesting their relatedness. The present work shows that perception and movement initiation are automatically synchronized since the early stages of motor planning through neuronal oscillatory activity in the theta range.

Neuropsychological function in children with primary complex motor stereotypies.

PubMed

Mahone, E Mark; Ryan, Matthew; Ferenc, Lisa; Morris-Berry, Christina; Singer, Harvey S

2014-10-01

Complex motor stereotypies (CMS) are patterned, repetitive, rhythmic, and involuntary movements that persist over time. They are divided into two subgroups dependent on the presence of other developmental problems: 'primary' (development is otherwise typical) or 'secondary' (associated with autism, intellectual disability, or sensory deficits). There are no currently published studies that examine neuropsychological function in children with primary CMS. This case-control study examines whether children with primary CMS manifest neurobehavioral deficits. Fifty-seven children with primary CMS (32 males, 25 females; mean age 6y 8mo, SD 2y 4mo, range 4-12y) with negative screens for autism and 57 comparison participants (32 males, 25 females; mean age 6y 6mo, SD 2y 1mo) completed neuropsychological assessments of IQ, reading ability, attention, language, and motor and executive functions. Parents completed ratings of their child's repetitive movement severity. The CMS group performed significantly less well than comparison participants on motor skills and IQ tests (both p<0.01), although IQ was consistently in the average range. One-third of the CMS group showed signs of developmental motor coordination difficulties. Parent report of stereotypy severity was significantly associated with parent report of inattention and executive dysfunction. Children with primary CMS were found to have largely intact neuropsychological profiles. Stereotypy severity appears to be associated with executive dysfunction. Although motor difficulties were observed in children with CMS, these were not correlated with parent report of symptom severity. © 2014 Mac Keith Press.

Dual Motor-Cognitive Virtual Reality Training Impacts Dual-Task Performance in Freezing of Gait.

PubMed

Killane, Isabelle; Fearon, Conor; Newman, Louise; McDonnell, Conor; Waechter, Saskia M; Sons, Kristian; Lynch, Timothy; Reilly, Richard B

2015-11-01

Freezing of gait (FOG), an episodic gait disturbance characterized by the inability to generate effective stepping, occurs in more than half of Parkinson's disease patients. It is associated with both executive dysfunction and attention and becomes most evident during dual tasking (performing two tasks simultaneously). This study examined the effect of dual motor-cognitive virtual reality training on dual-task performance in FOG. Twenty community dwelling participants with Parkinson's disease (13 with FOG, 7 without FOG) participated in a pre-assessment, eight 20-minute intervention sessions, and a post-assessment. The intervention consisted of a virtual reality maze (DFKI, Germany) through which participants navigated by stepping-in-place on a balance board (Nintendo, Japan) under time pressure. This was combined with a cognitive task (Stroop test), which repeatedly divided participants' attention. The primary outcome measures were pre- and post-intervention differences in motor (stepping time, symmetry, rhythmicity) and cognitive (accuracy, reaction time) performance during single- and dual-tasks. Both assessments consisted of 1) a single cognitive task 2) a single motor task, and 3) a dual motor-cognitive task. Following the intervention, there was significant improvement in dual-task cognitive and motor parameters (stepping time and rhythmicity), dual-task effect for those with FOG and a noteworthy improvement in FOG episodes. These improvements were less significant for those without FOG. This is the first study to show benefit of a dual motor-cognitive approach on dual-task performance in FOG. Advances in such virtual reality interventions for home use could substantially improve the quality of life for patients who experience FOG.

New perspectives concerning feedback influences on cardiorespiratory control during rhythmic exercise and on exercise performance

PubMed Central

Dempsey, Jerome A

2012-01-01

The cardioaccelerator and ventilatory responses to rhythmic exercise in the human are commonly viewed as being mediated predominantly via feedforward ‘central command’ mechanisms, with contributions from locomotor muscle afferents to the sympathetically mediated pressor response. We have assessed the relative contributions of three types of feedback afferents on the cardiorespiratory response to voluntary, rhythmic exercise by inhibiting their normal ‘tonic’ activity in healthy animals and humans and in chronic heart failure. Transient inhibition of the carotid chemoreceptors during moderate intensity exercise reduced muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and increased limb vascular conductance and blood flow; and reducing the normal level of respiratory muscle work during heavier intensity exercise increased limb vascular conductance and blood flow. These cardiorespiratory effects were prevented via ganglionic blockade and were enhanced in chronic heart failure and in hypoxia. Blockade of μ opioid sensitive locomotor muscle afferents, with preservation of central motor output via intrathecal fentanyl: (a) reduced the mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), heart rate and ventilatory responses to all steady state exercise intensities; and (b) during sustained high intensity exercise, reduced O2 transport, increased central motor output and end-exercise muscle fatigue and reduced endurance performance. We propose that these three afferent reflexes – probably acting in concert with feedforward central command – contribute significantly to preserving O2 transport to locomotor and to respiratory muscles during exercise. Locomotor muscle afferents also appear to provide feedback concerning the metabolic state of the muscle to influence central motor output, thereby limiting peripheral fatigue development. PMID:22826128

Prolonged cortical silent period but normal sensorimotor plasticity in spinocerebellar ataxia 6.

PubMed

Teo, James T H; Schneider, Susanne A; Cheeran, Binith J; Fernandez-del-Olmo, Miguel; Giunti, Paola; Rothwell, John C; Bhatia, Kailash P

2008-02-15

Spinocerebellar ataxia 6 (SCA6) is a hereditary disease characterized by a trinucleotide repeat expansion in the CACNA1A gene and late-onset bilateral cerebellar atrophy. It is unclear if there is significant pathology outside of the cerebellum. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to assess sensorimotor cortical circuits and cortical plasticity in 8 SCA6 patients and 8 age-matched controls. Behavioral performance was assessed using a rhythmic tapping task. Neurophysiological measures of SCA6 patients showed a prolonged cortical silent period (CSP) but normal MEP recruitment curve, short-latency afferent inhibition, long-latency afferent inhibition and ipsilateral silent period. Paired-associative stimulation induction also increased motor-evoked potentials normally. SCA6 patients had greater variability with cued rhythmic tapping than normals and deteriorated when the cue was removed; in comparison, normal subjects had similar variability between cued and uncued rhythmic tapping. Analysis using a Wing-Kristofferson timing model indicated that both clock variance and motor delay variance were abnormal. Conclusion. In SCA6, the circuits for sensorimotor integration and the mechanisms for LTP-like plasticity in the sensorimotor cortex are unimpaired. A prolonged CSP in SCA6 just like in other cerebellar atrophies would suggest that this neurophysiological change typifies cerebellar dysfunction. 2007 Movement Disorder Society

Movement Sonification: Effects on Motor Learning beyond Rhythmic Adjustments.

PubMed

Effenberg, Alfred O; Fehse, Ursula; Schmitz, Gerd; Krueger, Bjoern; Mechling, Heinz

2016-01-01

Motor learning is based on motor perception and emergent perceptual-motor representations. A lot of behavioral research is related to single perceptual modalities but during last two decades the contribution of multimodal perception on motor behavior was discovered more and more. A growing number of studies indicates an enhanced impact of multimodal stimuli on motor perception, motor control and motor learning in terms of better precision and higher reliability of the related actions. Behavioral research is supported by neurophysiological data, revealing that multisensory integration supports motor control and learning. But the overwhelming part of both research lines is dedicated to basic research. Besides research in the domains of music, dance and motor rehabilitation, there is almost no evidence for enhanced effectiveness of multisensory information on learning of gross motor skills. To reduce this gap, movement sonification is used here in applied research on motor learning in sports. Based on the current knowledge on the multimodal organization of the perceptual system, we generate additional real-time movement information being suitable for integration with perceptual feedback streams of visual and proprioceptive modality. With ongoing training, synchronously processed auditory information should be initially integrated into the emerging internal models, enhancing the efficacy of motor learning. This is achieved by a direct mapping of kinematic and dynamic motion parameters to electronic sounds, resulting in continuous auditory and convergent audiovisual or audio-proprioceptive stimulus arrays. In sharp contrast to other approaches using acoustic information as error-feedback in motor learning settings, we try to generate additional movement information suitable for acceleration and enhancement of adequate sensorimotor representations and processible below the level of consciousness. In the experimental setting, participants were asked to learn a closed motor skill (technique acquisition of indoor rowing). One group was treated with visual information and two groups with audiovisual information (sonification vs. natural sounds). For all three groups learning became evident and remained stable. Participants treated with additional movement sonification showed better performance compared to both other groups. Results indicate that movement sonification enhances motor learning of a complex gross motor skill-even exceeding usually expected acoustic rhythmic effects on motor learning.

Movement Sonification: Effects on Motor Learning beyond Rhythmic Adjustments

PubMed Central

Effenberg, Alfred O.; Fehse, Ursula; Schmitz, Gerd; Krueger, Bjoern; Mechling, Heinz

2016-01-01

Motor learning is based on motor perception and emergent perceptual-motor representations. A lot of behavioral research is related to single perceptual modalities but during last two decades the contribution of multimodal perception on motor behavior was discovered more and more. A growing number of studies indicates an enhanced impact of multimodal stimuli on motor perception, motor control and motor learning in terms of better precision and higher reliability of the related actions. Behavioral research is supported by neurophysiological data, revealing that multisensory integration supports motor control and learning. But the overwhelming part of both research lines is dedicated to basic research. Besides research in the domains of music, dance and motor rehabilitation, there is almost no evidence for enhanced effectiveness of multisensory information on learning of gross motor skills. To reduce this gap, movement sonification is used here in applied research on motor learning in sports. Based on the current knowledge on the multimodal organization of the perceptual system, we generate additional real-time movement information being suitable for integration with perceptual feedback streams of visual and proprioceptive modality. With ongoing training, synchronously processed auditory information should be initially integrated into the emerging internal models, enhancing the efficacy of motor learning. This is achieved by a direct mapping of kinematic and dynamic motion parameters to electronic sounds, resulting in continuous auditory and convergent audiovisual or audio-proprioceptive stimulus arrays. In sharp contrast to other approaches using acoustic information as error-feedback in motor learning settings, we try to generate additional movement information suitable for acceleration and enhancement of adequate sensorimotor representations and processible below the level of consciousness. In the experimental setting, participants were asked to learn a closed motor skill (technique acquisition of indoor rowing). One group was treated with visual information and two groups with audiovisual information (sonification vs. natural sounds). For all three groups learning became evident and remained stable. Participants treated with additional movement sonification showed better performance compared to both other groups. Results indicate that movement sonification enhances motor learning of a complex gross motor skill—even exceeding usually expected acoustic rhythmic effects on motor learning. PMID:27303255

Distractor Effect of Auditory Rhythms on Self-Paced Tapping in Chimpanzees and Humans

PubMed Central

Hattori, Yuko; Tomonaga, Masaki; Matsuzawa, Tetsuro

2015-01-01

Humans tend to spontaneously align their movements in response to visual (e.g., swinging pendulum) and auditory rhythms (e.g., hearing music while walking). Particularly in the case of the response to auditory rhythms, neuroscientific research has indicated that motor resources are also recruited while perceiving an auditory rhythm (or regular pulse), suggesting a tight link between the auditory and motor systems in the human brain. However, the evolutionary origin of spontaneous responses to auditory rhythms is unclear. Here, we report that chimpanzees and humans show a similar distractor effect in perceiving isochronous rhythms during rhythmic movement. We used isochronous auditory rhythms as distractor stimuli during self-paced alternate tapping of two keys of an electronic keyboard by humans and chimpanzees. When the tempo was similar to their spontaneous motor tempo, tapping onset was influenced by intermittent entrainment to auditory rhythms. Although this effect itself is not an advanced rhythmic ability such as dancing or singing, our results suggest that, to some extent, the biological foundation for spontaneous responses to auditory rhythms was already deeply rooted in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, 6 million years ago. This also suggests the possibility of a common attentional mechanism, as proposed by the dynamic attending theory, underlying the effect of perceiving external rhythms on motor movement. PMID:26132703

Endogenous rhythmic growth in oak trees is regulated by internal clocks rather than resource availability.

PubMed

Herrmann, S; Recht, S; Boenn, M; Feldhahn, L; Angay, O; Fleischmann, F; Tarkka, M T; Grams, T E E; Buscot, F

2015-12-01

Common oak trees display endogenous rhythmic growth with alternating shoot and root flushes. To explore the mechanisms involved, microcuttings of the Quercus robur L. clone DF159 were used for (13)C/(15)N labelling in combination with RNA sequencing (RNASeq) transcript profiling of shoots and roots. The effect of plant internal resource availability on the rhythmic growth of the cuttings was tested through inoculation with the ectomycorrhizal fungus Piloderma croceum. Shoot and root flushes were related to parallel shifts in above- and below-ground C and, to a lesser extent, N allocation. Increased plant internal resource availability by P. croceum inoculation with enhanced plant growth affected neither the rhythmic growth nor the associated resource allocation patterns. Two shifts in transcript abundance were identified during root and shoot growth cessation, and most concerned genes were down-regulated. Inoculation with P. croceum suppressed these transcript shifts in roots, but not in shoots. To identify core processes governing the rhythmic growth, functions [Gene Ontology (GO) terms] of the genes differentially expressed during the growth cessation in both leaves and roots of non-inoculated plants and leaves of P. croceum-inoculated plants were examined. Besides genes related to resource acquisition and cell development, which might reflect rather than trigger rhythmic growth, genes involved in signalling and/or regulated by the circadian clock were identified. The results indicate that rhythmic growth involves dramatic oscillations in plant metabolism and gene regulation between below- and above-ground parts. Ectomycorrhizal symbiosis may play a previously unsuspected role in smoothing these oscillations without modifying the rhythmic growth pattern. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology.

Recovery after aerobic exercise is manipulated by tempo change in a rhythmic sound pattern, as indicated by autonomic reaction on heart functioning

PubMed Central

Wallert, John; Madison, Guy

2014-01-01

Physical prowess is associated with rapid recovery from exhaustion. Here we examined whether recovery from aerobic exercise could be manipulated with a rhythmic sound pattern that either decreased or increased in tempo. Six men and six women exercised repeatedly for six minutes on a cycle ergometer at 60 percent of their individual maximal oxygen consumption, and then relaxed for six minutes while listening to one of two sound pattern conditions, which seemed to infinitely either decrease or increase in tempo, during which heart and breathing activity was measured. Participants exhibited more high-frequent heart rate variability when listening to decreasing tempo than when listening to increasing tempo, accompanied by a non-significant trend towards lower heart rate. The results show that neuropsychological entrainment to a sound pattern may directly affect the autonomic nervous system, which in turn may facilitate physiological recovery after exercise. Applications using rhythmic entrainment to aid physical recovery are discussed. PMID:25285076

Using an Artificial Neural Bypass to Restore Cortical Control of Rhythmic Movements in a Human with Quadriplegia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Gaurav; Friedenberg, David A.; Annetta, Nicholas; Glenn, Bradley; Bockbrader, Marcie; Majstorovic, Connor; Domas, Stephanie; Mysiw, W. Jerry; Rezai, Ali; Bouton, Chad

2016-09-01

Neuroprosthetic technology has been used to restore cortical control of discrete (non-rhythmic) hand movements in a paralyzed person. However, cortical control of rhythmic movements which originate in the brain but are coordinated by Central Pattern Generator (CPG) neural networks in the spinal cord has not been demonstrated previously. Here we show a demonstration of an artificial neural bypass technology that decodes cortical activity and emulates spinal cord CPG function allowing volitional rhythmic hand movement. The technology uses a combination of signals recorded from the brain, machine-learning algorithms to decode the signals, a numerical model of CPG network, and a neuromuscular electrical stimulation system to evoke rhythmic movements. Using the neural bypass, a quadriplegic participant was able to initiate, sustain, and switch between rhythmic and discrete finger movements, using his thoughts alone. These results have implications in advancing neuroprosthetic technology to restore complex movements in people living with paralysis.

Synchronization of presynaptic input to motor units of tongue, inspiratory intercostal, and diaphragm muscles.

PubMed

Rice, Amber; Fuglevand, Andrew J; Laine, Christopher M; Fregosi, Ralph F

2011-05-01

The respiratory central pattern generator distributes rhythmic excitatory input to phrenic, intercostal, and hypoglossal premotor neurons. The degree to which this input shapes motor neuron activity can vary across respiratory muscles and motor neuron pools. We evaluated the extent to which respiratory drive synchronizes the activation of motor unit pairs in tongue (genioglossus, hyoglossus) and chest-wall (diaphragm, external intercostals) muscles using coherence analysis. This is a frequency domain technique, which characterizes the frequency and relative strength of neural inputs that are common to each of the recorded motor units. We also examined coherence across the two tongue muscles, as our previous work shows that, despite being antagonists, they are strongly coactivated during the inspiratory phase, suggesting that excitatory input from the premotor neurons is distributed broadly throughout the hypoglossal motoneuron pool. All motor unit pairs showed highly correlated activity in the low-frequency range (1-8 Hz), reflecting the fundamental respiratory frequency and its harmonics. Coherence of motor unit pairs recorded either within or across the tongue muscles was similar, consistent with broadly distributed premotor input to the hypoglossal motoneuron pool. Interestingly, motor units from diaphragm and external intercostal muscles showed significantly higher coherence across the 10-20-Hz bandwidth than tongue-muscle units. We propose that the lower coherence in tongue-muscle motor units over this range reflects a larger constellation of presynaptic inputs, which collectively lead to a reduction in the coherence between hypoglossal motoneurons in this frequency band. This, in turn, may reflect the relative simplicity of the respiratory drive to the diaphragm and intercostal muscles, compared with the greater diversity of functions fulfilled by muscles of the tongue.

Cerebral-buccal pathways in Aplysia californica: synaptic connections, cooperative interneuronal effects and feedback during buccal motor programs.

PubMed

Sánchez, J A; Kirk, M D

2001-12-01

Ingestion of seaweed by Aplysia is in part mediated by cerebral-buccal interneurons that drive rhythmic motor output from the buccal ganglia and in some cases cerebral-buccal interneurons act as members of the feeding central pattern generator. Here we document cooperative interactions between cerebral-buccal interneuron 2 and cerebral-buccal interneuron 12, characterize synaptic input to cerebral-buccal interneuron 2 and cerebral-buccal interneuron 12 from buccal peripheral nerve 2,3, describe a synaptic connection between cerebral-buccal interneuron 1 and buccal neuron B34, further characterize connections made by cerebral-buccal interneurons 2 and -12 with B34 and B61/62, and describe a novel, inhibitory connection made by cerebral-buccal interneuron 2 with a buccal neuron. When cerebral-buccal interneurons 2 and 12 were driven synchronously at low frequencies, ingestion-like buccal motor programs were elicited, and if either was driven alone, indirect synaptic input was recruited in the other cerebral-buccal interneuron. Stimulation of BN2,3 recruited both ingestion and rejection-like motor programs without firing in cerebral-buccal interneurons 2 or 12. During motor programs elicited by cerebral-buccal interneurons 2 or 12, high-voltage stimulation of BN2,3 inhibited firing in both cerebral-buccal interneurons. Our results suggest that cerebral-buccal interneurons 2 and 12 use cooperative interactions to modulate buccal motor programs, yet firing in cerebral-buccal interneurons 2 or 12 is not necessary for recruiting motor programs by buccal peripheral nerve BN2,3, even in preparations with intact cerebral-buccal pathways.

Chronobiology of chronic pain: focus on diurnal rhythmicity of neuropathic pain.

PubMed

Gilron, Ian; Ghasemlou, Nader

2014-12-01

Although circadian rhythmicity has long been recognized in various nociceptive pain conditions such as arthritis, diurnal pain patterns in neuropathic conditions have only recently been described. The purpose of this article is to review emerging evidence and discuss future research to further understand this phenomenon. Secondary analyses of neuropathic pain clinical trials demonstrate that pain intensity fluctuations exhibit a distinct diurnal pattern that contrasts that of nociceptive pain conditions. Ongoing preclinical investigations support the phenomenon of circadian pain fluctuations and provide the opportunity to better describe pain chronobiology and to elucidate underlying mechanisms of circadian pain rhythmicity. The observation of clinically relevant diurnal pain variability in neuropathic conditions has important implications for future research and treatment of pain. This is an immature research field, and further investigation is needed to better characterize these patterns in more detail, investigate contributory mechanisms, and to develop therapeutic strategies that exploit this phenomenon.

Neuropeptide secreted from a pacemaker activates neurons to control a rhythmic behavior.

PubMed

Wang, Han; Girskis, Kelly; Janssen, Tom; Chan, Jason P; Dasgupta, Krishnakali; Knowles, James A; Schoofs, Liliane; Sieburth, Derek

2013-05-06

Rhythmic behaviors are driven by endogenous biological clocks in pacemakers, which must reliably transmit timing information to target tissues that execute rhythmic outputs. During the defecation motor program in C. elegans, calcium oscillations in the pacemaker (intestine), which occur about every 50 s, trigger rhythmic enteric muscle contractions through downstream GABAergic neurons that innervate enteric muscles. However, the identity of the timing signal released by the pacemaker and the mechanism underlying the delivery of timing information to the GABAergic neurons are unknown. Here, we show that a neuropeptide-like protein (NLP-40) released by the pacemaker triggers a single rapid calcium transient in the GABAergic neurons during each defecation cycle. We find that mutants lacking nlp-40 have normal pacemaker function, but lack enteric muscle contractions. NLP-40 undergoes calcium-dependent release that is mediated by the calcium sensor, SNT-2/synaptotagmin. We identify AEX-2, the G-protein-coupled receptor on the GABAergic neurons, as the receptor for NLP-40. Functional calcium imaging reveals that NLP-40 and AEX-2/GPCR are both necessary for rhythmic activation of these neurons. Furthermore, acute application of synthetic NLP-40-derived peptide depolarizes the GABAergic neurons in vivo. Our results show that NLP-40 carries the timing information from the pacemaker via calcium-dependent release and delivers it to the GABAergic neurons by instructing their activation. Thus, we propose that rhythmic release of neuropeptides can deliver temporal information from pacemakers to downstream neurons to execute rhythmic behaviors. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rhythm in joint action: psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms for real-time interpersonal coordination

PubMed Central

Keller, Peter E.; Novembre, Giacomo; Hove, Michael J.

2014-01-01

Human interaction often requires simultaneous precision and flexibility in the coordination of rhythmic behaviour between individuals engaged in joint activity, for example, playing a musical duet or dancing with a partner. This review article addresses the psychological processes and brain mechanisms that enable such rhythmic interpersonal coordination. First, an overview is given of research on the cognitive-motor processes that enable individuals to represent joint action goals and to anticipate, attend and adapt to other's actions in real time. Second, the neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin rhythmic interpersonal coordination are sought in studies of sensorimotor and cognitive processes that play a role in the representation and integration of self- and other-related actions within and between individuals' brains. Finally, relationships between social–psychological factors and rhythmic interpersonal coordination are considered from two perspectives, one concerning how social-cognitive tendencies (e.g. empathy) affect coordination, and the other concerning how coordination affects interpersonal affiliation, trust and prosocial behaviour. Our review highlights musical ensemble performance as an ecologically valid yet readily controlled domain for investigating rhythm in joint action. PMID:25385772

Learning and transfer in motor-respiratory coordination.

PubMed

Hessler, Eric E; Amazeen, Polemnia G

2014-02-01

Motor-respiratory coordination occurs naturally during exercise, but the number of coordination patterns performed between movement and breathing is limited. We investigated whether participants could acquire novel ratios (either 5:2 or 5:3). To examine complex temporal relationships between movement and breathing, we used lagged return plots that were produced by graphing relative phase against relative phase after a time delay. By the end of practice, participants performed 5:2 consistently and performed 5:3 using more stable ratios (3:2 and 2:1). Lagged return plots revealed that 5:3 learners harnessed the stable inphase and antiphase patterns to stabilize the required ratio. That strategy resulted in the performance of smaller-integer ratios in the production of 5:3 but not 5:2. Despite those differences, there was positive transfer to unpracticed ratios that was similar in both learning conditions. The time series analysis of lagged return plots revealed differences in ratio performance at transfer. Ratios whose component frequencies were farther apart, like 7:2, were performed consistently, while ratios whose component frequencies were more similar, like 5:4, elicited attraction to inphase and antiphase. The implication is that participants can combine more stable chunks of rhythmic behavior to produce more complex ratios. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rhythmic Isometric Fatigue Patterns of the Elbow Flexors and Knee Extensors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ordway, George A.; And Others

1977-01-01

During a rhythmic, all-out task, the rates of fatigue experienced by elbow flexor and knee extendor muscle groups tend to differ, with the elbow flexors fatiguing more rapidly initially, but reaching a plateau at a relatively higher level than the knee extensors. (Author)

Fatigue Effect on Low-Frequency Force Fluctuations and Muscular Oscillations during Rhythmic Isometric Contraction

PubMed Central

Lin, Yen-Ting; Kuo, Chia-Hua; Hwang, Ing-Shiou

2014-01-01

Continuous force output containing numerous intermittent force pulses is not completely smooth. By characterizing force fluctuation properties and force pulse metrics, this study investigated adaptive changes in trajectory control, both force-generating capacity and force fluctuations, as fatigue progresses. Sixteen healthy subjects (20–24 years old) completed rhythmic isometric gripping with the non-dominant hand to volitional failure. Before and immediately following the fatigue intervention, we measured the gripping force to couple a 0.5 Hz sinusoidal target in the range of 50–100% maximal voluntary contraction. Dynamic force output was off-line decomposed into 1) an ideal force trajectory spectrally identical to the target rate; and 2) a force pulse trace pertaining to force fluctuations and error-correction attempts. The amplitude of ideal force trajectory regarding to force-generating capacity was more suppressed than that of the force pulse trace with increasing fatigue, which also shifted the force pulse trace to lower frequency bands. Multi-scale entropy analysis revealed that the complexity of the force pulse trace at high time scales increased with fatigue, contrary to the decrease in complexity of the force pulse trace at low time scales. Statistical properties of individual force pulses in the spatial and temporal domains varied with muscular fatigue, concurrent with marked suppression of gamma muscular oscillations (40–60 Hz) in the post-fatigue test. In conclusion, this study first reveals that muscular fatigue impairs the amplitude modulation of force pattern generation more than it affects the amplitude responsiveness of fine-tuning a force trajectory. Besides, motor fatigue results disadvantageously in enhancement of motor noises, simplification of short-term force-tuning strategy, and slow responsiveness to force errors, pertaining to dimensional changes in force fluctuations, scaling properties of force pulse, and muscular oscillation. PMID:24465605

Motor "dexterity"?: Evidence that left hemisphere lateralization of motor circuit connectivity is associated with better motor performance in children.

PubMed

Barber, Anita D; Srinivasan, Priti; Joel, Suresh E; Caffo, Brian S; Pekar, James J; Mostofsky, Stewart H

2012-01-01

Motor control relies on well-established motor circuits, which are critical for typical child development. Although many imaging studies have examined task activation during motor performance, none have examined the relationship between functional intrinsic connectivity and motor ability. The current study investigated the relationship between resting state functional connectivity within the motor network and motor performance assessment outside of the scanner in 40 typically developing right-handed children. Better motor performance correlated with greater left-lateralized (mean left hemisphere-mean right hemisphere) motor circuit connectivity. Speed, rhythmicity, and control of movements were associated with connectivity within different individual region pairs: faster speed was associated with more left-lateralized putamen-thalamus connectivity, less overflow with more left-lateralized supplementary motor-primary motor connectivity, and less dysrhythmia with more left-lateralized supplementary motor-anterior cerebellar connectivity. These findings suggest that for right-handed children, superior motor development depends on the establishment of left-hemisphere dominance in intrinsic motor network connectivity.

[Change of character of intersystemic interactions in newborn rat pups under conditions of a decrease of central influences (urethane anesthesia)].

PubMed

Kuznetsov, S V; Sizonov, V A; Dmitrieva, L E

2014-01-01

On newborn rat pups, for the first day after birth, there was studied the character of mutual influences between the slow-wave rhythmical components of the cardiac, respiratory, and motor activities reflecting interactions between the main functional systems of the developing organism. The study was carried out in norm and after pharmacological depression of the spontaneous periodical motor activity (SPMA) performed by narcotization of rat pups with urethane at low (0.5 g/kg, i/p) and maximal (1 g/kg, i/p) doses. Based on the complex of our obtained data, it is possible to conclude that after birth in rat pups the intersystemic interactions are realized mainly by the slow-wave oscillations of the near- and manyminute diapason. The correlational interactions mediated by rhythms of the decasecond diapason do not play essential role in integrative processes. Injection to the animals of urethane producing selective suppression of reaction of consciousness, but not affecting activating influences of reticular formation on cerebral cortex does not cause marked changes of autonomous parameters, but modulates structure and expression of spontaneous periodical motor activity. There occurs an essential decrease of mutual influences between motor and cardiovascular systems. In the case of preservation of motor activity bursts, a tendency for enhancement of correlational relations between the modulating rhythms of motor and somatomotor systems is observed. The cardiorespiratory interactions, more pronounced in intact rat pups in the near- and many-minute modulation diapason, under conditions of urethane, somewhat decrease, whereas the rhythmical components of the decasecond diapason--are weakly enhanced.

Mental steps: Differential activation of internal pacemakers in motor imagery and in mental imitation of gait.

PubMed

Sacheli, Lucia Maria; Zapparoli, Laura; De Santis, Carlo; Preti, Matteo; Pelosi, Catia; Ursino, Nicola; Zerbi, Alberto; Banfi, Giuseppe; Paulesu, Eraldo

2017-10-01

Gait imagery and gait observation can boost the recovery of locomotion dysfunctions; yet, a neurologically justified rationale for their clinical application is lacking as much as a direct comparison of their neural correlates. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured the neural correlates of explicit motor imagery of gait during observation of in-motion videos shot in a park with a steady cam (Virtual Walking task). In a 2 × 2 factorial design, we assessed the modulatory effect of gait observation and of foot movement execution on the neural correlates of the Virtual Walking task: in half of the trials, the participants were asked to mentally imitate a human model shown while walking along the same route (mental imitation condition); moreover, for half of all the trials, the participants also performed rhythmic ankle dorsiflexion as a proxy for stepping movements. We found that, beyond the areas associated with the execution of lower limb movements (the paracentral lobule, the supplementary motor area, and the cerebellum), gait imagery also recruited dorsal premotor and posterior parietal areas known to contribute to the adaptation of walking patterns to environmental cues. When compared with mental imitation, motor imagery recruited a more extensive network, including a brainstem area compatible with the human mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR). Reduced activation of the MLR in mental imitation indicates that this more visually guided task poses less demand on subcortical structures crucial for internally generated gait patterns. This finding may explain why patients with subcortical degeneration benefit from rehabilitation protocols based on gait observation. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5195-5216, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Muscles innervated by a single motor neuron exhibit divergent synaptic properties on multiple time scales.

PubMed

Blitz, Dawn M; Pritchard, Amy E; Latimer, John K; Wakefield, Andrew T

2017-04-01

Adaptive changes in the output of neural circuits underlying rhythmic behaviors are relayed to muscles via motor neuron activity. Presynaptic and postsynaptic properties of neuromuscular junctions can impact the transformation from motor neuron activity to muscle response. Further, synaptic plasticity occurring on the time scale of inter-spike intervals can differ between multiple muscles innervated by the same motor neuron. In rhythmic behaviors, motor neuron bursts can elicit additional synaptic plasticity. However, it is unknown whether plasticity regulated by the longer time scale of inter-burst intervals also differs between synapses from the same neuron, and whether any such distinctions occur across a physiological activity range. To address these issues, we measured electrical responses in muscles innervated by a chewing circuit neuron, the lateral gastric (LG) motor neuron, in a well-characterized small motor system, the stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) of the Jonah crab, Cancer borealis In vitro and in vivo , sensory, hormonal and modulatory inputs elicit LG bursting consisting of inter-spike intervals of 50-250 ms and inter-burst intervals of 2-24 s. Muscles expressed similar facilitation measured with paired stimuli except at the shortest inter-spike interval. However, distinct decay time constants resulted in differences in temporal summation. In response to bursting activity, augmentation occurred to different extents and saturated at different inter-burst intervals. Further, augmentation interacted with facilitation, resulting in distinct intra-burst facilitation between muscles. Thus, responses of multiple target muscles diverge across a physiological activity range as a result of distinct synaptic properties sensitive to multiple time scales. © 2017. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Dysrhythmia of timed movements in Parkinson's disease and freezing of gait.

PubMed

Tolleson, Christopher M; Dobolyi, David G; Roman, Olivia C; Kanoff, Kristen; Barton, Scott; Wylie, Scott A; Kubovy, Michael; Claassen, Daniel O

2015-10-22

A well-established motor timing paradigm, the Synchronization-Continuation Task (SCT), quantifies how accurately participants can time finger tapping to a rhythmic auditory beat (synchronization phase) then maintain this rhythm after the external auditory cue is extinguished, where performance depends on an internal representation of the beat (continuation phase). In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with clinical symptoms of freezing of gait (FOG) exhibit exaggerated motor timing deficits. We predicted that dysrhythmia is exacerbated when finger tapping is stopped temporarily and then reinitiated under the guidance of an internal representation of the beat. Healthy controls and PD patients with and without FOG performed the SCT with and without the insertion of a 7-s cessation of motor tapping between synchronization and continuation phases. With no interruption between synchronization and continuation phases, PD patients, especially those with FOG, showed pronounced motor timing hastening at the slowest inter-stimulus intervals during the continuation phase. The introduction of a gap prior to the continuation phase had a beneficial effect for healthy controls and PD patients without FOG, although patients with FOG continued to show pronounced and persistent motor timing hastening. Ratings of freezing of gait severity across the entire sample of PD tracked closely with the magnitude of hastening during the continuation phase. These results suggest that PD is accompanied by a unique dysrhythmia of measured movements, with FOG reflecting a particularly pronounced disruption to internal rhythmic timing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of motor unit recruitment on functional vasodilatation in hamster retractor muscle

PubMed Central

Van Teeffelen, Jurgen W G E; Segal, Steven S

2000-01-01

The effect of motor unit recruitment on functional vasodilatation was investigated in hamster retractor muscle. Recruitment (i.e. peak tension) was controlled with voltage applied to the spinal accessory nerve (high = maximum tension; intermediate = ∼50% maximum; low = ∼25% maximum). Vasodilatory responses (diameter × time integral, DTI) to rhythmic contractions (1 per 2 s for 65 s) were evaluated in first, second and third orderarterioles and in feed arteries. Reciprocal changes in duty cycle (range, 2·5–25 %) effectively maintained the total active tension (tension × time integral, TTI) constant across recruitment levels. With constant TTI and stimulation frequency (40 Hz), DTI in all vessels increased with motor unit recruitment. DTI increased from distal arterioles up through proximal feed arteries. To determine whether the effect of recruitment on DTI was due to increased peak tension, the latter was controlled with stimulation frequency (15, 20 and 40 Hz) during maximum (high) recruitment. With constant TTI, DTI then decreased as peak tension increased. To explore the interaction between recruitment and duty cycle on DTI, each recruitment level was applied at 2.5, 10 and 20 % duty cycle (at 40 Hz). For a given increase in TTI, recruitment had a greater effect on DTI than did duty cycle. Functional vasodilatation in response to rhythmic contractions is facilitated by motor unit recruitment. Thus, vasodilatory responses are determined not only by the total tension produced, but also by the number of active motor units. PMID:10747197

[CHANGE OF CHARACTER OF INTERSYSTEMIC INTERACTIONS IN NEWBORN RAT PUPS UNDER CONDITIONS OF A DECREASE OF MOTOR ACTIVITY].

PubMed

Sizonov, V A; Dmitrieva, L E; Kuznetsov, S V

2015-01-01

Interaction of slow-wave.rhythmic components of cardiac, respiratory.and motor activity was investigated in newborn rat pups on the first day after birth under normal conditions and after pharmacological depression of spontaneous periodic motor activity (SPMA) produced by injecting myocuran (myanesin) at low (100 mg/pg, i/p) and maximal (235 mg/pg, i/p) dosages. The data obtained allow to infer that in rat pups after birth the intersystemic interactions are realized mainly via slow-wave oscillations of about-one- and many-minute ranges whereas the rhythms of decasecond range do not play a significant role in integrative processes. Injection of miocuran at a dose causing no muscle relaxation and no inhibition of motor activity produces changes of the cardiac and respiratory rhythms as well as a transitory decrease of the magnitude of coordinate relations mediated by the rhythms of about-one- and many-minute ranges. The consequences of muscle relaxant injection were found to be more significant for intersystemic interactions with participation of the respiratory system. An increase of the dosage and, correspondingly, the total inhibition of SPMA is accompanied by reduction of the slow-wave components from the pattern of cardiac and respiratory rhythms. The cardiorespiratory interactions, more expressed in intact rat pups, are reduced in the about-one- and many-minute ranges of modulation whereas in the decasecond range of modulation they are slightly increased. Key words: early ontogenesis, intersystemic interactions, cardiac rhythm, respiration, motor activity, myocuran (myanesin).

Pinniped Hearing in Complex Acoustic Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-30

published] Mulsow, J. & Reichmuth, C. (2013). The binaural click-evoked auditory brainstem response of the California sea lion (Zalophus...California sea lion can keep the beat : Motor entrainment to rhythmic auditory stimuli in a non vocal mimic. Journal of Comparative Psychology, online first. [published

The Food Contaminant Mycotoxin Deoxynivalenol Inhibits the Swallowing Reflex in Anaesthetized Rats

PubMed Central

Abysique, Anne; Tardivel, Catherine; Troadec, Jean-Denis; Félix, Bernadette

2015-01-01

Deoxynivalenol (DON), one of the most abundant mycotoxins found on cereals, is known to be implicated in acute and chronic illnesses in both humans and animals. Among the symptoms, anorexia, reduction of weight gain and decreased nutrition efficiency were described, but the mechanisms underlying these effects on feeding behavior are not yet totally understood. Swallowing is a major motor component of ingestive behavior which allows the propulsion of the alimentary bolus from the mouth to the esophagus. To better understand DON effects on ingestive behaviour, we have studied its effects on rhythmic swallowing in the rat, after intravenous and central administration. Repetitive electrical stimulation of the superior laryngeal nerve or of the tractus solitarius, induces rhythmic swallowing that can be recorded using electromyographic electrodes inserted in sublingual muscles. Here we provide the first demonstration that, after intravenous and central administration, DON strongly inhibits the swallowing reflex with a short latency and in a dose dependent manner. Moreover, using c-Fos staining, a strong neuronal activation was observed in the solitary tract nucleus which contains the central pattern generator of swallowing and in the area postrema after DON intravenous injection. Our data show that DON modifies swallowing and interferes with central neuronal networks dedicated to food intake regulation. PMID:26192767

Efficacy of parent-delivered behavioral therapy for primary complex motor stereotypies.

PubMed

Specht, Matthew W; Mahone, E Mark; Kline, Tina; Waranch, Richard; Brabson, Laurel; Thompson, Carol B; Singer, Harvey S

2017-02-01

Primary complex motor stereotypies (CMS) are persistent, patterned, repetitive, rhythmic movements in young people with typical development. This study evaluated the efficacy of an instructional DVD as a home-based, parent-administered, behavioral therapy for primary CMS. Eighty-one children with primary CMS were enrolled. Primary outcome measures included the Stereotypy Severity Scale (SSS) - Motor and Impairment scores, and Stereotypy Linear Analog Scale (SLAS). Mean CMS onset was 13.4 months (SD 13.1). Eligibility required observed CMS. Psychiatric disorders were not exclusionary and a stable medication regimen was required. Intellectual disability, neurological disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and tics were exclusionary. Initial assessments were completed via REDCap before receipt of the DVD. Fifty-four of the 81 children (34 male, 20 female; mean age 8y 2mo, SD 1.42, range 7-14y) completed assessments at 1, 2, or 3 months after receiving the DVD. Reductions (baseline to last assessment) in SSS Motor, SSS Impairment, and SLAS scores (all p<0.001) represented change ratios of -15%, -24%, and a -20% respectively. Greatest relative treatment benefit was observed by younger children (ages 7-8y), and by 1 month after receipt of DVD, while a parent global assessment scale showed progressive improvement throughout the study. An instructional DVD for parent-delivered behavioral therapy was a safe, effective intervention for primary CMS. © 2016 Mac Keith Press.

Efficacy of parent-delivered behavioral therapy for primary complex motor stereotypies

PubMed Central

Specht, Matthew W; Mahone, E Mark; Kline, Tina; Waranch, Richard; Brabson, Laurel; Thompson, Carol B; Singer, Harvey S

2016-01-01

Aim ‘Primary’ complex motor stereotypies (CMS) are persistent, patterned, repetitive, rhythmic movements in young people with typical development. This study evaluated the efficacy of an instructional DVD as a home-based, parent-administered, behavioral therapy for primary CMS. Method Eighty-one children with primary CMS were enrolled. Primary outcome measures included the Stereotypy Severity Scale (SSS) – Motor and Impairment scores, and Stereotypy Linear Analog Scale (SLAS). Mean CMS onset was 13.4 months (SD 13.1). Eligibility required observed CMS. Psychiatric disorders were not exclusionary and a stable medication regimen was required. Intellectual disability, neurological disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and tics were exclusionary. Initial assessments were completed via REDCap before receipt of the DVD. Fifty-four of the 81 children (34 male, 20 female; mean age 8y 2mo, SD 1.42, range 7–14y) completed assessments at 1, 2, or 3 months after receiving the DVD. Results Reductions (baseline to last assessment) in SSS Motor, SSS Impairment, and SLAS scores (all p<0.001) represented change ratios of –15%, –24%, and a –20%, respectively. Greatest relative treatment benefit was observed by younger children (ages 7–8y), and by one month after receipt of DVD, while a parent global assessment scale showed progressive improvement throughout the study. Interpretation An instructional DVD for parent-delivered behavioral therapy was a safe, effective intervention for primary CMS. PMID:27259464

Muscle Activation Patterns in Infants with Myelomeningocele Stepping on a Treadmill

PubMed Central

Sansom, Jennifer K.; Teulier, Caroline; Smith, Beth A.; Moerchen, Victoria; Muraszko, Karin; Ulrich, Beverly D.

2013-01-01

Purpose To characterize how infants with myelomeningocele (MMC) activate lower limb muscles over the first year of life, without practice, while stepping on a motorized treadmill. Methods Twelve infants with MMC were tested longitudinally at 1, 6, 12 months. Electromyography (EMG) was used to collect data from the tibialis anterior (TA), lateral gastrocnemius (LG), rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF). Results Across the first year, infants showed no EMG activity for ~50% of the stride cycle w/poor rhythmicity and timing of muscles, when activated. Single muscle activation predominated; agonist-antagonist co-activation was low. Probability of individual muscle activity across the stride decreased w/age. Conclusions Infants with MMC show high variability in timing and duration of muscle activity, few complex combinations, and very little change over time. PMID:23685739

Leading Young Children to Music. Fifth Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haines, B. Joan E.; Gerber, Linda L.

This manual is designed for music and classroom teachers of children from infancy to age eight. All musical experiences lead to learning, from the simplest rhythmic experiences of being rocked to sleep to the more sophisticated challenge of playing one rhythmic pattern while singing another. When musical experiences are related to the…

Kinematic Origins of Motor Inconsistency in Expert Pianists.

PubMed

Tominaga, Kenta; Lee, André; Altenmüller, Eckart; Miyazaki, Fumio; Furuya, Shinichi

2016-01-01

For top performers, including athletes and musicians, even subtle inconsistencies in rhythm and force during movement production decrease the quality of performance. However, extensive training over many years beginning in childhood is unable to perfect dexterous motor performance so that it is without any error. To gain insight into the biological mechanisms underlying the subtle defects of motor actions, the present study sought to identify the kinematic origins of inconsistency of dexterous finger movements in musical performance. Seven highly-skilled pianists who have won prizes at international piano competitions played a short sequence of tones with the right hand at a predetermined tempo. Time-varying joint angles of the fingers were recorded using a custom-made data glove, and the timing and velocity of the individual keystrokes were recorded from a digital piano. Both ridge and stepwise multiple regression analyses demonstrated an association of the inter-trial variability of the inter-keystroke interval (i.e., rhythmic inconsistency) with both the rotational velocity of joints of the finger used for a keystroke (i.e., striking finger) and the movement independence between the striking and non-striking fingers. This indicates a relationship between rhythmic inconsistency in musical performance and the dynamic features of movements in not only the striking finger but also the non-striking fingers. In contrast, the inter-trial variability of the key-descending velocity (i.e., loudness inconsistency) was associated mostly with the kinematic features of the striking finger at the moment of the keystroke. Furthermore, there was no correlation between the rhythmic and loudness inconsistencies. The results suggest distinct kinematic origins of inconsistencies in rhythm and loudness in expert musical performance.

Using an Artificial Neural Bypass to Restore Cortical Control of Rhythmic Movements in a Human with Quadriplegia

PubMed Central

Sharma, Gaurav; Friedenberg, David A.; Annetta, Nicholas; Glenn, Bradley; Bockbrader, Marcie; Majstorovic, Connor; Domas, Stephanie; Mysiw, W. Jerry; Rezai, Ali; Bouton, Chad

2016-01-01

Neuroprosthetic technology has been used to restore cortical control of discrete (non-rhythmic) hand movements in a paralyzed person. However, cortical control of rhythmic movements which originate in the brain but are coordinated by Central Pattern Generator (CPG) neural networks in the spinal cord has not been demonstrated previously. Here we show a demonstration of an artificial neural bypass technology that decodes cortical activity and emulates spinal cord CPG function allowing volitional rhythmic hand movement. The technology uses a combination of signals recorded from the brain, machine-learning algorithms to decode the signals, a numerical model of CPG network, and a neuromuscular electrical stimulation system to evoke rhythmic movements. Using the neural bypass, a quadriplegic participant was able to initiate, sustain, and switch between rhythmic and discrete finger movements, using his thoughts alone. These results have implications in advancing neuroprosthetic technology to restore complex movements in people living with paralysis. PMID:27658585

Speech rhythm facilitates syntactic ambiguity resolution: ERP evidence.

PubMed

Roncaglia-Denissen, Maria Paula; Schmidt-Kassow, Maren; Kotz, Sonja A

2013-01-01

In the current event-related potential (ERP) study, we investigated how speech rhythm impacts speech segmentation and facilitates the resolution of syntactic ambiguities in auditory sentence processing. Participants listened to syntactically ambiguous German subject- and object-first sentences that were spoken with either regular or irregular speech rhythm. Rhythmicity was established by a constant metric pattern of three unstressed syllables between two stressed ones that created rhythmic groups of constant size. Accuracy rates in a comprehension task revealed that participants understood rhythmically regular sentences better than rhythmically irregular ones. Furthermore, the mean amplitude of the P600 component was reduced in response to object-first sentences only when embedded in rhythmically regular but not rhythmically irregular context. This P600 reduction indicates facilitated processing of sentence structure possibly due to a decrease in processing costs for the less-preferred structure (object-first). Our data suggest an early and continuous use of rhythm by the syntactic parser and support language processing models assuming an interactive and incremental use of linguistic information during language processing.

Speech Rhythm Facilitates Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution: ERP Evidence

PubMed Central

Roncaglia-Denissen, Maria Paula; Schmidt-Kassow, Maren; Kotz, Sonja A.

2013-01-01

In the current event-related potential (ERP) study, we investigated how speech rhythm impacts speech segmentation and facilitates the resolution of syntactic ambiguities in auditory sentence processing. Participants listened to syntactically ambiguous German subject- and object-first sentences that were spoken with either regular or irregular speech rhythm. Rhythmicity was established by a constant metric pattern of three unstressed syllables between two stressed ones that created rhythmic groups of constant size. Accuracy rates in a comprehension task revealed that participants understood rhythmically regular sentences better than rhythmically irregular ones. Furthermore, the mean amplitude of the P600 component was reduced in response to object-first sentences only when embedded in rhythmically regular but not rhythmically irregular context. This P600 reduction indicates facilitated processing of sentence structure possibly due to a decrease in processing costs for the less-preferred structure (object-first). Our data suggest an early and continuous use of rhythm by the syntactic parser and support language processing models assuming an interactive and incremental use of linguistic information during language processing. PMID:23409109

FPGA implementation of a configurable neuromorphic CPG-based locomotion controller.

PubMed

Barron-Zambrano, Jose Hugo; Torres-Huitzil, Cesar

2013-09-01

Neuromorphic engineering is a discipline devoted to the design and development of computational hardware that mimics the characteristics and capabilities of neuro-biological systems. In recent years, neuromorphic hardware systems have been implemented using a hybrid approach incorporating digital hardware so as to provide flexibility and scalability at the cost of power efficiency and some biological realism. This paper proposes an FPGA-based neuromorphic-like embedded system on a chip to generate locomotion patterns of periodic rhythmic movements inspired by Central Pattern Generators (CPGs). The proposed implementation follows a top-down approach where modularity and hierarchy are two desirable features. The locomotion controller is based on CPG models to produce rhythmic locomotion patterns or gaits for legged robots such as quadrupeds and hexapods. The architecture is configurable and scalable for robots with either different morphologies or different degrees of freedom (DOFs). Experiments performed on a real robot are presented and discussed. The obtained results demonstrate that the CPG-based controller provides the necessary flexibility to generate different rhythmic patterns at run-time suitable for adaptable locomotion. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The respective contribution of lumbar segments to the generation of locomotion in the isolated spinal cord of newborn rat.

PubMed

Bertrand, S; Cazalets, Jean-René

2002-11-01

Various studies on isolated neonatal rat spinal cord have pointed to the predominant role played by the rostral lumbar area in the generation of locomotor activity. In the present study, the role of the various regions of the lumbar spinal cord in locomotor genesis was further examined using compartmentalization and transections of the cord. We report that the synaptic drive received by caudal motoneurons following N-methyl-d-l-aspartate (NMA)/5-HT superfusion on the entire lumbar cord is different from that triggered by the same compounds specifically applied on the rostral segments. These differences appear to be due to the direct action of NMA/5-HT on motoneuron membrane potential, rather than on premotoneuronal input activation. In order to assess the possible participation of the caudal lumbar segments in locomotor rhythm generation, the segments were over-stimulated with high concentrations of NMA or K+. We find that significant variations in motor cycle period occurred during the over-activation of the rostral segments. Over-activation of caudal segments only si+gnificantly increased the caudal ventral roots burst amplitude. We find that low 5-HT concentrations were unable to induce fictive locomotion under our experimental conditions. When a hemi-transection of the cord was performed between the L2-L3 segments, rhythmic bursting in the ipsilateral L5 disappeared while rhythmicity persisted on the contralateral side. Sectioning of the remaining L2-L3 side totally suppressed rhythmic activity in both L5 ventral roots. These results show that the thoracolumbar part of the cord constitutes the key area for locomotor pattern generation.

Paired variability indices in assessing speech rhythm in Spanish/English bilingual language acquisition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Work, Richard; Andruski, Jean; Casielles, Eugenia; Kim, Sahyang; Nathan, Geoff

2005-04-01

Traditionally, English is classified as a stress-timed language while Spanish is classified as syllable-timed. Examining the contrasting development of rhythmic patterns in bilingual first language acquisition should provide information on how this differentiation takes place. As part of a longitudinal study, speech samples were taken of a Spanish/English bilingual child of Argentinean parents living in the Midwestern United States between the ages of 1;8 and 3;2. Spanish is spoken at home and English input comes primarily from an English day care the child attends 5 days a week. The parents act as interlocutors for Spanish recordings with a native speaker interacting with the child for the English recordings. Following the work of Grabe, Post and Watson (1999) and Grabe and Low (2002) a normalized Pairwise Variability Index (PVI) is used which compares, in utterances of minimally four syllables, the durations of vocalic intervals in successive syllables. Comparisons are then made between the rhythmic patterns of the child's productions within each language over time and between languages at comparable MLUs. Comparisons are also made with the rhythmic patterns of the adult productions of each language. Results will be analyzed for signs of native speaker-like rhythmic production in the child.

An Exploration of Rhythmic Grouping of Speech Sequences by French- and German-Learning Infants

PubMed Central

Abboub, Nawal; Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie; Bhatara, Anjali; Höhle, Barbara; Nazzi, Thierry

2016-01-01

Rhythm in music and speech can be characterized by a constellation of several acoustic cues. Individually, these cues have different effects on rhythmic perception: sequences of sounds alternating in duration are perceived as short-long pairs (weak-strong/iambic pattern), whereas sequences of sounds alternating in intensity or pitch are perceived as loud-soft, or high-low pairs (strong-weak/trochaic pattern). This perceptual bias—called the Iambic-Trochaic Law (ITL)–has been claimed to be an universal property of the auditory system applying in both the music and the language domains. Recent studies have shown that language experience can modulate the effects of the ITL on rhythmic perception of both speech and non-speech sequences in adults, and of non-speech sequences in 7.5-month-old infants. The goal of the present study was to explore whether language experience also modulates infants’ grouping of speech. To do so, we presented sequences of syllables to monolingual French- and German-learning 7.5-month-olds. Using the Headturn Preference Procedure (HPP), we examined whether they were able to perceive a rhythmic structure in sequences of syllables that alternated in duration, pitch, or intensity. Our findings show that both French- and German-learning infants perceived a rhythmic structure when it was cued by duration or pitch but not intensity. Our findings also show differences in how these infants use duration and pitch cues to group syllable sequences, suggesting that pitch cues were the easier ones to use. Moreover, performance did not differ across languages, failing to reveal early language effects on rhythmic perception. These results contribute to our understanding of the origin of rhythmic perception and perceptual mechanisms shared across music and speech, which may bootstrap language acquisition. PMID:27378887

Masticatory motor patterns in ungulates: a quantitative assessment of jaw-muscle coordination in goats, alpacas and horses.

PubMed

Williams, Susan H; Vinyard, Christopher J; Wall, Christine E; Hylander, William L

2007-04-01

We investigated patterns of jaw-muscle coordination during rhythmic mastication in three species of ungulates displaying the marked transverse jaw movements typical of many large mammalian herbivores. In order to quantify consistent motor patterns during chewing, electromyograms were recorded from the superficial masseter, deep masseter, posterior temporalis and medial pterygoid muscles of goats, alpacas and horses. Timing differences between muscle pairs were evaluated in the context of an evolutionary model of jaw-muscle function. In this model, the closing and food reduction phases of mastication are primarily controlled by two distinct muscle groups, triplet I (balancing-side superficial masseter and medial pterygoid and working-side posterior temporalis) and triplet II (working-side superficial masseter and medial pterygoid and balancing-side posterior temporalis), and the asynchronous activity of the working- and balancing-side deep masseters. The three species differ in the extent to which the jaw muscles are coordinated as triplet I and triplet II. Alpacas, and to a lesser extent, goats, exhibit the triplet pattern whereas horses do not. In contrast, all three species show marked asynchrony of the working-side and balancing-side deep masseters, with jaw closing initiated by the working-side muscle and the balancing-side muscle firing much later during closing. However, goats differ from alpacas and horses in the timing of the balancing-side deep masseter relative to the triplet II muscles. This study highlights interspecific differences in the coordination of jaw muscles to influence transverse jaw movements and the production of bite force in herbivorous ungulates.

Sex Differences in Rhythmic Preferences in the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus): A Comparative Study with Humans

PubMed Central

Hoeschele, Marisa; Bowling, Daniel L.

2016-01-01

A variety of parrot species have recently gained attention as members of a small group of non-human animals that are capable of coordinating their movements in time with a rhythmic pulse. This capacity is highly developed in humans, who display unparalleled sensitivity to musical beats and appear to prefer rhythmically organized sounds in their music. Do parrots also exhibit a preference for rhythmic over arrhythmic sounds? Here, we presented humans and budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) – a small parrot species that have been shown to be able to align movements with a beat – with rhythmic and arrhythmic sound patterns in an acoustic place preference paradigm. Both species were allowed to explore an environment for 5 min. We quantified how much time they spent in proximity to rhythmic vs. arrhythmic stimuli. The results show that humans spent more time with rhythmic stimuli, and also preferred rhythmic stimuli when directly asked in a post-test survey. Budgerigars did not show any such overall preferences. However, further examination of the budgerigar results showed an effect of sex, such that male budgerigars spent more time with arrthymic stimuli, and female budgerigars spent more time with rhythmic stimuli. Our results support the idea that rhythmic information is interesting to budgerigars. We suggest that future investigations into the temporal characteristics of naturalistic social behaviors in budgerigars, such as courtship vocalizations and head-bobbing displays, may help explain the sex difference we observed. PMID:27757099

A generalized locomotion CPG architecture based on oscillatory building blocks.

PubMed

Yang, Zhijun; França, Felipe M G

2003-07-01

Neural oscillation is one of the most extensively investigated topics of artificial neural networks. Scientific approaches to the functionalities of both natural and artificial intelligences are strongly related to mechanisms underlying oscillatory activities. This paper concerns itself with the assumption of the existence of central pattern generators (CPGs), which are the plausible neural architectures with oscillatory capabilities, and presents a discrete and generalized approach to the functionality of locomotor CPGs of legged animals. Based on scheduling by multiple edge reversal (SMER), a primitive and deterministic distributed algorithm, it is shown how oscillatory building block (OBB) modules can be created and, hence, how OBB-based networks can be formulated as asymmetric Hopfield-like neural networks for the generation of complex coordinated rhythmic patterns observed among pairs of biological motor neurons working during different gait patterns. It is also shown that the resulting Hopfield-like network possesses the property of reproducing the whole spectrum of different gaits intrinsic to the target locomotor CPGs. Although the new approach is not restricted to the understanding of the neurolocomotor system of any particular animal, hexapodal and quadrupedal gait patterns are chosen as illustrations given the wide interest expressed by the ongoing research in the area.

Randomized controlled trial protocol: balance training with rhythmical cues to improve and maintain balance control in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Capato, Tamine Teixeira da Costa; Tornai, Juliana; Ávila, Patrícia; Barbosa, Egberto Reis; Piemonte, Maria Elisa Pimentel

2015-09-07

Postural instability is a particularly incapacitating disorder, whose loss of motor independence by Parkinson´s Disease (PD) patients marks a significant stage of disease onset. Evidence suggests that deficits in automatic motor control, sensory integration and attention are associated with the lack of balance in PD. Physiotherapy together with medication play an important role in the treatment of this state, although no consensus has been reached on the best treatment modality. The aim of this randomized controlled trial protocol is to evaluate the effects of balance training with rhythmical (BRT), which is a motor program to improve balance associated with rhythmical auditory cues (RACs). This study is ongoing in the stage 1. A total of 150 PD patients at H&Y stages II-III and asymptomatic for depression and dementia are enrolled in a single-blind randomized study. Randomization is achieved via a computer-generated random-sequence table. All patients should also present a fall history. They will be assigned into one of three groups, and their balance and gait will be assessed before and after 10 training sessions, and after 4 and 30 weeks subsequent to the end of the training. The BRT group will receive a motor program to improve balance associated with RACs, the MT group will perform motor training with the same aims as those in the BRT group but without RACs, and the control group (CG) will be trained only in orientations. The exercise program specific to balance is of 5 weeks' duration with two sessions per week, 45 min each, and consists of general physiotherapy exercises. Each session will be divided into five warm-up minutes-30 min for the main part and 10 min for the cool down. The training progresses and intensifies each week depending on the individual's performance. The subjects should be able to execute 10 repetitions of the exercise sequences correctly to progress to the next movement. This randomized study protocol will evaluate the effects of a motor program designed to improve balance associated with RACs, and will also assess whether balance training leads to activation of balance reactions at the appropriate time. We hypothesize that if this motor program is maintained long-term, it will prevent falls. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02488265 ; Ethics Committee of the University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine Clinics Hospital 1.102.464.

New insights into sucking, swallowing and breathing central generators: A complexity analysis of rhythmic motor behaviors.

PubMed

Samson, Nathalie; Praud, Jean-Paul; Quenet, Brigitte; Similowski, Thomas; Straus, Christian

2017-01-18

Sucking, swallowing and breathing are dynamic motor behaviors. Breathing displays features of chaos-like dynamics, in particular nonlinearity and complexity, which take their source in the automatic command of breathing. In contrast, buccal/gill ventilation in amphibians is one of the rare motor behaviors that do not display nonlinear complexity. This study aimed at assessing whether sucking and swallowing would also follow nonlinear complex dynamics in the newborn lamb. Breathing movements were recorded before, during and after bottle-feeding. Sucking pressure and the integrated EMG of the thyroartenoid muscle, as an index of swallowing, were recorded during bottle-feeding. Nonlinear complexity of the whole signals was assessed through the calculation of the noise limit value (NL). Breathing and swallowing always exhibited chaos-like dynamics. The NL of breathing did not change significantly before, during or after bottle-feeding. On the other hand, sucking inconsistently and significantly less frequently than breathing exhibited a chaos-like dynamics. Therefore, the central pattern generator (CPG) that drives sucking may be functionally different from the breathing CPG. Furthermore, the analogy between buccal/gill ventilation and sucking suggests that the latter may take its phylogenetic origin in the gill ventilation CPG of the common ancestor of extant amphibians and mammals. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Triplet firing origin in human motor units: emerging hypotheses.

PubMed

Kudina, Lydia P; Andreeva, Regina E

2016-03-01

A specific feature of motor unit (MU) firing behaviour is rhythmic trains of single discharges at low rate resulting from the prolonged motoneuronal afterhyperpolarization. However, some MUs exhibit occasional doublets with uniquely short interspike intervals (2.5-20.0 ms). Motoneuronal delayed depolarization is commonly accepted to be doublet underlying mechanism. Apart from doublets, much scarcer MU triple discharges were described, but their mechanisms are disputable. The aim of the present study was to analyse MU triplet firing origin in healthy humans. MU triple discharges occasionally arising during gentle voluntary muscle contractions were compared with those arising in axons during motor nerve stimulation. Firing pattern was analysed in 109 MUs of four muscles: the tibialis anterior, the flexor carpi ulnaris, the abductor pollicis brevis, and the abductor digiti minimi. Our findings present evidence that during voluntary contractions two kinds of MU triplet firing can be occasionally observed: "true" motoneuronal triplets (interspike intervals of 3.6-17.3 ms) with the delayed depolarization as the possible underlying mechanism and axonal triple discharges including the M-response and F-wave. The findings can be useful not only for understanding mechanisms of the very rare motoneuronal firing in healthy humans but also for estimation of pathological triplet firing origin.

Scansion: The Eye and the Ear. An Experiment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brink, C. O.

1963-01-01

An experiment is suggested in which scansion, particularly of hexameters and elegiacs, may be taught orally and without use of visual symbols through the rhythmic patterns characteristic of the writings of the ancient poets. The author argues that a reading of the Latin hexameters by "cola" will introduce an element of rhythmic stress in addition…

The Applicability of Rhythm-Motor Tasks to a New Dual Task Paradigm for Older Adults

PubMed Central

Kim, Soo Ji; Cho, Sung-Rae; Yoo, Ga Eul

2017-01-01

Given the interplay between cognitive and motor functions during walking, cognitive demands required during gait have been investigated with regard to dual task performance. Along with the needs to understand how the type of concurrent task while walking affects gait performance, there are calls for diversified dual tasks that can be applied to older adults with varying levels of cognitive decline. Therefore, this study aimed to examine how rhythm-motor tasks affect dual task performance and gait control, compared to a traditional cognitive-motor task. Also, it examined whether rhythm-motor tasks are correlated with traditional cognitive-motor task performance and cognitive measures. Eighteen older adults without cognitive impairment participated in this study. Each participant was instructed to walk at self-paced tempo without performing a concurrent task (single walking task) and walk while separately performing two types of concurrent tasks: rhythm-motor and cognitive-motor tasks. Rhythm-motor tasks included instrument playing (WalkIP), matching to rhythmic cueing (WalkRC), and instrument playing while matching to rhythmic cueing (WalkIP+RC). The cognitive-motor task involved counting forward by 3s (WalkCount.f3). In each condition, dual task costs (DTC), a measure for how dual tasks affect gait parameters, were measured in terms of walking speed and stride length. The ratio of stride length to walking speed, a measure for dynamic control of gait, was also examined. The results of this study demonstrated that the task type was found to significantly influence these measures. Rhythm-motor tasks were found to interfere with gait parameters to a lesser extent than the cognitive-motor task (WalkCount.f3). In terms of ratio measures, stride length remained at a similar level, walking speed greatly decreased in the WalkCount.f3 condition. Significant correlations between dual task-related measures during rhythm-motor and cognitive-motor tasks support the potential of applying rhythm-motor tasks to dual task methodology. This study presents how rhythm-motor tasks demand cognitive control at different levels than those engaged by cognitive-motor tasks. It also indicates how these new dual tasks can effectively mediate dual task performance indicative of fall risks, while requiring increased cognitive resources but facilitating gait control as a compensatory strategy to maintain gait stability. PMID:29375462

Rhythm in joint action: psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms for real-time interpersonal coordination.

PubMed

Keller, Peter E; Novembre, Giacomo; Hove, Michael J

2014-12-19

Human interaction often requires simultaneous precision and flexibility in the coordination of rhythmic behaviour between individuals engaged in joint activity, for example, playing a musical duet or dancing with a partner. This review article addresses the psychological processes and brain mechanisms that enable such rhythmic interpersonal coordination. First, an overview is given of research on the cognitive-motor processes that enable individuals to represent joint action goals and to anticipate, attend and adapt to other's actions in real time. Second, the neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin rhythmic interpersonal coordination are sought in studies of sensorimotor and cognitive processes that play a role in the representation and integration of self- and other-related actions within and between individuals' brains. Finally, relationships between social-psychological factors and rhythmic interpersonal coordination are considered from two perspectives, one concerning how social-cognitive tendencies (e.g. empathy) affect coordination, and the other concerning how coordination affects interpersonal affiliation, trust and prosocial behaviour. Our review highlights musical ensemble performance as an ecologically valid yet readily controlled domain for investigating rhythm in joint action. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Computer simulations of neural mechanisms explaining upper and lower limb excitatory neural coupling

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background When humans perform rhythmic upper and lower limb locomotor-like movements, there is an excitatory effect of upper limb exertion on lower limb muscle recruitment. To investigate potential neural mechanisms for this behavioral observation, we developed computer simulations modeling interlimb neural pathways among central pattern generators. We hypothesized that enhancement of muscle recruitment from interlimb spinal mechanisms was not sufficient to explain muscle enhancement levels observed in experimental data. Methods We used Matsuoka oscillators for the central pattern generators (CPG) and determined parameters that enhanced amplitudes of rhythmic steady state bursts. Potential mechanisms for output enhancement were excitatory and inhibitory sensory feedback gains, excitatory and inhibitory interlimb coupling gains, and coupling geometry. We first simulated the simplest case, a single CPG, and then expanded the model to have two CPGs and lastly four CPGs. In the two and four CPG models, the lower limb CPGs did not receive supraspinal input such that the only mechanisms available for enhancing output were interlimb coupling gains and sensory feedback gains. Results In a two-CPG model with inhibitory sensory feedback gains, only excitatory gains of ipsilateral flexor-extensor/extensor-flexor coupling produced reciprocal upper-lower limb bursts and enhanced output up to 26%. In a two-CPG model with excitatory sensory feedback gains, excitatory gains of contralateral flexor-flexor/extensor-extensor coupling produced reciprocal upper-lower limb bursts and enhanced output up to 100%. However, within a given excitatory sensory feedback gain, enhancement due to excitatory interlimb gains could only reach levels up to 20%. Interconnecting four CPGs to have ipsilateral flexor-extensor/extensor-flexor coupling, contralateral flexor-flexor/extensor-extensor coupling, and bilateral flexor-extensor/extensor-flexor coupling could enhance motor output up to 32%. Enhancement observed in experimental data exceeded 32%. Enhancement within this symmetrical four-CPG neural architecture was more sensitive to relatively small interlimb coupling gains. Excitatory sensory feedback gains could produce greater output amplitudes, but larger gains were required for entrainment compared to inhibitory sensory feedback gains. Conclusions Based on these simulations, symmetrical interlimb coupling can account for much, but not all of the excitatory neural coupling between upper and lower limbs during rhythmic locomotor-like movements. PMID:21143960

The role of attention in human motor resonance

PubMed Central

Leonetti, Antonella; Landau, Ayelet; Fornia, Luca; Cerri, Gabriella; Borroni, Paola

2017-01-01

Observation of others' actions evokes in primary motor cortex and spinal circuits of observers a subliminal motor resonance response, which reflects the motor program encoding observed actions. We investigated the role of attention in human motor resonance with four experimental conditions, explored in different subject groups: in the first explicit condition, subjects were asked to observe a rhythmic hand flexion-extension movement performed live in front of them. In two other conditions subjects had to monitor the activity of a LED light mounted on the oscillating hand. The hand was clearly visible but it was not the focus of subjects’ attention: in the semi-implicit condition hand movement was relevant to task completion, while in the implicit condition it was irrelevant. In a fourth, baseline, condition subjects observed the rhythmic oscillation of a metal platform. Motor resonance was measured with the H-reflex technique as the excitability modulation of cortico-spinal motorneurons driving a hand flexor muscle. As expected, a normal resonant response developed in the explicit condition, and no resonant response in the baseline condition. Resonant responses also developed in both semi-implicit and implicit conditions and, surprisingly, were not different from each other, indicating that viewing an action is, per se, a powerful stimulus for the action observation network, even when it is not the primary focus of subjects’ attention and even when irrelevant to the task. However, the amplitude of these responses was much reduced compared to the explicit condition, and the phase-lock between the time courses of observed movement and resonant motor program was lost. In conclusion, different parameters of the response were differently affected by subtraction of attentional resources with respect to the explicit condition: time course and muscle selection were preserved while the activation of motor circuits resulted in much reduced amplitude and lost its kinematic specificity. PMID:28510605

Perceptual Learning Immediately Yields New Stable Motor Coordination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Andrew D.; Snapp-Childs, Winona; Bingham, Geoffrey P.

2010-01-01

Coordinated rhythmic movement is specifically structured in humans. Movement at 0[degrees] mean relative phase is maximally stable, 180[degrees] is less stable, and other coordinations can, but must, be learned. Variations in perceptual ability play a key role in determining the observed stabilities so we investigated whether stable movements can…

A smooth muscle tone-dependent stretch-activated migrating motor pattern in isolated guinea-pig distal colon.

PubMed

Smith, Terence K; Oliver, Gavin R; Hennig, Grant W; O'Shea, Deirdre M; Vanden Berghe, Pieter; Kang, Sok Han; Spencer, Nick J

2003-09-15

We have investigated the tone dependence of the intrinsic nervous activity generated by localized wall distension in isolated segments of guinea-pig distal colon using mechanical recordings and video imaging of wall movements. A segment of colon was threaded through two partitions, which divided the colon for pharmacological purposes into oral, stimulation and anal regions. An intraluminal balloon was located in the stimulation region between the two partitions (12 mm apart). Maintained colonic distension by an intraluminal balloon or an artificial faecal pellet held at a fixed location generated rhythmic (frequency 0.3 contractions min(-1); duration approximately 60 s) peristaltic waves of contraction. Video imaging of colonic wall movements or the selective application of pharmacological agents suggested that peristaltic waves originated just oral (< or = 4 mm) to the pellet and propagated both orally (approximately 11 mm s(-1)) and anally (approximately 1 mm s(-1)). Also, during a peristaltic wave the colon appears to passively shorten in front of a pellet, as a result of an active contraction of the longitudinal muscle oral to the pellet. Faecal pellet movement only occurred when a rhythmic peristaltic wave was generated. Rhythmic peristaltic waves were abolished in all regions by the smooth muscle relaxants isoproterenol (1 microM), nicardipine (1 microM) or papavarine (10 microM), and by the neural antagonists tetrodotoxin (TTX; 0.6 microM), hexamethonium (100 microM) or atropine (1 microM), when added selectively to the stimulation region. Nicardipine, atropine, TTX, or hexamethonium (100 microM) also blocked the evoked peristaltic waves when selectively added to the oral region. Nomega-nitro-L-arginine (L-NA; 100 microM) added to the anal region reduced the anal relaxation but increased the anal contraction, leading to an increase in the apparent conduction velocity of each peristaltic wave. In conclusion, maintained distension by a fixed artificial pellet generates propulsive, rhythmic peristaltic waves, whose enteric neural activity is critically dependent upon smooth muscle tone. These peristaltic waves usually originate just oral to the pellet, and their apparent conduction velocity is generated by activation of descending inhibitory nerve pathways.

Different Stimulation Frequencies Alter Synchronous Fluctuations in Motor Evoked Potential Amplitude of Intrinsic Hand Muscles—a TMS Study

PubMed Central

Sale, Martin V.; Rogasch, Nigel C.; Nordstrom, Michael A.

2016-01-01

The amplitude of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) varies from trial-to-trial. Synchronous oscillations in cortical neuronal excitability contribute to this variability, however it is not known how different frequencies of stimulation influence MEP variability, and whether these oscillations are rhythmic or aperiodic. We stimulated the motor cortex with TMS at different regular (i.e., rhythmic) rates, and compared this with pseudo-random (aperiodic) timing. In 18 subjects, TMS was applied at three regular frequencies (0.05 Hz, 0.2 Hz, 1 Hz) and one aperiodic frequency (mean 0.2 Hz). MEPs (n = 50) were recorded from three intrinsic hand muscles of the left hand with different functional and anatomical relations. MEP amplitude correlation was highest for the functionally related muscle pair, less for the anatomically related muscle pair and least for the functionally- and anatomically-unrelated muscle pair. MEP correlations were greatest with 1 Hz, and least for stimulation at 0.05 Hz. Corticospinal neuron synchrony is higher with shorter TMS intervals. Further, corticospinal neuron synchrony is similar irrespective of whether the stimulation is periodic or aperiodic. These findings suggest TMS frequency is a crucial consideration for studies using TMS to probe correlated activity between muscle pairs. PMID:27014031

Autism as a disorder of biological and behavioral rhythms: toward new therapeutic perspectives.

PubMed

Tordjman, Sylvie; Davlantis, Katherine S; Georgieff, Nicolas; Geoffray, Marie-Maude; Speranza, Mario; Anderson, George M; Xavier, Jean; Botbol, Michel; Oriol, Cécile; Bellissant, Eric; Vernay-Leconte, Julie; Fougerou, Claire; Hespel, Anne; Tavenard, Aude; Cohen, David; Kermarrec, Solenn; Coulon, Nathalie; Bonnot, Olivier; Dawson, Geraldine

2015-01-01

There is a growing interest in the role of biological and behavioral rhythms in typical and atypical development. Recent studies in cognitive and developmental psychology have highlighted the importance of rhythmicity and synchrony of motor, emotional, and interpersonal rhythms in early development of social communication. The synchronization of rhythms allows tuning and adaptation to the external environment. The role of melatonin in the ontogenetic establishment of circadian rhythms and the synchronization of the circadian clocks network suggests that this hormone might be also involved in the synchrony of motor, emotional, and interpersonal rhythms. Autism provides a challenging model of physiological and behavioral rhythm disturbances and their possible effects on the development of social communication impairments and repetitive behaviors and interests. This article situates autism as a disorder of biological and behavioral rhythms and reviews the recent literature on the role of rhythmicity and synchrony of rhythms in child development. Finally, the hypothesis is developed that an integrated approach focusing on biological, motor, emotional, and interpersonal rhythms may open interesting therapeutic perspectives for children with autism. More specifically, promising avenues are discussed for potential therapeutic benefits in autism spectrum disorder of melatonin combined with developmental behavioral interventions that emphasize synchrony, such as the Early Start Denver Model.

Autism as a Disorder of Biological and Behavioral Rhythms: Toward New Therapeutic Perspectives

PubMed Central

Tordjman, Sylvie; Davlantis, Katherine S.; Georgieff, Nicolas; Geoffray, Marie-Maude; Speranza, Mario; Anderson, George M.; Xavier, Jean; Botbol, Michel; Oriol, Cécile; Bellissant, Eric; Vernay-Leconte, Julie; Fougerou, Claire; Hespel, Anne; Tavenard, Aude; Cohen, David; Kermarrec, Solenn; Coulon, Nathalie; Bonnot, Olivier; Dawson, Geraldine

2015-01-01

There is a growing interest in the role of biological and behavioral rhythms in typical and atypical development. Recent studies in cognitive and developmental psychology have highlighted the importance of rhythmicity and synchrony of motor, emotional, and interpersonal rhythms in early development of social communication. The synchronization of rhythms allows tuning and adaptation to the external environment. The role of melatonin in the ontogenetic establishment of circadian rhythms and the synchronization of the circadian clocks network suggests that this hormone might be also involved in the synchrony of motor, emotional, and interpersonal rhythms. Autism provides a challenging model of physiological and behavioral rhythm disturbances and their possible effects on the development of social communication impairments and repetitive behaviors and interests. This article situates autism as a disorder of biological and behavioral rhythms and reviews the recent literature on the role of rhythmicity and synchrony of rhythms in child development. Finally, the hypothesis is developed that an integrated approach focusing on biological, motor, emotional, and interpersonal rhythms may open interesting therapeutic perspectives for children with autism. More specifically, promising avenues are discussed for potential therapeutic benefits in autism spectrum disorder of melatonin combined with developmental behavioral interventions that emphasize synchrony, such as the Early Start Denver Model. PMID:25756039

Variations on a theme by chopin: relations between perception and production of timing in music.

PubMed

Repp, B H

1998-06-01

A note interonset interval (IOI) increment in mechanically timed music is more difficult to detect where expressive lengthening typically occurs in artistic performance. Experiment 1 showed this in an excerpt from a Chopin etude and extended the task to IOI decrement detection. A simple measure of variation in perceptual bias was derived that correlated highly with the average timing pattern of pianists' performances, more so than with acoustic surface properties of the music. Similar results, but decreasing correlations, were obtained in each of four subsequent experiments in which the music was simplified in stages. Although local psychoacoustic effects on time perception cannot be ruled out completely, the results suggest that musical structure (melodic-rhythmic grouping in particular) has temporal implications that are reflected not only in musicians' motor behavior but also in listeners' time-keeping abilities.

Effects of Kindermusik training on infants' rhythmic enculturation.

PubMed

Gerry, David W; Faux, Ashley L; Trainor, Laurel J

2010-05-01

Phillips-Silver and Trainor (2005) demonstrated a link between movement and the metrical interpretation of rhythm patterns in 7-month-old infants. Infants bounced on every second beat of a rhythmic pattern with no auditory accents later preferred to listen to an accented version of the pattern with accents every second beat (duple or march meter), whereas infants bounced on every third beat of the same rhythmic pattern preferred to listen to a version with accents every third beat (triple or waltz meter). The present study compared infants participating in Kindermusik classes with infants not participating in music classes. In Kindermusik classes infants receive enriched experience moving to music. Following Western musical norms, the majority of the music samples in the classes are in duple meter. During the preference test, Kindermusik infants listened longer overall, indicating heightened interest in musical rhythms. Both groups listened longer to the accented version that matched how they had been bounced, but only the Kindermusik group showed a stronger preference in the case of duple bouncing than in the case of triple bouncing. We conclude that musical classes for infants can accelerate the development of culture-specific metrical perception.

Analysis of Modification Mechanism of Gait with Rhythmic Cueing Training Paradigm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muto, Takeshi; Kanai, Tetsuya; Sakuta, Hiroshi; Miyake, Yoshihiro

In this research, we applied the gait training method which takes in the rhythmic auditory stimulation as a pace maker to the assistance of gait motion, and analyzed the dynamical stability of the period and trajectory of the lower limbs' motions. As the result, it was clarified that, in the training style which presents a constant rhythm, trajectory of ankles was modified as the stable state which has the historical property, but the period of footsteps was not modified but susceptible to the external environment. This result suggests that the hierarchical modification mechanism of motor schema of gait is realized by the connection between the immediate and historical modification system.

Neuronal activity related to spontaneous and capsaicin-induced rhythmical jaw movements in the rat.

PubMed

Ohta, M; Sasamoto, K; Kobayashi, J

1998-02-01

Intraoral capsaicin induced rhythmical jaw movements (RJM) in anesthetized rats. Neurons in the trigeminal spinal nucleus caudalis or the cortico-peduncular (CP) axons were extracellularly recorded. Capsaicin excited dose-dependently most caudalis neurons, which were activated by stimulation of the oral cavity and/or the tooth pulp and activated during spontaneous or induced RJM. Ten of 55 CP axons were antidromically activated by stimulation of the contralateral trigeminal motor nucleus. All antidromic and 29 other CP axons discharged prior to the spontaneous RJM, but most of them did not during capsaicin-induced RJM. These neuronal activities possibly initiate spontaneous RJM although the activities of caudalis neurons are necessary for capsicin-induced RJM.

On marching to two different drummers - Perceptual aspects of the difficulties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klapp, S. T.; Hill, M. D.; Tyler, J. G.; Martin, Z. E.; Jagacinski, R. J.

1985-01-01

Three experiments which reveal that the difficulties involved in processing conflicting rhythms occur when monitoring a stimuli and indicating termination of one rhythmic sequence or tapping with one hand are described. The relation between perceiving and acting in temporal tapping tasks is studied. The effects of varying temporal compatibility on perceptual monitoring and one-hand tapping are examined. It is observed that the difficulty of two-handed tapping to polyrhythms with two different tones decreases as pitch differences between tones decrease, and the difficulty of rhythmic coordination can be perceptually controlled. It is noted that the evaluation of polyrhythmic performance provides a useful means of examining the interactions of perceptual and motor organizations.

Robotics and neuroscience: a rhythmic interaction.

PubMed

Ronsse, Renaud; Lefèvre, Philippe; Sepulchre, Rodolphe

2008-05-01

At the crossing between motor control neuroscience and robotics system theory, the paper presents a rhythmic experiment that is amenable both to handy laboratory implementation and simple mathematical modeling. The experiment is based on an impact juggling task, requiring the coordination of two upper-limb effectors and some phase-locking with the trajectories of one or several juggled objects. We describe the experiment, its implementation and the mathematical model used for the analysis. Our underlying research focuses on the role of sensory feedback in rhythmic tasks. In a robotic implementation of our experiment, we study the minimum feedback that is required to achieve robust control. A limited source of feedback, measuring only the impact times, is shown to give promising results. A second field of investigation concerns the human behavior in the same impact juggling task. We study how a variation of the tempo induces a transition between two distinct control strategies with different sensory feedback requirements. Analogies and differences between the robotic and human behaviors are obviously of high relevance in such a flexible setup.

Simple neural substrate predicts complex rhythmic structure in duetting birds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amador, Ana; Trevisan, M. A.; Mindlin, G. B.

2005-09-01

Horneros (Furnarius Rufus) are South American birds well known for their oven-looking nests and their ability to sing in couples. Previous work has analyzed the rhythmic organization of the duets, unveiling a mathematical structure behind the songs. In this work we analyze in detail an extended database of duets. The rhythms of the songs are compatible with the dynamics presented by a wide class of dynamical systems: forced excitable systems. Compatible with this nonlinear rule, we build a biologically inspired model for how the neural and the anatomical elements may interact to produce the observed rhythmic patterns. This model allows us to synthesize songs presenting the acoustic and rhythmic features observed in real songs. We also make testable predictions in order to support our hypothesis.

Rhythmic changes in synapse numbers in Drosophila melanogaster motor terminals.

PubMed

Ruiz, Santiago; Ferreiro, Maria Jose; Menhert, Kerstin I; Casanova, Gabriela; Olivera, Alvaro; Cantera, Rafael

2013-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the morphology of the neuromuscular junction of the flight motor neuron MN5 in Drosophila melanogaster undergoes daily rhythmical changes, with smaller synaptic boutons during the night, when the fly is resting, than during the day, when the fly is active. With electron microscopy and laser confocal microscopy, we searched for a rhythmic change in synapse numbers in this neuron, both under light:darkness (LD) cycles and constant darkness (DD). We expected the number of synapses to increase during the morning, when the fly has an intense phase of locomotion activity under LD and DD. Surprisingly, only our DD data were consistent with this hypothesis. In LD, we found more synapses at midnight than at midday. We propose that under LD conditions, there is a daily rhythm of formation of new synapses in the dark phase, when the fly is resting, and disassembly over the light phase, when the fly is active. Several parameters appeared to be light dependent, since they were affected differently under LD or DD. The great majority of boutons containing synapses had only one and very few had either two or more, with a 70∶25∶5 ratio (one, two and three or more synapses) in LD and 75∶20∶5 in DD. Given the maintenance of this proportion even when both bouton and synapse numbers changed with time, we suggest that there is a homeostatic mechanism regulating synapse distribution among MN5 boutons.

Visually cued motor synchronization: modulation of fMRI activation patterns by baseline condition.

PubMed

Cerasa, Antonio; Hagberg, Gisela E; Bianciardi, Marta; Sabatini, Umberto

2005-01-03

A well-known issue in functional neuroimaging studies, regarding motor synchronization, is to design suitable control tasks able to discriminate between the brain structures involved in primary time-keeper functions and those related to other processes such as attentional effort. The aim of this work was to investigate how the predictability of stimulus onsets in the baseline condition modulates the activity in brain structures related to processes involved in time-keeper functions during the performance of a visually cued motor synchronization task (VM). The rational behind this choice derives from the notion that using different stimulus predictability can vary the subject's attention and the consequently neural activity. For this purpose, baseline levels of BOLD activity were obtained from 12 subjects during a conventional-baseline condition: maintained fixation of the visual rhythmic stimuli presented in the VM task, and a random-baseline condition: maintained fixation of visual stimuli occurring randomly. fMRI analysis demonstrated that while brain areas with a documented role in basic time processing are detected independent of the baseline condition (right cerebellum, bilateral putamen, left thalamus, left superior temporal gyrus, left sensorimotor cortex, left dorsal premotor cortex and supplementary motor area), the ventral premotor cortex, caudate nucleus, insula and inferior frontal gyrus exhibited a baseline-dependent activation. We conclude that maintained fixation of unpredictable visual stimuli can be employed in order to reduce or eliminate neural activity related to attentional components present in the synchronization task.

Effect of Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation on Controlling Stepping Cadence of Individuals with Mental Retardation and Cerebral Palsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Varsamis, Panagiotis; Staikopoulos, Konstantinos; Kartasidou, Lefkothea

2012-01-01

One of the purposes of Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) is to improve the control of dysfunctional movement patterns. This study aimed to extend the line of research by focussing on secondary students with mental retardation and cerebral palsy. According to the study's assumption, cadence can be controlled through a stable and low signal…

Synchronization to auditory and visual rhythms in hearing and deaf individuals

PubMed Central

Iversen, John R.; Patel, Aniruddh D.; Nicodemus, Brenda; Emmorey, Karen

2014-01-01

A striking asymmetry in human sensorimotor processing is that humans synchronize movements to rhythmic sound with far greater precision than to temporally equivalent visual stimuli (e.g., to an auditory vs. a flashing visual metronome). Traditionally, this finding is thought to reflect a fundamental difference in auditory vs. visual processing, i.e., superior temporal processing by the auditory system and/or privileged coupling between the auditory and motor systems. It is unclear whether this asymmetry is an inevitable consequence of brain organization or whether it can be modified (or even eliminated) by stimulus characteristics or by experience. With respect to stimulus characteristics, we found that a moving, colliding visual stimulus (a silent image of a bouncing ball with a distinct collision point on the floor) was able to drive synchronization nearly as accurately as sound in hearing participants. To study the role of experience, we compared synchronization to flashing metronomes in hearing and profoundly deaf individuals. Deaf individuals performed better than hearing individuals when synchronizing with visual flashes, suggesting that cross-modal plasticity enhances the ability to synchronize with temporally discrete visual stimuli. Furthermore, when deaf (but not hearing) individuals synchronized with the bouncing ball, their tapping patterns suggest that visual timing may access higher-order beat perception mechanisms for deaf individuals. These results indicate that the auditory advantage in rhythmic synchronization is more experience- and stimulus-dependent than has been previously reported. PMID:25460395

Effect of rhythmic auditory cueing on gait in cerebral palsy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Ghai, Shashank; Ghai, Ishan; Effenberg, Alfred O

2018-01-01

Auditory entrainment can influence gait performance in movement disorders. The entrainment can incite neurophysiological and musculoskeletal changes to enhance motor execution. However, a consensus as to its effects based on gait in people with cerebral palsy is still warranted. A systematic review and meta-analysis were carried out to analyze the effects of rhythmic auditory cueing on spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters of gait in people with cerebral palsy. Systematic identification of published literature was performed adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine guidelines, from inception until July 2017, on online databases: Web of Science, PEDro, EBSCO, Medline, Cochrane, Embase and ProQuest. Kinematic and spatiotemporal gait parameters were evaluated in a meta-analysis across studies. Of 547 records, nine studies involving 227 participants (108 children/119 adults) met our inclusion criteria. The qualitative review suggested beneficial effects of rhythmic auditory cueing on gait performance among all included studies. The meta-analysis revealed beneficial effects of rhythmic auditory cueing on gait dynamic index (Hedge's g =0.9), gait velocity (1.1), cadence (0.3), and stride length (0.5). This review for the first time suggests a converging evidence toward application of rhythmic auditory cueing to enhance gait performance and stability in people with cerebral palsy. This article details underlying neurophysiological mechanisms and use of cueing as an efficient home-based intervention. It bridges gaps in the literature, and suggests translational approaches on how rhythmic auditory cueing can be incorporated in rehabilitation approaches to enhance gait performance in people with cerebral palsy.

White matter microstructural properties correlate with sensorimotor synchronization abilities.

PubMed

Blecher, Tal; Tal, Idan; Ben-Shachar, Michal

2016-09-01

Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) to an external auditory rhythm is a developed ability in humans, particularly evident in dancing and singing. This ability is typically measured in the lab via a simple task of finger tapping to an auditory beat. While simplistic, there is some evidence that poor performance on this task could be related to impaired phonological and reading abilities in children. Auditory-motor synchronization is hypothesized to rely on a tight coupling between auditory and motor neural systems, but the specific pathways that mediate this coupling have not been identified yet. In this study, we test this hypothesis and examine the contribution of fronto-temporal and callosal connections to specific measures of rhythmic synchronization. Twenty participants went through SMS and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) measurements. We quantified the mean asynchrony between an auditory beat and participants' finger taps, as well as the time to resynchronize (TTR) with an altered meter, and examined the correlations between these behavioral measures and diffusivity in a small set of predefined pathways. We found significant correlations between asynchrony and fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left (but not right) arcuate fasciculus and in the temporal segment of the corpus callosum. On the other hand, TTR correlated with FA in the precentral segment of the callosum. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that relates these particular white matter tracts with performance on an auditory-motor rhythmic synchronization task. We propose that left fronto-temporal and temporal-callosal fibers are involved in prediction and constant comparison between auditory inputs and motor commands, while inter-hemispheric connections between the motor/premotor cortices contribute to successful resynchronization of motor responses with a new external rhythm, perhaps via inhibition of tapping to the previous rhythm. Our results indicate that auditory-motor synchronization skills are associated with anatomical pathways that have been previously related to phonological awareness, thus offering a possible anatomical basis for the behavioral covariance between these abilities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Implementing a Musical Program to Promote Preschool Children's Vocabulary Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moyeda, Iris Xóchitl Galicia; Gómez, Ixtlixóchitl Contreras; Flores, María Teresa Peña

2006-01-01

In light of the correlation between musical and linguistic skills, a program of musical activities was designed to promote discrimination of rhythmic and melodic elements and the association of auditory stimuli with visual stimuli and motor activities. The effects of the program on the vocabulary of preschool children were evaluated and compared…

Distinct timing mechanisms produce discrete and continuous movements.

PubMed

Huys, Raoul; Studenka, Breanna E; Rheaume, Nicole L; Zelaznik, Howard N; Jirsa, Viktor K

2008-04-25

The differentiation of discrete and continuous movement is one of the pillars of motor behavior classification. Discrete movements have a definite beginning and end, whereas continuous movements do not have such discriminable end points. In the past decade there has been vigorous debate whether this classification implies different control processes. This debate up until the present has been empirically based. Here, we present an unambiguous non-empirical classification based on theorems in dynamical system theory that sets discrete and continuous movements apart. Through computational simulations of representative modes of each class and topological analysis of the flow in state space, we show that distinct control mechanisms underwrite discrete and fast rhythmic movements. In particular, we demonstrate that discrete movements require a time keeper while fast rhythmic movements do not. We validate our computational findings experimentally using a behavioral paradigm in which human participants performed finger flexion-extension movements at various movement paces and under different instructions. Our results demonstrate that the human motor system employs different timing control mechanisms (presumably via differential recruitment of neural subsystems) to accomplish varying behavioral functions such as speed constraints.

Coding rate and duration of vocalizations of the frog, Xenopus laevis.

PubMed

Zornik, Erik; Yamaguchi, Ayako

2012-08-29

Vocalizations involve complex rhythmic motor patterns, but the underlying temporal coding mechanisms in the nervous system are poorly understood. Using a recently developed whole-brain preparation from which "fictive" vocalizations are readily elicited in vitro, we investigated the cellular basis of temporal complexity of African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). Male advertisement calls contain two alternating components--fast trills (∼300 ms) and slow trills (∼700 ms) that contain clicks repeated at ∼60 and ∼30 Hz, respectively. We found that males can alter the duration of fast trills without changing click rates. This finding led us to hypothesize that call rate and duration are regulated by independent mechanisms. We tested this by obtaining whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in the "fictively" calling isolated brain. We discovered a single type of premotor neuron with activity patterns correlated with both the rate and duration of fast trills. These "fast-trill neurons" (FTNs) exhibited long-lasting depolarizations (LLDs) correlated with each fast trill and action potentials that were phase-locked with motor output-neural correlates of call duration and rate, respectively. When depolarized without central pattern generator activation, FTNs produced subthreshold oscillations and action potentials at fast-trill rates, indicating FTN resonance properties are tuned to, and may dictate, the fast-trill rhythm. NMDA receptor (NMDAR) blockade eliminated LLDs in FTNs, and NMDAR activation in synaptically isolated FTNs induced repetitive LLDs. These results suggest FTNs contain an NMDAR-dependent mechanism that may regulate fast-trill duration. We conclude that a single premotor neuron population employs distinct mechanisms to regulate call rate and duration.

Somatotype of Top-Level Serbian Rhythmic Gymnasts

PubMed Central

Purenović-Ivanović, Tijana; Popović, Ružena

2014-01-01

Body size and build influence performance in many sports, especially in those belonging to the group of female aesthetic sports (rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, and figure skating). These sports pose high specific demands upon the functional, energy, motor and psychological capacities of athletes, but also upon the size, body build and composition of the performers, particularly of the top-level female athletes. The study of the top athletes (rhythmic gymnasts, in this case) may provide valuable information on the morphological requirements for achieving success in this sport. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to analyze the somatotype of 40 Serbian top-level rhythmic gymnasts, aged 13.04±2.79, and to form the five age group categories. The anthropometric variables included body height, body mass, the selected diameters, girths and skinfolds, and the Heath-Carter anthropometric somatotype. All of the anthropometric data were collected according to International Biological Programme, and then processed in the Somatotype 1.2. The applied analysis of variance indicated an increase in endomorphic component with age. The obtained results show that the balanced ectomorph is a dominant somatotype, being similar for all of the athletes that took part in the research (3.54-3.24-4.5). These results are in line with the ones obtained in previous studies. PMID:25031686

Somatotype of top-level serbian rhythmic gymnasts.

PubMed

Purenović-Ivanović, Tijana; Popović, Ružena

2014-03-27

Body size and build influence performance in many sports, especially in those belonging to the group of female aesthetic sports (rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, and figure skating). These sports pose high specific demands upon the functional, energy, motor and psychological capacities of athletes, but also upon the size, body build and composition of the performers, particularly of the top-level female athletes. The study of the top athletes (rhythmic gymnasts, in this case) may provide valuable information on the morphological requirements for achieving success in this sport. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to analyze the somatotype of 40 Serbian top-level rhythmic gymnasts, aged 13.04±2.79, and to form the five age group categories. The anthropometric variables included body height, body mass, the selected diameters, girths and skinfolds, and the Heath-Carter anthropometric somatotype. All of the anthropometric data were collected according to International Biological Programme, and then processed in the Somatotype 1.2. The applied analysis of variance indicated an increase in endomorphic component with age. The obtained results show that the balanced ectomorph is a dominant somatotype, being similar for all of the athletes that took part in the research (3.54-3.24-4.5). These results are in line with the ones obtained in previous studies.

Effects of Rhythmic Auditory Cueing in Gait Rehabilitation for Multiple Sclerosis: A Mini Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Ghai, Shashank; Ghai, Ishan

2018-01-01

Rhythmic auditory cueing has been shown to enhance gait performance in several movement disorders. The “entrainment effect” generated by the stimulations can enhance auditory motor coupling and instigate plasticity. However, a consensus as to its influence over gait training among patients with multiple sclerosis is still warranted. A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out to analyze the effects of rhythmic auditory cueing in studies gait performance in patients with multiple sclerosis. This systematic identification of published literature was performed according to PRISMA guidelines, from inception until Dec 2017, on online databases: Web of science, PEDro, EBSCO, MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, and PROQUEST. Studies were critically appraised using PEDro scale. Of 602 records, five studies (PEDro score: 5.7 ± 1.3) involving 188 participants (144 females/40 males) met our inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis revealed enhancements in spatiotemporal parameters of gait i.e., velocity (Hedge's g: 0.67), stride length (0.70), and cadence (1.0), and reduction in timed 25 feet walking test (−0.17). Underlying neurophysiological mechanisms, and clinical implications are discussed. This present review bridges the gaps in literature by suggesting application of rhythmic auditory cueing in conventional rehabilitation approaches to enhance gait performance in the multiple sclerosis community. PMID:29942278

Discrimination of Rhythmic Pattern at 4 Months and Language Performance at 5 Years: A Longitudinal Analysis of Data from German-Learning Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Höhle, Barbara; Pauen, Sabina; Hesse, Volker; Weissenborn, Jürgen

2014-01-01

In this article we report on early rhythmic discrimination performance of children who participated in a longitudinal study following children from birth to their 6th year of life. Thirty-four children including 8 children with a family risk for developmental language impairment were tested on the discrimination of trochaic and iambic disyllabic…

A coupled-oscillator model with a conservation law for the rhythmic amoeboid movements of plasmodial slime molds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tero, A.; Kobayashi, R.; Nakagaki, T.

2005-06-01

Experiments on the fusion and partial separation of plasmodia of the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum are described, concentrating on the spatio-temporal phase patterns of rhythmic amoeboid movement. On the basis of these experimental results we introduce a new model of coupled oscillators with one conserved quantity. Simulations using the model equations reproduce the experimental results well.

Nitrergic signalling via interstitial cells of Cajal regulates motor activity in murine colon.

PubMed

Lies, Barbara; Beck, Katharina; Keppler, Jonas; Saur, Dieter; Groneberg, Dieter; Friebe, Andreas

2015-10-15

In the enteric nervous systems, NO is released from nitrergic neurons as a major inhibitory neurotransmitter. NO acts via NO-sensitive guanylyl cyclase (NO-GC), which is found in different gastrointestinal (GI) cell types including smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC). The precise mechanism of nitrergic signalling through these two cell types to regulate colonic spontaneous contractions is not fully understood yet. In the present study we investigated the impact of endogenous and exogenous NO on colonic contractile motor activity using mice lacking nitric oxide-sensitive guanylyl cyclase (NO-GC) globally and specifically in SMCs and ICC. Longitudinal smooth muscle of proximal colon from wild-type (WT) and knockout (KO) mouse strains exhibited spontaneous contractile activity ex vivo. WT and smooth muscle-specific guanylyl cyclase knockout (SMC-GCKO) colon showed an arrhythmic contractile activity with varying amplitudes and frequencies. In contrast, colon from global and ICC-specific guanylyl cyclase knockout (ICC-GCKO) animals showed a regular contractile rhythm with constant duration and amplitude of the rhythmic contractions. Nerve blockade (tetrodotoxin) or specific blockade of NO signalling (L-NAME, ODQ) did not significantly affect contractions of GCKO and ICC-GCKO colon whereas the arrhythmic contractile patterns of WT and SMC-GCKO colon were transformed into uniform motor patterns. In contrast, the response to electric field-stimulated neuronal NO release was similar in SMC-GCKO and global GCKO. In conclusion, our results indicate that basal enteric NO release acts via myenteric ICC to influence the generation of spontaneous contractions whereas the effects of elevated endogenous NO are mediated by SMCs in the murine proximal colon. © 2015 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology © 2015 The Physiological Society.

Neuromodulation intrinsic to the central pattern generator for escape swimming in Tritonia.

PubMed

Katz, P S

1998-11-16

Extrinsic neuromodulatory inputs to central pattern generators (CPGs) can alter the properties and synaptic interactions of neurons in those circuits and thereby modify the output of the CPG. Recent work in a number of systems has now demonstrated that neurons intrinsic to CPG can also evoke neuromodulatory actions on other members of the CPG. Such "intrinsic neuromodulation" plays a role in controlling the CPG underlying the escape swim response of the nudibrach mollusc, Tritonia diomedea. The dorsal swim interneurons (DSIs) are a bilaterally represented set of three serotonergic neurons that participate in the generation of the rhythmic swim motor program. Serotonin released from these CPG neurons functions both as a fast neurotransmitter and as a slower neuromodulator. In its modulatory role, serotonin enhances the release of neurotransmitter from another CPG neuron, C2, and also increases C2 excitability by decreasing spike frequency adaptation. These neuromodulatory actions intrinsic to the CPG may be important for the initial self-configuration of the system into a function CPG and for experience-dependent changes in the output such as behavioral sensitization and habituation.

Excitatory motor neurons are local oscillators for backward locomotion

PubMed Central

Guan, Sihui Asuka; Fouad, Anthony D; Meng, Jun; Kawano, Taizo; Huang, Yung-Chi; Li, Yi; Alcaire, Salvador; Hung, Wesley; Lu, Yangning; Qi, Yingchuan Billy; Jin, Yishi; Alkema, Mark; Fang-Yen, Christopher

2018-01-01

Cell- or network-driven oscillators underlie motor rhythmicity. The identity of C. elegans oscillators remains unknown. Through cell ablation, electrophysiology, and calcium imaging, we show: (1) forward and backward locomotion is driven by different oscillators; (2) the cholinergic and excitatory A-class motor neurons exhibit intrinsic and oscillatory activity that is sufficient to drive backward locomotion in the absence of premotor interneurons; (3) the UNC-2 P/Q/N high-voltage-activated calcium current underlies A motor neuron’s oscillation; (4) descending premotor interneurons AVA, via an evolutionarily conserved, mixed gap junction and chemical synapse configuration, exert state-dependent inhibition and potentiation of A motor neuron’s intrinsic activity to regulate backward locomotion. Thus, motor neurons themselves derive rhythms, which are dually regulated by the descending interneurons to control the reversal motor state. These and previous findings exemplify compression: essential circuit properties are conserved but executed by fewer numbers and layers of neurons in a small locomotor network. PMID:29360035

Excitatory motor neurons are local oscillators for backward locomotion.

PubMed

Gao, Shangbang; Guan, Sihui Asuka; Fouad, Anthony D; Meng, Jun; Kawano, Taizo; Huang, Yung-Chi; Li, Yi; Alcaire, Salvador; Hung, Wesley; Lu, Yangning; Qi, Yingchuan Billy; Jin, Yishi; Alkema, Mark; Fang-Yen, Christopher; Zhen, Mei

2018-01-23

Cell- or network-driven oscillators underlie motor rhythmicity. The identity of C. elegans oscillators remains unknown. Through cell ablation, electrophysiology, and calcium imaging, we show: (1) forward and backward locomotion is driven by different oscillators; (2) the cholinergic and excitatory A-class motor neurons exhibit intrinsic and oscillatory activity that is sufficient to drive backward locomotion in the absence of premotor interneurons; (3) the UNC-2 P/Q/N high-voltage-activated calcium current underlies A motor neuron's oscillation; (4) descending premotor interneurons AVA, via an evolutionarily conserved, mixed gap junction and chemical synapse configuration, exert state-dependent inhibition and potentiation of A motor neuron's intrinsic activity to regulate backward locomotion. Thus, motor neurons themselves derive rhythms, which are dually regulated by the descending interneurons to control the reversal motor state. These and previous findings exemplify compression: essential circuit properties are conserved but executed by fewer numbers and layers of neurons in a small locomotor network. © 2017, Gao et al.

Influence of musical groove on postural sway.

PubMed

Ross, Jessica M; Warlaumont, Anne S; Abney, Drew H; Rigoli, Lillian M; Balasubramaniam, Ramesh

2016-03-01

Timescales of postural fluctuation reflect underlying neuromuscular processes in balance control that are influenced by sensory information and the performance of concurrent cognitive and motor tasks. An open question is how postural fluctuations entrain to complex environmental rhythms, such as in music, which also vary on multiple timescales. Musical groove describes the property of music that encourages auditory-motor synchronization and is used to study voluntary motor entrainment to rhythmic sounds. The influence of groove on balance control mechanisms remains unexplored. We recorded fluctuations in center of pressure (CoP) of standing participants (N = 40) listening to low and high groove music and during quiet stance. We found an effect of musical groove on radial sway variability, with the least amount of variability in the high groove condition. In addition, we observed that groove influenced postural sway entrainment at various temporal scales. For example, with increasing levels of groove, we observed more entrainment to shorter, local timescale rhythmic musical occurrences. In contrast, we observed more entrainment to longer, global timescale features of the music, such as periodicity, with decreasing levels of groove. Finally, musical experience influenced the amount of postural variability and entrainment at local and global timescales. We conclude that groove in music and musical experience can influence the neural mechanisms that govern balance control, and discuss implications of our findings in terms of multiscale sensorimotor coupling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Excitation of Standing Waves by an Electric Toothbrush

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cros, Ana; Ferrer-Roca, Chantal

2006-01-01

There are a number of ways of exciting standing waves in ropes and springs using non-commercial vibrators such as loudspeakers, jigsaws, motors, or a simple tuning fork, including the rhythmical shaking of a handheld Slinky. We have come up with a very simple and cheap way of exciting stationary waves in a string, which anyone, particularly…

Got Rhythm? Better Inhibitory Control Is Linked with More Consistent Drumming and Enhanced Neural Tracking of the Musical Beat in Adult Percussionists and Nonpercussionists.

PubMed

Slater, Jessica; Ashley, Richard; Tierney, Adam; Kraus, Nina

2018-01-01

Musical rhythm engages motor and reward circuitry that is important for cognitive control, and there is evidence for enhanced inhibitory control in musicians. We recently revealed an inhibitory control advantage in percussionists compared with vocalists, highlighting the potential importance of rhythmic expertise in mediating this advantage. Previous research has shown that better inhibitory control is associated with less variable performance in simple sensorimotor synchronization tasks; however, this relationship has not been examined through the lens of rhythmic expertise. We hypothesize that the development of rhythm skills strengthens inhibitory control in two ways: by fine-tuning motor networks through the precise coordination of movements "in time" and by activating reward-based mechanisms, such as predictive processing and conflict monitoring, which are involved in tracking temporal structure in music. Here, we assess adult percussionists and nonpercussionists on inhibitory control, selective attention, basic drumming skills (self-paced, paced, and continuation drumming), and cortical evoked responses to an auditory stimulus presented on versus off the beat of music. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that better inhibitory control is correlated with more consistent drumming and enhanced neural tracking of the musical beat. Drumming variability and the neural index of beat alignment each contribute unique predictive power to a regression model, explaining 57% of variance in inhibitory control. These outcomes present the first evidence that enhanced inhibitory control in musicians may be mediated by rhythmic expertise and provide a foundation for future research investigating the potential for rhythm-based training to strengthen cognitive function.

Individual musical tempo preference correlates with EEG beta rhythm.

PubMed

Bauer, Anna-Katharina R; Kreutz, Gunter; Herrmann, Christoph S

2015-04-01

Every individual has a preferred musical tempo, which peaks slightly above 120 beats per minute and is subject to interindividual variation. The preferred tempo is believed to be associated with rhythmic body movements as well as motor cortex activity. However, a long-standing question is whether preferred tempo is determined biologically. To uncover the neural correlates of preferred tempo, we first determined an individual's preferred tempo using a multistep procedure. Subsequently, we correlated the preferred tempo with a general EEG timing parameter as well as perceptual and motor EEG correlates-namely, individual alpha frequency, auditory evoked gamma band response, and motor beta activity. Results showed a significant relation between preferred tempo and the frequency of motor beta activity. These findings suggest that individual tempo preferences result from neural activity in the motor cortex, explaining the interindividual variation. Copyright © 2014 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Rhythmic, reciprocal ghrelin and leptin signaling: new insight in the development of obesity.

PubMed

Kalra, Satya P; Bagnasco, Michela; Otukonyong, Effiong E; Dube, Michael G; Kalra, Pushpa S

2003-03-28

The hypothalamus integrates metabolic, neural and hormonal signals to evoke an intermittent appetitive drive in the daily management of energy homeostasis. Three major players identified recently in the feedback communication between the periphery and hypothalamus are leptin, ghrelin and neuropeptide Y (NPY). We propose that reciprocal circadian and ultradian rhythmicities in the afferent humoral signals, anorexigenic leptin from adipocytes and orexigenic ghrelin from stomach, encode a corresponding discharge pattern in the appetite-stimulating neuropeptide Y network in the hypothalamus. An exquisitely intricate temporal relationship among these signaling modalities with varied sites of origin is paramount in sustenance of weight control on a daily basis. Our model envisages that subtle and progressive derangements in temporal communication, imposed by environmental shifts in energy intake, impel a positive energy balance culminating in excessive weight gain and obesity. This conceptual advance provides a new target for designing pharmacologic or gene transfer therapies that would normalize the rhythmic patterns of afferent hormonal and efferent neurochemical messages. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Science B.V.

A multimodal spectral approach to characterize rhythm in natural speech.

PubMed

Alexandrou, Anna Maria; Saarinen, Timo; Kujala, Jan; Salmelin, Riitta

2016-01-01

Human utterances demonstrate temporal patterning, also referred to as rhythm. While simple oromotor behaviors (e.g., chewing) feature a salient periodical structure, conversational speech displays a time-varying quasi-rhythmic pattern. Quantification of periodicity in speech is challenging. Unimodal spectral approaches have highlighted rhythmic aspects of speech. However, speech is a complex multimodal phenomenon that arises from the interplay of articulatory, respiratory, and vocal systems. The present study addressed the question of whether a multimodal spectral approach, in the form of coherence analysis between electromyographic (EMG) and acoustic signals, would allow one to characterize rhythm in natural speech more efficiently than a unimodal analysis. The main experimental task consisted of speech production at three speaking rates; a simple oromotor task served as control. The EMG-acoustic coherence emerged as a sensitive means of tracking speech rhythm, whereas spectral analysis of either EMG or acoustic amplitude envelope alone was less informative. Coherence metrics seem to distinguish and highlight rhythmic structure in natural speech.

Diel pattern of circadian clock and storage protein gene expression in leaves and during seed filling in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata).

PubMed

Weiss, Julia; Terry, Marta I; Martos-Fuentes, Marina; Letourneux, Lisa; Ruiz-Hernández, Victoria; Fernández, Juan A; Egea-Cortines, Marcos

2018-02-14

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important source of protein supply for animal and human nutrition. The major storage globulins VICILIN and LEGUMIN (LEG) are synthesized from several genes including LEGA, LEGB, LEGJ and CVC (CONVICILIN). The current hypothesis is that the plant circadian core clock genes are conserved in a wide array of species and that primary metabolism is to a large extent controlled by the plant circadian clock. Our aim was to investigate a possible link between gene expression of storage proteins and the circadian clock. We identified cowpea orthologues of the core clock genes VunLHY, VunTOC1, VunGI and VunELF3, the protein storage genes VunLEG, VunLEGJ, and VunCVC as well as nine candidate reference genes used in RT-PCR. ELONGATION FACTOR 1-A (ELF1A) resulted the most suitable reference gene. The clock genes VunELF3, VunGI, VunTOC1 and VunLHY showed a rhythmic expression profile in leaves with a typical evening/night and morning/midday phased expression. The diel patterns were not completely robust and only VungGI and VungELF3 retained a rhythmic pattern under free running conditions of darkness. Under field conditions, rhythmicity and phasing apparently faded during early pod and seed development and was regained in ripening pods for VunTOC1 and VunLHY. Mature seeds showed a rhythmic expression of VunGI resembling leaf tissue under controlled growth chamber conditions. Comparing time windows during developmental stages we found that VunCVC and VunLEG were significantly down regulated during the night in mature pods as compared to intermediate ripe pods, while changes in seeds were non-significant due to high variance. The rhythmic expression under field conditions was lost under growth chamber conditions. The core clock gene network is conserved in cowpea leaves showing a robust diel expression pattern except VunELF3 under growth chamber conditions. There appears to be a clock transcriptional reprogramming in pods and seeds compared to leaves. Storage protein deposition may be circadian regulated under field conditions but the strong environmental signals are not met under artificial growth conditions. Diel expression pattern in field conditions may result in better usage of energy for protein storage.

Bayesian analysis of the kinetics of quantal transmitter secretion at the neuromuscular junction.

PubMed

Saveliev, Anatoly; Khuzakhmetova, Venera; Samigullin, Dmitry; Skorinkin, Andrey; Kovyazina, Irina; Nikolsky, Eugeny; Bukharaeva, Ellya

2015-10-01

The timing of transmitter release from nerve endings is considered nowadays as one of the factors determining the plasticity and efficacy of synaptic transmission. In the neuromuscular junction, the moments of release of individual acetylcholine quanta are related to the synaptic delays of uniquantal endplate currents recorded under conditions of lowered extracellular calcium. Using Bayesian modelling, we performed a statistical analysis of synaptic delays in mouse neuromuscular junction with different patterns of rhythmic nerve stimulation and when the entry of calcium ions into the nerve terminal was modified. We have obtained a statistical model of the release timing which is represented as the summation of two independent statistical distributions. The first of these is the exponentially modified Gaussian distribution. The mixture of normal and exponential components in this distribution can be interpreted as a two-stage mechanism of early and late periods of phasic synchronous secretion. The parameters of this distribution depend on both the stimulation frequency of the motor nerve and the calcium ions' entry conditions. The second distribution was modelled as quasi-uniform, with parameters independent of nerve stimulation frequency and calcium entry. Two different probability density functions for the distribution of synaptic delays suggest at least two independent processes controlling the time course of secretion, one of them potentially involving two stages. The relative contribution of these processes to the total number of mediator quanta released depends differently on the motor nerve stimulation pattern and on calcium ion entry into nerve endings.

Connectivity of Pacemaker Neurons in the Neonatal Rat Superficial Dorsal Horn

PubMed Central

Ford, Neil C.; Arbabi, Shahriar; Baccei, Mark L.

2014-01-01

Pacemaker neurons with an intrinsic ability to generate rhythmic burst-firing have been characterized in lamina I of the neonatal spinal cord, where they are innervated by high-threshold sensory afferents. However, little is known about the output of these pacemakers, as the neuronal populations which are targeted by pacemaker axons have yet to be identified. The present study combines patch clamp recordings in the intact neonatal rat spinal cord with tract-tracing to demonstrate that lamina I pacemaker neurons contact multiple spinal motor pathways during early life. Retrograde labeling of premotor interneurons with the trans-synaptic virus PRV-152 revealed the presence of burst-firing in PRV-infected lamina I neurons, thereby confirming that pacemakers are synaptically coupled to motor networks in the spinal ventral horn. Notably, two classes of pacemakers could be distinguished in lamina I based on cell size and the pattern of their axonal projections. While small pacemaker neurons possessed ramified axons which contacted ipsilateral motor circuits, large pacemaker neurons had unbranched axons which crossed the midline and ascended rostrally in the contralateral white matter. Recordings from identified spino-parabrachial and spino-PAG neurons indicated the presence of pacemaker activity within neonatal lamina I projection neurons. Overall, these results show that lamina I pacemakers are positioned to regulate both the level of activity in developing motor circuits as well as the ascending flow of nociceptive information to the brain, thus highlighting a potential role for pacemaker activity in the maturation of pain and sensorimotor networks in the CNS. PMID:25380417

[Assessing Motor-Cognition Interaction of Patients with Cognitive Disorders: Clinical Aspects].

PubMed

Schniepp, R; Wuehr, M; Schöberl, F; Zwergal, A

2016-08-01

Difficulties of walking and deficits of cognitive functions appear to be associated in the elderly. Thus, clinical assessment in geriatry and neurology should focus on: (1) diagnostic approaches covering both domains of everyday functioning; (2) therapeutic interventions that take into account possible interactions and synergies of both domains. In order to assess the capability for motor-cognitive interactions in the elderly it is recommended to investigate walking patterns during dual-tasks (e.g. walking and counting backwards, walking and naming words) and to examine clinical tests of everyday mobility tasks, such as the Timed-up-and-go-Test and spatial navigation tasks. Patients with cognitive disorders often perform inferior with a reduction of walking speed and an increase of stepping variability. Dual-task performance appears to be a reliable parameter for long-term observations of the course of the disease. Moreover, it might improve the quality of the gait examination during diagnostic or therapeutic interventions (e.g. the spinal tap test in patients with NPH). Several studies further highlight gait deficits during dual-task walking as a marker for the everyday functioning and the quality of life in elderly persons and patients with cognitive disorders.Therapeutic approaches in this context comprise complex motor-cognitive interventions, such as Thai Chi and Dalcroze rhythmic exercises. These interventions appear to act synergistically in motor and cognitive domains. First evidence for the efficacy for improving executive functions and reducing the fall risk of patients with cognitive impairments is given, thought randomized, controlled trials are rare. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Continuous high-frequency activity in mesial temporal lobe structures

PubMed Central

Mari, Francesco; Zelmann, Rina; Andrade-Valenca, Luciana; Dubeau, Francois; Gotman, Jean

2013-01-01

Summary Purpose Many recent studies have reported the importance of high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) in the intracerebral electroencephalography (EEG) of patients with epilepsy. These HFOs have been defined as events that stand out from the background. We have noticed that this background often consists itself of high-frequency rhythmic activity. The purpose of this study is to perform a first evaluation of the characteristics of high-frequency continuous or semicontinuous background activity. Methods Because the continuous high-frequency pattern was noted mainly in mesial temporal structures, we reviewed the EEG studies from these structures in 24 unselected patients with electrodes implanted in these regions. Sections of background away from interictal spikes were marked visually during periods of slow-wave sleep and wakefulness. They were then high-passed filtered at 80 Hz and categorized as having high-frequency rhythmic activity in one of three patterns: continuous/semicontinuous, irregular, sporadic. Wavelet entropy, which measures the degree of rhythmicity of a signal, was calculated for the marked background sections. Key Findings Ninety-six bipolar channels were analyzed. The continuous/semicontinuous pattern was found frequently (29/96 channels during wake and 34/96 during sleep). The different patterns were consistent between sleep and wakefulness. The continuous/semicontinuous pattern was found significantly more often in the hippocampus than in the parahippocampal gyrus and was rarely found in the amygdala. The types of pattern were not influenced by whether a channel was within the seizure-onset zone, or whether it was a lesional channel. The continuous/semicontinuous pattern was associated with a higher frequency of spikes and with high rates of ripples and fast ripples. Significance It appears that high-frequency activity (above 80 Hz) does not appear only in the form of brief paroxysmal events but also in the form of continuous rhythmic activity or very long bursts. In this study limited to mesial temporal structures, we found a clear anatomic preference for the hippocampus. Although associated with spikes and with distinct HFOs, this pattern was not clearly associated with the seizure-onset zone. Future studies will need to evaluate systematically the presence of this pattern, as it may have a pathophysiologic significance and it will also have an important influence on the very definition of HFOs. PMID:22416973

A tapping device for recording and quantitative characterization of rhythmic/auditory sequences.

PubMed

Piazza, Caterina; Cesareo, Ambra; Caccia, Martina; Reni, Gianluigi; Lorusso, Maria L

2017-07-01

The processing of auditory stimuli is essential for the correct perception of language and deficits in this ability are often related to the presence or development of language disorders. The motor imitation (e.g. tapping or beating) of rhythmic sequences can be a very sensitive correlate of deficits in auditory processing. Thus, the study of the tapping performance, with the investigation of both temporal and intensity information, might be very useful. The present work is aimed at the development and preliminary testing of a tapping device to be used for the imitation and/or the production of rhythmic sequences, allowing the recording of both tapping duration and intensity. The device is essentially made up of a Force Sensing Resistor and an Arduino UNO board. It was validated using different sampling frequencies (f s ) in a group of 10 young healthy adults investigating its efficacy in terms of touch and intensity detection by means of two testing procedures. Results demonstrated a good performance of the device when programmed with fs equal to 50 and 100Hz. Moreover, both temporal and intensity parameters were extracted, thus supporting the potential use of the device for the analysis of the imitation or production of rhythmic sequences. This work represents a first step for the development of a useful, low cost tool to support the diagnosis, training and rehabilitation of language disorders.

Crosslinguistic application of English-centric rhythm descriptors in motor speech disorders.

PubMed

Liss, Julie M; Utianski, Rene; Lansford, Kaitlin

2013-01-01

Rhythmic disturbances are a hallmark of motor speech disorders, in which the motor control deficits interfere with the outward flow of speech and by extension speech understanding. As the functions of rhythm are language-specific, breakdowns in rhythm should have language-specific consequences for communication. The goals of this paper are to (i) provide a review of the cognitive-linguistic role of rhythm in speech perception in a general sense and crosslinguistically; (ii) present new results of lexical segmentation challenges posed by different types of dysarthria in American English, and (iii) offer a framework for crosslinguistic considerations for speech rhythm disturbances in the diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders associated with motor speech disorders. This review presents theoretical and empirical reasons for considering speech rhythm as a critical component of communication deficits in motor speech disorders, and addresses the need for crosslinguistic research to explore language-universal versus language-specific aspects of motor speech disorders. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Crosslinguistic Application of English-Centric Rhythm Descriptors in Motor Speech Disorders

PubMed Central

Liss, Julie M.; Utianski, Rene; Lansford, Kaitlin

2014-01-01

Background Rhythmic disturbances are a hallmark of motor speech disorders, in which the motor control deficits interfere with the outward flow of speech and by extension speech understanding. As the functions of rhythm are language-specific, breakdowns in rhythm should have language-specific consequences for communication. Objective The goals of this paper are to (i) provide a review of the cognitive- linguistic role of rhythm in speech perception in a general sense and crosslinguistically; (ii) present new results of lexical segmentation challenges posed by different types of dysarthria in American English, and (iii) offer a framework for crosslinguistic considerations for speech rhythm disturbances in the diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders associated with motor speech disorders. Summary This review presents theoretical and empirical reasons for considering speech rhythm as a critical component of communication deficits in motor speech disorders, and addresses the need for crosslinguistic research to explore language-universal versus language-specific aspects of motor speech disorders. PMID:24157596

Beats produced between a rhythmic applied force and the resting tremor of Parkinsonism.

PubMed Central

Walsh, E G

1979-01-01

Rhythmic forces have been applied to the wrist of patients with Parkinsonism tremor by means of a printed motor. The tremor rate was not altered to that of the applied force. On the contrary, beats were established, the rate of which depended on the difference in rate between the tremor and the applied rhythm. Most of the observations have been for horizontal motion of the hand but similar phenomena have been seen for vertical movements, and for other parts of the body--for example, foot, elbow, finger joint, and head. The observations are regarded as supporting the view that the tremorgenic mechanism is central. There was no electromyographic evidence of servo driving or servo assistance in the genesis of the tremor. PMID:762588

Neuromechanical considerations for incorporating rhythmic arm movement in the rehabilitation of walking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klimstra, Marc D.; Thomas, Evan; Stoloff, Rebecca H.; Ferris, Daniel P.; Zehr, E. Paul

2009-06-01

We have extensively used arm cycling to study the neural control of rhythmic movements such as arm swing during walking. Recently rhythmic movement of the arms has also been shown to enhance and shape muscle activity in the legs. However, restricted information is available concerning the conditions necessary to maximally alter lumbar spinal cord excitability. Knowledge on the neuromechanics of a task can assist in the determination of the type, level, and timing of neural signals, yet arm swing during walking and arm cycling have not received a detailed neuromechanical comparison. The purpose of this research was to provide a combined neural and mechanical measurement approach that could be used to assist in the determination of the necessary and sufficient conditions for arm movement to assist in lower limb rehabilitation after stroke and spinal cord injury. Subjects performed three rhythmic arm movement tasks: (1) cycling (cycle); (2) swinging while standing (swing); and (3) swinging while treadmill walking (walk). We hypothesized that any difference in neural control between tasks (i.e., pattern of muscle activity) would reflect changes in the mechanical constraints unique to each task. Three-dimensional kinematics were collected simultaneously with force measurement at the hand and electromyography from the arms and trunk. All data were appropriately segmented to allow a comparison between and across conditions and were normalized and averaged to 100% movement cycle based on shoulder excursion. Separate mathematical principal components analysis of kinematic and neural variables was performed to determine common task features and muscle synergies. The results highlight important neural and mechanical features that distinguish differences between tasks. For example, there are considerable differences in the anatomical positions of the arms during each task, which relate to the moments experienced about the elbow and shoulder. Also, there are differences between tasks in elbow flexion/extension kinematics alongside differential muscle activation profiles. As well, mechanical assistance and constraints during all tasks could affect muscle recruitment and the functional role of muscles. Overall, despite neural and mechanical differences, the results are consistent with conserved common central motor control mechanisms operational for cycle, walk, and swing but appropriately sculpted to demands unique to each task. However, changing the mechanical parameters could affect the role of afferent feedback altering neural control and the coupling to the lower limbs.

Improving Speech Intelligibility in Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Employing Evidence-Based Practice. EBP Briefs. Volume 9, Issue 5

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koehlinger, Keegan M.

2015-01-01

Clinical Question: Would a preschool-aged child with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) benefit from a singular approach--such as motor planning, sensory cueing, linguistic and rhythmic--or a combined approach in order to increase intelligibility of spoken language? Method: Systematic Review. Study Sources: ASHA Wire, Google Scholar, Speech Bite.…

A developmental and clinical perspective of rhythmic interpersonal coordination: From mimicry toward the interconnection of minds.

PubMed

Xavier, Jean; Magnat, Julien; Sherman, Alain; Gauthier, Soizic; Cohen, David; Chaby, Laurence

2016-11-01

Imitation plays a critical role in the development of intersubjectivity and serves as a prerequisite for understanding the emotions and intentions of others. In our review, we consider spontaneous motor imitation between children and their peers as a developmental process involving repetition and perspective-taking as well as flexibility and reciprocity. During childhood, this playful dynamic challenges developing visuospatial abilities and requires temporal coordination between partners. As such, we address synchrony as form of communication and social signal per se, that leads, from an experience of similarity, to the interconnection of minds. In this way, we argue that, from a developmental perspective, rhythmic interpersonal coordination through childhood imitative interactions serves as a precursor to higher- level social and cognitive abilities, such as theory of mind (TOM) and empathy. Finally, to clinically illustrate our idea, we focus on developmental coordination disorder (DCD), a condition characterized not only by learning difficulties, but also childhood deficits in motor imitation. We address the challenges faced by these children on an emotional and socio-interactional level through the perspective of their impairments in intra- and interpersonal synchrony. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of stereotype threat on performance of a rhythmic motor skill.

PubMed

Huber, Meghan E; Seitchik, Allison E; Brown, Adam J; Sternad, Dagmar; Harkins, Stephen G

2015-04-01

Many studies using cognitive tasks have found that stereotype threat, or concern about confirming a negative stereotype about one's group, debilitates performance. The few studies that documented similar effects on sensorimotor performance have used only relatively coarse measures to quantify performance. This study tested the effect of stereotype threat on a rhythmic ball bouncing task, where previous analyses of the task dynamics afforded more detailed quantification of the effect of threat on motor control. In this task, novices hit the ball with positive racket acceleration, indicative of unstable performance. With practice, they learn to stabilize error by changing their ball-racket impact from positive to negative acceleration. Results showed that for novices, stereotype threat potentiated hitting the ball with positive racket acceleration, leading to poorer performance of stigmatized females. However, when the threat manipulation was delivered after having acquired some skill, reflected by negative racket acceleration, the stigmatized females performed better. These findings are consistent with the mere effort account that argues that stereotype threat potentiates the most likely response on the given task. The study also demonstrates the value of identifying the control mechanisms through which stereotype threat has its effects on outcome measures. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

The Effect of Stereotype Threat on Performance of a Rhythmic Motor Skill

PubMed Central

Huber, Meghan E.; Seitchik, Allison E.; Brown, Adam J.; Sternad, Dagmar; Harkins, Stephen G.

2015-01-01

Many studies using cognitive tasks have found that stereotype threat, or concern about confirming a negative stereotype about one's group, debilitates performance. The few studies that documented similar effects on sensorimotor performance have used only relatively coarse measures to quantify performance. Three experiments tested the effect of stereotype threat on a rhythmic ball bouncing task, both at the novice and skilled level. Previous analysis of the task dynamics afforded more detailed quantification of the effect of threat on motor control. In this task, novices hit the ball with positive racket acceleration, indicative of unstable performance. With practice, they learn to stabilize error by changing their ball-racket impact from positive to negative acceleration. Results showed that for novices, stereotype threat potentiated hitting the ball with positive racket acceleration, leading to poorer performance of stigmatized females. However, when the threat manipulation was delivered after having acquired some skill, reflected by negative racket acceleration, the stigmatized females performed better. These findings are consistent with the mere effort account that argues that stereotype threat potentiates the most likely response on the given task. The study also demonstrates the value of identifying the control mechanisms through which stereotype threat has its effects on outcome measures. PMID:25706769

Resource allocation in neural networks for motor control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milton, J.; Cummins, J.; Gunnoe, J.; Tollefson, M.; Cabrera, J. L.; Ohira, T.

2006-03-01

Multiplicative noise plays an important part of a non-predictive control mechanism for stick balancing at the fingertip. However, intentionally-directed movements are also used in stick balancing, particularly by beginners. The interplay between intentional and non-predictive control mechanisms for stick balancing was assessed using two dual task paradigms: the subject was asked to either move one of their legs rhythmically or to imagine moving their leg while balancing a stick (55.4 cm, 35 g) at their fingertip. Performance was measured by determining the stick survival function, i.e. the fraction of trials (total >=25) for which the stick remained balanced at time t as a function of t. Performance was increased by concurrent rhythmic leg movements (50% survival time shifted from 8-9s to 15s in a typical subject). Imagined movements resulted in a similar improvement (50% survival time of 20s for the above subject) suggesting that this enhancement is not simply related to mechanical vibrations of the fingertip induced by leg movement. These observations emphasize the importance of the development of mathematical models for neural control of skilled motor movements that take into resource allocation of limited resources, such as intention.

Silicon central pattern generators for cardiac diseases

PubMed Central

Nogaret, Alain; O'Callaghan, Erin L; Lataro, Renata M; Salgado, Helio C; Meliza, C Daniel; Duncan, Edward; Abarbanel, Henry D I; Paton, Julian F R

2015-01-01

Cardiac rhythm management devices provide therapies for both arrhythmias and resynchronisation but not heart failure, which affects millions of patients worldwide. This paper reviews recent advances in biophysics and mathematical engineering that provide a novel technological platform for addressing heart disease and enabling beat-to-beat adaptation of cardiac pacing in response to physiological feedback. The technology consists of silicon hardware central pattern generators (hCPGs) that may be trained to emulate accurately the dynamical response of biological central pattern generators (bCPGs). We discuss the limitations of present CPGs and appraise the advantages of analog over digital circuits for application in bioelectronic medicine. To test the system, we have focused on the cardio-respiratory oscillators in the medulla oblongata that modulate heart rate in phase with respiration to induce respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). We describe here a novel, scalable hCPG comprising physiologically realistic (Hodgkin–Huxley type) neurones and synapses. Our hCPG comprises two neurones that antagonise each other to provide rhythmic motor drive to the vagus nerve to slow the heart. We show how recent advances in modelling allow the motor output to adapt to physiological feedback such as respiration. In rats, we report on the restoration of RSA using an hCPG that receives diaphragmatic electromyography input and use it to stimulate the vagus nerve at specific time points of the respiratory cycle to slow the heart rate. We have validated the adaptation of stimulation to alterations in respiratory rate. We demonstrate that the hCPG is tuneable in terms of the depth and timing of the RSA relative to respiratory phase. These pioneering studies will now permit an analysis of the physiological role of RSA as well as its any potential therapeutic use in cardiac disease. PMID:25433077

Effects of hydrogen sulphide on motility patterns in the rat colon

PubMed Central

Gil, V; Parsons, SP; Gallego, D; Huizinga, JD; Jimenez, M

2013-01-01

Background and Purpose Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is an endogenous gaseous signalling molecule with putative functions in gastrointestinal motility regulation. Characterization of H2S effects on colonic motility is crucial to establish its potential use as therapeutic agent in the treatment of colonic disorders. Experimental Approach H2S effects on colonic motility were characterized using video recordings and construction of spatio-temporal maps. Microelectrode and muscle bath studies were performed to investigate the mechanisms underlying H2S effects. NaHS was used as the source of H2S. Key Results Rhythmic propulsive motor complexes (RPMCs) and ripples were observed in colonic spatio-temporal maps. Serosal addition of NaHS concentration-dependently inhibited RPMCs. In contrast, NaHS increased amplitude of the ripples without changing their frequency. Therefore, ripples became the predominant motor pattern. Neuronal blockade with lidocaine inhibited RPMCs, which were restored after administration of carbachol. Subsequent addition of NaHS inhibited RPMCs. Luminal addition of NaHS did not modify motility patterns. NaHS inhibited cholinergic excitatory junction potentials, carbachol-induced contractions and hyperpolarized smooth muscle cells, but did not modify slow wave activity. Conclusions and Implications H2S modulated colonic motility inhibiting propulsive contractile activity and enhancing the amplitude of ripples, promoting mixing. Muscle hyperpolarization and inhibition of neurally mediated cholinergic responses contributed to the inhibitory effect on propulsive activity. H2S effects were not related to changes in the frequency of slow wave activity originating in the network of interstitial cells of Cajal located near the submuscular plexus. Luminal H2S did not modify colonic motility probably because of epithelial detoxification. PMID:23297830

Non-equilibrium thermodynamical description of rhythmic motion patterns of active systems: a canonical-dissipative approach.

PubMed

Dotov, D G; Kim, S; Frank, T D

2015-02-01

We derive explicit expressions for the non-equilibrium thermodynamical variables of a canonical-dissipative limit cycle oscillator describing rhythmic motion patterns of active systems. These variables are statistical entropy, non-equilibrium internal energy, and non-equilibrium free energy. In particular, the expression for the non-equilibrium free energy is derived as a function of a suitable control parameter. The control parameter determines the Hopf bifurcation point of the deterministic active system and describes the effective pumping of the oscillator. In analogy to the equilibrium free energy of the Landau theory, it is shown that the non-equilibrium free energy decays as a function of the control parameter. In doing so, a similarity between certain equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase transitions is pointed out. Data from an experiment on human rhythmic movements is presented. Estimates for pumping intensity as well as the thermodynamical variables are reported. It is shown that in the experiment the non-equilibrium free energy decayed when pumping intensity was increased, which is consistent with the theory. Moreover, pumping intensities close to zero could be observed at relatively slow intended rhythmic movements. In view of the Hopf bifurcation underlying the limit cycle oscillator model, this observation suggests that the intended limit cycle movements were actually more similar to trajectories of a randomly perturbed stable focus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic Imitation in Rhythmical Actions: Kinematic Fidelity and the Effects of Compatibility, Delay, and Visual Monitoring

PubMed Central

Eaves, Daniel L.; Turgeon, Martine; Vogt, Stefan

2012-01-01

We demonstrate that observation of everyday rhythmical actions biases subsequent motor execution of the same and of different actions, using a paradigm where the observed actions were irrelevant for action execution. The cycle time of the distractor actions was subtly manipulated across trials, and the cycle time of motor responses served as the main dependent measure. Although distractor frequencies reliably biased response cycle times, this imitation bias was only a small fraction of the modulations in distractor speed, as well as of the modulations produced when participants intentionally imitated the observed rhythms. Importantly, this bias was not only present for compatible actions, but was also found, though numerically reduced, when distractor and executed actions were different (e.g., tooth brushing vs. window wiping), or when the dominant plane of movement was different (horizontal vs. vertical). In addition, these effects were equally pronounced for execution at 0, 4, and 8 s after action observation, a finding that contrasts with the more short-lived effects reported in earlier studies. The imitation bias was also unaffected when vision of the hand was occluded during execution, indicating that this effect most likely resulted from visuomotor interactions during distractor observation, rather than from visual monitoring and guidance during execution. Finally, when the distractor was incompatible in both dimensions (action type and plane) the imitation bias was not reduced further, in an additive way, relative to the single-incompatible conditions. This points to a mechanism whereby the observed action’s impact on motor processing is generally reduced whenever this is not useful for motor planning. We interpret these findings in the framework of biased competition, where intended and distractor actions can be represented as competing and quasi-encapsulated sensorimotor streams. PMID:23071623

Development of less invasive neuromuscular electrical stimulation model for motor therapy in rodents

PubMed Central

Kanchiku, Tsukasa; Kato, Yoshihiko; Suzuki, Hidenori; Imajo, Yasuaki; Yoshida, Yuichiro; Moriya, Atsushi; Taguchi, Toshihiko; Jung, Ranu

2012-01-01

Background Combination therapy is essential for functional repairs of the spinal cord. Rehabilitative therapy can be considered as the key for reorganizing the nervous system after spinal cord regeneration therapy. Functional electrical stimulation has been used as a neuroprosthesis in quadriplegia and can be used for providing rehabilitative therapy to tap the capability for central nervous system reorganization after spinal cord regeneration therapy. Objective To develop a less invasive muscular electrical stimulation model capable of being combined with spinal cord regeneration therapy especially for motor therapy in the acute stage after spinal cord injury. Methods The tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius motor points were identified in intact anesthetized adult female Fischer rats, and stimulation needle electrodes were percutaneously inserted into these points. Threshold currents for visual twitches were obtained upon stimulation using pulses of 75 or 8 kHz for 200 ms. Biphasic pulse widths of 20, 40, 80, 100, 300, and 500 µs per phase were used to determine strength–duration curves. Using these parameters and previously obtained locomotor electromyogram data, stimulations were performed on bilateral joint muscle pairs to produce reciprocal flexion/extension movements of the ankle for 15 minutes while three-dimensional joint kinematics were assessed. Results Rhythmic muscular electrical stimulation with needle electrodes was successfully done, but decreased range of motion (ROM) over time. High-frequency and high-amplitude stimulation was also shown to be effective in alleviating decreases in ROM due to muscle fatigue. Conclusions This model will be useful for investigating the ability of rhythmic muscular electrical stimulation therapy to promote motor recovery, in addition to the efficacy of combining treatments with spinal cord regeneration therapy after spinal cord injuries. PMID:22507026

Capturing with EEG the neural entrainment and coupling underlying sensorimotor synchronization to the beat.

PubMed

Nozaradan, Sylvie; Zerouali, Younes; Peretz, Isabelle; Mouraux, André

2015-03-01

Synchronizing movements with rhythmic inputs requires tight coupling of sensory and motor neural processes. Here, using a novel approach based on the recording of steady-state-evoked potentials (SS-EPs), we examine how distant brain areas supporting these processes coordinate their dynamics. The electroencephalogram was recorded while subjects listened to a 2.4-Hz auditory beat and tapped their hand on every second beat. When subjects tapped to the beat, the EEG was characterized by a 2.4-Hz SS-EP compatible with beat-related entrainment and a 1.2-Hz SS-EP compatible with movement-related entrainment, based on the results of source analysis. Most importantly, when compared with passive listening of the beat, we found evidence suggesting an interaction between sensory- and motor-related activities when subjects tapped to the beat, in the form of (1) additional SS-EP appearing at 3.6 Hz, compatible with a nonlinear product of sensorimotor integration; (2) phase coupling of beat- and movement-related activities; and (3) selective enhancement of beat-related activities over the hemisphere contralateral to the tapping, suggesting a top-down effect of movement-related activities on auditory beat processing. Taken together, our results are compatible with the view that rhythmic sensorimotor synchronization is supported by a dynamic coupling of sensory and motor related activities. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Difficulty leading interpersonal coordination: towards an embodied signature of social anxiety disorder

PubMed Central

Varlet, Manuel; Marin, Ludovic; Capdevielle, Delphine; Del-Monte, Jonathan; Schmidt, R. C.; Salesse, Robin N.; Boulenger, Jean-Philippe; Bardy, Benoît G.; Raffard, Stéphane

2014-01-01

Defined by a persistent fear of embarrassment or negative evaluation while engaged in social interaction or public performance, social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common psychiatric syndromes. Previous research has made a considerable effort to better understand and assess this mental disorder. However, little attention has been paid to social motor behavior of patients with SAD despite its crucial importance in daily social interactions. Previous research has shown that the coordination of arm, head or postural movements of interacting people can reflect their mental states or feelings such as social connectedness and social motives, suggesting that interpersonal movement coordination may be impaired in patients suffering from SAD. The current study was specifically aimed at determining whether SAD affects the dynamics of social motor coordination. We compared the unintentional and intentional rhythmic coordination of a SAD group (19 patients paired with control participants) with the rhythmic coordination of a control group (19 control pairs) in an interpersonal pendulum coordination task. The results demonstrated that unintentional social motor coordination was preserved with SAD while intentional coordination was impaired. More specifically, intentional coordination became impaired when patients with SAD had to lead the coordination as indicated by poorer (i.e., more variable) coordination. These differences between intentional and unintentional coordination as well as between follower and leader roles reveal an impaired coordination dynamics that is specific to SAD, and thus, opens promising research directions to better understand, assess and treat this mental disorder. PMID:24567707

Functional contributors to poor movement and balance control in patients with low back pain: A descriptive analysis.

PubMed

Ayhan, Cigdem; Bilgin, Sevil; Aksoy, Songul; Yakut, Yavuz

2016-08-10

Automatic and voluntary body position control is essential for postural stability; however, little is known about individual factors that impair the sensorimotor system associated with low back pain (LBP). To evaluate automatic and voluntary motor control impairments causing postural instability in patients with LBP. Motor control impairments associated with poor movement and balance control were analyzed prospectively in 32 patients with LBP. Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for pain assessment, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for disability measurement, and computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) for analysis of postural responses were used to measure outcomes of all patients. Computerized dynamic posturography tests including Sensory organization test (SOT), limits of stability test (movement velocity, directional control, endpoint, and maximum excursion), rhythmic weight shift (rhythmic movement speed and directional control), and adaptation test (toes-up and toes-down tests) were performed and the results compared with NeuroCom normative data. The mean age of the patients was 40.50 ± 12.28 years. Lower equilibrium scores were observed in SOT (p < 0.05). There was a significant increase in reaction time and decrease in movement velocity, directional control, and endpoint excursion (p < 0.05). Speed of rhythmic movement along the anteroposterior direction decreased, while speed increased along the lateral direction (p < 0.05). Poor directional control was recorded in the anteroposterior direction (p < 0.05). Toes-down test showed an increased COG sway in patients compared with that in the controls (p < 0.05). LBP causes poor voluntary control of body positioning, a reduction in movement control, delays in movement initiation, and a difficulty to adapt to sudden surface changes.

Evidence for Multiple Rhythmic Skills

PubMed Central

Tierney, Adam; Kraus, Nina

2015-01-01

Rhythms, or patterns in time, play a vital role in both speech and music. Proficiency in a number of rhythm skills has been linked to language ability, suggesting that certain rhythmic processes in music and language rely on overlapping resources. However, a lack of understanding about how rhythm skills relate to each other has impeded progress in understanding how language relies on rhythm processing. In particular, it is unknown whether all rhythm skills are linked together, forming a single broad rhythmic competence, or whether there are multiple dissociable rhythm skills. We hypothesized that beat tapping and rhythm memory/sequencing form two separate clusters of rhythm skills. This hypothesis was tested with a battery of two beat tapping and two rhythm memory tests. Here we show that tapping to a metronome and the ability to adjust to a changing tempo while tapping to a metronome are related skills. The ability to remember rhythms and to drum along to repeating rhythmic sequences are also related. However, we found no relationship between beat tapping skills and rhythm memory skills. Thus, beat tapping and rhythm memory are dissociable rhythmic aptitudes. This discovery may inform future research disambiguating how distinct rhythm competencies track with specific language functions. PMID:26376489

Circadian clock-dependent and -independent rhythmic proteomes implement distinct diurnal functions in mouse liver.

PubMed

Mauvoisin, Daniel; Wang, Jingkui; Jouffe, Céline; Martin, Eva; Atger, Florian; Waridel, Patrice; Quadroni, Manfredo; Gachon, Frédéric; Naef, Felix

2014-01-07

Diurnal oscillations of gene expression controlled by the circadian clock underlie rhythmic physiology across most living organisms. Although such rhythms have been extensively studied at the level of transcription and mRNA accumulation, little is known about the accumulation patterns of proteins. Here, we quantified temporal profiles in the murine hepatic proteome under physiological light-dark conditions using stable isotope labeling by amino acids quantitative MS. Our analysis identified over 5,000 proteins, of which several hundred showed robust diurnal oscillations with peak phases enriched in the morning and during the night and related to core hepatic physiological functions. Combined mathematical modeling of temporal protein and mRNA profiles indicated that proteins accumulate with reduced amplitudes and significant delays, consistent with protein half-life data. Moreover, a group comprising about one-half of the rhythmic proteins showed no corresponding rhythmic mRNAs, indicating significant translational or posttranslational diurnal control. Such rhythms were highly enriched in secreted proteins accumulating tightly during the night. Also, these rhythms persisted in clock-deficient animals subjected to rhythmic feeding, suggesting that food-related entrainment signals influence rhythms in circulating plasma factors.

Circadian clock-dependent and -independent rhythmic proteomes implement distinct diurnal functions in mouse liver

PubMed Central

Mauvoisin, Daniel; Wang, Jingkui; Jouffe, Céline; Martin, Eva; Atger, Florian; Waridel, Patrice; Quadroni, Manfredo; Gachon, Frédéric; Naef, Felix

2014-01-01

Diurnal oscillations of gene expression controlled by the circadian clock underlie rhythmic physiology across most living organisms. Although such rhythms have been extensively studied at the level of transcription and mRNA accumulation, little is known about the accumulation patterns of proteins. Here, we quantified temporal profiles in the murine hepatic proteome under physiological light–dark conditions using stable isotope labeling by amino acids quantitative MS. Our analysis identified over 5,000 proteins, of which several hundred showed robust diurnal oscillations with peak phases enriched in the morning and during the night and related to core hepatic physiological functions. Combined mathematical modeling of temporal protein and mRNA profiles indicated that proteins accumulate with reduced amplitudes and significant delays, consistent with protein half-life data. Moreover, a group comprising about one-half of the rhythmic proteins showed no corresponding rhythmic mRNAs, indicating significant translational or posttranslational diurnal control. Such rhythms were highly enriched in secreted proteins accumulating tightly during the night. Also, these rhythms persisted in clock-deficient animals subjected to rhythmic feeding, suggesting that food-related entrainment signals influence rhythms in circulating plasma factors. PMID:24344304

Boosting the LTP-like plasticity effect of intermittent theta-burst stimulation using gamma transcranial alternating current stimulation.

PubMed

Guerra, Andrea; Suppa, Antonio; Bologna, Matteo; D'Onofrio, Valentina; Bianchini, Edoardo; Brown, Peter; Di Lazzaro, Vincenzo; Berardelli, Alfredo

2018-03-24

Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) consists in delivering electric current to the brain using an oscillatory pattern that may entrain the rhythmic activity of cortical neurons. When delivered at gamma frequency, tACS modulates motor performance and GABA-A-ergic interneuron activity. Since interneuronal discharges play a crucial role in brain plasticity phenomena, here we co-stimulated the primary motor cortex (M1) in healthy subjects by means of tACS during intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS), a transcranial magnetic stimulation paradigm known to induce long-term potentiation (LTP)-like plasticity. We measured and compared motor evoked potentials before and after gamma, beta and sham tACS-iTBS. While we delivered gamma-tACS, we also measured short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) to detect any changes in GABA-A-ergic neurotransmission. Gamma, but not beta and sham tACS, significantly boosted and prolonged the iTBS-induced after-effects. Interestingly, the extent of the gamma tACS-iTBS after-effects correlated directly with SICI changes. Overall, our findings point to a link between gamma oscillations, interneuronal GABA-A-ergic activity and LTP-like plasticity in the human M1. Gamma tACS-iTBS co-stimulation might represent a new strategy to enhance and prolong responses to plasticity-inducing protocols, thereby lending itself to future applications in the neurorehabilitation setting. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Spectrum pattern resolution after noise exposure in a beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas: Evoked potential study.

PubMed

Popov, Vladimir V; Nechaev, Dmitry I; Sysueva, Evgenia V; Rozhnov, Viatcheslav V; Supin, Alexander Ya

2015-07-01

Temporary threshold shift (TTS) and the discrimination of spectrum patterns after fatiguing noise exposure (170 dB re 1 μPa, 10 min duration) was investigated in a beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas, using the evoked potential technique. Thresholds were measured using rhythmic (1000/s) pip trains of varying levels and recording the rhythmic evoked responses. Discrimination of spectrum patterns was investigated using rippled-spectrum test stimuli of various levels and ripple densities, recording the rhythmic evoked responses to ripple phase reversals. Before noise exposure, the greatest responses to rippled-spectrum probes were evoked by stimuli with a low ripple density with a decrease in the response magnitude occurring with an increasing ripple density. After noise exposure, both a TTS and a reduction of the responses to rippled-spectrum probes appeared and recovered in parallel. The reduction of the responses to rippled-spectrum probes was maximal for high-magnitude responses at low ripple densities and was negligible for low-magnitude responses at high ripple densities. It is hypothesized that the impacts of fatiguing sounds are not limited by increased thresholds and decreased sensitivity results in reduced ability to discriminate fine spectral content with the greatest impact on the discrimination of spectrum content that may carry the most obvious information about stimulus properties.

Age-related differences in the rhythmic structure of the golf swing.

PubMed

Kim, Tae Hoon; Jagacinski, Richard J; Lavender, Steven A

2011-01-01

Participants were 20 younger golfers (M age=19.8 years, SD=1.84 years) and 20 older golfers (M age=63.0 years, SD=2.55 years) who attempted 40- and 80-yard eight-iron shots requiring an adjustment of their force and timing. No age-related differences were found in the tempo or speed of the shot; however, there were differences in the rhythmic relationship between the clubhead force and the weight shift. Whereas younger golfers primarily exhibited a 3 versus 2 polyrhythmic pattern between the peak forces of the clubhead and weight shift, older golfers primarily exhibited a simpler 3 versus 3 rhythmic force pattern by adding a forward weight shift at the beginning of the shot. Additionally, older golfers exhibited less independence between the timing of the clubhead force and weight shift, which indicated greater use of a single integrated coordinative unit rather than 2 units. These findings are interpreted as compensations for age-related slowing and increased temporal variability that help to preserve tempo at a speed comparable to younger adults.

Neural control of rhythmic arm cycling after stroke

PubMed Central

Loadman, Pamela M.; Hundza, Sandra R.

2012-01-01

Disordered reflex activity and alterations in the neural control of walking have been observed after stroke. In addition to impairments in leg movement that affect locomotor ability after stroke, significant impairments are also seen in the arms. Altered neural control in the upper limb can often lead to altered tone and spasticity resulting in impaired coordination and flexion contractures. We sought to address the extent to which the neural control of movement is disordered after stroke by examining the modulation pattern of cutaneous reflexes in arm muscles during arm cycling. Twenty-five stroke participants who were at least 6 mo postinfarction and clinically stable, performed rhythmic arm cycling while cutaneous reflexes were evoked with trains (5 × 1.0-ms pulses at 300 Hz) of constant-current electrical stimulation to the superficial radial (SR) nerve at the wrist. Both the more (MA) and less affected (LA) arms were stimulated in separate trials. Bilateral electromyography (EMG) activity was recorded from muscles acting at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. Analysis was conducted on averaged reflexes in 12 equidistant phases of the movement cycle. Phase-modulated cutaneous reflexes were present, but altered, in both MA and LA arms after stroke. Notably, the pattern was “blunted” in the MA arm in stroke compared with control participants. Differences between stroke and control were progressively more evident moving from shoulder to wrist. The results suggest that a reduced pattern of cutaneous reflex modulation persists during rhythmic arm movement after stroke. The overall implication of this result is that the putative spinal contributions to rhythmic human arm movement remain accessible after stroke, which has translational implications for rehabilitation. PMID:22572949

Evolution of Daily Gene Co-expression Patterns from Algae to Plants

PubMed Central

de los Reyes, Pedro; Romero-Campero, Francisco J.; Ruiz, M. Teresa; Romero, José M.; Valverde, Federico

2017-01-01

Daily rhythms play a key role in transcriptome regulation in plants and microalgae orchestrating responses that, among other processes, anticipate light transitions that are essential for their metabolism and development. The recent accumulation of genome-wide transcriptomic data generated under alternating light:dark periods from plants and microalgae has made possible integrative and comparative analysis that could contribute to shed light on the evolution of daily rhythms in the green lineage. In this work, RNA-seq and microarray data generated over 24 h periods in different light regimes from the eudicot Arabidopsis thaliana and the microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Ostreococcus tauri have been integrated and analyzed using gene co-expression networks. This analysis revealed a reduction in the size of the daily rhythmic transcriptome from around 90% in Ostreococcus, being heavily influenced by light transitions, to around 40% in Arabidopsis, where a certain independence from light transitions can be observed. A novel Multiple Bidirectional Best Hit (MBBH) algorithm was applied to associate single genes with a family of potential orthologues from evolutionary distant species. Gene duplication, amplification and divergence of rhythmic expression profiles seems to have played a central role in the evolution of gene families in the green lineage such as Pseudo Response Regulators (PRRs), CONSTANS-Likes (COLs), and DNA-binding with One Finger (DOFs). Gene clustering and functional enrichment have been used to identify groups of genes with similar rhythmic gene expression patterns. The comparison of gene clusters between species based on potential orthologous relationships has unveiled a low to moderate level of conservation of daily rhythmic expression patterns. However, a strikingly high conservation was found for the gene clusters exhibiting their highest and/or lowest expression value during the light transitions. PMID:28751903

Artificial gravity reveals that economy of action determines the stability of sensorimotor coordination.

PubMed

Carson, Richard G; Oytam, Yalchin; Riek, Stephan

2009-01-01

When we move along in time with a piece of music, we synchronise the downward phase of our gesture with the beat. While it is easy to demonstrate this tendency, there is considerable debate as to its neural origins. It may have a structural basis, whereby the gravitational field acts as an orientation reference that biases the formulation of motor commands. Alternatively, it may be functional, and related to the economy with which motion assisted by gravity can be generated by the motor system. We used a robotic system to generate a mathematical model of the gravitational forces acting upon the hand, and then to reverse the effect of gravity, and invert the weight of the limb. In these circumstances, patterns of coordination in which the upward phase of rhythmic hand movements coincided with the beat of a metronome were more stable than those in which downward movements were made on the beat. When a normal gravitational force was present, movements made down-on-the-beat were more stable than those made up-on-the-beat. The ubiquitous tendency to make a downward movement on a musical beat arises not from the perception of gravity, but as a result of the economy of action that derives from its exploitation.

Object exploration in extremely preterm infants between 6 and 9 months and relation to cognitive and language development at 24 months.

PubMed

Zuccarini, Mariagrazia; Guarini, Annalisa; Savini, Silvia; Iverson, Jana M; Aureli, Tiziana; Alessandroni, Rosina; Faldella, Giacomo; Sansavini, Alessandra

2017-09-01

Although early object exploration is considered a key ability for subsequent achievements, very few studies have analyzed its development in extremely low gestational age infants (ELGA- GA <28 weeks), whose early motor skills are delayed. Moreover, no studies have examined its developmental relationship with cognitive and language skills. The present study examined developmental change in Motor Object Exploration (MOE) and different types of MOE (Holding, Oral, Manual and Manual Rhythmic Exploration) in 20 ELGA and 20 full term (FT) infants observed during mother-infant play interaction at 6 and 9 months. It also explored whether specific types of MOE were longitudinally related to 24-month language and cognitive abilities (GMDS-R scores). ELGA infants increased MOE duration from 6 to 9 months, eliminating the initial difference with FT infants. In addition, ELGA infants showed a different pattern of Oral Exploration, that did not increase at 6 months and decrease at 9 months. Oral and Manual Exploration durations at 6 months were longitudinally related to 24-month GMDS-R language and cognitive performance scores respectively. We discuss the relevance of assessing early exploratory abilities in ELGA infants in order to implement customized intervention programs for supporting the development of these skills. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lateralized hyperkinetic motor behavior.

PubMed

Krishnaiah, Balaji; Acharya, Jayant; Ahmed, Aiesha

2018-01-01

Seizures are followed by a post-ictal period, which is characterized by usual slowing of brain activity. This case report describes a 68-year old woman who presented with right-sided rhythmic, non-voluntary, semi-purposeful motor behavior that started 2 days after an episode of generalized seizure. Her initial electroencephalogram (EEG) showed beta activity with no evidence of epileptiform discharges. Computed tomography scan showed hypodensity in the left parieto-occipital region. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed restricted diffusion/fluid-attenuated inversion recovery hyperintensities in the left precentral and post-central gyrus. Unilateral compulsive motor behavior during the post-ictal state should be considered, and not confused with partial status epilepticus to avoid unnecessary treatment. Abnormal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, which are reversible, can help with the diagnostic and therapeutic approach.

Impact of Discrete Corrections in a Modular Approach for Trajectory Generation in Quadruped Robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinto, Carla M. A.; Santos, Cristina P.; Rocha, Diana; Matos, Vítor

2011-09-01

Online generation of trajectories in robots is a very complex task that involves the combination of different types of movements, i.e., distinct motor primitives. The later are used to model complex behaviors in robots, such as locomotion in irregular terrain and obstacle avoidance. In this paper, we consider two motor primitives: rhythmic and discrete. We study the effect on the robots' gaits of superimposing the two motor primitives, considering two distinct types of coupling. Additionally, we simulate two scenarios, where the discrete primitive is inserted in all of the four limbs, or is inserted in ipsilateral pairs of limbs. Numerical results show that amplitude and frequency of the periodic solutions, corresponding to the gaits trot and pace, are almost constant for diffusive and synaptic couplings.

Psychophysiological responses to auditory change.

PubMed

Chuen, Lorraine; Sears, David; McAdams, Stephen

2016-06-01

A comprehensive characterization of autonomic and somatic responding within the auditory domain is currently lacking. We studied whether simple types of auditory change that occur frequently during music listening could elicit measurable changes in heart rate, skin conductance, respiration rate, and facial motor activity. Participants heard a rhythmically isochronous sequence consisting of a repeated standard tone, followed by a repeated target tone that changed in pitch, timbre, duration, intensity, or tempo, or that deviated momentarily from rhythmic isochrony. Changes in all parameters produced increases in heart rate. Skin conductance response magnitude was affected by changes in timbre, intensity, and tempo. Respiratory rate was sensitive to deviations from isochrony. Our findings suggest that music researchers interpreting physiological responses as emotional indices should consider acoustic factors that may influence physiology in the absence of induced emotions. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Learning New Basic Movements for Robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kober, Jens; Peters, Jan

Obtaining novel skills is one of the most important problems in robotics. Machine learning techniques may be a promising approach for automatic and autonomous acquisition of movement policies. However, this requires both an appropriate policy representation and suitable learning algorithms. Employing the most recent form of the dynamical systems motor primitives originally introduced by Ijspeert et al. [1], we show how both discrete and rhythmic tasks can be learned using a concerted approach of both imitation and reinforcement learning, and present our current best performing learning algorithms. Finally, we show that it is possible to include a start-up phase in rhythmic primitives. We apply our approach to two elementary movements, i.e., Ball-in-a-Cup and Ball-Paddling, which can be learned on a real Barrett WAM robot arm at a pace similar to human learning.

The Role of Rhythm in Speech and Language Rehabilitation: The SEP Hypothesis

PubMed Central

Fujii, Shinya; Wan, Catherine Y.

2014-01-01

For thousands of years, human beings have engaged in rhythmic activities such as drumming, dancing, and singing. Rhythm can be a powerful medium to stimulate communication and social interactions, due to the strong sensorimotor coupling. For example, the mere presence of an underlying beat or pulse can result in spontaneous motor responses such as hand clapping, foot stepping, and rhythmic vocalizations. Examining the relationship between rhythm and speech is fundamental not only to our understanding of the origins of human communication but also in the treatment of neurological disorders. In this paper, we explore whether rhythm has therapeutic potential for promoting recovery from speech and language dysfunctions. Although clinical studies are limited to date, existing experimental evidence demonstrates rich rhythmic organization in both music and language, as well as overlapping brain networks that are crucial in the design of rehabilitation approaches. Here, we propose the “SEP” hypothesis, which postulates that (1) “sound envelope processing” and (2) “synchronization and entrainment to pulse” may help stimulate brain networks that underlie human communication. Ultimately, we hope that the SEP hypothesis will provide a useful framework for facilitating rhythm-based research in various patient populations. PMID:25352796

Spinal motor control system incorporates an internal model of limb dynamics.

PubMed

Shimansky, Y P

2000-10-01

The existence and utilization of an internal representation of the controlled object is one of the most important features of the functioning of neural motor control systems. This study demonstrates that this property already exists at the level of the spinal motor control system (SMCS), which is capable of generating motor patterns for reflex rhythmic movements, such as locomotion and scratching, without the aid of the peripheral afferent feedback, but substantially modifies the generated activity in response to peripheral afferent stimuli. The SMCS is presented as an optimal control system whose optimality requires that it incorporate an internal model (IM) of the controlled object's dynamics. A novel functional mechanism for the integration of peripheral sensory signals with the corresponding predictive output from the IM, the summation of information precision (SIP) is proposed. In contrast to other models in which the correction of the internal representation of the controlled object's state is based on the calculation of a mismatch between the internal and external information sources, the SIP mechanism merges the information from these sources in order to optimize the precision of the controlled object's state estimate. It is demonstrated, based on scratching in decerebrate cats as an example of the spinal control of goal-directed movements, that the results of computer modeling agree with the experimental observations related to the SMCS's reactions to phasic and tonic peripheral afferent stimuli. It is also shown that the functional requirements imposed by the mathematical model of the SMCS comply with the current knowledge about the related properties of spinal neuronal circuitry. The crucial role of the spinal presynaptic inhibition mechanism in the neuronal implementation of SIP is elucidated. Important differences between the IM and a state predictor employed for compensating for a neural reflex time delay are discussed.

Multilevel Analysis of Locomotion in Immature Preparations Suggests Innovative Strategies to Reactivate Stepping after Spinal Cord Injury.

PubMed

Brumley, Michele R; Guertin, Pierre A; Taccola, Giuliano

2017-01-01

Locomotion is one of the most complex motor behaviors. Locomotor patterns change during early life, reflecting development of numerous peripheral and hierarchically organized central structures. Among them, the spinal cord is of particular interest since it houses the central pattern generator (CPG) for locomotion. This main command center is capable of eliciting and coordinating complex series of rhythmic neural signals sent to motoneurons and to corresponding target-muscles for basic locomotor activity. For a long-time, the CPG has been considered a black box. In recent years, complementary insights from in vitro and in vivo animal models have contributed significantly to a better understanding of its constituents, properties and ways to recover locomotion after a spinal cord injury (SCI). This review discusses key findings made by comparing the results of in vitro isolated spinal cord preparations and spinal-transected in vivo models from neonatal animals. Pharmacological, electrical, and sensory stimulation approaches largely used to further understand CPG function may also soon become therapeutic tools for potent CPG reactivation and locomotor movement induction in persons with SCI or developmental neuromuscular disorder. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Effect of Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation on Hemiplegic Gait Patterns.

PubMed

Shin, Yoon-Kyum; Chong, Hyun Ju; Kim, Soo Ji; Cho, Sung-Rae

2015-11-01

The purpose of our study was to investigate the effect of gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) on both kinematic and temporospatial gait patterns in patients with hemiplegia. Eighteen hemiplegic patients diagnosed with either cerebral palsy or stroke participated in this study. All participants underwent the 4-week gait training with RAS. The treatment was performed for 30 minutes per each session, three sessions per week. RAS was provided with rhythmic beats using a chord progression on a keyboard. Kinematic and temporospatial data were collected and analyzed using a three-dimensional motion analysis system. Gait training with RAS significantly improved both proximal and distal joint kinematic patterns in hip adduction, knee flexion, and ankle plantar flexion, enhancing the gait deviation index (GDI) as well as ameliorating temporal asymmetry of the stance and swing phases in patients with hemiplegia. Stroke patients with previous walking experience demonstrated significant kinematic improvement in knee flexion in mid-swing and ankle dorsiflexion in terminal stance. Among stroke patients, subacute patients showed a significantly increased GDI score compared with chronic patients. In addition, household ambulators showed a significant effect on reducing anterior tilt of the pelvis with an enhanced GDI score, while community ambulators significantly increased knee flexion in mid-swing phase and ankle dorsiflexion in terminal stance phase. Gait training with RAS has beneficial effects on both kinematic and temporospatial patterns in patients with hemiplegia, providing not only clinical implications of locomotor rehabilitation with goal-oriented external feedback using RAS but also differential effects according to ambulatory function.

Perception of speech rhythm in second language: the case of rhythmically similar L1 and L2

PubMed Central

Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona

2015-01-01

We investigated the perception of developmental changes in timing patterns that happen in the course of second language (L2) acquisition, provided that the native and the target languages of the learner are rhythmically similar (German and English). It was found that speech rhythm in L2 English produced by German learners becomes increasingly stress-timed as acquisition progresses. This development is captured by the tempo-normalized rhythm measures of durational variability. Advanced learners also deliver speech at a faster rate. However, when native speakers have to classify the timing patterns characteristic of L2 English of German learners at different proficiency levels, they attend to speech rate cues and ignore the differences in speech rhythm. PMID:25859228

Cholinergic interneurons in the feeding system of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. III. Pharmacological dissection of the feeding rhythm.

PubMed

Elliott, C J

1992-05-29

The feeding activity of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis was stimulated by depolarization of a modulatory interneuron (SO) or of a N1 pattern-generating interneuron. The cholinergic antagonists phenyltrimethylammonium (PTMA), methylxylocholine (MeXCh), hexamethonium (HMT) and atropine (ATR) were applied at 0.5 mM in the bath and their effects on the rhythmic feeding pattern were monitored. Each of the antagonists slowed or blocked the feeding rhythm. The block was due to interference in the pattern generating network, not to disturbance of modulatory inputs. The experimental results favour a model in which the alternation of protraction (N1) and retraction (N2) phases occurs by recurrent inhibition. The results would be more difficult to explain on the reciprocal inhibition model. When all the N1 output was blocked, the N1 neurons fired rhythmic bursts endogenously.

Physiological modules for generating discrete and rhythmic movements: component analysis of EMG signals.

PubMed

Bengoetxea, Ana; Leurs, Françoise; Hoellinger, Thomas; Cebolla, Ana Maria; Dan, Bernard; Cheron, Guy; McIntyre, Joseph

2014-01-01

A central question in Neuroscience is that of how the nervous system generates the spatiotemporal commands needed to realize complex gestures, such as handwriting. A key postulate is that the central nervous system (CNS) builds up complex movements from a set of simpler motor primitives or control modules. In this study we examined the control modules underlying the generation of muscle activations when performing different types of movement: discrete, point-to-point movements in eight different directions and continuous figure-eight movements in both the normal, upright orientation and rotated 90°. To test for the effects of biomechanical constraints, movements were performed in the frontal-parallel or sagittal planes, corresponding to two different nominal flexion/abduction postures of the shoulder. In all cases we measured limb kinematics and surface electromyographic activity (EMG) signals for seven different muscles acting around the shoulder. We first performed principal component analysis (PCA) of the EMG signals on a movement-by-movement basis. We found a surprisingly consistent pattern of muscle groupings across movement types and movement planes, although we could detect systematic differences between the PCs derived from movements performed in each shoulder posture and between the principal components associated with the different orientations of the figure. Unexpectedly we found no systematic differences between the figure eights and the point-to-point movements. The first three principal components could be associated with a general co-contraction of all seven muscles plus two patterns of reciprocal activation. From these results, we surmise that both "discrete-rhythmic movements" such as the figure eight, and discrete point-to-point movement may be constructed from three different fundamental modules, one regulating the impedance of the limb over the time span of the movement and two others operating to generate movement, one aligned with the vertical and the other aligned with the horizontal.

Physiological modules for generating discrete and rhythmic movements: component analysis of EMG signals

PubMed Central

Bengoetxea, Ana; Leurs, Françoise; Hoellinger, Thomas; Cebolla, Ana Maria; Dan, Bernard; Cheron, Guy; McIntyre, Joseph

2015-01-01

A central question in Neuroscience is that of how the nervous system generates the spatiotemporal commands needed to realize complex gestures, such as handwriting. A key postulate is that the central nervous system (CNS) builds up complex movements from a set of simpler motor primitives or control modules. In this study we examined the control modules underlying the generation of muscle activations when performing different types of movement: discrete, point-to-point movements in eight different directions and continuous figure-eight movements in both the normal, upright orientation and rotated 90°. To test for the effects of biomechanical constraints, movements were performed in the frontal-parallel or sagittal planes, corresponding to two different nominal flexion/abduction postures of the shoulder. In all cases we measured limb kinematics and surface electromyographic activity (EMG) signals for seven different muscles acting around the shoulder. We first performed principal component analysis (PCA) of the EMG signals on a movement-by-movement basis. We found a surprisingly consistent pattern of muscle groupings across movement types and movement planes, although we could detect systematic differences between the PCs derived from movements performed in each shoulder posture and between the principal components associated with the different orientations of the figure. Unexpectedly we found no systematic differences between the figure eights and the point-to-point movements. The first three principal components could be associated with a general co-contraction of all seven muscles plus two patterns of reciprocal activation. From these results, we surmise that both “discrete-rhythmic movements” such as the figure eight, and discrete point-to-point movement may be constructed from three different fundamental modules, one regulating the impedance of the limb over the time span of the movement and two others operating to generate movement, one aligned with the vertical and the other aligned with the horizontal. PMID:25620928

Generation of novel motor sequences: the neural correlates of musical improvisation.

PubMed

Berkowitz, Aaron L; Ansari, Daniel

2008-06-01

While some motor behavior is instinctive and stereotyped or learned and re-executed, much action is a spontaneous response to a novel set of environmental conditions. The neural correlates of both pre-learned and cued motor sequences have been previously studied, but novel motor behavior has thus far not been examined through brain imaging. In this paper, we report a study of musical improvisation in trained pianists with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), using improvisation as a case study of novel action generation. We demonstrate that both rhythmic (temporal) and melodic (ordinal) motor sequence creation modulate activity in a network of brain regions comprised of the dorsal premotor cortex, the rostral cingulate zone of the anterior cingulate cortex, and the inferior frontal gyrus. These findings are consistent with a role for the dorsal premotor cortex in movement coordination, the rostral cingulate zone in voluntary selection, and the inferior frontal gyrus in sequence generation. Thus, the invention of novel motor sequences in musical improvisation recruits a network of brain regions coordinated to generate possible sequences, select among them, and execute the decided-upon sequence.

Knowledge Representation of the Melody and Rhythm in Koto Songs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deguchi, Sachiko; Shirai, Katsuhiko

This paper describes the knowledge representation of the melody and rhythm in koto songs based on the structure of the domain: the scale, melisma (the melody in a syllable), and bar. We have encoded koto scores and extracted 2,3,4-note melodic patterns sequentially from the voice part of koto scores. The 2,3,4-note patterns used in the melisma are limited and the percentages of top patterns are high. The 3,4-note melodic patterns are examined at each scale degree. These patterns are more restricted than the patterns that are possible under the constraint of the scale. These typical patterns on the scale represent the knowledge of koto players. We have analyzed rhythms in two different ways. We have extracted rhythms depending on each melodic pattern, while we have extracted rhythms depending on each bar. The former are complicated and the latter are typical. This result indicates that koto players recognize melodic patterns and rhythmic patterns independently. Our analyses show the melodic patterns and rhythmic patterns that are acquired by koto players. These patterns will be applied to the description of variations of the melisma to build a score database. These patterns will also be applied to a composition and education. The melodic patterns can be extracted from other genres of Japanese traditional music, foreign old folk songs or chants by using this method.

Activity of the C. elegans egg-laying behavior circuit is controlled by competing activation and feedback inhibition

PubMed Central

Collins, Kevin M; Bode, Addys; Fernandez, Robert W; Tanis, Jessica E; Brewer, Jacob C; Creamer, Matthew S; Koelle, Michael R

2016-01-01

Like many behaviors, Caenorhabditis elegans egg laying alternates between inactive and active states. To understand how the underlying neural circuit turns the behavior on and off, we optically recorded circuit activity in behaving animals while manipulating circuit function using mutations, optogenetics, and drugs. In the active state, the circuit shows rhythmic activity phased with the body bends of locomotion. The serotonergic HSN command neurons initiate the active state, but accumulation of unlaid eggs also promotes the active state independent of the HSNs. The cholinergic VC motor neurons slow locomotion during egg-laying muscle contraction and egg release. The uv1 neuroendocrine cells mechanically sense passage of eggs through the vulva and release tyramine to inhibit egg laying, in part via the LGC-55 tyramine-gated Cl- channel on the HSNs. Our results identify discrete signals that entrain or detach the circuit from the locomotion central pattern generator to produce active and inactive states. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21126.001 PMID:27849154

Rhythm in disguise: why singing may not hold the key to recovery from aphasia

PubMed Central

Kotz, Sonja A.; Henseler, Ilona; Turner, Robert; Geyer, Stefan

2011-01-01

The question of whether singing may be helpful for stroke patients with non-fluent aphasia has been debated for many years. However, the role of rhythm in speech recovery appears to have been neglected. In the current lesion study, we aimed to assess the relative importance of melody and rhythm for speech production in 17 non-fluent aphasics. Furthermore, we systematically alternated the lyrics to test for the influence of long-term memory and preserved motor automaticity in formulaic expressions. We controlled for vocal frequency variability, pitch accuracy, rhythmicity, syllable duration, phonetic complexity and other relevant factors, such as learning effects or the acoustic setting. Contrary to some opinion, our data suggest that singing may not be decisive for speech production in non-fluent aphasics. Instead, our results indicate that rhythm may be crucial, particularly for patients with lesions including the basal ganglia. Among the patients we studied, basal ganglia lesions accounted for more than 50% of the variance related to rhythmicity. Our findings therefore suggest that benefits typically attributed to melodic intoning in the past could actually have their roots in rhythm. Moreover, our data indicate that lyric production in non-fluent aphasics may be strongly mediated by long-term memory and motor automaticity, irrespective of whether lyrics are sung or spoken. PMID:21948939

Paving the Way for Speech: Voice-Training-Induced Plasticity in Chronic Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech—Three Single Cases

PubMed Central

Jungblut, Monika; Huber, Walter; Mais, Christiane

2014-01-01

Difficulties with temporal coordination or sequencing of speech movements are frequently reported in aphasia patients with concomitant apraxia of speech (AOS). Our major objective was to investigate the effects of specific rhythmic-melodic voice training on brain activation of those patients. Three patients with severe chronic nonfluent aphasia and AOS were included in this study. Before and after therapy, patients underwent the same fMRI procedure as 30 healthy control subjects in our prestudy, which investigated the neural substrates of sung vowel changes in untrained rhythm sequences. A main finding was that post-minus pretreatment imaging data yielded significant perilesional activations in all patients for example, in the left superior temporal gyrus, whereas the reverse subtraction revealed either no significant activation or right hemisphere activation. Likewise, pre- and posttreatment assessments of patients' vocal rhythm production, language, and speech motor performance yielded significant improvements for all patients. Our results suggest that changes in brain activation due to the applied training might indicate specific processes of reorganization, for example, improved temporal sequencing of sublexical speech components. In this context, a training that focuses on rhythmic singing with differently demanding complexity levels as concerns motor and cognitive capabilities seems to support paving the way for speech. PMID:24977055

Reducing language to rhythm: Amazonian Bora drummed language exploits speech rhythm for long-distance communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seifart, Frank; Meyer, Julien; Grawunder, Sven; Dentel, Laure

2018-04-01

Many drum communication systems around the world transmit information by emulating tonal and rhythmic patterns of spoken languages in sequences of drumbeats. Their rhythmic characteristics, in particular, have not been systematically studied so far, although understanding them represents a rare occasion for providing an original insight into the basic units of speech rhythm as selected by natural speech practices directly based on beats. Here, we analyse a corpus of Bora drum communication from the northwest Amazon, which is nowadays endangered with extinction. We show that four rhythmic units are encoded in the length of pauses between beats. We argue that these units correspond to vowel-to-vowel intervals with different numbers of consonants and vowel lengths. By contrast, aligning beats with syllables, mora or only vowel length yields inconsistent results. Moreover, we also show that Bora drummed messages conventionally select rhythmically distinct markers to further distinguish words. The two phonological tones represented in drummed speech encode only few lexical contrasts. Rhythm thus appears to crucially contribute to the intelligibility of drummed Bora. Our study provides novel evidence for the role of rhythmic structures composed of vowel-to-vowel intervals in the complex puzzle concerning the redundancy and distinctiveness of acoustic features embedded in speech.

Reducing language to rhythm: Amazonian Bora drummed language exploits speech rhythm for long-distance communication

PubMed Central

Grawunder, Sven; Dentel, Laure

2018-01-01

Many drum communication systems around the world transmit information by emulating tonal and rhythmic patterns of spoken languages in sequences of drumbeats. Their rhythmic characteristics, in particular, have not been systematically studied so far, although understanding them represents a rare occasion for providing an original insight into the basic units of speech rhythm as selected by natural speech practices directly based on beats. Here, we analyse a corpus of Bora drum communication from the northwest Amazon, which is nowadays endangered with extinction. We show that four rhythmic units are encoded in the length of pauses between beats. We argue that these units correspond to vowel-to-vowel intervals with different numbers of consonants and vowel lengths. By contrast, aligning beats with syllables, mora or only vowel length yields inconsistent results. Moreover, we also show that Bora drummed messages conventionally select rhythmically distinct markers to further distinguish words. The two phonological tones represented in drummed speech encode only few lexical contrasts. Rhythm thus appears to crucially contribute to the intelligibility of drummed Bora. Our study provides novel evidence for the role of rhythmic structures composed of vowel-to-vowel intervals in the complex puzzle concerning the redundancy and distinctiveness of acoustic features embedded in speech. PMID:29765620

Neural mechanisms of rhythm-based temporal prediction: Delta phase-locking reflects temporal predictability but not rhythmic entrainment.

PubMed

Breska, Assaf; Deouell, Leon Y

2017-02-01

Predicting the timing of upcoming events enables efficient resource allocation and action preparation. Rhythmic streams, such as music, speech, and biological motion, constitute a pervasive source for temporal predictions. Widely accepted entrainment theories postulate that rhythm-based predictions are mediated by synchronizing low-frequency neural oscillations to the rhythm, as indicated by increased phase concentration (PC) of low-frequency neural activity for rhythmic compared to random streams. However, we show here that PC enhancement in scalp recordings is not specific to rhythms but is observed to the same extent in less periodic streams if they enable memory-based prediction. This is inconsistent with the predictions of a computational entrainment model of stronger PC for rhythmic streams. Anticipatory change in alpha activity and facilitation of electroencephalogram (EEG) manifestations of response selection are also comparable between rhythm- and memory-based predictions. However, rhythmic sequences uniquely result in obligatory depression of preparation-related premotor brain activity when an on-beat event is omitted, even when it is strategically beneficial to maintain preparation, leading to larger behavioral costs for violation of prediction. Thus, while our findings undermine the validity of PC as a sign of rhythmic entrainment, they constitute the first electrophysiological dissociation, to our knowledge, between mechanisms of rhythmic predictions and of memory-based predictions: the former obligatorily lead to resonance-like preparation patterns (that are in line with entrainment), while the latter allow flexible resource allocation in time regardless of periodicity in the input. Taken together, they delineate the neural mechanisms of three distinct modes of preparation: continuous vigilance, interval-timing-based prediction and rhythm-based prediction.

Neural mechanisms of rhythm-based temporal prediction: Delta phase-locking reflects temporal predictability but not rhythmic entrainment

PubMed Central

Deouell, Leon Y.

2017-01-01

Predicting the timing of upcoming events enables efficient resource allocation and action preparation. Rhythmic streams, such as music, speech, and biological motion, constitute a pervasive source for temporal predictions. Widely accepted entrainment theories postulate that rhythm-based predictions are mediated by synchronizing low-frequency neural oscillations to the rhythm, as indicated by increased phase concentration (PC) of low-frequency neural activity for rhythmic compared to random streams. However, we show here that PC enhancement in scalp recordings is not specific to rhythms but is observed to the same extent in less periodic streams if they enable memory-based prediction. This is inconsistent with the predictions of a computational entrainment model of stronger PC for rhythmic streams. Anticipatory change in alpha activity and facilitation of electroencephalogram (EEG) manifestations of response selection are also comparable between rhythm- and memory-based predictions. However, rhythmic sequences uniquely result in obligatory depression of preparation-related premotor brain activity when an on-beat event is omitted, even when it is strategically beneficial to maintain preparation, leading to larger behavioral costs for violation of prediction. Thus, while our findings undermine the validity of PC as a sign of rhythmic entrainment, they constitute the first electrophysiological dissociation, to our knowledge, between mechanisms of rhythmic predictions and of memory-based predictions: the former obligatorily lead to resonance-like preparation patterns (that are in line with entrainment), while the latter allow flexible resource allocation in time regardless of periodicity in the input. Taken together, they delineate the neural mechanisms of three distinct modes of preparation: continuous vigilance, interval-timing-based prediction and rhythm-based prediction. PMID:28187128

Awareness of Rhythm Patterns in Speech and Music in Children with Specific Language Impairments

PubMed Central

Cumming, Ruth; Wilson, Angela; Leong, Victoria; Colling, Lincoln J.; Goswami, Usha

2015-01-01

Children with specific language impairments (SLIs) show impaired perception and production of language, and also show impairments in perceiving auditory cues to rhythm [amplitude rise time (ART) and sound duration] and in tapping to a rhythmic beat. Here we explore potential links between language development and rhythm perception in 45 children with SLI and 50 age-matched controls. We administered three rhythmic tasks, a musical beat detection task, a tapping-to-music task, and a novel music/speech task, which varied rhythm and pitch cues independently or together in both speech and music. Via low-pass filtering, the music sounded as though it was played from a low-quality radio and the speech sounded as though it was muffled (heard “behind the door”). We report data for all of the SLI children (N = 45, IQ varying), as well as for two independent subgroupings with intact IQ. One subgroup, “Pure SLI,” had intact phonology and reading (N = 16), the other, “SLI PPR” (N = 15), had impaired phonology and reading. When IQ varied (all SLI children), we found significant group differences in all the rhythmic tasks. For the Pure SLI group, there were rhythmic impairments in the tapping task only. For children with SLI and poor phonology (SLI PPR), group differences were found in all of the filtered speech/music AXB tasks. We conclude that difficulties with rhythmic cues in both speech and music are present in children with SLIs, but that some rhythmic measures are more sensitive than others. The data are interpreted within a “prosodic phrasing” hypothesis, and we discuss the potential utility of rhythmic and musical interventions in remediating speech and language difficulties in children. PMID:26733848

Awareness of Rhythm Patterns in Speech and Music in Children with Specific Language Impairments.

PubMed

Cumming, Ruth; Wilson, Angela; Leong, Victoria; Colling, Lincoln J; Goswami, Usha

2015-01-01

Children with specific language impairments (SLIs) show impaired perception and production of language, and also show impairments in perceiving auditory cues to rhythm [amplitude rise time (ART) and sound duration] and in tapping to a rhythmic beat. Here we explore potential links between language development and rhythm perception in 45 children with SLI and 50 age-matched controls. We administered three rhythmic tasks, a musical beat detection task, a tapping-to-music task, and a novel music/speech task, which varied rhythm and pitch cues independently or together in both speech and music. Via low-pass filtering, the music sounded as though it was played from a low-quality radio and the speech sounded as though it was muffled (heard "behind the door"). We report data for all of the SLI children (N = 45, IQ varying), as well as for two independent subgroupings with intact IQ. One subgroup, "Pure SLI," had intact phonology and reading (N = 16), the other, "SLI PPR" (N = 15), had impaired phonology and reading. When IQ varied (all SLI children), we found significant group differences in all the rhythmic tasks. For the Pure SLI group, there were rhythmic impairments in the tapping task only. For children with SLI and poor phonology (SLI PPR), group differences were found in all of the filtered speech/music AXB tasks. We conclude that difficulties with rhythmic cues in both speech and music are present in children with SLIs, but that some rhythmic measures are more sensitive than others. The data are interpreted within a "prosodic phrasing" hypothesis, and we discuss the potential utility of rhythmic and musical interventions in remediating speech and language difficulties in children.

Effects of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission on motor patterns of human sigmoid colon in vitro

PubMed Central

Aulí, M; Martínez, E; Gallego, D; Opazo, A; Espín, F; Martí-Gallostra, M; Jiménez, M; Clavé, P

2008-01-01

Background and purpose: To characterize the in vitro motor patterns and the neurotransmitters released by enteric motor neurons (EMNs) in the human sigmoid colon. Experimental approach: Sigmoid circular strips were studied in organ baths. EMNs were stimulated by electrical field stimulation (EFS) and through nicotinic ACh receptors. Key results: Strips developed weak spontaneous rhythmic contractions (3.67±0.49 g, 2.54±0.15 min) unaffected by the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX; 1 μM). EFS induced strong contractions during (on, 56%) or after electrical stimulus (off, 44%), both abolished by TTX. Nicotine (1–100 μM) inhibited spontaneous contractions. Latency of off-contractions and nicotine responses were reduced by NG-nitro-L-arginine (1 mM) and blocked after further addition of apamin (1 μM) or the P2Y1 receptor antagonist MRS 2179 (10 μM) and were unaffected by the P2X antagonist NF279 (10 μM) or α-chymotrypsin (10 U mL−1). Amplitude of on- and off-contractions was reduced by atropine (1 μM) and the selective NK2 receptor antagonist Bz-Ala-Ala-D-Trp-Phe-D-Pro-Pro-Nle-NH2 (1 μM). MRS 2179 reduced the amplitude of EFS on- and off-contractions without altering direct muscular contractions induced by ACh (1 nM–1 mM) or substance P (1 nM–10 μM). Conclusions and implications: Latency of EFS-induced off-contractions and inhibition of spontaneous motility by nicotine are caused by stimulation of inhibitory EMNs coreleasing NO and a purine acting at muscular P2Y1 receptors through apamin-sensitive K+ channels. EFS-induced on- and off-contractions are caused by stimulation of excitatory EMNs coreleasing ACh and tachykinins acting on muscular muscarinic and NK2 receptors. Prejunctional P2Y1 receptors might modulate the activity of excitatory EMNs. P2Y1 and NK2 receptors might be therapeutic targets for colonic motor disorders. PMID:18846038

Transitions between Multiband Oscillatory Patterns Characterize Memory-Guided Perceptual Decisions in Prefrontal Circuits.

PubMed

Wimmer, Klaus; Ramon, Marc; Pasternak, Tatiana; Compte, Albert

2016-01-13

Neuronal activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) reflects the structure and cognitive demands of memory-guided sensory discrimination tasks. However, we still do not know how neuronal activity articulates in network states involved in perceiving, remembering, and comparing sensory information during such tasks. Oscillations in local field potentials (LFPs) provide fingerprints of such network dynamics. Here, we examined LFPs recorded from LPFC of macaques while they compared the directions or the speeds of two moving random-dot patterns, S1 and S2, separated by a delay. LFP activity in the theta, beta, and gamma bands tracked consecutive components of the task. In response to motion stimuli, LFP theta and gamma power increased, and beta power decreased, but showed only weak motion selectivity. In the delay, LFP beta power modulation anticipated the onset of S2 and encoded the task-relevant S1 feature, suggesting network dynamics associated with memory maintenance. After S2 onset the difference between the current stimulus S2 and the remembered S1 was strongly reflected in broadband LFP activity, with an early sensory-related component proportional to stimulus difference and a later choice-related component reflecting the behavioral decision buildup. Our results demonstrate that individual LFP bands reflect both sensory and cognitive processes engaged independently during different stages of the task. This activation pattern suggests that during elementary cognitive tasks, the prefrontal network transitions dynamically between states and that these transitions are characterized by the conjunction of LFP rhythms rather than by single LFP bands. Neurons in the brain communicate through electrical impulses and coordinate this activity in ensembles that pulsate rhythmically, very much like musical instruments in an orchestra. These rhythms change with "brain state," from sleep to waking, but also signal with different oscillation frequencies rapid changes between sensory and cognitive processing. Here, we studied rhythmic electrical activity in the monkey prefrontal cortex, an area implicated in working memory, decision making, and executive control. Monkeys had to identify and remember a visual motion pattern and compare it to a second pattern. We found orderly transitions between rhythmic activity where the same frequency channels were active in all ongoing prefrontal computations. This supports prefrontal circuit dynamics that transitions rapidly between complex rhythmic patterns during structured cognitive tasks. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/360489-17$15.00/0.

The control of locomotor frequency by excitation and inhibition

PubMed Central

Li, Wen-Chang; Moult, Peter R

2012-01-01

Every type of neural rhythm has its own operational range of frequency. Neuronal mechanisms underlying rhythms at different frequencies, however, are poorly understood. We use a simple aquatic vertebrate, the two day old Xenopus tadpole, to investigate how the brainstem and spinal circuits generate swimming rhythms of different speeds. We first determined that the basic motor output pattern was not altered with varying swimming frequencies. The firing reliability of different types of rhythmic neuron involved in swimming was then analysed. The results showed that there was a drop in the firing reliability in some inhibitory interneurons when fictive swimming slowed. We have recently established that premotor excitatory interneurons (descending interneurons; dINs) are critical in rhythmically driving activity in the swimming circuit. Voltage-clamp recordings from dINs showed higher frequency swimming correlated with stronger background excitation and phasic inhibition, but did not correlate with phasic excitation. Two parallel mechanisms have been proposed for tadpole swimming maintenance: post-inhibition rebound firing and NMDA receptor (NMDAR) dependent pace-maker firing in dINs. Rebound tests in dINs in this study showed that greater background depolarization and phasic inhibition led to faster rebound firing. Higher depolarization was previously shown to accelerate dIN pace-maker firing in the presence of NMDA. Here we show that enhancing dIN background excitation during swimming speeds up fictive swimming frequency whilst weakening phasic inhibition without changing background excitation slows down swimming rhythms. We conclude that both strong background excitation and phasic inhibition can promote faster tadpole swimming. PMID:22553028

GABAergic inhibition of leg motoneurons is required for normal walking behavior in freely moving Drosophila

PubMed Central

Gowda, Swetha B. M.; Paranjpe, Pushkar D.; Reddy, O. Venkateswara; Thiagarajan, Devasena; Palliyil, Sudhir; Reichert, Heinrich

2018-01-01

Walking is a complex rhythmic locomotor behavior generated by sequential and periodical contraction of muscles essential for coordinated control of movements of legs and leg joints. Studies of walking in vertebrates and invertebrates have revealed that premotor neural circuitry generates a basic rhythmic pattern that is sculpted by sensory feedback and ultimately controls the amplitude and phase of the motor output to leg muscles. However, the identity and functional roles of the premotor interneurons that directly control leg motoneuron activity are poorly understood. Here we take advantage of the powerful genetic methodology available in Drosophila to investigate the role of premotor inhibition in walking by genetically suppressing inhibitory input to leg motoneurons. For this, we have developed an algorithm for automated analysis of leg motion to characterize the walking parameters of wild-type flies from high-speed video recordings. Further, we use genetic reagents for targeted RNAi knockdown of inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors in leg motoneurons together with quantitative analysis of resulting changes in leg movement parameters in freely walking Drosophila. Our findings indicate that targeted down-regulation of the GABAA receptor Rdl (Resistance to Dieldrin) in leg motoneurons results in a dramatic reduction of walking speed and step length without the loss of general leg coordination during locomotion. Genetically restricting the knockdown to the adult stage and subsets of motoneurons yields qualitatively identical results. Taken together, these findings identify GABAergic premotor inhibition of motoneurons as an important determinant of correctly coordinated leg movements and speed of walking in freely behaving Drosophila. PMID:29440493

GABAergic inhibition of leg motoneurons is required for normal walking behavior in freely moving Drosophila.

PubMed

Gowda, Swetha B M; Paranjpe, Pushkar D; Reddy, O Venkateswara; Thiagarajan, Devasena; Palliyil, Sudhir; Reichert, Heinrich; VijayRaghavan, K

2018-02-27

Walking is a complex rhythmic locomotor behavior generated by sequential and periodical contraction of muscles essential for coordinated control of movements of legs and leg joints. Studies of walking in vertebrates and invertebrates have revealed that premotor neural circuitry generates a basic rhythmic pattern that is sculpted by sensory feedback and ultimately controls the amplitude and phase of the motor output to leg muscles. However, the identity and functional roles of the premotor interneurons that directly control leg motoneuron activity are poorly understood. Here we take advantage of the powerful genetic methodology available in Drosophila to investigate the role of premotor inhibition in walking by genetically suppressing inhibitory input to leg motoneurons. For this, we have developed an algorithm for automated analysis of leg motion to characterize the walking parameters of wild-type flies from high-speed video recordings. Further, we use genetic reagents for targeted RNAi knockdown of inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors in leg motoneurons together with quantitative analysis of resulting changes in leg movement parameters in freely walking Drosophila Our findings indicate that targeted down-regulation of the GABA A receptor Rdl (Resistance to Dieldrin) in leg motoneurons results in a dramatic reduction of walking speed and step length without the loss of general leg coordination during locomotion. Genetically restricting the knockdown to the adult stage and subsets of motoneurons yields qualitatively identical results. Taken together, these findings identify GABAergic premotor inhibition of motoneurons as an important determinant of correctly coordinated leg movements and speed of walking in freely behaving Drosophila . Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Decoding magnetoencephalographic rhythmic activity using spectrospatial information.

PubMed

Kauppi, Jukka-Pekka; Parkkonen, Lauri; Hari, Riitta; Hyvärinen, Aapo

2013-12-01

We propose a new data-driven decoding method called Spectral Linear Discriminant Analysis (Spectral LDA) for the analysis of magnetoencephalography (MEG). The method allows investigation of changes in rhythmic neural activity as a result of different stimuli and tasks. The introduced classification model only assumes that each "brain state" can be characterized as a combination of neural sources, each of which shows rhythmic activity at one or several frequency bands. Furthermore, the model allows the oscillation frequencies to be different for each such state. We present decoding results from 9 subjects in a four-category classification problem defined by an experiment involving randomly alternating epochs of auditory, visual and tactile stimuli interspersed with rest periods. The performance of Spectral LDA was very competitive compared with four alternative classifiers based on different assumptions concerning the organization of rhythmic brain activity. In addition, the spectral and spatial patterns extracted automatically on the basis of trained classifiers showed that Spectral LDA offers a novel and interesting way of analyzing spectrospatial oscillatory neural activity across the brain. All the presented classification methods and visualization tools are freely available as a Matlab toolbox. © 2013.

Status epilepticus in the elderly: Prognostic implications of rhythmic and periodic patterns in electroencephalography and hyperintensities on diffusion-weighted imaging.

PubMed

Yoshimura, Hajime; Matsumoto, Riki; Ueda, Hiroyuki; Ariyoshi, Koichi; Kawamoto, Michi; Ishii, Junko; Ikeda, Akio; Takahashi, Ryosuke; Kohara, Nobuo

2016-11-15

To delineate the clinical characteristics and functional outcome of status epilepticus (SE) in elderly people, and elucidate prognostic implications of SE-associated rhythmic and periodic patterns (RPPs) in electroencephalography and hyperintensities on diffusion-weighted imaging. We retrospectively investigated 107 consecutive patients with SE aged≥65years in a comprehensive community hospital. RPPs were classified using the 2012 American Clinical Neurophysiology Society's Standardized Critical Care EEG Terminology. Poor outcome was defined as an increase in modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at discharge compared with that at baseline, including death. Median age of patients was 80.0years. Median mRS score at baseline was 3. Thirty-four patients (31.8%) had a previous diagnosis of epilepsy. Cerebrovascular disease and dementia were major etiologies. Poor outcome occurred in 41 (38.3%). In electroencephalography, periodic discharges (PDs) were present in 21.0% (22/105), rhythmic delta activity (RDA) in 10.5% (11/105), and conventional seizure patterns in 9.5% (10/105). Diffusion-weighted hyperintensities associated with SE were observed in 28.0% (26/93). With univariate analysis, poor outcome was significantly associated with no previous diagnosis of epilepsy, etiology, refractory SE, specific electroencephalographic patterns (PDs and conventional seizure patterns, but not RDA), and diffusion-weighted hyperintensities. With multivariate logistic regression analysis, diffusion-weighted hyperintensities (OR 6.13 [95% CI 1.72-21.9]) and refractory SE (OR 5.36 [95% CI 1.28-22.4]) were independently associated with poor outcome. SE often occurred as the first seizure in already disabled elderly people, further worsening their functional disabilities. Diffusion-weighted hyperintensities and refractory SE, but not RPPs in electroencephalography, were independent functional prognostic factors. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Electrical and Optogenetic Deep Brain Stimulation on Synchronized Oscillatory Activity in Parkinsonian Basal Ganglia.

PubMed

Ratnadurai-Giridharan, Shivakeshavan; Cheung, Chung C; Rubchinsky, Leonid L

2017-11-01

Conventional deep brain stimulation of basal ganglia uses high-frequency regular electrical pulses to treat Parkinsonian motor symptoms but has a series of limitations. Relatively new and not yet clinically tested, optogenetic stimulation is an effective experimental stimulation technique to affect pathological network dynamics. We compared the effects of electrical and optogenetic stimulation of the basal gangliaon the pathologicalParkinsonian rhythmic neural activity. We studied the network response to electrical stimulation and excitatory and inhibitory optogenetic stimulations. Different stimulations exhibit different interactions with pathological activity in the network. We studied these interactions for different network and stimulation parameter values. Optogenetic stimulation was found to be more efficient than electrical stimulation in suppressing pathological rhythmicity. Our findings indicate that optogenetic control of neural synchrony may be more efficacious than electrical control because of the different ways of how stimulations interact with network dynamics.

Motor system evolution and the emergence of high cognitive functions.

PubMed

Mendoza, Germán; Merchant, Hugo

2014-11-01

In human and nonhuman primates, the cortical motor system comprises a collection of brain areas primarily related to motor control. Existing evidence suggests that no other mammalian group has the number, extension, and complexity of motor-related areas observed in the frontal lobe of primates. Such diversity is probably related to the wide behavioral flexibility that primates display. Indeed, recent comparative anatomical, psychophysical, and neurophysiological studies suggest that the evolution of the motor cortical areas closely correlates with the emergence of high cognitive abilities. Advances in understanding the cortical motor system have shown that these areas are also related to functions previously linked to higher-order associative areas. In addition, experimental observations have shown that the classical distinction between perceptual and motor functions is not strictly followed across cortical areas. In this paper, we review evidence suggesting that evolution of the motor system had a role in the shaping of different cognitive functions in primates. We argue that the increase in the complexity of the motor system has contributed to the emergence of new abilities observed in human and nonhuman primates, including the recognition and imitation of the actions of others, speech perception and production, and the execution and appreciation of the rhythmic structure of music. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

NeuroRhythmics: software for analyzing time-series measurements of saltatory movements in neuronal processes.

PubMed

Kerlin, Aaron M; Lindsley, Tara A

2008-08-15

Time-lapse imaging of living neurons both in vivo and in vitro has revealed that the growth of axons and dendrites is highly dynamic and characterized by alternating periods of extension and retraction. These growth dynamics are associated with important features of neuronal development and are differentially affected by experimental treatments, but the underlying cellular mechanisms are poorly understood. NeuroRhythmics was developed to semi-automate specific quantitative tasks involved in analysis of two-dimensional time-series images of processes that exhibit saltatory elongation. This software provides detailed information on periods of growth and nongrowth that it identifies by transitions in elongation (i.e. initiation time, average rate, duration) and information regarding the overall pattern of saltatory growth (i.e. time of pattern onset, frequency of transitions, relative time spent in a state of growth vs. nongrowth). Plots and numeric output are readily imported into other applications. The user has the option to specify criteria for identifying transitions in growth behavior, which extends the potential application of the software to neurons of different types or developmental stage and to other time-series phenomena that exhibit saltatory dynamics. NeuroRhythmics will facilitate mechanistic studies of periodic axonal and dendritic growth in neurons.

To the Beat of Your Own Drum: Cortical Regularization of Non-Integer Ratio Rhythms toward Metrical Patterns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Motz, Benjamin A.; Erickson, Molly A.; Hetrick, William P.

2013-01-01

Humans perceive a wide range of temporal patterns, including those rhythms that occur in music, speech, and movement; however, there are constraints on the rhythmic patterns that we can represent. Past research has shown that sequences in which sounds occur regularly at non-metrical locations in a repeating beat period (non-integer ratio…

Localized Release of Serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine) by a Fecal Pellet Regulates Migrating Motor Complexes in Murine Colon

PubMed Central

HEREDIA, DANTE J.; DICKSON, EAMONN J.; BAYGUINOV, PETER O.; HENNIG, GRANT W.; SMITH, TERENCE K.

2009-01-01

Background & Aims The colonic migrating motor complex (CMMC) is a motor pattern that regulates the movement of fecal matter, through a rhythmic sequence of electrical activity and/or contractions, along the large bowel. CMMCs have largely been studied in empty preparations; we investigated whether local reflexes generated by a fecal pellet modify the CMMC to initiate propulsive activity. Methods Recordings of CMMCs were made from the isolated murine large bowel, with or without a fecal pellet. Transducers were placed along the colon to record muscle tension and propulsive force on the pellet and microelectrodes were used to record electrical activity from circular muscle cells anal and oral of a pellet and in colons without the mucosa. Results Spontaneous CMMCs propagated in both an oral or anal direction. When a pellet was inserted, CMMCs increased in frequency and propagated anally, exerting propulsive force on the pellet. The amplitude of slow waves increased during the CMMC. Localized mucosal stimulation/circumferential stretch evoked a CMMC, regardless of stimulus strength. The serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine-3) antagonist ondansetron reduced the amplitude of the CMMC, the propulsive force on the pellet, and the response to mucosal stroking, but increased the apparent conduction velocity of the CMMC. Removing the mucosa abolished spontaneous CMMCs, which still could be evoked by electrical stimulation. Conclusions The fecal pellet activates local mucosal reflexes, which release serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) from enterochromaffin cells, and stretch reflexes that determine the site of origin and propagation of the CMMC, facilitating propulsion. PMID:19138686

Effect of Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation on Hemiplegic Gait Patterns

PubMed Central

Shin, Yoon-Kyum; Chong, Hyun Ju

2015-01-01

Purpose The purpose of our study was to investigate the effect of gait training with rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) on both kinematic and temporospatial gait patterns in patients with hemiplegia. Materials and Methods Eighteen hemiplegic patients diagnosed with either cerebral palsy or stroke participated in this study. All participants underwent the 4-week gait training with RAS. The treatment was performed for 30 minutes per each session, three sessions per week. RAS was provided with rhythmic beats using a chord progression on a keyboard. Kinematic and temporospatial data were collected and analyzed using a three-dimensional motion analysis system. Results Gait training with RAS significantly improved both proximal and distal joint kinematic patterns in hip adduction, knee flexion, and ankle plantar flexion, enhancing the gait deviation index (GDI) as well as ameliorating temporal asymmetry of the stance and swing phases in patients with hemiplegia. Stroke patients with previous walking experience demonstrated significant kinematic improvement in knee flexion in mid-swing and ankle dorsiflexion in terminal stance. Among stroke patients, subacute patients showed a significantly increased GDI score compared with chronic patients. In addition, household ambulators showed a significant effect on reducing anterior tilt of the pelvis with an enhanced GDI score, while community ambulators significantly increased knee flexion in mid-swing phase and ankle dorsiflexion in terminal stance phase. Conclusion Gait training with RAS has beneficial effects on both kinematic and temporospatial patterns in patients with hemiplegia, providing not only clinical implications of locomotor rehabilitation with goal-oriented external feedback using RAS but also differential effects according to ambulatory function. PMID:26446657

Changing patterns of daily rhythmicity across reproductive states in diurnal female Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus)

PubMed Central

Schradera, Jessica A.; Walaszczykb, Erin J.; Smalea, Laura

2009-01-01

SCHRADER, J.A., E. J. WALASZCZYK, AND L. SMALE. Changing patterns of daily rhythmicity across reproductive states in diurnal female Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus). PHYSIOL BEHAV XX(X) XXX-XXX, XXXX. -- A suite of changes in circadian rhythms have been described in nocturnal rodents as females go through pregnancy and lactation, but there is no information on such patterns in diurnal species. As the challenges faced by these two groups of animals are somewhat different, we characterized changes in activity and core body temperature (Tb) in female diurnal Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus) as they went through a series of reproductive states: virgin, pregnant, pregnant and lactating, lactating only, and post-weaning. The phase of neither rhythm varied, but the amplitude did. Females increased their overall levels of daily activity from early to late pregnancy, regardless of whether they were also lactating. The pattern of activity was less rhythmic during early than mid-lactation, in both non-pregnant and pregnant females, as a consequence of a decrease in daytime relative to nighttime activity. The Tb rhythm amplitude dropped from mid-pregnancy through mid-lactation, and there were rises in Tb troughs during the mid-light and mid-dark phases of the day, though pregnancy and lactation affected Tb at these times in somewhat different ways. This study demonstrates that rhythms in diurnal grass rats change during pregnancy and lactation in different ways than those of nocturnal species that have been studied to date and that the effects of pregnancy and lactation are not additive in any simple way. PMID:19744504

The alpha-motoneuron pool as transmitter of rhythmicities in cortical motor drive.

PubMed

Stegeman, Dick F; van de Ven, Wendy J M; van Elswijk, Gijs A; Oostenveld, Robert; Kleine, Bert U

2010-10-01

Investigate the effectiveness and frequency dependence of central drive transmission via the alpha-motoneuron pool to the muscle. We describe a model for the simulation of alpha-motoneuron firing and the EMG signal as response to central drive input. The transfer in the frequency domain is investigated. Coherence between stochastical central input and EMG is also evaluated. The transmission of central rhythmicities to the EMG signal relates to the spectral content of the latter. Coherence between central input to the alpha-motoneuron pool and the EMG signal is significant whereby the coupling strength hardly depends on the frequency in a range from 1 to 100 Hz. Common central input to pairs of alpha-motoneurons strongly increases the coherence levels. The often-used rectification of the EMG signal introduces a clear frequency dependence. Oscillatory phenomena are strongly transmitted via the alpha-motoneuron pool. The motoneuron firing frequencies do play a role in the transmission gain, but do not influence the coherence levels. Rectification of the EMG signal enhances the transmission gain, but lowers coherence and introduces a strong frequency dependency. We think that it should be avoided. Our findings show that rhythmicities are translated into alpha-motoneuron activity without strong non-linearities. Copyright 2010 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Auditory Magnetoencephalographic Frequency-Tagged Responses Mirror the Ongoing Segmentation Processes Underlying Statistical Learning.

PubMed

Farthouat, Juliane; Franco, Ana; Mary, Alison; Delpouve, Julie; Wens, Vincent; Op de Beeck, Marc; De Tiège, Xavier; Peigneux, Philippe

2017-03-01

Humans are highly sensitive to statistical regularities in their environment. This phenomenon, usually referred as statistical learning, is most often assessed using post-learning behavioural measures that are limited by a lack of sensibility and do not monitor the temporal dynamics of learning. In the present study, we used magnetoencephalographic frequency-tagged responses to investigate the neural sources and temporal development of the ongoing brain activity that supports the detection of regularities embedded in auditory streams. Participants passively listened to statistical streams in which tones were grouped as triplets, and to random streams in which tones were randomly presented. Results show that during exposure to statistical (vs. random) streams, tritone frequency-related responses reflecting the learning of regularities embedded in the stream increased in the left supplementary motor area and left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), whereas tone frequency-related responses decreased in the right angular gyrus and right pSTS. Tritone frequency-related responses rapidly developed to reach significance after 3 min of exposure. These results suggest that the incidental extraction of novel regularities is subtended by a gradual shift from rhythmic activity reflecting individual tone succession toward rhythmic activity synchronised with triplet presentation, and that these rhythmic processes are subtended by distinct neural sources.

Effects of rhythmic exercise performed to music on the rheological properties of blood in women over 60 years of age.

PubMed

Marchewka, Anna; Filar-Mierzwa, Katarzyna; Dąbrowski, Zbigniew; Teległó, Aneta

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of motor rehabilitation, in the form of rhythmic exercise to music, on the rheological characteristics of blood in older women. The study included 30 women (65-80 years of age), and the control group was comprised of 10 women of corresponding age. Women from the experimental group were subjected to a five-month rehabilitation program, in the form of rhythmic exercise performed to music (three 30-minute sessions per week); women from the control group were not involved in any regular physical activity. Blood samples from all the women were examined for hematological, rheological, and biochemical parameters prior to the study and five months thereafter. The rehabilitation program was reflected by a significant improvement of erythrocyte count and hematocrit. Furthermore, an improvement of erythrocyte deformability was observed by lower shear stress levels, while no significant changes were noted by the higher shear stress values. The rehabilitation resulted in a marked decrease of the aggregation amplitude while no significant changes were observed in aggregation index and total aggregation half-time. Additionally, the training regimen was reflected by a significant increase in the plasma viscosity, while no significant changes in fibrinogen levels were noted.

Spinal microcircuits comprising dI3 interneurons are necessary for motor functional recovery following spinal cord transection

PubMed Central

Bui, Tuan V; Stifani, Nicolas; Akay, Turgay; Brownstone, Robert M

2016-01-01

The spinal cord has the capacity to coordinate motor activities such as locomotion. Following spinal transection, functional activity can be regained, to a degree, following motor training. To identify microcircuits involved in this recovery, we studied a population of mouse spinal interneurons known to receive direct afferent inputs and project to intermediate and ventral regions of the spinal cord. We demonstrate that while dI3 interneurons are not necessary for normal locomotor activity, locomotor circuits rhythmically inhibit them and dI3 interneurons can activate these circuits. Removing dI3 interneurons from spinal microcircuits by eliminating their synaptic transmission left locomotion more or less unchanged, but abolished functional recovery, indicating that dI3 interneurons are a necessary cellular substrate for motor system plasticity following transection. We suggest that dI3 interneurons compare inputs from locomotor circuits with sensory afferent inputs to compute sensory prediction errors that then modify locomotor circuits to effect motor recovery. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21715.001 PMID:27977000

Northern Elephant Seals Memorize the Rhythm and Timbre of Their Rivals' Voices.

PubMed

Mathevon, Nicolas; Casey, Caroline; Reichmuth, Colleen; Charrier, Isabelle

2017-08-07

The evolutionary origin of rhythm perception, a cognitive ability essential to musicality, remains unresolved [1-5]. The ability to perceive and memorize rhythmic sounds is widely shared among humans [6] but seems rare among other mammals [7, 8]. Although the perception of temporal metrical patterns has been found in a few species, this ability has only been demonstrated through behavioral training [9] (but see [10] for an example of spontaneous tempo coordination in a bonobo), and there is no experimental evidence to indicate its biological function. Furthermore, there is no example of a non-human mammal able to remember and recognize auditory rhythmic patterns among a wide range of tempi. In the northern elephant seal Mirounga angustirostris, the calls of mature males comprise a rhythmic series of pulses, with the call of each individual characterized by its tempo and timbre; these individual vocal signatures are stable over years and across contexts [11]. Here, we report that northern elephant seal males routinely memorize and recognize the unique tempo and timbre of their rivals' voices and use this rhythmic information to individually identify competitors, which facilitates navigation within the social network of the rookery. By performing playbacks with natural and modified vocalizations, we show that males are sensitive to call rhythm disruption independently of modification of spectral features and that they use both temporal and spectral cues to identify familiar rivals. While spectral features of calls typically encode individual identity in mammalian vocalizations [12], this is the first example of this phenomenon involving sound rhythm. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural mechanism of optimal limb coordination in crustacean swimming

PubMed Central

Zhang, Calvin; Guy, Robert D.; Mulloney, Brian; Zhang, Qinghai; Lewis, Timothy J.

2014-01-01

A fundamental challenge in neuroscience is to understand how biologically salient motor behaviors emerge from properties of the underlying neural circuits. Crayfish, krill, prawns, lobsters, and other long-tailed crustaceans swim by rhythmically moving limbs called swimmerets. Over the entire biological range of animal size and paddling frequency, movements of adjacent swimmerets maintain an approximate quarter-period phase difference with the more posterior limbs leading the cycle. We use a computational fluid dynamics model to show that this frequency-invariant stroke pattern is the most effective and mechanically efficient paddling rhythm across the full range of biologically relevant Reynolds numbers in crustacean swimming. We then show that the organization of the neural circuit underlying swimmeret coordination provides a robust mechanism for generating this stroke pattern. Specifically, the wave-like limb coordination emerges robustly from a combination of the half-center structure of the local central pattern generating circuits (CPGs) that drive the movements of each limb, the asymmetric network topology of the connections between local CPGs, and the phase response properties of the local CPGs, which we measure experimentally. Thus, the crustacean swimmeret system serves as a concrete example in which the architecture of a neural circuit leads to optimal behavior in a robust manner. Furthermore, we consider all possible connection topologies between local CPGs and show that the natural connectivity pattern generates the biomechanically optimal stroke pattern most robustly. Given the high metabolic cost of crustacean swimming, our results suggest that natural selection has pushed the swimmeret neural circuit toward a connection topology that produces optimal behavior. PMID:25201976

Extensive circadian and light regulation of the transcriptome in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Mosquitoes exhibit 24 hr rhythms in flight activity, feeding, reproduction and development. To better understand the molecular basis for these rhythms in the nocturnal malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, we have utilized microarray analysis on time-of-day specific collections of mosquitoes over 48 hr to explore the coregulation of gene expression rhythms by the circadian clock and light, and compare these with the 24 hr rhythmic gene expression in the diurnal Aedes aegypti dengue vector mosquito. Results In time courses from An. gambiae head and body collected under light:dark cycle (LD) and constant dark (DD) conditions, we applied three algorithms that detect sinusoidal patterns and an algorithm that detects spikes in expression. This revealed across four experimental conditions 393 probes newly scored as rhythmic. These genes correspond to functions such as metabolic detoxification, immunity and nutrient sensing. This includes glutathione S-transferase GSTE5, whose expression pattern and chromosomal location are shared with other genes, suggesting shared chromosomal regulation; and pulsatile expression of the gene encoding CYP6M2, a cytochrome P450 that metabolizes pyrethroid insecticides. We explored the interaction of light and the circadian clock and highlight the regulation of odorant binding proteins (OBPs), important components of the olfactory system. We reveal that OBPs have unique expression patterns as mosquitoes make the transition from LD to DD conditions. We compared rhythmic expression between An. gambiae and Ae. aegypti heads collected under LD conditions using a single cosine fitting algorithm, and report distinct similarities and differences in the temporal regulation of genes involved in tRNA priming, the vesicular-type ATPase, olfaction and vision between the two species. Conclusions These data build on our previous analyses of time-of-day specific regulation of the An. gambiae transcriptome to reveal additional rhythmic genes, an improved understanding of the co-regulation of rhythms in gene expression by the circadian clock and by light, and an understanding of the time-of-day specific regulation of some of these rhythmic processes in comparison with a different species of mosquito. Improved understanding of biological timing at the molecular level that underlies key physiological aspects of mosquito vectors may prove to be important to successful implementation of established and novel insect control methods. PMID:23552056

Molecular bases of circadian rhythmicity in renal physiology and pathology

PubMed Central

Bonny, Olivier; Vinciguerra, Manlio; Gumz, Michelle L.; Mazzoccoli, Gianluigi

2013-01-01

The physiological processes that maintain body homeostasis oscillate during the day. Diurnal changes characterize kidney functions, comprising regulation of hydro-electrolytic and acid-base balance, reabsorption of small solutes and hormone production. Renal physiology is characterized by 24-h periodicity and contributes to circadian variability of blood pressure levels, related as well to nychthemeral changes of sodium sensitivity, physical activity, vascular tone, autonomic function and neurotransmitter release from sympathetic innervations. The circadian rhythmicity of body physiology is driven by central and peripheral biological clockworks and entrained by the geophysical light/dark cycle. Chronodisruption, defined as the mismatch between environmental–social cues and physiological–behavioral patterns, causes internal desynchronization of periodic functions, leading to pathophysiological mechanisms underlying degenerative, immune related, metabolic and neoplastic diseases. In this review we will address the genetic, molecular and anatomical elements that hardwire circadian rhythmicity in renal physiology and subtend disarray of time–dependent changes in renal pathology. PMID:23901050

Surmounting retraining limits in musicians' dystonia by transcranial stimulation.

PubMed

Furuya, Shinichi; Nitsche, Michael A; Paulus, Walter; Altenmüller, Eckart

2014-05-01

Abnormal cortical excitability is evident in various movement disorders that compromise fine motor control. Here we tested whether skilled finger movements can be restored in musicians with focal hand dystonia through behavioral training assisted by transcranial direct current stimulation to the motor cortex of both hemispheres. The bilateral motor cortices of 20 pianists (10 with focal dystonia, 10 healthy controls) were electrically stimulated noninvasively during bimanual mirrored finger movements. We found improvement in the rhythmic accuracy of sequential finger movements with the affected hand during and after cathodal stimulation over the affected cortex and simultaneous anodal stimulation over the unaffected cortex. The improvement was retained 4 days after intervention. Neither a stimulation with the reversed montage of electrodes nor sham stimulation yielded any improvement. Furthermore, the amount of improvement was positively correlated with the severity of the symptoms. Bihemispheric stimulation without concurrent motor training failed to improve fine motor control, underlining the importance of combined retraining and stimulation for restoring the dystonic symptoms. For the healthy pianists, none of the stimulation protocols enhanced movement accuracy. These results suggest a therapeutic potential of behavioral training assisted by bihemispheric, noninvasive brain stimulation in restoring fine motor control in focal dystonia. © 2014 American Neurological Association.

Impaired Visual Motor Coordination in Obese Adults.

PubMed

Gaul, David; Mat, Arimin; O'Shea, Donal; Issartel, Johann

2016-01-01

Objective. To investigate whether obesity alters the sensory motor integration process and movement outcome during a visual rhythmic coordination task. Methods. 88 participants (44 obese and 44 matched control) sat on a chair equipped with a wrist pendulum oscillating in the sagittal plane. The task was to swing the pendulum in synchrony with a moving visual stimulus displayed on a screen. Results. Obese participants demonstrated significantly ( p < 0.01) higher values for continuous relative phase (CRP) indicating poorer level of coordination, increased movement variability ( p < 0.05), and a larger amplitude ( p < 0.05) than their healthy weight counterparts. Conclusion. These results highlight the existence of visual sensory integration deficiencies for obese participants. The obese group have greater difficulty in synchronizing their movement with a visual stimulus. Considering that visual motor coordination is an essential component of many activities of daily living, any impairment could significantly affect quality of life.

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus affects resting EEG and visual evoked potentials in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Jech, Robert; Růzicka, Evzen; Urgosík, Dusan; Serranová, Tereza; Volfová, Markéta; Nováková, Olga; Roth, Jan; Dusek, Petr; Mecír, Petr

2006-05-01

We studied changes of the EEG spectral power induced by deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Also analyzed were changes of visual evoked potentials (VEP) with DBS on and off. Eleven patients with advanced PD treated with bilateral DBS STN were examined after an overnight withdrawal of L-DOPA and 2 h after switching off the neurostimulators. All underwent clinical examination followed by resting EEG and VEP recordings, a procedure repeated after DBS STN was switched on. With DBS switched on, the dominant EEG frequency increased from 9.44+/-1.3 to 9.71+/-1.3 Hz (P<0.01) while its relative spectral power dropped by 11% on average (P<0.05). Switching on the neurostimulators caused a decrease in the N70/P100 amplitude of the VEP (P<0.01), which inversely correlated with the intensity of DBS (black-and-white pattern: P<0.01; color pattern: P<0.05). Despite artifacts generated by neurostimulators, the VEP and resting EEG were suitable for the detection of effects related to DBS STN. The acceleration of dominant frequency in the alpha band may be evidence of DBS STN influence on speeding up of intracortical oscillations. The spectral power decrease, seen mainly in the fronto-central region, might reflect a desynchronization in the premotor and motor circuits, though no movement was executed. Similarly, desynchronization of the cortical activity recorded posteriorly may by responsible for the VEP amplitude decrease implying DBS STN-related influence even on the visual system. Changes in idling EEG activity observed diffusely over scalp together with involvement of the VEP suggest that the effects of DBS STN reach far beyond the motor system influencing the basic mechanisms of rhythmic cortical oscillations.

Fundamental movement skills in preschoolers: a randomized controlled trial targeting object control proficiency.

PubMed

Donath, L; Faude, O; Hagmann, S; Roth, R; Zahner, L

2015-11-01

Adequately developed fundamental movement skills, particularly object control dimensions, are considered essential to learn more complex movement patterns and to increase the likelihood to successfully participate in organized and non-organized sports during later years. Thus, the present randomized controlled trial aimed at improving object control dimensions at an early state in a kindergarten setting. Catching, throwing, kicking, rolling and stationary dribbling were assessed via gross motor development 2 (TGMD-2) testing in 41 normally developed preschoolers. On a cluster-randomized basis [strata: age, sex and body mass index (BMI)], three kindergartens were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 22, INT, age: 4.6 ± 1.0 years; BMI: 16.2 ± 1.1 kg/m(2) ) and three to a control group (n = 19, CON: age: 4.5 ± 1.2 years; BMI: 16.8 ± 1.2 kg/m(2) ). Twelve structured training sessions were given within 6 weeks (12 sessions). The total training volume was 330 min. Moderate time × group interaction were observed for the total sum score (Δ+22%, P = 0.05) and dribbling (Δ+41%, P = 0.002). Adjusting for baseline differences analyses of covariance did not affect these results. Interestingly, likely to most likely practically worthwhile effects were detected for the total sum score, catching and dribbling. Object control dimensions such as dribbling and catching that apparently rely on rhythmical movement patterns and anticipatory eye-hand coordination seem to benefit from short-term object control training. These skills are considered important for successful team-sport participation and appropriate sportive motor development. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Development and aminergic neuromodulation of a spinal locomotor network controlling swimming in Xenopus larvae.

PubMed

Sillar, K T; Reith, C A; McDearmid, J R

1998-11-16

In this article we review our research on the development and intrinsic neuromodulation of a spinal network controlling locomotion in a simple vertebrate. Swimming in hatchling Xenopus embryos is generated by a restricted network of well-characterized spinal neurons. This network produces a stereotyped motor pattern which, like real swimming, involves rhythmic activity that alternates across the body and progresses rostrocaudally with a brief delay between muscle segments. The stereotypy results from motoneurons discharging a single impulse in each cycle; because all motoneurons appear to behave similarly there is little scope for altering the output to the myotomes from one cycle to the next. Just one day later, however, Xenopus larvae generate a more complex and flexible motor pattern in which motoneurons can discharge a variable number of impulses which contribute to ventral root bursts in each cycle. This maturation of swimming is due, in part, to the influence of serotonin released from brain-stem raphespinal interneurons whose axonal projections innervate the cord early in larval life. Larval swimming is differentially modulated by both serotonin and by noradrenaline: serotonin leads to relatively fast, intense swimming whereas noradrenaline favors slower, weaker activity. Thus, these two biogenic amines select opposite extremes from the spectrum of possible output patterns that the swimming network can produce. Our studies on the cellular and synaptic effects of the amines indicate that they can control the strength of reciprocal glycinergic inhibition in the spinal cord. Serotonin and noradrenaline act presynaptically on the terminals of glycinergic commissural interneurons to weaken and strengthen, respectively, crossed glycinergic inhibition during swimming. As a result, serotonin reduces and noradrenaline increases interburst intervals. The membrane properties of spinal neurons are also affected by the amines. In particular, serotonin can induce intrinsic oscillatory membrane properties in the presence of NMDA. These depolarizations are slow compared to the cycle periods during swimming and so may contribute to enhancement of swimming over several consecutive cycles of activity.

Properties of human motoneurones and their synaptic noise deduced from motor unit recordings with the aid of computer modelling.

PubMed

Matthews, P B

1999-01-01

This paper reviews two new facets of the behaviour of human motoneurones; these were demonstrated by modelling combined with analysis of long periods of low-frequency tonic motor unit firing (sub-primary range). 1) A novel transformation of the interval histogram has shown that the effective part of the membrane's post-spike voltage trajectory is a segment of an exponential (rather than linear), with most spikes being triggered by synaptic noise before the mean potential reaches threshold. The curvature of the motoneurone's trajectory affects virtually all measures of its behaviour and response to stimulation. The 'trajectory' is measured from threshold, and so includes any changes in threshold during the interspike interval. 2) A novel rhythmic stimulus (amplitude-modulated pulsed vibration) has been used to show that the motoneurone produces appreciable phase-advance during sinusoidal excitation. At low frequencies, the advance increases with rising stimulus frequency but then, slightly below the motoneurones mean firing rate, it suddenly becomes smaller. The gain has a maximum for stimuli at the mean firing rate (the 'carrier'). Such behaviour is functionally important since it affects the motoneurone's response to any rhythmic input, whether generated peripherally by the receptors (as in tremor) or by the CNS (as with cortical oscillations). Low mean firing rates favour tremor, since the high gain and reduced phase advance at the 'carrier' reduce the stability of the stretch reflex.

Multi-channel NIRS of the primary motor cortex to discriminate hand from foot activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koenraadt, K. L. M.; Duysens, J.; Smeenk, M.; Keijsers, N. L. W.

2012-08-01

The poor spatial resolution of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) makes it difficult to distinguish two closely located cortical areas from each other. Here, a combination of multi-channel NIRS and a centre of gravity (CoG) approach (widely accepted in the field of transcranial magnetic stimulation; TMS) was used to discriminate between closely located cortical areas activated during hand and foot movements. Similarly, the possibility of separating the more anteriorly represented discrete movements from rhythmic movements was studied. Thirteen healthy right-handed subjects performed rhythmic or discrete (‘task’) hand or foot (‘extremity’) tapping. Hemodynamic responses were measured using an 8-channel NIRS setup. For oxyhemoglobin (OHb) and deoxyhemoglobin (HHb), a CoG was determined for each condition using the mean hemodynamic responses and the coordinates of the channels. Significant hemodynamic responses were found for hand and foot movements. Based on the HHb responses, the NIRS-CoG of hand movements was located 0.6 cm more laterally compared to the NIRS-CoG of foot movements. For OHb responses no difference in NIRS-CoG was found for ‘extremity’ nor for ‘task’. This is the first NIRS study showing hemodynamic responses for isolated foot movements. Furthermore, HHb responses have the potential to be used in multi-channel NIRS experiments requiring differential activation of motor cortex areas linked to either hand or foot movements.

A Rationale for Music Training to Enhance Executive Functions in Parkinson's Disease: An Overview of the Problem.

PubMed

Lesiuk, Teresa; Bugos, Jennifer A; Murakami, Brea

2018-04-22

Music listening interventions such as Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation can improve mobility, balance, and gait in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Yet, the impact of music training on executive functions is not yet known. Deficits in executive functions (e.g., attention, processing speed) in patients with PD result in gait interference, deficits in emotional processing, loss of functional capacity (e.g., intellectual activity, social participation), and reduced quality of life. The model of temporal prediction and timing suggests two networks collectively contribute to movement generation and execution: the basal ganglia-thalamocortical network (BGTC) and the cerebellar-thalamocortical network (CTC). Due to decreases in dopamine responsible for the disruption of the BGTC network in adults with PD, it is hypothesized that rhythmic auditory cues assist patients through recruiting an alternate network, the CTC, which extends to the supplementary motor areas (SMA) and the frontal cortices. In piano training, fine motor finger movements activate the cerebellum and SMA, thereby exercising the CTC network. We hypothesize that exercising the CTC network through music training will contribute to enhanced executive functions. Previous research suggested that music training enhances cognitive performance (i.e., working memory and processing speed) in healthy adults and adults with cognitive impairments. This review and rationale provides support for the use of music training to enhance cognitive outcomes in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

Nitric oxide-mediated intersegmental modulation of cycle frequency in the crayfish swimmeret system.

PubMed

Yoshida, Misaki; Nagayama, Toshiki; Newland, Philip

2018-05-21

Crayfish swimmerets are paired appendages located on the ventral side of each abdominal segment that show rhythmic beating during forward swimming produced by central pattern generators in most abdominal segments. For animals with multiple body segments and limbs, intersegmental coordination of central pattern generators in each segment is crucial for the production of effective movements. Here we develop a novel pharmacological approach to analyse intersegmental modulation of swimmeret rhythm by selectively elevating nitric oxide levels and reducing them with pharmacological agents, in specific ganglia. Bath application of L-arginine, the substrate NO synthesis, increased the cyclical spike responses of the power-stroke motor neurons. By contrast the NOS inhibitor, L-NAME decreased them. To determine the role of the different local centres in producing and controlling the swimmeret rhythm, these two drugs were applied locally to two separate ganglia following bath application of carbachol. Results revealed that there was both ascending and descending intersegmental modulation of cycle frequency of the swimmeret rhythm in the abdominal ganglia and that synchrony of cyclical activity between segments of segments was maintained. We also found that there were gradients in the strength effectiveness in modulation, that ascending modulation of the swimmeret rhythm was stronger than descending modulation. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Use of a pacifier and behavioural features in 2-4-month-old infants.

PubMed

Kelmanson, I A

1999-11-01

This study aimed to analyse a possible association between the use of a pacifier and particular behavioural features in 2-4-month-old infants as estimated by the means of the Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire (EITQ). It comprised 192 randomly selected clinically healthy infants born in St Petersburg in 1997-1998. The mothers were asked to complete the questionnaires addressing infant, maternal and major demographic characteristics, and childcare practices, with particular emphasis on the use of a pacifier, as well as to fill in the EITQ. The EITQ scores nine different aspects of infant temperament: activity, rhythmicity, approach, adaptability, intensity, mood, persistence, distractibility and threshold. A total of 117 of 192 infants (60.9%) used pacifiers, and they appeared to have more rhythmic behaviour than non-users. This effect remained after adjustment was made for major potential confounding and/or modifying factors, including gender, parity, details from perinatal history and familial social background, feeding pattern, bed sharing and room sharing. With the exception of rhythmicity, no significant association was found between the use of a pacifier and any other particular feature of infant temperament. Use of a pacifier may be associated with higher rhythmicity in 2-4-month-old infants.

Bimanual Coordination Learning with Different Augmented Feedback Modalities and Information Types

PubMed Central

Chiou, Shiau-Chuen; Chang, Erik Chihhung

2016-01-01

Previous studies have shown that bimanual coordination learning is more resistant to the removal of augmented feedback when acquired with auditory than with visual channel. However, it is unclear whether this differential “guidance effect” between feedback modalities is due to enhanced sensorimotor integration via the non-dominant auditory channel or strengthened linkage to kinesthetic information under rhythmic input. The current study aimed to examine how modalities (visual vs. auditory) and information types (continuous visuospatial vs. discrete rhythmic) of concurrent augmented feedback influence bimanual coordination learning. Participants either learned a 90°-out-of-phase pattern for three consecutive days with Lissajous feedback indicating the integrated position of both arms, or with visual or auditory rhythmic feedback reflecting the relative timing of the movement. The results showed diverse performance change after practice when the feedback was removed between Lissajous and the other two rhythmic groups, indicating that the guidance effect may be modulated by the type of information provided during practice. Moreover, significant performance improvement in the dual-task condition where the irregular rhythm counting task was applied as a secondary task also suggested that lower involvement of conscious control may result in better performance in bimanual coordination. PMID:26895286

Bimanual Coordination Learning with Different Augmented Feedback Modalities and Information Types.

PubMed

Chiou, Shiau-Chuen; Chang, Erik Chihhung

2016-01-01

Previous studies have shown that bimanual coordination learning is more resistant to the removal of augmented feedback when acquired with auditory than with visual channel. However, it is unclear whether this differential "guidance effect" between feedback modalities is due to enhanced sensorimotor integration via the non-dominant auditory channel or strengthened linkage to kinesthetic information under rhythmic input. The current study aimed to examine how modalities (visual vs. auditory) and information types (continuous visuospatial vs. discrete rhythmic) of concurrent augmented feedback influence bimanual coordination learning. Participants either learned a 90°-out-of-phase pattern for three consecutive days with Lissajous feedback indicating the integrated position of both arms, or with visual or auditory rhythmic feedback reflecting the relative timing of the movement. The results showed diverse performance change after practice when the feedback was removed between Lissajous and the other two rhythmic groups, indicating that the guidance effect may be modulated by the type of information provided during practice. Moreover, significant performance improvement in the dual-task condition where the irregular rhythm counting task was applied as a secondary task also suggested that lower involvement of conscious control may result in better performance in bimanual coordination.

Formation of anorthosite-Gabbro rhythmic phase layering: an example at North Arm Mountain, Bay of Isands ophiolite

USGS Publications Warehouse

Komor, S.C.; Elthon, D.

1990-01-01

Rhythmically layered anorthosite and gabbro are exposed in a 4-10-m thick interval at the base of the layered gabbro unit on North Arm Mountain, one of four massifs that compose the Bay of Islands ophiolite, Newfoundland. The rhythmically layered interval is sandwiched between thick layers of adcumulate to orthocumulate uniform gabbro. Calculated fractional crystallization paths and correlated cryptic variation patterns suggest that uniform and rhythmically layered gabbros represent 20-30% in situ crystallization of two distinct magma batches, one more evolved and the other more primitive. When the more primitive magma entered the crystallization site of the NA300-301 gabbros, it is estimated to have been ~40??C hotter than the resident evolved magma, and may have been chilled by contact with a magma chamber margin composed of uniform gabbro. In this model, chilling caused the liquid to become supercooled with respect to plagioclase nucleation temperatures, resulting in crystallization of gabbro deficient in plagioclase relative to equilibrium cotectic proportions. Subtraction of a plagioclase-poor melagabbro enriched the liquid in normative plagioclase, which in turn led to crystallization of an anorthosite layer. -from Authors

Prediction of rhythmic and periodic EEG patterns and seizures on continuous EEG with early epileptiform discharges.

PubMed

Koren, J; Herta, J; Draschtak, S; Pötzl, G; Pirker, S; Fürbass, F; Hartmann, M; Kluge, T; Baumgartner, C

2015-08-01

Continuous EEG (cEEG) is necessary to document nonconvulsive seizures (NCS), nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE), as well as rhythmic and periodic EEG patterns of 'ictal-interictal uncertainty' (RPPIIU) including periodic discharges, rhythmic delta activity, and spike-and-wave complexes in neurological intensive care patients. However, cEEG is associated with significant recording and analysis efforts. Therefore, predictors from short-term routine EEG with a reasonably high yield are urgently needed in order to select patients for evaluation with cEEG. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic significance of early epileptiform discharges (i.e., within the first 30 min of EEG recording) on the following: (1) incidence of ictal EEG patterns and RPPIIU on subsequent cEEG, (2) occurrence of acute convulsive seizures during the ICU stay, and (3) functional outcome after 6 months of follow-up. We conducted a separate analysis of the first 30 min and the remaining segments of prospective cEEG recordings according to the ACNS Standardized Critical Care EEG Terminology as well as NCS criteria and review of clinical data of 32 neurological critical care patients. In 17 patients with epileptiform discharges within the first 30 min of EEG (group 1), electrographic seizures were observed in 23.5% (n = 4), rhythmic or periodic EEG patterns of 'ictal-interictal uncertainty' in 64.7% (n = 11), and neither electrographic seizures nor RPPIIU in 11.8% (n = 2). In 15 patients with no epileptiform discharges in the first 30 min of EEG (group 2), no electrographic seizures were recorded on subsequent cEEG, RPPIIU were seen in 26.7% (n = 4), and neither electrographic seizures nor RPPIIU in 73.3% (n = 11). The incidence of EEG patterns on cEEG was significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.008). Patients with early epileptiform discharges developed acute seizures more frequently than patients without early epileptiform discharges (p = 0.009). Finally, functional outcome six months after discharge was significantly worse in patients with early epileptiform discharges (p=0.01). Epileptiform discharges within the first 30 min of EEG recording are predictive for the occurrence of ictal EEG patterns and for RPPIIU on subsequent cEEG, for acute convulsive seizures during the ICU stay, and for a worse functional outcome after 6 months of follow-up. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Status Epilepticus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rhythmic Ganglion Cell Activity in Bleached and Blind Adult Mouse Retinas

PubMed Central

Menzler, Jacob; Channappa, Lakshmi; Zeck, Guenther

2014-01-01

In retinitis pigmentosa – a degenerative disease which often leads to incurable blindness- the loss of photoreceptors deprives the retina from a continuous excitatory input, the so-called dark current. In rodent models of this disease this deprivation leads to oscillatory electrical activity in the remaining circuitry, which is reflected in the rhythmic spiking of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). It remained unclear, however, if the rhythmic RGC activity is attributed to circuit alterations occurring during photoreceptor degeneration or if rhythmic activity is an intrinsic property of healthy retinal circuitry which is masked by the photoreceptor’s dark current. Here we tested these hypotheses by inducing and analysing oscillatory activity in adult healthy (C57/Bl6) and blind mouse retinas (rd10 and rd1). Rhythmic RGC activity in healthy retinas was detected upon partial photoreceptor bleaching using an extracellular high-density multi-transistor-array. The mean fundamental spiking frequency in bleached retinas was 4.3 Hz; close to the RGC rhythm detected in blind rd10 mouse retinas (6.5 Hz). Crosscorrelation analysis of neighbouring wild-type and rd10 RGCs (separation distance <200 µm) reveals synchrony among homologous RGC types and a constant phase shift (∼70 msec) among heterologous cell types (ON versus OFF). The rhythmic RGC spiking in these retinas is driven by a network of presynaptic neurons. The inhibition of glutamatergic ganglion cell input or the inhibition of gap junctional coupling abolished the rhythmic pattern. In rd10 and rd1 retinas the presynaptic network leads to local field potentials, whereas in bleached retinas additional pharmacological disinhibition is required to achieve detectable field potentials. Our results demonstrate that photoreceptor bleaching unmasks oscillatory activity in healthy retinas which shares many features with the functional phenotype detected in rd10 retinas. The quantitative physiological differences advance the understanding of the degeneration process and may guide future rescue strategies. PMID:25153888

Rhythmic ganglion cell activity in bleached and blind adult mouse retinas.

PubMed

Menzler, Jacob; Channappa, Lakshmi; Zeck, Guenther

2014-01-01

In retinitis pigmentosa--a degenerative disease which often leads to incurable blindness--the loss of photoreceptors deprives the retina from a continuous excitatory input, the so-called dark current. In rodent models of this disease this deprivation leads to oscillatory electrical activity in the remaining circuitry, which is reflected in the rhythmic spiking of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). It remained unclear, however, if the rhythmic RGC activity is attributed to circuit alterations occurring during photoreceptor degeneration or if rhythmic activity is an intrinsic property of healthy retinal circuitry which is masked by the photoreceptor's dark current. Here we tested these hypotheses by inducing and analysing oscillatory activity in adult healthy (C57/Bl6) and blind mouse retinas (rd10 and rd1). Rhythmic RGC activity in healthy retinas was detected upon partial photoreceptor bleaching using an extracellular high-density multi-transistor-array. The mean fundamental spiking frequency in bleached retinas was 4.3 Hz; close to the RGC rhythm detected in blind rd10 mouse retinas (6.5 Hz). Crosscorrelation analysis of neighbouring wild-type and rd10 RGCs (separation distance <200 µm) reveals synchrony among homologous RGC types and a constant phase shift (∼70 msec) among heterologous cell types (ON versus OFF). The rhythmic RGC spiking in these retinas is driven by a network of presynaptic neurons. The inhibition of glutamatergic ganglion cell input or the inhibition of gap junctional coupling abolished the rhythmic pattern. In rd10 and rd1 retinas the presynaptic network leads to local field potentials, whereas in bleached retinas additional pharmacological disinhibition is required to achieve detectable field potentials. Our results demonstrate that photoreceptor bleaching unmasks oscillatory activity in healthy retinas which shares many features with the functional phenotype detected in rd10 retinas. The quantitative physiological differences advance the understanding of the degeneration process and may guide future rescue strategies.

Electrophysiology of Hypothalamic Magnocellular Neurons In vitro: A Rhythmic Drive in Organotypic Cultures and Acute Slices.

PubMed

Israel, Jean-Marc; Oliet, Stéphane H; Ciofi, Philippe

2016-01-01

Hypothalamic neurohormones are released in a pulsatile manner. The mechanisms of this pulsatility remain poorly understood and several hypotheses are available, depending upon the neuroendocrine system considered. Among these systems, hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal magnocellular neurons have been early-considered models, as they typically display an electrical activity consisting of bursts of action potentials that is optimal for the release of boluses of the neurohormones oxytocin and vasopressin. The cellular mechanisms underlying this bursting behavior have been studied in vitro, using either acute slices of the adult hypothalamus, or organotypic cultures of neonatal hypothalamic tissue. We have recently proposed, from experiments in organotypic cultures, that specific central pattern generator networks, upstream of magnocellular neurons, determine their bursting activity. Here, we have tested whether a similar hypothesis can be derived from in vitro experiments in acute slices of the adult hypothalamus. To this aim we have screened our electrophysiological recordings of the magnocellular neurons, previously obtained from acute slices, with an analysis of autocorrelation of action potentials to detect a rhythmic drive as we recently did for organotypic cultures. This confirmed that the bursting behavior of magnocellular neurons is governed by central pattern generator networks whose rhythmic drive, and thus probably integrity, is however less satisfactorily preserved in the acute slices from adult brains.

Functional connectivity in raphé-pontomedullary circuits supports active suppression of breathing during hypocapnic apnea

PubMed Central

Nuding, Sarah C.; Segers, Lauren S.; Iceman, Kimberly E.; O'Connor, Russell; Dean, Jay B.; Bolser, Donald C.; Baekey, David M.; Dick, Thomas E.; Shannon, Roger; Morris, Kendall F.

2015-01-01

Hyperventilation is a common feature of disordered breathing. Apnea ensues if CO2 drive is sufficiently reduced. We tested the hypothesis that medullary raphé, ventral respiratory column (VRC), and pontine neurons have functional connectivity and persistent or evoked activities appropriate for roles in the suppression of drive and rhythm during hyperventilation and apnea. Phrenic nerve activity, arterial blood pressure, end-tidal CO2, and other parameters were monitored in 10 decerebrate, vagotomized, neuromuscularly-blocked, and artificially ventilated cats. Multielectrode arrays recorded spiking activity of 649 neurons. Loss and return of rhythmic activity during passive hyperventilation to apnea were identified with the S-transform. Diverse fluctuating activity patterns were recorded in the raphé-pontomedullary respiratory network during the transition to hypocapnic apnea. The firing rates of 160 neurons increased during apnea; the rates of 241 others decreased or stopped. VRC inspiratory neurons were usually the last to cease firing or lose rhythmic activity during the transition to apnea. Mayer wave-related oscillations (0.04–0.1 Hz) in firing rate were also disrupted during apnea. Four-hundred neurons (62%) were elements of pairs with at least one hyperventilation-responsive neuron and a correlational signature of interaction identified by cross-correlation or gravitational clustering. Our results support a model with distinct groups of chemoresponsive raphé neurons contributing to hypocapnic apnea through parallel processes that incorporate disfacilitation and active inhibition of inspiratory motor drive by expiratory neurons. During apnea, carotid chemoreceptors can evoke rhythm reemergence and an inspiratory shift in the balance of reciprocal inhibition via suppression of ongoing tonic expiratory neuron activity. PMID:26203111

A hypothesis on the biological origins and social evolution of music and dance.

PubMed

Wang, Tianyan

2015-01-01

The origins of music and musical emotions is still an enigma, here I propose a comprehensive hypothesis on the origins and evolution of music, dance, and speech from a biological and sociological perspective. I suggest that every pitch interval between neighboring notes in music represents corresponding movement pattern through interpreting the Doppler effect of sound, which not only provides a possible explanation for the transposition invariance of music, but also integrates music and dance into a common form-rhythmic movements. Accordingly, investigating the origins of music poses the question: why do humans appreciate rhythmic movements? I suggest that human appreciation of rhythmic movements and rhythmic events developed from the natural selection of organisms adapting to the internal and external rhythmic environments. The perception and production of, as well as synchronization with external and internal rhythms are so vital for an organism's survival and reproduction, that animals have a rhythm-related reward and emotion (RRRE) system. The RRRE system enables the appreciation of rhythmic movements and events, and is integral to the origination of music, dance and speech. The first type of rewards and emotions (rhythm-related rewards and emotions, RRREs) are evoked by music and dance, and have biological and social functions, which in turn, promote the evolution of music, dance and speech. These functions also evoke a second type of rewards and emotions, which I name society-related rewards and emotions (SRREs). The neural circuits of RRREs and SRREs develop in species formation and personal growth, with congenital and acquired characteristics, respectively, namely music is the combination of nature and culture. This hypothesis provides probable selection pressures and outlines the evolution of music, dance, and speech. The links between the Doppler effect and the RRREs and SRREs can be empirically tested, making the current hypothesis scientifically concrete.

Resveratrol restores the circadian rhythmic disorder of lipid metabolism induced by high-fat diet in mice.

PubMed

Sun, Linjie; Wang, Yan; Song, Yu; Cheng, Xiang-Rong; Xia, Shufang; Rahman, Md Ramim Tanver; Shi, Yonghui; Le, Guowei

2015-02-27

Circadian rhythmic disorders induced by high-fat diet are associated with metabolic diseases. Resveratrol could improve metabolic disorder, but few reports focused on its effects on circadian rhythm disorders in a variety of studies. The aim of the present study was to analyze the potential effects of resveratrol on high-fat diet-induced disorders about the rhythmic expression of clock genes and clock-controlled lipid metabolism. Male C57BL/6 mice were divided into three groups: a standard diet control group (CON), a high-fat diet (HFD) group and HFD supplemented with 0.1% (w/w) resveratrol (RES). The body weight, fasting blood glucose and insulin, plasma lipids and leptin, whole body metabolic status and the expression of clock genes and clock-controlled lipogenic genes were analyzed at four different time points throughout a 24-h cycle (8:00, 14:00, 20:00, 2:00). Resveratrol, being associated with rhythmic restoration of fasting blood glucose and plasma insulin, significantly decreased the body weight in HFD mice after 11 weeks of feeding, as well as ameliorated the rhythmities of plasma leptin, lipid profiles and whole body metabolic status (respiratory exchange ratio, locomotor activity, and heat production). Meanwhile, resveratrol modified the rhythmic expression of clock genes (Clock, Bmal1 and Per2) and clock-controlled lipid metabolism related genes (Sirt1, Pparα, Srebp-1c, Acc1 and Fas). The response pattern of mRNA expression for Acc1 was similar to the plasma triglyceride. All these results indicated that resveratrol reduced lipogenesis and ultimately normalized rhythmic expression of plasma lipids, possibly via its action on clock machinery. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Moderate Cortical Cooling Eliminates Thalamocortical Silent States during Slow Oscillation.

PubMed

Sheroziya, Maxim; Timofeev, Igor

2015-09-23

Reduction in temperature depolarizes neurons by a partial closure of potassium channels but decreases the vesicle release probability within synapses. Compared with cooling, neuromodulators produce qualitatively similar effects on intrinsic neuronal properties and synapses in the cortex. We used this similarity of neuronal action in ketamine-xylazine-anesthetized mice and non-anesthetized mice to manipulate the thalamocortical activity. We recorded cortical electroencephalogram/local field potential (LFP) activity and intracellular activities from the somatosensory thalamus in control conditions, during cortical cooling and on rewarming. In the deeply anesthetized mice, moderate cortical cooling was characterized by reversible disruption of the thalamocortical slow-wave pattern rhythmicity and the appearance of fast LFP spikes, with frequencies ranging from 6 to 9 Hz. These LFP spikes were correlated with the rhythmic IPSP activities recorded within the thalamic ventral posterior medial neurons and with depolarizing events in the posterior nucleus neurons. Similar cooling of the cortex during light anesthesia rapidly and reversibly eliminated thalamocortical silent states and evoked thalamocortical persistent activity; conversely, mild heating increased thalamocortical slow-wave rhythmicity. In the non-anesthetized head-restrained mice, cooling also prevented the generation of thalamocortical silent states. We conclude that moderate cortical cooling might be used to manipulate slow-wave network activity and induce neuromodulator-independent transition to activated states. Significance statement: In this study, we demonstrate that moderate local cortical cooling of lightly anesthetized or naturally sleeping mice disrupts thalamocortical slow oscillation and induces the activated local field potential pattern. Mild heating has the opposite effect; it increases the rhythmicity of thalamocortical slow oscillation. Our results demonstrate that slow oscillation can be influenced by manipulations to the properties of cortical neurons without changes in neuromodulation. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3513006-14$15.00/0.

Role of light and the circadian clock in the rhythmic oscillation of intraocular pressure: Studies in VPAC2 receptor and PACAP deficient mice.

PubMed

Fahrenkrug, Jan; Georg, Birgitte; Hannibal, Jens; Jørgensen, Henrik Løvendahl

2018-04-01

The intraocular pressure of mice displays a daily rhythmicity being highest during the dark period. The present study was performed to elucidate the role of the circadian clock and light in the diurnal and the circadian variations in intraocular pressure in mice, by using animals with disrupted clock function (VPAC2 receptor knockout mice) or impaired light information to the clock (PACAP knockout mice). In wildtype mice, intraocular pressure measured under light/dark conditions showed a statistically significant 24 h sinusoidal rhythm with nadir during the light phase and peak during the dark phase. After transfer of the wildtype mice into constant darkness, the intraocular pressure increased, but the rhythmic changes in intraocular pressure continued with a pattern identical to that obtained during the light/dark cycle. The intraocular pressure in VPAC2 receptor deficient mice during light/dark conditions also showed a sinusoidal pattern with significant changes as a function of a 24 h cycle. However, transfer of the VPAC2 receptor knockout mice into constant darkness completely abolished the rhythmic changes in intraocular pressure. The intraocular pressure in PACAP deficient mice oscillated significantly during both 24 h light and darkness and during constant darkness. During LD conditions, the amplitude of PACAP deficient was significantly lower compared to wildtype mice, resulting in higher daytime and lower nighttime values. In conclusion, by studying the VPAC2 receptor knockout mouse which lacks circadian control and the PACAP knockout mouse which displays impaired light signaling, we provided evidence that the daily intraocular pressure rhythms are primarily generated by the circadian master clock and to a lesser extent by environmental light and darkness. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A rhythmic modulatory gating system in the stomatogastric nervous system of Homarus gammarus. III. Rhythmic control of the pyloric CPG.

PubMed

Cardi, P; Nagy, F

1994-06-01

1. Two modulatory neurons, P and commissural pyloric (CP), known to be involved in the long-term maintenance of pyloric central pattern generator operation in the rock lobster Homarus gammarus, are members of the commissural pyloric oscillator (CPO), a higher-order oscillator influencing the pyloric network. 2. The CP neuron was endogenously oscillating in approximately 30% of the preparations in which its cell body was impaled. Rhythmic inhibitory feedback from the pyloric pacemaker anterior burster (AB) neuron stabilized the CP neuron's endogenous rhythm. 3. The organization of the CPO is described. Follower commissural neurons, the F cells, and the CP neuron receive a common excitatory postsynaptic potential from another commissural neuron, the large exciter (LE). When in oscillatory state, CP in turn excites the LE neuron. This positive feedback may maintain long episodes of CP oscillations. 4. The pyloric pacemaker neurons follow the CPO rhythm with variable coordination modes (i.e., 1:1, 1:2) and switch among these modes when their membrane potential is modified. The CPO inputs strongly constrain the pyloric period, which as a result may adopt only a few discrete values. This effect is based on mechanisms of entrainment between the CPO and the pyloric oscillator. 5. Pyloric constrictor neurons show differential sensitivity from the pyloric pacemaker neurons with respect to the CPO inputs. Consequently, their bursting period can be a shorter harmonic of the bursting period of the pyloric pacemakers neurons. 6. The CPO neurons seem to be the first example of modulatory gating neurons that also give timing cues to a rhythmic pattern generating network.

Setting the pace: host rhythmic behaviour and gene expression patterns in the facultatively symbiotic cnidarian Aiptasia are determined largely by Symbiodinium.

PubMed

Sorek, Michal; Schnytzer, Yisrael; Ben-Asher, Hiba Waldman; Caspi, Vered Chalifa; Chen, Chii-Shiarng; Miller, David J; Levy, Oren

2018-05-09

All organisms employ biological clocks to anticipate physical changes in the environment; however, the integration of biological clocks in symbiotic systems has received limited attention. In corals, the interpretation of rhythmic behaviours is complicated by the daily oscillations in tissue oxygen tension resulting from the photosynthetic and respiratory activities of the associated algal endosymbiont Symbiodinium. In order to better understand the integration of biological clocks in cnidarian hosts of Symbiodinium, daily rhythms of behaviour and gene expression were studied in symbiotic and aposymbiotic morphs of the sea-anemone Aiptasia diaphana. The results showed that whereas circatidal (approx. 12-h) cycles of activity and gene expression predominated in aposymbiotic morphs, circadian (approx. 24-h) patterns were the more common in symbiotic morphs, where the expression of a significant number of genes shifted from a 12- to 24-h rhythm. The behavioural experiments on symbiotic A. diaphana displayed diel (24-h) rhythmicity in body and tentacle contraction under the light/dark cycles, whereas aposymbiotic morphs showed approximately 12-h (circatidal) rhythmicity. Reinfection experiments represent an important step in understanding the hierarchy of endogenous clocks in symbiotic associations, where the aposymbiotic Aiptasia morphs returned to a 24-h behavioural rhythm after repopulation with algae. Whilst some modification of host metabolism is to be expected, the extent to which the presence of the algae modified host endogenous behavioural and transcriptional rhythms implies that it is the symbionts that influence the pace. Our results clearly demonstrate the importance of the endosymbiotic algae in determining the timing and the duration of the extension and contraction of the body and tentacles and temporal gene expression.

Alpha-Band Rhythms in Visual Task Performance: Phase-Locking by Rhythmic Sensory Stimulation

PubMed Central

de Graaf, Tom A.; Gross, Joachim; Paterson, Gavin; Rusch, Tessa; Sack, Alexander T.; Thut, Gregor

2013-01-01

Oscillations are an important aspect of neuronal activity. Interestingly, oscillatory patterns are also observed in behaviour, such as in visual performance measures after the presentation of a brief sensory event in the visual or another modality. These oscillations in visual performance cycle at the typical frequencies of brain rhythms, suggesting that perception may be closely linked to brain oscillations. We here investigated this link for a prominent rhythm of the visual system (the alpha-rhythm, 8–12 Hz) by applying rhythmic visual stimulation at alpha-frequency (10.6 Hz), known to lead to a resonance response in visual areas, and testing its effects on subsequent visual target discrimination. Our data show that rhythmic visual stimulation at 10.6 Hz: 1) has specific behavioral consequences, relative to stimulation at control frequencies (3.9 Hz, 7.1 Hz, 14.2 Hz), and 2) leads to alpha-band oscillations in visual performance measures, that 3) correlate in precise frequency across individuals with resting alpha-rhythms recorded over parieto-occipital areas. The most parsimonious explanation for these three findings is entrainment (phase-locking) of ongoing perceptually relevant alpha-band brain oscillations by rhythmic sensory events. These findings are in line with occipital alpha-oscillations underlying periodicity in visual performance, and suggest that rhythmic stimulation at frequencies of intrinsic brain-rhythms can be used to reveal influences of these rhythms on task performance to study their functional roles. PMID:23555873

The nature and perception of fluctuations in human musical rhythms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hennig, Holger; Fleischmann, Ragnar; Fredebohm, Anneke; Hagmayer, York; Nagler, Jan; Witt, Annette; Theis, Fabian; Geisel, Theo

2012-02-01

Although human musical performances represent one of the most valuable achievements of mankind, the best musicians perform imperfectly. Musical rhythms are not entirely accurate and thus inevitably deviate from the ideal beat pattern. Nevertheless, computer generated perfect beat patterns are frequently devalued by listeners due to a perceived lack of human touch. Professional audio editing software therefore offers a humanizing feature which artificially generates rhythmic fluctuations. However, the built-in humanizing units are essentially random number generators producing only simple uncorrelated fluctuations. Here, for the first time, we establish long-range fluctuations as an inevitable natural companion of both simple and complex human rhythmic performances [1]. Moreover, we demonstrate that listeners strongly prefer long-range correlated fluctuations in musical rhythms. Thus, the favorable fluctuation type for humanizing interbeat intervals coincides with the one generically inherent in human musical performances. [1] HH et al., PLoS ONE,6,e26457 (2011)

Variation in motor output and motor performance in a centrally generated motor pattern

PubMed Central

Norris, Brian J.; Doloc-Mihu, Anca; Calabrese, Ronald L.

2014-01-01

Central pattern generators (CPGs) produce motor patterns that ultimately drive motor outputs. We studied how functional motor performance is achieved, specifically, whether the variation seen in motor patterns is reflected in motor performance and whether fictive motor patterns differ from those in vivo. We used the leech heartbeat system in which a bilaterally symmetrical CPG coordinates segmental heart motor neurons and two segmented heart tubes into two mutually exclusive coordination modes: rear-to-front peristaltic on one side and nearly synchronous on the other, with regular side-to-side switches. We assessed individual variability of the motor pattern and the beat pattern in vivo. To quantify the beat pattern we imaged intact adults. To quantify the phase relations between motor neurons and heart constrictions we recorded extracellularly from two heart motor neurons and movement from the corresponding heart segments in minimally dissected leeches. Variation in the motor pattern was reflected in motor performance only in the peristaltic mode, where larger intersegmental phase differences in the motor neurons resulted in larger phase differences between heart constrictions. Fictive motor patterns differed from those in vivo only in the synchronous mode, where intersegmental phase differences in vivo had a larger front-to-rear bias and were more constrained. Additionally, load-influenced constriction timing might explain the amplification of the phase differences between heart segments in the peristaltic mode and the higher variability in motor output due to body shape assumed in this soft-bodied animal. The motor pattern determines the beat pattern, peristaltic or synchronous, but heart mechanics influence the phase relations achieved. PMID:24717348

Dyslexic children fail to comply with the rhythmic constraints of handwriting.

PubMed

Pagliarini, Elena; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Toneatto, Carlo; Granocchio, Elisa; Riva, Federica; Sarti, Daniela; Molteni, Bruna; Stucchi, Natale

2015-08-01

In this study, we sought to demonstrate that deficits in a specific motor activity, handwriting, are associated to Developmental Dyslexia. The linguistic and writing performance of children with Developmental Dyslexia, with and without handwriting problems (dysgraphia), were compared to that of children with Typical Development. The quantitative kinematic variables of handwriting were collected by means of a digitizing tablet. The results showed that all children with Developmental Dyslexia wrote more slowly than those with Typical Development. Contrary to typically developing children, they also varied more in the time taken to write the individual letters of a word and failed to comply with the principles of isochrony and homothety. Moreover, a series of correlations was found among reading, language measures and writing measures suggesting that the two abilities may be linked. We propose that the link between handwriting and reading/language deficits is mediated by rhythm, as both reading (which is grounded on language) and handwriting are ruled by principles of rhythmic organization. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lip movements entrain the observers’ low-frequency brain oscillations to facilitate speech intelligibility

PubMed Central

Park, Hyojin; Kayser, Christoph; Thut, Gregor; Gross, Joachim

2016-01-01

During continuous speech, lip movements provide visual temporal signals that facilitate speech processing. Here, using MEG we directly investigated how these visual signals interact with rhythmic brain activity in participants listening to and seeing the speaker. First, we investigated coherence between oscillatory brain activity and speaker’s lip movements and demonstrated significant entrainment in visual cortex. We then used partial coherence to remove contributions of the coherent auditory speech signal from the lip-brain coherence. Comparing this synchronization between different attention conditions revealed that attending visual speech enhances the coherence between activity in visual cortex and the speaker’s lips. Further, we identified a significant partial coherence between left motor cortex and lip movements and this partial coherence directly predicted comprehension accuracy. Our results emphasize the importance of visually entrained and attention-modulated rhythmic brain activity for the enhancement of audiovisual speech processing. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14521.001 PMID:27146891

Dissociation of Subjectively Reported and Behaviorally Indexed Mind Wandering by EEG Rhythmic Activity

PubMed Central

Qin, Jungang; Perdoni, Christopher; He, Bin

2011-01-01

Inattention to current activity is ubiquitous in everyday situations. Mind wandering is an example of such a state, and its related brain areas have been examined in the literature. However, there is no clear evidence regarding neural rhythmic activities linked to mind wandering. Using a vigilance task with thought sampling and electroencephalography recording, the current study simultaneously examined neural oscillatory activities related to subjectively reported and behaviorally indexed mind wandering. By implementing time-frequency analysis, we found that subjectively reported mind wandering, relative to behaviorally indexed, showed increased gamma band activity at bilateral frontal-central areas. By means of beamformer source imaging, we found subjectively reported mind wandering within the gamma band to be characterized by increased activation in bilateral frontal cortices, supplemental motor area, paracentral cortex and right inferior temporal cortex in comparison to behaviorally indexed mind wandering. These findings dissociate subjectively reported and behaviorally indexed mind wandering and suggest that a higher degree of executive control processes are engaged in subjectively reported mind wandering. PMID:21915257

Laser ablation of Dbx1 neurons in the pre-Bötzinger complex stops inspiratory rhythm and impairs output in neonatal mice

PubMed Central

Wang, Xueying; Hayes, John A; Revill, Ann L; Song, Hanbing; Kottick, Andrew; Vann, Nikolas C; LaMar, M Drew; Picardo, Maria Cristina D; Akins, Victoria T; Funk, Gregory D; Del Negro, Christopher A

2014-01-01

To understand the neural origins of rhythmic behavior one must characterize the central pattern generator circuit and quantify the population size needed to sustain functionality. Breathing-related interneurons of the brainstem pre-Bötzinger complex (preBötC) that putatively comprise the core respiratory rhythm generator in mammals are derived from Dbx1-expressing precursors. Here, we show that selective photonic destruction of Dbx1 preBötC neurons in neonatal mouse slices impairs respiratory rhythm but surprisingly also the magnitude of motor output; respiratory hypoglossal nerve discharge decreased and its frequency steadily diminished until rhythm stopped irreversibly after 85±20 (mean ± SEM) cellular ablations, which corresponds to ∼15% of the estimated population. These results demonstrate that a single canonical interneuron class generates respiratory rhythm and contributes in a premotor capacity, whereas these functions are normally attributed to discrete populations. We also establish quantitative cellular parameters that govern network viability, which may have ramifications for respiratory pathology in disease states. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03427.001 PMID:25027440

CO2-evoked release of PGE2 modulates sighs and inspiration as demonstrated in brainstem organotypic culture

PubMed Central

Forsberg, David; Horn, Zachi; Tserga, Evangelia; Smedler, Erik; Silberberg, Gilad; Shvarev, Yuri; Kaila, Kai; Uhlén, Per; Herlenius, Eric

2016-01-01

Inflammation-induced release of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) changes breathing patterns and the response to CO2 levels. This may have fatal consequences in newborn babies and result in sudden infant death. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, we present a novel breathing brainstem organotypic culture that generates rhythmic neural network and motor activity for 3 weeks. We show that increased CO2 elicits a gap junction-dependent release of PGE2. This alters neural network activity in the preBötzinger rhythm-generating complex and in the chemosensitive brainstem respiratory regions, thereby increasing sigh frequency and the depth of inspiration. We used mice lacking eicosanoid prostanoid 3 receptors (EP3R), breathing brainstem organotypic slices and optogenetic inhibition of EP3R+/+ cells to demonstrate that the EP3R is important for the ventilatory response to hypercapnia. Our study identifies a novel pathway linking the inflammatory and respiratory systems, with implications for inspiration and sighs throughout life, and the ability to autoresuscitate when breathing fails. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14170.001 PMID:27377173

Intricate but tight coupling of spiracular activity and abdominal ventilation during locust discontinuous gas exchange cycles.

PubMed

Talal, Stav; Gefen, Eran; Ayali, Amir

2018-03-15

Discontinuous gas exchange (DGE) is the best studied among insect gas exchange patterns. DGE cycles comprise three phases, which are defined by their spiracular state: closed, flutter and open. However, spiracle status has rarely been monitored directly; rather, it is often assumed based on CO 2 emission traces. In this study, we directly recorded electromyogram (EMG) signals from the closer muscle of the second thoracic spiracle and from abdominal ventilation muscles in a fully intact locust during DGE. Muscular activity was monitored simultaneously with CO 2 emission, under normoxia and under various experimental oxic conditions. Our findings indicate that locust DGE does not correspond well with the commonly described three-phase cycle. We describe unique DGE-related ventilation motor patterns, coupled to spiracular activity. During the open phase, when CO 2 emission rate is highest, the thoracic spiracles do not remain open; rather, they open and close rapidly. This fast spiracle activity coincides with in-phase abdominal ventilation, while alternating with the abdominal spiracle and thus facilitating a unidirectional air flow along the main trachea. A change in the frequency of rhythmic ventilation during the open phase suggests modulation by intra-tracheal CO 2 levels. A second, slow ventilatory movement pattern probably serves to facilitate gas diffusion during spiracle closure. Two flutter-like patterns are described in association with the different types of ventilatory activity. We offer a modified mechanistic model for DGE in actively ventilating insects, incorporating ventilatory behavior and changes in spiracle state. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Center for the Study of Rhythmic Processes.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-10-20

pattern generators Neural network Spinal cord Mathematical modeling Neuromodulators Regeneration Sensory feedback 19 ABSTRACT (Continue on reverse if...generator circuit. Trends in Neurosciences 9: 432-437. Marder, E. (1987) Neurotransmitters and neuromodulators . In Selverston, A.I. and Moulins, M. The...relating to the effects of neuromodulators on the output of the lobster stomatogastric central pattern generator. (See Sections III and IV.) 2. Trainig

Oscillatory patterns in sympathetic neural discharge and cardiovascular variables during orthostatic stimulus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Furlan, R.; Porta, A.; Costa, F.; Tank, J.; Baker, L.; Schiavi, R.; Robertson, D.; Malliani, A.; Mosqueda-Garcia, R.

2000-01-01

BACKGROUND: We tested the hypothesis that a common oscillatory pattern might characterize the rhythmic discharge of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and the spontaneous variability of heart rate and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) during a physiological increase of sympathetic activity induced by the head-up tilt maneuver. METHODS AND RESULTS: Ten healthy subjects underwent continuous recordings of ECG, intra-arterial pressure, respiratory activity, central venous pressure, and MSNA, both in the recumbent position and during 75 degrees head-up tilt. Venous samplings for catecholamine assessment were obtained at rest and during the fifth minute of tilt. Spectrum and cross-spectrum analyses of R-R interval, SAP, and MSNA variabilities and of respiratory activity provided the low (LF, 0.1 Hz) and high frequency (HF, 0.27 Hz) rhythmic components of each signal and assessed their linear relationships. Compared with the recumbent position, tilt reduced central venous pressure, but blood pressure was unchanged. Heart rate, MSNA, and plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine levels increased, suggesting a marked enhancement of overall sympathetic activity. During tilt, LF(MSNA) increased compared with the level in the supine position; this mirrored similar changes observed in the LF components of R-R interval and SAP variabilities. The increase of LF(MSNA) was proportional to the amount of the sympathetic discharge. The coupling between LF components of MSNA and R-R interval and SAP variabilities was enhanced during tilt compared with rest. CONCLUSIONS: During the sympathetic activation induced by tilt, a similar oscillatory pattern based on an increased LF rhythmicity characterized the spontaneous variability of neural sympathetic discharge, R-R interval, and arterial pressure.

Effects of Cold-Dry (Harmattan) and Hot-Dry Seasons on Daily Rhythms of Rectal and Body Surface Temperatures in Sheep and Goats in a Natural Tropical Environment

PubMed Central

Ayo, Joseph O.

2016-01-01

Studies on daily rhythmicity in livestock under natural conditions are limited, and there is mounting evidence that rhythm patterns differ between chronobiological studies conducted in the laboratory and studies conducted under pronounced natural seasonality. Here, we investigated the influence of cold-dry (harmattan) and hot-dry seasons on daily rhythmicity of rectal (RT) and body surface temperatures (BST) in indigenous sheep and goats under natural light-dark cycles. The RT and BST of the animals, and the ambient temperature (AT) and relative humidity (RH) inside the pen, were measured every three hours for a period of two days, twice on separate days during the hot-dry and the harmattan seasons, respectively. The AT and RH had minimum values of 16°C and 15% recorded during the harmattan and maximum values of 32°C and 46% recorded during the hot-dry season, respectively. A trigonometric statistical model was applied to characterize the main rhythmic parameters according to the single cosinor procedure. The result showed that RT and BST exhibited different degrees of daily rhythmicity, and their oscillatory patterns differed with the seasons (larger amplitude during the harmattan season than during the hot-dry season). The goats displayed greater (p < 0.05) amplitude of BST than the sheep in all seasons. The acrophases were restricted to the light phase of the light-dark cycle. The mesor of RT in goats was not affected by the season, but mesors of BST in both species were significantly higher (p < 0.05) during the hot-dry than the harmattan season. The goats had a more robust RT rhythm (70%) as compared to the sheep (56%). Overall, the results demonstrated that seasonal changes influenced considerably the daily rhythmicity of RT and BST in sheep and goats under natural light-dark cycle. Awareness of these changes may be useful in the improvement of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases, and welfare and productivity of sheep and goats under cold-dry and hot-dry conditions.

From neural plate to cortical arousal-a neuronal network theory of sleep derived from in vitro "model" systems for primordial patterns of spontaneous bioelectric activity in the vertebrate central nervous system.

PubMed

Corner, Michael A

2013-05-22

In the early 1960s intrinsically generated widespread neuronal discharges were discovered to be the basis for the earliest motor behavior throughout the animal kingdom. The pattern generating system is in fact programmed into the developing nervous system, in a regionally specific manner, already at the early neural plate stage. Such rhythmically modulated phasic bursts were next discovered to be a general feature of developing neural networks and, largely on the basis of experimental interventions in cultured neural tissues, to contribute significantly to their morpho-physiological maturation. In particular, the level of spontaneous synchronized bursting is homeostatically regulated, and has the effect of constraining the development of excessive network excitability. After birth or hatching, this "slow-wave" activity pattern becomes sporadically suppressed in favor of sensory oriented "waking" behaviors better adapted to dealing with environmental contingencies. It nevertheless reappears periodically as "sleep" at several species-specific points in the diurnal/nocturnal cycle. Although this "default" behavior pattern evolves with development, its essential features are preserved throughout the life cycle, and are based upon a few simple mechanisms which can be both experimentally demonstrated and simulated by computer modeling. In contrast, a late onto- and phylogenetic aspect of sleep, viz., the intermittent "paradoxical" activation of the forebrain so as to mimic waking activity, is much less well understood as regards its contribution to brain development. Some recent findings dealing with this question by means of cholinergically induced "aroused" firing patterns in developing neocortical cell cultures, followed by quantitative electrophysiological assays of immediate and longterm sequelae, will be discussed in connection with their putative implications for sleep ontogeny.

Substance P modulation of TRPC3/7 channels improves respiratory rhythm regularity and ICAN-dependent pacemaker activity

PubMed Central

Ben-Mabrouk, Faiza; Tryba, Andrew Kieran

2011-01-01

Neuromodulators, such as Substance P (SubP) play an important role in modulating many rhythmic activities driven by central pattern generators (e.g., locomotion, respiration). However, the mechanism by which SubP enhances breathing regularity has not been determined. Here, we used mouse brainstem slices containing the pre-Bötzinger Complex (Pre-BötC) to demonstrate, for the first time, that SubP activates transient receptor protein canonical (TRPC) channels to enhance respiratory rhythm regularity. Moreover, SubP enhancement of network regularity is accomplished via selective enhancement of ICAN-dependent intrinsic bursting properties. In contrast to INaP-dependant pacemakers, ICAN-dependant pacemaker bursting activity is TRPC dependent. Western Blots reveal TRPC3 and TRPC7 channels are expressed in rhythmically active ventral respiratory group (VRG) island preparations. Taken together, these data suggest that SubP-mediated activation of TRPC3/7 channels underlies rhythmic ICAN-dependent pacemaker activity and enhances the regularity of respiratory rhythm activity. PMID:20345918

Substance P modulation of TRPC3/7 channels improves respiratory rhythm regularity and ICAN-dependent pacemaker activity.

PubMed

Ben-Mabrouk, Faiza; Tryba, Andrew K

2010-04-01

Neuromodulators, such as substance P (SubP), play an important role in modulating many rhythmic activities driven by central pattern generators (e.g. locomotion, respiration). However, the mechanism by which SubP enhances breathing regularity has not been determined. Here, we used mouse brainstem slices containing the pre-Bötzinger complex to demonstrate, for the first time, that SubP activates transient receptor protein canonical (TRPC) channels to enhance respiratory rhythm regularity. Moreover, SubP enhancement of network regularity is accomplished via selective enhancement of ICAN (inward non-specific cation current)-dependent intrinsic bursting properties. In contrast to INaP (persistent sodium current)-dependent pacemakers, ICAN-dependent pacemaker bursting activity is TRPC-dependent. Western Blots reveal TRPC3 and TRPC7 channels are expressed in rhythmically active ventral respiratory group island preparations. Taken together, these data suggest that SubP-mediated activation of TRPC3/7 channels underlies rhythmic ICAN-dependent pacemaker activity and enhances the regularity of respiratory rhythm activity.

Daily rhythms in antennal protein and olfactory sensitivity in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae

PubMed Central

Rund, Samuel S. C.; Bonar, Nicolle A.; Champion, Matthew M.; Ghazi, John P.; Houk, Cameron M.; Leming, Matthew T.; Syed, Zainulabeuddin; Duffield, Giles E.

2013-01-01

We recently characterized 24-hr daily rhythmic patterns of gene expression in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. These include numerous odorant binding proteins (OBPs), soluble odorant carrying proteins enriched in olfactory organs. Here we demonstrate that multiple rhythmically expressed genes including OBPs and takeout proteins, involved in regulating blood feeding behavior, have corresponding rhythmic protein levels as measured by quantitative proteomics. This includes AgamOBP1, previously shown as important to An. gambiae odorant sensing. Further, electrophysiological investigations demonstrate time-of-day specific differences in olfactory sensitivity of antennae to major host-derived odorants. The pre-dusk/dusk peaks in OBPs and takeout gene expression correspond with peak protein abundance at night, and in turn coincide with the time of increased olfactory sensitivity to odorants requiring OBPs and times of increased blood-feeding behavior. This suggests an important role for OBPs in modulating temporal changes in odorant sensitivity, enabling the olfactory system to coordinate with the circadian niche of An. gambiae. PMID:23986098

Daily rhythms of behavioral and hormonal patterns in male dromedary camels housed in boxes

PubMed Central

Aubè, Lydiane; Fatnassi, Meriem; Monaco, Davide; Khorchani, Touhami; Lacalandra, Giovanni Michele; Hammadi, Mohamed

2017-01-01

Background Daily rhythmicity has been observed for a number of hormonal and behavioral variables in mammals. It can be entrained by several external factors, such as light-dark cycle and scheduled feeding. In dromedary camels, daily rhythmicity has been documented only for melatonin secretion and body temperature. In this study, the daily rhythmicity of behavioral repertoire, cortisol and testosterone levels was investigated in captive male camels. Methods Six clinically healthy male dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) were used. The animals were housed in single boxes for 24 h daily and fed twice a day. Over a period of 48 h, behavioral observations were made and blood samples taken every two hours. The data were analyzed using diurnality index, conisor analysis and PROC mixed procedure. Results The diurnality index for rumination and lying down was close to 0 (respectively, 0.09 and 0.19), while the indices for stereotypy, standing, feeding and walking were close to 1 (respectively, 0.74, 0.84, 0.92 and 0.85). Cosinor analysis revealed daily rhythmicity for all behaviors and for cortisol levels (acrophase at 12:57) but not for testosterone. Rumination and lying down (inactive behaviors) reached a peak during the scotophase, whereas feeding, walking and stereotypy (active behaviors) reached a peak during the photophase around midday. Cortisol level and expression of stereotypies peaked before and after food distribution and were negatively correlated (r =  − 0.287, P = 0.005). Testosterone levels and expression of sexual behaviors were stimulated by the visual and olfactory contacts with the females and were positively correlated (r = 0.164, P = 0.040). Testosterone was also negatively correlated with cortisol (r =  − 0.297; P = 0.003). Discussion These preliminary results provided new knowledge about the daily rhythm of behaviors in camels housed in boxes, suggesting that camels exhibit diurnal behavior pattern in the maintenance conditions outlined in the study. Daily rhythmicity seemed to be entrained not only by the light-dark cycle but also by scheduled feeding. The rise in stereotypy after food distribution could be due to the persistence of feeding motivation and frustration after the ingestion of food. Therefore, feeding practices should be improved to satisfy the foraging and feeding motivation of these camels. Behavioral and hormonal daily patterns in camels should be taken in consideration to adapt the management system, giving the animals more freedom during the light period and a diet richer in fiber, so as to improve reproductive performance, health and welfare. PMID:28367365

Quantification of in vivo colonic motor patterns in healthy humans before and after a meal revealed by high-resolution fiber-optic manometry

PubMed Central

DINNING, P. G.; WIKLENDT, L.; MASLEN, L.; GIBBINS, I.; PATTON, V.; ARKWRIGHT, J. W.; LUBOWSKI, D. Z.; O'GRADY, G.; BAMPTON, P. A.; BROOKES, S. J.; COSTA, M.

2015-01-01

Background Until recently, investigations of the normal patterns of motility of the healthy human colon have been limited by the resolution of in vivo recording techniques. Methods We have used a new, high-resolution fiber-optic manometry system (72 sensors at 1-cm intervals) to record motor activity from colon in 10 healthy human subjects. Key Results In the fasted colon, on the basis of rate and extent of propagation, four types of propagating motor pattern could be identified: (i) cyclic motor patterns (at 2–6/min); (ii) short single motor patterns; (iii) long single motor patterns; and (iv) occasional retrograde, slow motor patterns. For the most part, the cyclic and short single motor patterns propagated in a retrograde direction. Following a 700 kCal meal, a fifth motor pattern appeared; high-amplitude propagating sequences (HAPS) and there was large increase in retrograde cyclic motor patterns (5.6±5.4/2 h vs 34.7±19.8/2 h; p < 0.001). The duration and amplitude of individual pressure events were significantly correlated. Discriminant and multivariate analysis of duration, gradient, and amplitude of the pressure events that made up propagating motor patterns distinguished clearly two types of pressure events: those belonging to HAPS and those belonging to all other propagating motor patterns. Conclusions & Inferences This work provides the first comprehensive description of colonic motor patterns recorded by high-resolution manometry and demonstrates an abundance of retrograde propagating motor patterns. The propagating motor patterns appear to be generated by two independent sources, potentially indicating their neurogenic or myogenic origin. PMID:25131177

Regulation of Mammalian Physiology by Interconnected Circadian and Feeding Rhythms

PubMed Central

Atger, Florian; Mauvoisin, Daniel; Weger, Benjamin; Gobet, Cédric; Gachon, Frédéric

2017-01-01

Circadian clocks are endogenous timekeeping systems that adapt in an anticipatory fashion the physiology and behavior of most living organisms. In mammals, the master pacemaker resides in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and entrains peripheral clocks using a wide range of signals that differentially schedule physiology and gene expression in a tissue-specific manner. The peripheral clocks, such as those found in the liver, are particularly sensitive to rhythmic external cues like feeding behavior, which modulate the phase and amplitude of rhythmic gene expression. Consequently, the liver clock temporally tunes the expression of many genes involved in metabolism and physiology. However, the circadian modulation of cellular functions also relies on multiple layers of posttranscriptional and posttranslational regulation. Strikingly, these additional regulatory events may happen independently of any transcriptional oscillations, showing that complex regulatory networks ultimately drive circadian output functions. These rhythmic events also integrate feeding-related cues and adapt various metabolic processes to food availability schedules. The importance of such temporal regulation of metabolism is illustrated by metabolic dysfunctions and diseases resulting from circadian clock disruption or inappropriate feeding patterns. Therefore, the study of circadian clocks and rhythmic feeding behavior should be of interest to further advance our understanding of the prevention and therapy of metabolic diseases. PMID:28337174

Specific contributions of basal ganglia and cerebellum to the neural tracking of rhythm.

PubMed

Nozaradan, Sylvie; Schwartze, Michael; Obermeier, Christian; Kotz, Sonja A

2017-10-01

How specific brain networks track rhythmic sensory input over time remains a challenge in neuroimaging work. Here we show that subcortical areas, namely the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, specifically contribute to the neural tracking of rhythm. We tested patients with focal lesions in either of these areas and healthy controls by means of electroencephalography (EEG) while they listened to rhythmic sequences known to induce selective neural tracking at a frequency corresponding to the most-often perceived pulse-like beat. Both patients and controls displayed neural responses to the rhythmic sequences. However, these response patterns were different across groups, with patients showing reduced tracking at beat frequency, especially for the more challenging rhythms. In the cerebellar patients, this effect was specific to the rhythm played at a fast tempo, which places high demands on the temporally precise encoding of events. In contrast, basal ganglia patients showed more heterogeneous responses at beat frequency specifically for the most complex rhythm, which requires more internal generation of the beat. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence that these subcortical structures selectively shape the neural representation of rhythm. Moreover, they suggest that the processing of rhythmic auditory input relies on an extended cortico-subcortico-cortical functional network providing specific timing and entrainment sensitivities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Synthesis of asymmetric movement trajectories in timed rhythmic behaviour by means of frequency modulation.

PubMed

Waadeland, Carl Haakon

2017-01-01

Results from different empirical investigations on gestural aspects of timed rhythmic movements indicate that the production of asymmetric movement trajectories is a feature that seems to be a common characteristic of various performances of repetitive rhythmic patterns. The behavioural or neural origin of these asymmetrical trajectories is, however, not identified. In the present study we outline a theoretical model that is capable of producing syntheses of asymmetric movement trajectories documented in empirical investigations by Balasubramaniam et al. (2004). Characteristic qualities of the extension/flexion profiles in the observed asymmetric trajectories are reproduced, and we conduct an experiment similar to Balasubramaniam et al. (2004) to show that the empirically documented movement trajectories and our modelled approximations share the same spectral components. The model is based on an application of frequency modulated movements, and a theoretical interpretation offered by the model is to view paced rhythmic movements as a result of an unpaced movement being "stretched" and "compressed", caused by the presence of a metronome. We discuss our model construction within the framework of event-based and emergent timing, and argue that a change between these timing modes might be reflected by the strength of the modulation in our model. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transcriptome analysis in oak uncovers a strong impact of endogenous rhythmic growth on the interaction with plant-parasitic nematodes.

PubMed

Maboreke, Hazel R; Feldhahn, Lasse; Bönn, Markus; Tarkka, Mika T; Buscot, Francois; Herrmann, Sylvie; Menzel, Ralph; Ruess, Liliane

2016-08-12

Pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.), an important forest tree in temperate ecosystems, displays an endogenous rhythmic growth pattern, characterized by alternating shoot and root growth flushes paralleled by oscillations in carbon allocation to below- and aboveground tissues. However, these common plant traits so far have largely been neglected as a determining factor for the outcome of plant biotic interactions. This study investigates the response of oak to migratory root-parasitic nematodes in relation to rhythmic growth, and how this plant-nematode interaction is modulated by an ectomycorrhizal symbiont. Oaks roots were inoculated with the nematode Pratylenchus penetrans solely and in combination with the fungus Piloderma croceum, and the systemic impact on oak plants was assessed by RNA transcriptomic profiles in leaves. The response of oaks to the plant-parasitic nematode was strongest during shoot flush, with a 16-fold increase in the number of differentially expressed genes as compared to root flush. Multi-layered defence mechanisms were induced at shoot flush, comprising upregulation of reactive oxygen species formation, hormone signalling (e.g. jasmonic acid synthesis), and proteins involved in the shikimate pathway. In contrast during root flush production of glycerolipids involved in signalling cascades was repressed, suggesting that P. penetrans actively suppressed host defence. With the presence of the mycorrhizal symbiont, the gene expression pattern was vice versa with a distinctly stronger effect of P. penetrans at root flush, including attenuated defence, cell and carbon metabolism, likely a response to the enhanced carbon sink strength in roots induced by the presence of both, nematode and fungus. Meanwhile at shoot flush, when nutrients are retained in aboveground tissue, oak defence reactions, such as altered photosynthesis and sugar pathways, diminished. The results highlight that gene response patterns of plants to biotic interactions, both negative (i.e. plant-parasitic nematodes) and beneficial (i.e. mycorrhiza), are largely modulated by endogenous rhythmic growth, and that such plant traits should be considered as an important driver of these relationships in future studies.

Automatic detection of rhythmic and periodic patterns in critical care EEG based on American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (ACNS) standardized terminology.

PubMed

Fürbass, F; Hartmann, M M; Halford, J J; Koren, J; Herta, J; Gruber, A; Baumgartner, C; Kluge, T

2015-09-01

Continuous EEG from critical care patients needs to be evaluated time efficiently to maximize the treatment effect. A computational method will be presented that detects rhythmic and periodic patterns according to the critical care EEG terminology (CCET) of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (ACNS). The aim is to show that these detected patterns support EEG experts in writing neurophysiological reports. First of all, three case reports exemplify the evaluation procedure using graphically presented detections. Second, 187 hours of EEG from 10 critical care patients were used in a comparative trial study. For each patient the result of a review session using the EEG and the visualized pattern detections was compared to the original neurophysiology report. In three out of five patients with reported seizures, all seizures were reported correctly. In two patients, several subtle clinical seizures with unclear EEG correlation were missed. Lateralized periodic patterns (LPD) were correctly found in 2/2 patients and EEG slowing was correctly found in 7/9 patients. In 8/10 patients, additional EEG features were found including LPDs, EEG slowing, and seizures. The use of automatic pattern detection will assist in review of EEG and increase efficiency. The implementation of bedside surveillance devices using our detection algorithm appears to be feasible and remains to be confirmed in further multicenter studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Brain processing of meter and rhythm in music. Electrophysiological evidence of a common network.

PubMed

Kuck, Heleln; Grossbach, Michael; Bangert, Marc; Altenmüller, Eckart

2003-11-01

To determine cortical structures involved in "global" meter and "local" rhythm processing, slow brain potentials (DC potentials) were recorded from the scalp of 18 musically trained subjects while listening to pairs of monophonic sequences with both metric structure and rhythmic variations. The second sequence could be either identical to or different from the first one. Differences were either of a metric or a rhythmic nature. The subjects' task was to judge whether the sequences were identical or not. During processing of the auditory tasks, brain activation patterns along with the subjects' performance were assessed using 32-channel DC electroencephalography. Data were statistically analyzed using MANOVA. Processing of both meter and rhythm produced sustained cortical activation over bilateral frontal and temporal brain regions. A shift towards right hemispheric activation was pronounced during presentation of the second stimulus. Processing of rhythmic differences yielded a more centroparietal activation compared to metric processing. These results do not support Lerdhal and Jackendoff's two-component model, predicting a dissociation of left hemispheric rhythm and right hemispheric meter processing. We suggest that the uniform right temporofrontal predominance reflects auditory working memory and a pattern recognition module, which participates in both rhythm and meter processing. More pronounced parietal activation during rhythm processing may be related to switching of task-solving strategies towards mental imagination of the score.

The in vitro maintenance of clock genes expression within the rat pineal gland under standard and norepinephrine-synchronized stimulation.

PubMed

Andrade-Silva, Jéssica; Cipolla-Neto, José; Peliciari-Garcia, Rodrigo A

2014-01-01

Although the norepinephrine (NE) synchronization protocol was proved to be an important procedure for further modulating in vitro pineal melatonin synthesis, the maintenance of clock genes under the same conditions remained to be investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the maintenance of the clock genes expression in pineal gland cultures under standard and NE-synchronized stimulation. The glands were separated into three experimental groups: Control, Standard (acute NE-stimulation), and NE-synchronized. The expression of Bmal1, Per2, Cry2, Rev-erbα, the clock controlled gene Dbp and Arylalkylamine-N-acetyltransferase were investigated, as well as melatonin content. No oscillations were observed in the expression of the investigated genes from the control group. Under Standard NE stimulation, the clock genes did not exhibit a rhythmic pattern of expression. However, in the NE-synchronized condition, a rhythmic expression pattern was observed in all cases. An enhancement in pineal gland responsiveness to NE stimulation, reflected in an advanced synthesis of melatonin was also observed. Our results reinforce our previous hypothesis that NE synchronization of pineal gland culture mimics the natural rhythmic release of NE in the gland, increasing melatonin synthesis and keeping the pineal circadian clock synchronized, ensuring the fine adjustments that are relied in the clockwork machinery. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

Changes in gait patterns induced by rhythmic auditory stimulation for adolescents with acquired brain injury.

PubMed

Kim, Soo Ji; Shin, Yoon-Kyum; Yoo, Ga Eul; Chong, Hyun Ju; Cho, Sung-Rae

2016-12-01

The effects of rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) on gait in adolescents with acquired brain injury (ABI) were investigated. A total of 14 adolescents with ABI were initially recruited, and 12 were included in the final analysis (n = 6 each). They were randomly assigned to the experimental (RAS) or the control (conventional gait training) groups. The experimental group received gait training with RAS three times a week for 4 weeks. For both groups, spatiotemporal parameters and kinematic data, such as dynamic motions of joints on three-dimensional planes during a gait cycle and the range of motion in each joint, were collected. Significant group differences in pre-post changes were observed in cadence, walking velocity, and step time, indicating that there were greater improvements in those parameters in the RAS group compared with the control group. Significant increases in hip and knee motions in the sagittal plane were also observed in the RAS group. The changes in kinematic data significantly differed between groups, particularly from terminal stance to mid-swing phase. An increase of both spatiotemporal parameters and corresponding kinematic changes of hip and knee joints after RAS protocol indicates that the use of rhythmic cueing may change gait patterns in adolescents with ABI. © 2016 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of New York Academy of Sciences.

Empirical Support for 'Hastening-Through-Re-Automatization' by Contrasting Two Motor-Cognitive Dual Tasks.

PubMed

Langhanns, Christine; Müller, Hermann

2018-01-01

Motor-cognitive dual tasks have been intensely studied and it has been demonstrated that even well practiced movements like walking show signs of interference when performed concurrently with a challenging cognitive task. Typically walking speed is reduced, at least in elderly persons. In contrast to these findings, some authors report an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions, which they call hastening . A tentative explanation has been proposed, assuming that the respective movements are governed by an automatic control regime. Though, under single-task conditions, these automatic processes are supervised by "higher-order" cognitive control processes. However, when a concurrent cognitive task binds all cognitive resources, the automatic process is freed from the detrimental effect of cognitive surveillance, allowing higher movement frequencies. Fast rhythmic movements (>1 Hz) should more likely be governed by such an automatic process than low frequency discrete repetitive movements. Fifteen subjects performed two repetitive movements under single and dual-task condition, that is, in combination with a mental calculation task. According to the expectations derived from the explanatory concept, we found an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions only for the fast rhythmic movement (paddleball task) but not for the slower discrete repetitive task (pegboard task). fNIRS measurements of prefrontal cortical load confirmed the idea of an automatic processing in the paddleball task, whereas the pegboard task seems to be more controlled by processes interfering with the calculation related processing.

Empirical Support for ‘Hastening-Through-Re-Automatization’ by Contrasting Two Motor-Cognitive Dual Tasks

PubMed Central

Langhanns, Christine; Müller, Hermann

2018-01-01

Motor-cognitive dual tasks have been intensely studied and it has been demonstrated that even well practiced movements like walking show signs of interference when performed concurrently with a challenging cognitive task. Typically walking speed is reduced, at least in elderly persons. In contrast to these findings, some authors report an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions, which they call hastening. A tentative explanation has been proposed, assuming that the respective movements are governed by an automatic control regime. Though, under single-task conditions, these automatic processes are supervised by “higher-order” cognitive control processes. However, when a concurrent cognitive task binds all cognitive resources, the automatic process is freed from the detrimental effect of cognitive surveillance, allowing higher movement frequencies. Fast rhythmic movements (>1 Hz) should more likely be governed by such an automatic process than low frequency discrete repetitive movements. Fifteen subjects performed two repetitive movements under single and dual-task condition, that is, in combination with a mental calculation task. According to the expectations derived from the explanatory concept, we found an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions only for the fast rhythmic movement (paddleball task) but not for the slower discrete repetitive task (pegboard task). fNIRS measurements of prefrontal cortical load confirmed the idea of an automatic processing in the paddleball task, whereas the pegboard task seems to be more controlled by processes interfering with the calculation related processing. PMID:29887815

Conceptualizing how group singing may enhance quality of life with Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Buetow, Stephen A; Talmage, Alison; McCann, Clare; Fogg, Laura; Purdy, Suzanne

2014-01-01

Abstract Purpose: Group singing could be a promising component of neurorehabilitative care. This article aims to conceptualize how group singing may enable people with Parkinson's disease (PD) to synchronize their movement patterns to musical rhythm and enhance quality of life. Spanning the medical and social sciences, the article draws conceptually on literature on PD, group singing and rhythm in music; personal experience; and reasoning. Conceptualizing PD in terms of disruptions to social and biological rhythms, we hypothesize how group singing may produce two socio-psychological states - connectedness and flow - that may entrain rhythm in people with PD. The states connect during group singing to elicit and enhance motor processes but may also reawaken after the group singing, through the recall and reactivation of the musical rhythms encoded during group singing. In people with PD, this continuity of flow is hypothesized to be conducive to rhythmic entrainment during and after group singing and in turn to reduced deficits in motor timing and emotional processing, and improvements in quality of life. Empirical studies are needed to test this hypothesis in people with movement disorders such as PD. Implications for Rehabilitation Musical rhythm in group singing may enhance quality of life, and rehabilitation, in people with PD. Use group singing to produce two socio-psychological states - connectedness and flow - that may yield these health benefits. Include people with PD in singing groups to facilitate perceptual exposure to familiar music with melodic distinctiveness and a regular beat.

Recovery of rhythmic activity in a central pattern generator: analysis of the role of neuromodulator and activity-dependent mechanisms.

PubMed

Zhang, Yili; Golowasch, Jorge

2011-11-01

The pyloric network of decapods crustaceans can undergo dramatic rhythmic activity changes. Under normal conditions the network generates low frequency rhythmic activity that depends obligatorily on the presence of neuromodulatory input from the central nervous system. When this input is removed (decentralization) the rhythmic activity ceases. In the continued absence of this input, periodic activity resumes after a few hours in the form of episodic bursting across the entire network that later turns into stable rhythmic activity that is nearly indistinguishable from control (recovery). It has been proposed that an activity-dependent modification of ionic conductance levels in the pyloric pacemaker neuron drives the process of recovery of activity. Previous modeling attempts have captured some aspects of the temporal changes observed experimentally, but key features could not be reproduced. Here we examined a model in which slow activity-dependent regulation of ionic conductances and slower neuromodulator-dependent regulation of intracellular Ca(2+) concentration reproduce all the temporal features of this recovery. Key aspects of these two regulatory mechanisms are their independence and their different kinetics. We also examined the role of variability (noise) in the activity-dependent regulation pathway and observe that it can help to reduce unrealistic constraints that were otherwise required on the neuromodulator-dependent pathway. We conclude that small variations in intracellular Ca(2+) concentration, a Ca(2+) uptake regulation mechanism that is directly targeted by neuromodulator-activated signaling pathways, and variability in the Ca(2+) concentration sensing signaling pathway can account for the observed changes in neuronal activity. Our conclusions are all amenable to experimental analysis.

Auditory-motor entrainment and phonological skills: precise auditory timing hypothesis (PATH).

PubMed

Tierney, Adam; Kraus, Nina

2014-01-01

Phonological skills are enhanced by music training, but the mechanisms enabling this cross-domain enhancement remain unknown. To explain this cross-domain transfer, we propose a precise auditory timing hypothesis (PATH) whereby entrainment practice is the core mechanism underlying enhanced phonological abilities in musicians. Both rhythmic synchronization and language skills such as consonant discrimination, detection of word and phrase boundaries, and conversational turn-taking rely on the perception of extremely fine-grained timing details in sound. Auditory-motor timing is an acoustic feature which meets all five of the pre-conditions necessary for cross-domain enhancement to occur (Patel, 2011, 2012, 2014). There is overlap between the neural networks that process timing in the context of both music and language. Entrainment to music demands more precise timing sensitivity than does language processing. Moreover, auditory-motor timing integration captures the emotion of the trainee, is repeatedly practiced, and demands focused attention. The PATH predicts that musical training emphasizing entrainment will be particularly effective in enhancing phonological skills.

Outcomes of patients with altered level of consciousness and abnormal electroencephalogram: A retrospective cohort study

PubMed Central

Ferrari-Marinho, Taissa; Naves, Pedro Vicente Ferreira; Ladeia-Frota, Carol; Caboclo, Luís Otávio

2017-01-01

Introduction Nonconvulsive seizures (NCS) are frequent in hospitalized patients and may further aggravate injury in the already damaged brain, potentially worsening outcomes in encephalopathic patients. Therefore, both early seizure recognition and treatment have been advocated to prevent further neurological damage. Objective Evaluate the main EEG patterns seen in patients with impaired consciousness and address the effect of treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), continuous intravenous anesthetic drugs (IVADs), or the combination of both, on outcomes. Methods This was a single center retrospective cohort study conducted in a private, tertiary care hospital. Consecutive adult patients with altered consciousness submitted to a routine EEG between January 2008 and February 2011 were included in this study. Based on EEG pattern, patients were assigned to one of three groups: Group Interictal Patterns (IP; EEG showing only interictal epileptiform discharges or triphasic waves), Group Rhythmic and Periodic Patterns (RPP; at least one EEG with rhythmic or periodic patterns), and Group Ictal (Ictal; at least one EEG showing ictal pattern). Groups were compared in terms of administered antiepileptic treatment and frequency of unfavorable outcomes (modified Rankin scale ≥3 and in-hospital mortality). Results Two hundred and six patients (475 EEGs) were included in this analysis. Interictal pattern was observed in 35.4% (73/206) of patients, RPP in 53.4% (110/206) and ictal in 11.2% (23/206) of patients. Treatment with AEDs, IVADs or a combination of both was administered in half of the patients. While all Ictal group patients received treatment (AEDs or IVADs), only 24/73 (32.9%) IP group patients and 55/108 (50.9%) RPP group patients were treated (p<0.001). Hospital length of stay (LOS) and frequency of unfavorable outcomes did not differ among the groups. In-hospital mortality was higher in IVADs treated RPP patients compared to AEDs treated RPP patients [11/19 (57.9%) vs. 11/36 (30.6%) patients, respectively, p = 0.049]. Hospital LOS, in-hospital mortality and frequency of unfavorable outcomes did not differ between Ictal patients treated exclusively with AEDs or IVADs. Conclusion In patients with acute altered consciousness and abnormal routine EEG, antiepileptic treatment did not improve outcomes regardless of the presence of periodic, rhythmic or ictal EEG patterns. PMID:28886073

Outcomes of patients with altered level of consciousness and abnormal electroencephalogram: A retrospective cohort study.

PubMed

Sanches, Paula Rodrigues; Corrêa, Thiago Domingos; Ferrari-Marinho, Taissa; Naves, Pedro Vicente Ferreira; Ladeia-Frota, Carol; Caboclo, Luís Otávio

2017-01-01

Nonconvulsive seizures (NCS) are frequent in hospitalized patients and may further aggravate injury in the already damaged brain, potentially worsening outcomes in encephalopathic patients. Therefore, both early seizure recognition and treatment have been advocated to prevent further neurological damage. Evaluate the main EEG patterns seen in patients with impaired consciousness and address the effect of treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), continuous intravenous anesthetic drugs (IVADs), or the combination of both, on outcomes. This was a single center retrospective cohort study conducted in a private, tertiary care hospital. Consecutive adult patients with altered consciousness submitted to a routine EEG between January 2008 and February 2011 were included in this study. Based on EEG pattern, patients were assigned to one of three groups: Group Interictal Patterns (IP; EEG showing only interictal epileptiform discharges or triphasic waves), Group Rhythmic and Periodic Patterns (RPP; at least one EEG with rhythmic or periodic patterns), and Group Ictal (Ictal; at least one EEG showing ictal pattern). Groups were compared in terms of administered antiepileptic treatment and frequency of unfavorable outcomes (modified Rankin scale ≥3 and in-hospital mortality). Two hundred and six patients (475 EEGs) were included in this analysis. Interictal pattern was observed in 35.4% (73/206) of patients, RPP in 53.4% (110/206) and ictal in 11.2% (23/206) of patients. Treatment with AEDs, IVADs or a combination of both was administered in half of the patients. While all Ictal group patients received treatment (AEDs or IVADs), only 24/73 (32.9%) IP group patients and 55/108 (50.9%) RPP group patients were treated (p<0.001). Hospital length of stay (LOS) and frequency of unfavorable outcomes did not differ among the groups. In-hospital mortality was higher in IVADs treated RPP patients compared to AEDs treated RPP patients [11/19 (57.9%) vs. 11/36 (30.6%) patients, respectively, p = 0.049]. Hospital LOS, in-hospital mortality and frequency of unfavorable outcomes did not differ between Ictal patients treated exclusively with AEDs or IVADs. In patients with acute altered consciousness and abnormal routine EEG, antiepileptic treatment did not improve outcomes regardless of the presence of periodic, rhythmic or ictal EEG patterns.

When Non-Dominant Is Better than Dominant: Kinesiotape Modulates Asymmetries in Timed Performance during a Synchronization-Continuation Task

PubMed Central

Bravi, Riccardo; Cohen, Erez J.; Martinelli, Alessio; Gottard, Anna; Minciacchi, Diego

2017-01-01

There is a growing consensus regarding the specialization of the non-dominant limb (NDL)/hemisphere system to employ proprioceptive feedback when executing motor actions. In a wide variety of rhythmic tasks the dominant limb (DL) has advantages in speed and timing consistency over the NDL. Recently, we demonstrated that the application of Kinesio® Tex (KT) tape, an elastic therapeutic device used for treating athletic injuries, improves significantly the timing consistency of isochronous wrist’s flexion-extensions (IWFEs) of the DL. We argued that the augmented precision of IWFEs is determined by a more efficient motor control during movements due to the extra-proprioceptive effect provided by KT. In this study, we tested the effect of KT on timing precision of IWFEs performed with the DL and the NDL, and we evaluated the efficacy of KT to counteract possible timing precision difference between limbs. Young healthy subjects performed with and without KT (NKT) a synchronization-continuation task in which they first entrained IWFEs to paced auditory stimuli (synchronization phase), and subsequently continued to produce motor responses with the same temporal interval in the absence of the auditory stimulus (continuation phase). Two inter-onset intervals (IOIs) of 550-ms and 800-ms, one within and the other beyond the boundaries of the spontaneous motor tempo, were tested. Kinematics was recorded and temporal parameters were extracted and analyzed. Our results show that limb advantages in performing proficiently rhythmic movements are not side-locked but depend also on speed of movement. The application of KT significantly reduces the timing variability of IWFEs performed at 550-ms IOI. KT not only cancels the disadvantages of the NDL but also makes it even more precise than the DL without KT. The superior sensitivity of the NDL to use the extra-sensory information provided by KT is attributed to a greater competence of the NDL/hemisphere system to rely on sensory input. The findings in this study add a new piece of information to the context of motor timing literature. The performance asymmetries here demonstrated as preferred temporal environments could reflect limb differences in the choice of sensorimotor control strategies for the production of human movement. PMID:28943842

A hypothesis on the biological origins and social evolution of music and dance

PubMed Central

Wang, Tianyan

2015-01-01

The origins of music and musical emotions is still an enigma, here I propose a comprehensive hypothesis on the origins and evolution of music, dance, and speech from a biological and sociological perspective. I suggest that every pitch interval between neighboring notes in music represents corresponding movement pattern through interpreting the Doppler effect of sound, which not only provides a possible explanation for the transposition invariance of music, but also integrates music and dance into a common form—rhythmic movements. Accordingly, investigating the origins of music poses the question: why do humans appreciate rhythmic movements? I suggest that human appreciation of rhythmic movements and rhythmic events developed from the natural selection of organisms adapting to the internal and external rhythmic environments. The perception and production of, as well as synchronization with external and internal rhythms are so vital for an organism's survival and reproduction, that animals have a rhythm-related reward and emotion (RRRE) system. The RRRE system enables the appreciation of rhythmic movements and events, and is integral to the origination of music, dance and speech. The first type of rewards and emotions (rhythm-related rewards and emotions, RRREs) are evoked by music and dance, and have biological and social functions, which in turn, promote the evolution of music, dance and speech. These functions also evoke a second type of rewards and emotions, which I name society-related rewards and emotions (SRREs). The neural circuits of RRREs and SRREs develop in species formation and personal growth, with congenital and acquired characteristics, respectively, namely music is the combination of nature and culture. This hypothesis provides probable selection pressures and outlines the evolution of music, dance, and speech. The links between the Doppler effect and the RRREs and SRREs can be empirically tested, making the current hypothesis scientifically concrete. PMID:25741232

Circadian rhythmicity of the urinary excretion of mercury, potassium and catecholamines in unconventional shift-work systems.

PubMed

Vokac, Z; Gundersen, N; Magnus, P; Jebens, E; Bakka, T

1980-09-01

The round the clock urinary excretion rates of mercury were assessed for two series of unconventional patterns of activity and sleep in subjects who were not exposed to occupational, medical, or other obvious sources of mercury. In the first series the urine was collected in 3-h periods from six subjects during the first and last 2 d of a four-week, continuous 6-h shift (car ferry, watches either 0800--1400 and 2000--0200 or 1400--2000 and 0200--0800). In the second series the urine was collected in 4-h periods from five subjects working an 8-h experimental rotation shift compressed into 5 d (work two mornings--8-h interval--work two nights--8-h interval--work two afternoons). The mean daily excretion rate of the 11 subjects (48 investigation days, 334 urine samples) was 14.5 pmol of mercury/min (range 5.5--24.4 pmol of mercury/min). The mercury excretion oscillated regularly during 24 h by +/- 20--25% of the individual's daily mean excretion rates. The peak excretion rates were found at 0652 in the first and 0642 in the second series (cosinor treatment). Due to the circadian rhythm the mean 24-h excretion rates were best represented (correlation coefficient 0.92) by analyses of urine produced around noon (spot samples, collection periods 1100--1400 and 1000-1400, respectively). The circadian oscillations of mercury excretion were not influenced by the widely different and varying activity-sleep patterns of the two series. The rhythmicity of potassium excretion (peaks at around 1400) was more irregular. The stable oscillations of mercury excretion contrasted most with the excretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline, which, without losing the basic 24-h rhythmicity, closely followed the unconventional patterns of activity and sleep.

Music psychopathology. IV. The course of musical expression during music therapy with psychiatric inpatients.

PubMed

Steinberg, R; Kimmig, V; Raith, L; Günther, W; Bogner, J; Timmermann, T

1991-01-01

The music therapeutic productions of 67 psychiatric inpatients were analyzed concerning a systematic variation in the course of therapy. The impairment of performance was not as regular as with customary music, nevertheless with growing remission it was reversible in all diagnostic subgroups. The change for the better of rhythmic and motor skills of endogenous-depressed patients was seen to the same extent as with traditional music. The polarity profile developed for the assessment of music proved meaningful in the characterization of music therapeutic utterances.

Mathematics, Music, and Movement: Exploring Concepts and Connections.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shilling, Wynne A.

2002-01-01

Explores connections between mathematics, music, and movement in early childhood curriculum. Presents music activities in which mathematical concepts are embedded; focuses on activities providing experiences with time-based relationships and rhythmic patterns. Asserts that integrating movement and mathematics into music activities provides a way…

Mathematical model for rhythmic protoplasmic movement in the true slime mold.

PubMed

Kobayashi, Ryo; Tero, Atsushi; Nakagaki, Toshiyuki

2006-08-01

The plasmodium of the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a large amoeboid organism that displays "smart" behavior such as chemotaxis and the ability to solve mazes and geometrical puzzles. These amoeboid behaviors are based on the dynamics of the viscoelastic protoplasm and its biochemical rhythms. By incorporating both these aspects, we constructed a mathematical model for the dynamics of the organism as a first step towards understanding the relation between protoplasmic movement and its unusual abilities. We tested the validity of the model by comparing it with physiological observation. Our model reproduces fundamental characteristics of the spatio-temporal pattern of the rhythmic movement: (1) the antiphase oscillation between frontal tip and rear when the front is freely extending; (2) the asynchronous oscillation pattern when the front is not freely extending; and (3) the formation of protoplasmic mounds over a longer time scale. Both our model and physiological observation suggest that cell stiffness plays a primary role in plasmodial behaviors, in contrast to the conventional theory of coupled oscillator systems.

Alpha-beta and gamma rhythms subserve feedback and feedforward influences among human visual cortical areas

PubMed Central

Michalareas, Georgios; Vezoli, Julien; van Pelt, Stan; Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs; Kennedy, Henry; Fries, Pascal

2016-01-01

Primate visual cortex is hierarchically organized. Bottom-up and top-down influences are exerted through distinct frequency channels, as was recently revealed in macaques by correlating inter-areal influences with laminar anatomical projection patterns. Because this anatomical data cannot be obtained in human subjects, we selected seven homologous macaque and human visual areas, and correlated the macaque laminar projection patterns to human inter-areal directed influences as measured with magnetoencephalography. We show that influences along feedforward projections predominate in the gamma band, whereas influences along feedback projections predominate in the alpha-beta band. Rhythmic inter-areal influences constrain a functional hierarchy of the seven homologous human visual areas that is in close agreement with the respective macaque anatomical hierarchy. Rhythmic influences allow an extension of the hierarchy to 26 human visual areas including uniquely human brain areas. Hierarchical levels of ventral and dorsal stream visual areas are differentially affected by inter-areal influences in the alpha-beta band. PMID:26777277

Cutaneous inputs from the back abolish locomotor-like activity and reduce spastic-like activity in the adult cat following complete spinal cord injury

PubMed Central

Frigon, Alain; Thibaudier, Yann; Johnson, Michael D.; Heckman, C.J.; Hurteau, Marie-France

2012-01-01

Spasticity is a condition that can include increased muscle tone, clonus, spasms, and hyperreflexia. In this study, we report the effect of manually stimulating the dorsal lumbosacral skin on spontaneous locomotor-like activity and on a variety of reflex responses in 5 decerebrate chronic spinal cats treated with clonidine. Cats were spinalized 1 month before the terminal experiment. Stretch reflexes were evoked by stretching the left triceps surae muscles. Crossed reflexes were elicited by electrically stimulating the right tibial or superficial peroneal nerves. Windup of reflex responses was evoked by electrically stimulating the left tibial or superficial peroneal nerves. We found that pinching the skin of the back abolished spontaneous locomotor-like activity. We also found that back pinch abolished the rhythmic activity observed during reflex testing without eliminating the reflex responses. Some of the rhythmic episodes of activity observed during reflex testing were consistent with clonus with an oscillation frequency greater than 3 Hz. Pinching the skin of the back effectively abolished rhythmic activity occurring spontaneously or evoked during reflex testing, irrespective of oscillation frequency. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that locomotion and clonus are produced by common central pattern-generators. Stimulating the skin of the back could prove helpful in managing undesired rhythmic activity in spinal cord-injured humans. PMID:22487200

Circadian consequences of social organization in the ant species Camponotus compressus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Vijay Kumar; Lone, Shahnaz Rahman; Goel, Anubhuthi; Chandrashekaran, M. K.

The locomotor activity rhythm of different castes of the ant species Camponotus compressus was monitored individually under laboratory light/dark (LD) cycles, and under continuous darkness (DD). The colony of this ant species comprises two sexual castes, the queens and the males, and three worker castes, namely the major, media, and minor workers. The virgin males and virgin queens display rhythmic activity patterns, but the mated queens were arrhythmic while laying eggs, with the rhythmicity resuming soon after egg-laying. Under the LD regime, major workers showed nocturnal patterns, while about 75% of the media workers displayed nocturnal patterns and about 25% showed diurnal patterns. Under the DD regime, most major workers exhibited circadian rhythm of activity with a single steady state, whereas media workers displayed two types of activity patterns, with activity patterns changing after 6-9 days in DD (turn-arounds). The pre-turn-around τ of the ants that showed nocturnal activity patterns during LD entrainment was <24 h after release into DD, which then became >24 h, after 6-9 days. On the other hand, the pre-turn-around τ of those ants that exhibited diurnal patterns during LD entrainment was first >24 h after release into DD, and then became <24 h, after 6-9 days. The activity of the minor workers neither entrained to LD cycles nor showed any sign of free-run in DD. It appears that the circadian clocks of the ant species C. compressus are flexible, and may perhaps depend upon the tasks assigned to them in the colony.

Studies of the phase gradient at the boundary of the phase diffusion equation, motivated by peculiar wave patterns of rhythmic contraction in the amoeboid movement of Physarum polycephalum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iima, Makoto; Kori, Hiroshi; Nakagaki, Toshiyuki

2017-04-01

The boundary of a cell is the interface with its surroundings and plays a key role in controlling the cell movement adaptations to different environments. We propose a study of the boundary effects on the patterns and waves of the rhythmic contractions in plasmodia of Physarum polycephalum, a tractable model organism of the amoeboid type. Boundary effects are defined as the effects of both the boundary conditions and the boundary shape. The rhythmicity of contraction can be modulated by local stimulation of temperature, light and chemicals, and by local deformation of cell shape via mechanosensitive ion channels as well. First, we examined the effects of boundary cell shapes in the case of a special shape resembling a tadpole, while requiring that the natural frequency in the proximity of the boundary is slightly higher and uniform. The simulation model reproduced the approximate propagated wave, from the tail to the head, while the inward waves were observed only near the periphery of the head section of the tadpole-shape. A key finding was that the frequency of the rhythmic contractions depended on the local shape of cell boundary. This implies that the boundary conditions of the phase were not always homogeneous. To understand the dependency, we reduced the two-dimensional model into a one-dimensional continuum model with Neumann boundary conditions. Here, the boundary conditions reflect the frequency distribution at the boundary. We described the analytic solutions and calculated the relationship between the boundary conditions and the wave propagation for a one-dimensional model of the continuous oscillatory field and a discrete coupled oscillator system. The results obtained may not be limited to cell movement of Physarum, but may be applicable to the other physical systems since the analysis used a generic phase diffusion equation.

Rhythmic Density Affects Listeners' Emotional Response to Microtiming

PubMed Central

Senn, Olivier; Bullerjahn, Claudia; Kilchenmann, Lorenz; von Georgi, Richard

2017-01-01

Microtiming has been assumed to be vital for the experience of groove, but past research presented conflicting results: some studies found that microtiming is irrelevant for groove, others reported that microtiming has a detrimental effect on the groove experience, yet others described circumstances under which microtiming has no negative impact on groove. The three studies in this paper aim at explaining some of these discrepancies by clarifying to what extent listeners' emotional responses to microtiming depend on the distribution of microtiming deviations across instrumental parts (voicing) or other moderating factors like tempo or rhythmic density. The studies use data from two listening experiments involving expert bass and drums duo recordings in swing and funk style. – Study A investigates the effect of fixed time displacements within and between the parts played by different musicians. Listeners (n = 160) reacted negatively to irregularities within the drum track, but the mutual displacement of bass vs. drums did not have an effect.– Study B develops three metrics to calculate the average microtiming magnitude in a musical excerpt. The experiment showed that listeners' (n = 160) emotional responses to expert performance microtiming aligned with each other across styles, when microtiming magnitude was adjusted for rhythmic density. This indicates that rhythmic density is a unifying moderator for listeners' emotional response to microtiming in swing and funk.– Study C used the data from both experiments in order to compare the effect of fixed microtiming displacements (from Study A) with scaled versions of the originally performed microtiming patterns (from Study B). It showed that fixed snare drum displacements irritated expert listeners more than the more flexible deviations occurring in the original performances. This provides some evidence that listeners' emotional response to microtiming deviations not only depends on the magnitude of the deviations, but also on the kind and origin of the microtiming patterns (fixed lab displacements vs. flexible performance microtiming). PMID:29075210

Rhythmic Density Affects Listeners' Emotional Response to Microtiming.

PubMed

Senn, Olivier; Bullerjahn, Claudia; Kilchenmann, Lorenz; von Georgi, Richard

2017-01-01

Microtiming has been assumed to be vital for the experience of groove, but past research presented conflicting results: some studies found that microtiming is irrelevant for groove, others reported that microtiming has a detrimental effect on the groove experience, yet others described circumstances under which microtiming has no negative impact on groove. The three studies in this paper aim at explaining some of these discrepancies by clarifying to what extent listeners' emotional responses to microtiming depend on the distribution of microtiming deviations across instrumental parts (voicing) or other moderating factors like tempo or rhythmic density. The studies use data from two listening experiments involving expert bass and drums duo recordings in swing and funk style. - Study A investigates the effect of fixed time displacements within and between the parts played by different musicians. Listeners ( n = 160) reacted negatively to irregularities within the drum track, but the mutual displacement of bass vs. drums did not have an effect.- Study B develops three metrics to calculate the average microtiming magnitude in a musical excerpt. The experiment showed that listeners' ( n = 160) emotional responses to expert performance microtiming aligned with each other across styles, when microtiming magnitude was adjusted for rhythmic density. This indicates that rhythmic density is a unifying moderator for listeners' emotional response to microtiming in swing and funk.- Study C used the data from both experiments in order to compare the effect of fixed microtiming displacements (from Study A ) with scaled versions of the originally performed microtiming patterns (from Study B ). It showed that fixed snare drum displacements irritated expert listeners more than the more flexible deviations occurring in the original performances. This provides some evidence that listeners' emotional response to microtiming deviations not only depends on the magnitude of the deviations, but also on the kind and origin of the microtiming patterns (fixed lab displacements vs. flexible performance microtiming).

Evaluation of mirrored muscle activity in patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

PubMed

Bank, Paulina J M; Peper, C Lieke E; Marinus, Johan; Beek, Peter J; van Hilten, Jacobus J

2014-10-01

Motor dysfunction in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) has been associated with bilateral changes in central motor processing, suggesting abnormal coupling between the affected and unaffected limb. We evaluated the occurrence of involuntary muscle activity in a limb during voluntary movements of the contralateral limb (i.e., mirror activity) in unilaterally affected patients to examine disinhibition of contralateral motor activity in CRPS. Mirror activity was examined during unimanual rhythmic flexion-extension movements of the wrist through in-depth analysis of electromyography recordings from the passive arm in 20 CRPS patients and 40 controls. The number of mirror-epochs was comparable for both arms in both CRPS patients and controls. Mirror-epochs in the affected arm of patients were comparable to those in controls. Mirror-epochs in the unaffected arm were shorter and showed less resemblance (in terms of rhythm and timing) to activity of the homologous muscle in the moving arm compared to mirror-epochs in controls. No evidence for disinhibition of contralateral motor activity was found during unimanual movement. Although motor dysfunction in CRPS has been associated with bilateral changes in cortical motor processing, the present findings argue against disinhibition of interhemispheric projections to homologous muscles in the contralateral limb during unimanual movement. Copyright © 2014 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissecting Daily and Circadian Expression Rhythms of Clock-Controlled Genes in Human Blood.

PubMed

Lech, Karolina; Ackermann, Katrin; Revell, Victoria L; Lao, Oscar; Skene, Debra J; Kayser, Manfred

2016-02-01

The identification and investigation of novel clock-controlled genes (CCGs) has been conducted thus far mainly in model organisms such as nocturnal rodents, with limited information in humans. Here, we aimed to characterize daily and circadian expression rhythms of CCGs in human peripheral blood during a sleep/sleep deprivation (S/SD) study and a constant routine (CR) study. Blood expression levels of 9 candidate CCGs (SREBF1, TRIB1, USF1, THRA1, SIRT1, STAT3, CAPRIN1, MKNK2, and ROCK2), were measured across 48 h in 12 participants in the S/SD study and across 33 h in 12 participants in the CR study. Statistically significant rhythms in expression were observed for STAT3, SREBF1, TRIB1, and THRA1 in samples from both the S/SD and the CR studies, indicating that their rhythmicity is driven by the endogenous clock. The MKNK2 gene was significantly rhythmic in the S/SD but not the CR study, which implies its exogenously driven rhythmic expression. In addition, we confirmed the circadian expression of PER1, PER3, and REV-ERBα in the CR study samples, while BMAL1 and HSPA1B were not significantly rhythmic in the CR samples; all 5 genes previously showed significant expression in the S/SD study samples. Overall, our results demonstrate that rhythmic expression patterns of clock and selected clock-controlled genes in human blood cells are in part determined by exogenous factors (sleep and fasting state) and in part by the endogenous circadian timing system. Knowledge of the exogenous and endogenous regulation of gene expression rhythms is needed prior to the selection of potential candidate marker genes for future applications in medical and forensic settings. © 2015 The Author(s).

α-Oscillations in the monkey sensorimotor network influence discrimination performance by rhythmical inhibition of neuronal spiking.

PubMed

Haegens, Saskia; Nácher, Verónica; Luna, Rogelio; Romo, Ranulfo; Jensen, Ole

2011-11-29

Extensive work in humans using magneto- and electroencephalography strongly suggests that decreased oscillatory α-activity (8-14 Hz) facilitates processing in a given region, whereas increased α-activity serves to actively suppress irrelevant or interfering processing. However, little work has been done to understand how α-activity is linked to neuronal firing. Here, we simultaneously recorded local field potentials and spikes from somatosensory, premotor, and motor regions while a trained monkey performed a vibrotactile discrimination task. In the local field potentials we observed strong activity in the α-band, which decreased in the sensorimotor regions during the discrimination task. This α-power decrease predicted better discrimination performance. Furthermore, the α-oscillations demonstrated a rhythmic relation with the spiking, such that firing was highest at the trough of the α-cycle. Firing rates increased with a decrease in α-power. These findings suggest that α-oscillations exercise a strong inhibitory influence on both spike timing and firing rate. Thus, the pulsed inhibition by α-oscillations plays an important functional role in the extended sensorimotor system.

Parietal and temporal activity during a multimodal dance video game: an fNIRS study.

PubMed

Tachibana, Atsumichi; Noah, J Adam; Bronner, Shaw; Ono, Yumie; Onozuka, Minoru

2011-10-03

Using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) we studied how playing a dance video game employs coordinated activation of sensory-motor integration centers of the superior parietal lobe (SPL) and superior temporal gyrus (STG). Subjects played a dance video game, in a block design with 30s of activity alternating with 30s of rest, while changes in oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) levels were continuously measured. The game was modified to compare difficult (4-arrow), simple (2-arrow), and stepping conditions. Oxy-Hb levels were greatest with increased task difficulty. The quick-onset, trapezoidal time-course increase in SPL oxy-Hb levels reflected the on-off neuronal response of spatial orienting and rhythmic motor timing that were required during the activity. Slow-onset, bell-shaped increases in oxy-Hb levels observed in STG suggested the gradually increasing load of directing multisensory information to downstream processing centers associated with motor behavior and control. Differences in temporal relationships of SPL and STG oxy-Hb concentration levels may reflect the functional roles of these brain structures during the task period. NIRS permits insights into temporal relationships of cortical hemodynamics during real motor tasks. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Time-Dependent Measure of a Nano-Scale Force-Pulse Driven by the Axonemal Dynein Motors in Individual Live Sperm Cells

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Allen, M J; Rudd, R E; McElfresh, M W

Nano-scale mechanical forces generated by motor proteins are crucial to normal cellular and organismal functioning. The ability to measure and exploit such forces would be important to developing motile biomimetic nanodevices powered by biological motors for Nanomedicine. Axonemal dynein motors positioned inside the sperm flagellum drive microtubule sliding giving rise to rhythmic beating of the flagellum. This force-generating action makes it possible for the sperm cell to move through viscous media. Here we report new nano-scale information on how the propulsive force is generated by the sperm flagellum and how this force varies over time. Single cell recordings reveal discretemore » {approx}50 ms pulses oscillating with amplitude 9.8 {+-} 2.6 nN independent of pulse frequency (3.5-19.5 Hz). The average work carried out by each cell is 4.6 x 10{sup -16} J per pulse, equivalent to the hydrolysis of {approx}5,500 ATP molecules. The mechanochemical coupling at each active dynein head is {approx}2.2 pN/ATP, and {approx}3.9 pN per dynein arm, in agreement with previously published values obtained using different methods.« less

Cumulative lesioning of respiratory interneurons disrupts and precludes motor rhythms in vitro

PubMed Central

Hayes, John A.; Wang, Xueying; Del Negro, Christopher A.

2012-01-01

How brain functions degenerate in the face of progressive cell loss is an important issue that pertains to neurodegenerative diseases and basic properties of neural networks. We developed an automated system that uses two-photon microscopy to detect rhythmic neurons from calcium activity, and then individually laser ablates the targets while monitoring network function in real time. We applied this system to the mammalian respiratory oscillator located in the pre-Bötzinger Complex (preBötC) of the ventral medulla, which spontaneously generates breathing-related motor activity in vitro. Here, we show that cumulatively deleting preBötC neurons progressively decreases respiratory frequency and the amplitude of motor output. On average, the deletion of 120 ± 45 neurons stopped spontaneous respiratory rhythm, and our data suggest ≈82% of the rhythm-generating neurons remain unlesioned. Cumulative ablations in other medullary respiratory regions did not affect frequency but diminished the amplitude of motor output to a lesser degree. These results suggest that the preBötC can sustain insults that destroy no more than ≈18% of its constituent interneurons, which may have implications for the onset of respiratory pathologies in disease states. PMID:22566628

A point process approach to identifying and tracking transitions in neural spiking dynamics in the subthalamic nucleus of Parkinson's patients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Xinyi; Eskandar, Emad N.; Eden, Uri T.

2013-12-01

Understanding the role of rhythmic dynamics in normal and diseased brain function is an important area of research in neural electrophysiology. Identifying and tracking changes in rhythms associated with spike trains present an additional challenge, because standard approaches for continuous-valued neural recordings—such as local field potential, magnetoencephalography, and electroencephalography data—require assumptions that do not typically hold for point process data. Additionally, subtle changes in the history dependent structure of a spike train have been shown to lead to robust changes in rhythmic firing patterns. Here, we propose a point process modeling framework to characterize the rhythmic spiking dynamics in spike trains, test for statistically significant changes to those dynamics, and track the temporal evolution of such changes. We first construct a two-state point process model incorporating spiking history and develop a likelihood ratio test to detect changes in the firing structure. We then apply adaptive state-space filters and smoothers to track these changes through time. We illustrate our approach with a simulation study as well as with experimental data recorded in the subthalamic nucleus of Parkinson's patients performing an arm movement task. Our analyses show that during the arm movement task, neurons underwent a complex pattern of modulation of spiking intensity characterized initially by a release of inhibitory control at 20-40 ms after a spike, followed by a decrease in excitatory influence at 40-60 ms after a spike.

Tool-assisted rhythmic drumming in palm cockatoos shares key elements of human instrumental music

PubMed Central

Heinsohn, Robert; Zdenek, Christina N.; Cunningham, Ross B.; Endler, John A.; Langmore, Naomi E.

2017-01-01

All human societies have music with a rhythmic “beat,” typically produced with percussive instruments such as drums. The set of capacities that allows humans to produce and perceive music appears to be deeply rooted in human biology, but an understanding of its evolutionary origins requires cross-taxa comparisons. We show that drumming by palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus) shares the key rudiments of human instrumental music, including manufacture of a sound tool, performance in a consistent context, regular beat production, repeated components, and individual styles. Over 131 drumming sequences produced by 18 males, the beats occurred at nonrandom, regular intervals, yet individual males differed significantly in the shape parameters describing the distribution of their beat patterns, indicating individual drumming styles. Autocorrelation analyses of the longest drumming sequences further showed that they were highly regular and predictable like human music. These discoveries provide a rare comparative perspective on the evolution of rhythmicity and instrumental music in our own species, and show that a preference for a regular beat can have other origins before being co-opted into group-based music and dance. PMID:28782005

Kinesthetic Appeals in the Poetic Structures of Contemporary Poetry: The Example of David Wagoner.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Gail

1987-01-01

Examines David Wagoner's poetry to illustrate how interpreters can sensitize themselves to a poem's kinesthetic energy by attending to the physical cues of poetic structure such as sound and rhythmic patterns, line lengths and endings, typography, and tensions and resistances. (JD)

Human Behavior from a Chronobiological Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoskins, Carol Noll

1980-01-01

The rhythmic patterning of man's biochemical, physiological, and psychological behavior and the temporal relationships among various functions are the province of chronobiology. Citing animal and human studies, the author documents the progress of this new science and poses complex questions that it may answer about human behavior. (Editor/SJL)

Blockade of brain stem gap junctions increases phrenic burst frequency and reduces phrenic burst synchronization in adult rat.

PubMed

Solomon, Irene C; Chon, Ki H; Rodriguez, Melissa N

2003-01-01

Recent investigations have examined the influence of gap junctional communication on generation and modulation of respiratory rhythm and inspiratory motoneuron synchronization in vitro using transverse medullary slice and en bloc brain stem-spinal cord preparations obtained from neonatal (1-5 days postnatal) mice. Gap junction proteins, however, have been identified in both neurons and glia in brain stem regions implicated in respiratory control in both neonatal and adult rodents. Here, we used an in vitro arterially perfused rat preparation to examine the role of gap junctional communication on generation and modulation of respiratory rhythm and inspiratory motoneuron synchronization in adult rodents. We recorded rhythmic inspiratory motor activity from one or both phrenic nerves before and during pharmacological blockade (i.e., uncoupling) of brain stem gap junctions using carbenoxolone (100 microM), 18alpha-glycyrrhetinic acid (25-100 microM), 18beta-glycyrrhetinic acid (25-100 microM), octanol (200-300 microM), or heptanol (200 microM). During perfusion with a gap junction uncoupling agent, we observed an increase in the frequency of phrenic bursts (~95% above baseline frequency; P < 0.001) and a decrease in peak amplitude of integrated phrenic nerve discharge (P < 0.001). The increase in frequency of phrenic bursts resulted from a decrease in both T(I) (P < 0.01) and T(E) (P < 0.01). In addition, the pattern of phrenic nerve discharge shifted from an augmenting discharge pattern to a "bell-shaped" or square-wave discharge pattern in most experiments. Spectral analyses using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm revealed a reduction in the peak power of both the 40- to 50-Hz peak (corresponding to the MFO) and 90- to 110-Hz peak (corresponding to the HFO) although spurious higher frequency activity (> or =130 Hz) was observed, suggesting an overall loss or reduction in inspiratory-phase synchronization. Although additional experiments are required to identify the specific brain stem regions and cell types (i.e., neurons, glia) mediating the observed modulations in phrenic motor output, these findings suggest that gap junction communication modulates generation of respiratory rhythm and inspiratory motoneuron synchronization in adult rodents in vitro.

Motor Learning as Young Gymnast's Talent Indicator.

PubMed

di Cagno, Alessandra; Battaglia, Claudia; Fiorilli, Giovanni; Piazza, Marina; Giombini, Arrigo; Fagnani, Federica; Borrione, Paolo; Calcagno, Giuseppe; Pigozzi, Fabio

2014-12-01

Talent identification plans are designed to select young athletes with the ability to achieve future success in sports. The aim of the study was to verify the predictive value of coordination and precision in skill acquisition during motor learning, as indicators of talent. One hundred gymnasts, both cadets (aged 11.5 ± 0.5 yr.) and juniors (aged 13.3 ± 0.5 years), competing at the national level, were enrolled in the study. The assessment of motor coordination involved three tests of the validated Hirtz's battery (1985), and motor skill learning involved four technical tests, specific of rhythmic gymnastics. All the tests were correlated with ranking and performance scores reached by each gymnast in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Championships. Coordination tests were significantly correlated to 2013 Championships scores (p < 0.01) and ranking (p < 0.05) of elite cadet athletes. Precision, in skill acquisition test results, was positively and significantly associated with scores in 2013 (adj. R(2) = 0.26, p < 0.01). Gymnasts with the best results in coordination and motor learning tests went on to achieve better competition results in three- year time. Key pointsIn talent identification and selection procedures it is better to include the evaluation of coordination and motor learning ability.Motor learning assessment concerns performance improvement and the ability to develop it, rather than evaluating the athlete's current performance.In this manner talent identification processes should be focused on the future performance capabilities of athletes.

Motor Learning as Young Gymnast’s Talent Indicator

PubMed Central

di Cagno, Alessandra; Battaglia, Claudia; Fiorilli, Giovanni; Piazza, Marina; Giombini, Arrigo; Fagnani, Federica; Borrione, Paolo; Calcagno, Giuseppe; Pigozzi, Fabio

2014-01-01

Talent identification plans are designed to select young athletes with the ability to achieve future success in sports. The aim of the study was to verify the predictive value of coordination and precision in skill acquisition during motor learning, as indicators of talent. One hundred gymnasts, both cadets (aged 11.5 ± 0.5 yr.) and juniors (aged 13.3 ± 0.5 years), competing at the national level, were enrolled in the study. The assessment of motor coordination involved three tests of the validated Hirtz’s battery (1985), and motor skill learning involved four technical tests, specific of rhythmic gymnastics. All the tests were correlated with ranking and performance scores reached by each gymnast in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Championships. Coordination tests were significantly correlated to 2013 Championships scores (p < 0.01) and ranking (p < 0.05) of elite cadet athletes. Precision, in skill acquisition test results, was positively and significantly associated with scores in 2013 (adj. R2 = 0.26, p < 0.01). Gymnasts with the best results in coordination and motor learning tests went on to achieve better competition results in three- year time. Key points In talent identification and selection procedures it is better to include the evaluation of coordination and motor learning ability. Motor learning assessment concerns performance improvement and the ability to develop it, rather than evaluating the athlete’s current performance. In this manner talent identification processes should be focused on the future performance capabilities of athletes. PMID:25435768

Cognitive effects of rhythmic auditory stimulation in Parkinson's disease: A P300 study.

PubMed

Lei, Juan; Conradi, Nadine; Abel, Cornelius; Frisch, Stefan; Brodski-Guerniero, Alla; Hildner, Marcel; Kell, Christian A; Kaiser, Jochen; Schmidt-Kassow, Maren

2018-05-16

Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) may compensate dysfunctions of the basal ganglia (BG), involved with intrinsic evaluation of temporal intervals and action initiation or continuation. In the cognitive domain, RAS containing periodically presented tones facilitates young healthy participants' attention allocation to anticipated time points, indicated by better performance and larger P300 amplitudes to periodic compared to random stimuli. Additionally, active auditory-motor synchronization (AMS) leads to a more precise temporal encoding of stimuli via embodied timing encoding than stimulus presentation adapted to the participants' actual movements. Here we investigated the effect of RAS and AMS in Parkinson's disease (PD). 23 PD patients and 23 healthy age-matched controls underwent an auditory oddball task. We manipulated the timing (periodic/random/adaptive) and setting (pedaling/sitting still) of stimulation. While patients elicited a general timing effect, i.e., larger P300 amplitudes for periodic versus random tones for both, sitting and pedaling conditions, controls showed a timing effect only for the sitting but not for the pedaling condition. However, a correlation between P300 amplitudes and motor variability in the periodic pedaling condition was obtained in control participants only. We conclude that RAS facilitates attentional processing of temporally predictable external events in PD patients as well as healthy controls, but embodied timing encoding via body movement does not affect stimulus processing due to BG impairment in patients. Moreover, even with intact embodied timing encoding, such as healthy elderly, the effect of AMS depends on the degree of movement synchronization performance, which is very low in the current study. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of afferent feedback and central motor commands on soleus H-reflex suppression during arm cycling.

PubMed

Hundza, S R; de Ruiter, Geoff C; Klimstra, M; Zehr, E Paul

2012-12-01

Suppression of soleus H-reflex amplitude in stationary legs is seen during rhythmic arm cycling. We examined the influence of various arm-cycling parameters on this interlimb reflex modulation to determine the origin of the effect. We previously showed the suppression to be graded with the frequency of arm cycling but not largely influenced by changes in peripheral input associated with crank length. Here, we more explicitly explored the contribution of afferent feedback related to arm movement on the soleus H-reflex suppression. We explored the influence of load and rate of muscle stretch by manipulating crank-load and arm-muscle vibration during arm cycling. Furthermore, internally driven ("Active") and externally driven ("Passive") arm cycling was compared. Soleus H-reflexes were evoked with tibial nerve stimulation during stationary control and rhythmic arm-cycling conditions, including: 1) six different loads; 2) with and without vibration to arm muscles; and 3) Active and Passive conditions. No significant differences were seen in the level of suppression between the different crank loads or between conditions with and without arm-muscle vibration. Furthermore, in contrast to the clear effect seen during active cycling, passive arm cycling did not significantly suppress the soleus H-reflex amplitude. Current results, in conjunction with previous findings, suggest that the afferent feedback examined in these studies is not the primary source responsible for soleus H-reflex suppression. Instead, it appears that central motor commands (supraspinal or spinal in origin) associated with frequency of arm cycling are relatively more dominant sources.

Decreased spinal synaptic inputs to phrenic motor neurons elicit localized inactivity-induced phrenic motor facilitation

PubMed Central

Streeter, K.A.; Baker-Herman, T.L.

2014-01-01

Phrenic motor neurons receive rhythmic synaptic inputs throughout life. Since even brief disruption in phrenic neural activity is detrimental to life, on-going neural activity may play a key role in shaping phrenic motor output. To test the hypothesis that spinal mechanisms sense and respond to reduced phrenic activity, anesthetized, ventilated rats received micro-injections of procaine in the C2 ventrolateral funiculus (VLF) to transiently (~30 min) block axon conduction in bulbospinal axons from medullary respiratory neurons that innervate one phrenic motor pool; during procaine injections, contralateral phrenic neural activity was maintained. Once axon conduction resumed, a prolonged increase in phrenic burst amplitude was observed in the ipsilateral phrenic nerve, demonstrating inactivity-induced phrenic motor facilitation (iPMF). Inhibition of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and atypical PKC (aPKC) activity in spinal segments containing the phrenic motor nucleus impaired ipsilateral iPMF, suggesting a key role for spinal TNFα and aPKC in iPMF following unilateral axon conduction block. A small phrenic burst amplitude facilitation was also observed contralateral to axon conduction block, indicating crossed spinal phrenic motor facilitation (csPMF). csPMF was independent of spinal TNFα and aPKC. Ipsilateral iPMF and csPMF following unilateral withdrawal of phrenic synaptic inputs were associated with proportional increases in phrenic responses to chemoreceptor stimulation (hypercapnia), suggesting iPMF and csPMF increase phrenic dynamic range. These data suggest that local, spinal mechanisms sense and respond to reduced synaptic inputs to phrenic motor neurons. We hypothesize that iPMF and csPMF may represent compensatory mechanisms that assure adequate motor output is maintained in a physiological system in which prolonged inactivity ends life. PMID:24681155

Circadian Activity Rhythms, Time Urgency, and Achievement Concerns.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watts, Barbara L.

Many physiological and psychological processes fluctuate throughout the day in fairly stable, rhythmic patterns. The relationship between individual differences in circadian activity rhythms and a sense of time urgency were explored as well as a number of achievement-related variables. Undergraduates (N=308), whose circadian activity rhythms were…

Prosodic Awareness and Children's Multisyllabic Word Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holliman, Andrew J.; Mundy, Ian R.; Wade-Woolley, Lesly; Wood, Clare; Bird, Chelsea

2017-01-01

Prosodic awareness (the rhythmic patterning of speech) accounts for unique variance in reading development. However, studies have thus far focused on early readers and utilised literacy measures which fail to distinguish between monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. The current study investigated the factors that are specifically associated with…

Does Melody Assist in the Reproduction of Novel Rhythm Patterns?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinney, Daryl W.; Forsythe, Jere L.

2013-01-01

We examined music education majors' ability to reproduce rhythmic stimuli presented in melody and rhythm only conditions. Participants reproduced rhythms of two-measure music examples by immediately echo-performing through a method of their choosing (e.g., clapping, tapping, vocalizing). Forty examples were presented in melody and rhythm only…

Hierarchical Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Speech Rhythm and Articulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tilsen, Samuel Edward

2009-01-01

Hierarchy is one of the most important concepts in the scientific study of language. This dissertation aims to understand why we observe hierarchical structures in speech by investigating the cognitive processes from which they emerge. To that end, the dissertation explores how articulatory, rhythmic, and prosodic patterns of speech interact.…

"The City": The Rhetoric of Rhythm.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medhurst, Martin J.; Benson, Thomas W.

1981-01-01

Case study of Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke's classic documentary, "The City," a work of cinematic art and a record of the problems confronting urban planners. Discusses how the film builds a rhythmic pattern through dramatic structure, image content and composition, editing, music, and narration to enhance its rhetorical appeal. (JMF)

Limit-cycle-based control of the myogenic wingbeat rhythm in the fruit fly Drosophila

PubMed Central

Bartussek, Jan; Mutlu, A. Kadir; Zapotocky, Martin; Fry, Steven N.

2013-01-01

In many animals, rhythmic motor activity is governed by neural limit cycle oscillations under the control of sensory feedback. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the wingbeat rhythm is generated myogenically by stretch-activated muscles and hence independently from direct neural input. In this study, we explored if generation and cycle-by-cycle control of Drosophila's wingbeat are functionally separated, or if the steering muscles instead couple into the myogenic rhythm as a weak forcing of a limit cycle oscillator. We behaviourally tested tethered flying flies for characteristic properties of limit cycle oscillators. To this end, we mechanically stimulated the fly's ‘gyroscopic’ organs, the halteres, and determined the phase relationship between the wing motion and stimulus. The flies synchronized with the stimulus for specific ranges of stimulus amplitude and frequency, revealing the characteristic Arnol'd tongues of a forced limit cycle oscillator. Rapid periodic modulation of the wingbeat frequency prior to locking demonstrates the involvement of the fast steering muscles in the observed control of the wingbeat frequency. We propose that the mechanical forcing of a myogenic limit cycle oscillator permits flies to avoid the comparatively slow control based on a neural central pattern generator. PMID:23282849

Rhythmic syllable-related activity in a songbird motor thalamic nucleus necessary for learned vocalizations

PubMed Central

Danish, Husain H.; Aronov, Dmitriy; Fee, Michale S.

2017-01-01

Birdsong is a complex behavior that exhibits hierarchical organization. While the representation of singing behavior and its hierarchical organization has been studied in some detail in avian cortical premotor circuits, our understanding of the role of the thalamus in adult birdsong is incomplete. Using a combination of behavioral and electrophysiological studies, we seek to expand on earlier work showing that the thalamic nucleus Uvaeformis (Uva) is necessary for the production of stereotyped, adult song in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). We confirm that complete bilateral lesions of Uva abolish singing in the ‘directed’ social context, but find that in the ‘undirected’ social context, such lesions result in highly variable vocalizations similar to early babbling song in juvenile birds. Recordings of neural activity in Uva reveal strong syllable-related modulation, maximally active prior to syllable onsets and minimally active prior to syllable offsets. Furthermore, both song and Uva activity exhibit a pronounced coherent modulation at 10Hz—a pattern observed in downstream premotor areas in adult and, even more prominently, in juvenile birds. These findings are broadly consistent with the idea that Uva is critical in the sequential activation of behavioral modules in HVC. PMID:28617829

Central cholinergic regulation of respiration: nicotinic receptors

PubMed Central

Shao, Xuesi M; Feldman, Jack L

2009-01-01

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are expressed in brainstem and spinal cord regions involved in the control of breathing. These receptors mediate central cholinergic regulation of respiration and effects of the exogenous ligand nicotine on respiratory pattern. Activation of α4* nAChRs in the preBötzinger Complex (preBötC), an essential site for normal respiratory rhythm generation in mammals, modulates excitatory glutamatergic neurotransmission and depolarizes preBötC inspiratory neurons, leading to increases in respiratory frequency. nAChRs are also present in motor nuclei innervating respiratory muscles. Activation of post- and/or extra-synaptic α4* nAChRs on hypoglossal (XII) motoneurons depolarizes these neurons, potentiating tonic and respiratory-related rhythmic activity. As perinatal nicotine exposure may contribute to the pathogenesis of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), we discuss the effects of perinatal nicotine exposure on development of the cholinergic and other neurotransmitter systems involved in control of breathing. Advances in understanding of the mechanisms underlying central cholinergic/nicotinic modulation of respiration provide a pharmacological basis for exploiting nAChRs as therapeutic targets for neurological disorders related to neural control of breathing such as sleep apnea and SIDS. PMID:19498418

[Role of rhythmicity in infant development].

PubMed

Ciccone, A

2015-09-01

This article deals with rhythm in the experiences of infants, focusing in particular on the function of rhythmicity in the baby's sense of being and its continuity. Infants are inevitably subjected to experiences of discontinuity. These experiences are necessary to development, but they expose the child to chaotic experiences when a basic rhythmicity is not ensured. The rhythmicity of childcare experiences gives the illusion of permanence and enables anticipation. This nourishes the basic feeling of security and supports the development of thought. Interactive and intersubjective exchanges must be rhythmic and must be in keeping with the rhythm of the baby, who needs to withdraw regularly from the interaction to internalize the experience of the exchange. Without this retreat, the interaction is over-stimulating and prevents internalization. Object presence/ absence must also be rhythmic, to enable the infant to keep the object alive inside him/ herself. Observation of babies has demonstrated their ability to manage experiences of discontinuity: they are able to sustain a continuous link via their gaze, look for clues indicating the presence of a lost object, search for support in sensations, and fabricate rhythmicity to remain open to the self and the world. The author gives some examples of infant observations that provide evidence of these capacities. One observation shows how a baby defends itself against a discontinuity by actively maintaining a link via his/her gaze. Another example shows an infant holding on to "hard sensations" in order to stay away from "soft" ones, which represent the fragility of the separation experience. This example pertains to a seven-month-old's prelanguage and "prosodic tonicity". The author takes this opportunity to propose the notion of "psychic bisensuality" to describe these two sensation poles, which must be harmoniously articulated to guarantee an inner sense of security. Such repairs of discontinuity are only possible if the experience of discontinuity is not overly disorganizing. For instance, if an object is absent for more than a certain amount of time, it is no longer alive in the infant's mind and despair is inevitable. This prompts us to think carefully about the separation experiences we impose upon babies and their duration. Rhythms of security set in right from the beginning of early childhood, or even in utero. The author gives an example of recourse to inner rhythmicity in an 8 - or 9-month-old baby, which serves to ground the baby's sense of security. In infants, as in each one of us, rhythmicity organizes a foundation of permanence and bridges the gap created by separation. If leaning on sensations and creating neo-rhythms fails to repair the discontinuities, the baby will plunge into experiences of chaos and confusion, as seen, for example, in inconsolability. Even in this latter case, one can find a rhythmicity in the infant's crying, for example, as if the baby didn't want to be separated from the sorrow, a sort of paradoxical companion. Traces of all these primitive defenses can be found in the older child and in adult psychopathology. The importance of rhythmicity is stressed in relation to learning, which involves the experience of otherness and reality, and the rhythmic patterns of engagement and withdrawal support the integration process. The same holds true for the caretaking relationship: rhythmic involvement supports coming together, sharing, and understanding. In all of these situations, the parent, the teacher, the caregiver, must adapt to the child, the pupil, the patient; the external rhythms must fit the internal rhythm of the subject. Copyright © 2015 L’Encéphale. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.

Poststroke motor dysfunction and spasticity: novel pharmacological and physical treatment strategies.

PubMed

Hesse, Stefan; Werner, Cordula

2003-01-01

Following stroke, approximately 90% of patients experience persistent neurological motor deficits that lead to disability and handicap. Both pharmacological and physical treatment strategies for motor rehabilitation may be considered. In terms of pharmacological treatment, drugs that may potentially promote motor recovery when added to a regimen of physical therapy include the stimulants amphetamine and methylphenidate, as well as levodopa and fluoxetine. Botulinum toxin A has proven effective and well tolerated in several placebo-controlled trials for the treatment of focal upper and lower limb spasticity, although it has not been shown to improve motor function. The focal injection of botulinum toxin A inhibits the release of acetylcholine into the synaptic cleft, resulting in a reversible paresis of the muscles relevant for the spastic deformity. Other drugs, such as benzodiazepines, antiepileptic drugs and antipsychotics, may have detrimental effects on motor function and should be avoided, if possible. With respect to physical strategies, modern concepts of motor learning favour a task-specific repetitive approach that induces skill-acquisition relevant to the patient's daily life. Constrained-induced movement therapy based on the concept of learned non-use, electromyography-triggered electrical stimulation of the wrist muscles, robot-assisted motor rehabilitation to increase therapy intensity and bilateral practice to facilitate the movement of the paretic extremity are examples in upper limb rehabilitation. Lower limb rehabilitation has been enriched by treadmill training with partial bodyweight support, enabling the practice of up to 1000 steps per session; automated gait rehabilitation to relieve the strenuous effort required of the therapist; and rhythmic auditory stimulation, applying individually adjusted music to improve walking speed and symmetry.

Towards control of dexterous hand manipulations using a silicon Pattern Generator.

PubMed

Russell, Alexander; Tenore, Francesco; Singhal, Girish; Thakor, Nitish; Etienne-Cummings, Ralph

2008-01-01

This work demonstrates how an in silico Pattern Generator (PG) can be used as a low power control system for rhythmic hand movements in an upper-limb prosthesis. Neural spike patterns, which encode rotation of a cylindrical object, were implemented in a custom Very Large Scale Integration chip. PG control was tested by using the decoded control signals to actuate the fingers of a virtual prosthetic arm. This system provides a framework for prototyping and controlling dexterous hand manipulation tasks in a compact and efficient solution.

Imaging: what can it tell us about parkinsonian gait?

PubMed Central

Bohnen, Nicolaas I.; Jahn, Klaus

2013-01-01

Functional neuroimaging has provided new tools to study cerebral gait control in Parkinson disease (PD). First, imaging of blood flow functions has identified a supraspinal locomotor network that includes the (frontal) cortex, basal ganglia, brainstem tegmentum and the cerebellum. These studies emphasize also the cognitive and attentional dependency of gait in PD. Furthermore, gait in PD and related syndromes like progressive supranuclear palsy may be associated with dysfunction of the indirect, modulatory prefrontal–subthalamic–pedunculopontine loop of locomotor control. The direct, stereotyped locomotor loop from the primary motor cortex to the spinal cord with rhythmic cerebellar input appears preserved and may contribute to the unflexible gait pattern in parkinsonian gait. Second, neurotransmitter and proteinopathy imaging studies are beginning to unravel novel mechanisms of parkinsonian gait and postural disturbances. Dopamine displacement imaging studies have shown evidence for a mesofrontal dopaminergic shift from a depleted striatum in parkinsonian gait. This may place additional burden on other brain systems mediating attention functions to perform previously automatic motor tasks. For example, our preliminary cholinergic imaging studies suggest significant slowing of gait speed when additional forebrain cholinergic denervation occurs in PD. Cholinergic denervation of the pedunculopontine nucleus and its thalamic projections have been associated with falls and impaired postural control. Deposition of β-amyloid may represent another non-dopaminergic correlate of gait disturbance in PD. These findings illustrate the emergence of dopamine non-responsive gait problems to reflect the transition from a predominantly hypodopaminergic disorder to a multisystem neurodegenerative disorder involving non-dopaminergic locomotor network structures and pathologies. PMID:24132837

A cephalic projection neuron involved in locomotion is dye coupled to the dopaminergic neural network in the medicinal leech.

PubMed

Crisp, Kevin M; Mesce, Karen A

2004-12-01

It is widely appreciated that the selection and modulation of locomotor circuits are dependent on the actions of higher-order projection neurons. In the leech, Hirudo medicinalis, locomotion is modulated by a number of cephalic projection neurons that descend from the subesophageal ganglion in the head. Specifically, descending brain interneuron Tr2 functions as a command-like neuron that can terminate or sometimes trigger fictive swimming. In this study, we demonstrate that Tr2 is dye coupled to the dopaminergic neural network distributed in the head brain. These findings represent the first anatomical evidence in support of dopamine (DA) playing a role in the modulation of locomotion in the leech. In addition, we have determined that bath application of DA to the brain and entire nerve cord reliably and rapidly terminates swimming in all preparations exhibiting fictive swimming. By contrast, DA application to nerve cords expressing ongoing fictive crawling does not inhibit this motor rhythm. Furthermore, we show that Tr2 receives rhythmic feedback from the crawl central pattern generator. For example, Tr2 receives inhibitory post-synaptic potentials during the elongation phase of each crawl cycle. When crawling is not expressed, spontaneous inhibitory post-synaptic potentials in Tr2 correlate in time with spontaneous excitatory post-synaptic potentials in the CV motor neuron, a circular muscle excitor that bursts during the elongation phase of crawling. Our data are consistent with the idea that DA biases the nervous system to produce locomotion in the form of crawling.

Corollary discharge inhibition of wind-sensitive cercal giant interneurons in the singing field cricket

PubMed Central

Hedwig, Berthold

2014-01-01

Crickets carry wind-sensitive mechanoreceptors on their cerci, which, in response to the airflow produced by approaching predators, triggers escape reactions via ascending giant interneurons (GIs). Males also activate their cercal system by air currents generated due to the wing movements underlying sound production. Singing males still respond to external wind stimulation, but are not startled by the self-generated airflow. To investigate how the nervous system discriminates sensory responses to self-generated and external airflow, we intracellularly recorded wind-sensitive afferents and ventral GIs of the cercal escape pathway in fictively singing crickets, a situation lacking any self-stimulation. GI spiking was reduced whenever cercal wind stimulation coincided with singing motor activity. The axonal terminals of cercal afferents showed no indication of presynaptic inhibition during singing. In two ventral GIs, however, a corollary discharge inhibition occurred strictly in phase with the singing motor pattern. Paired intracellular recordings revealed that this inhibition was not mediated by the activity of the previously identified corollary discharge interneuron (CDI) that rhythmically inhibits the auditory pathway during singing. Cercal wind stimulation, however, reduced the spike activity of this CDI by postsynaptic inhibition. Our study reveals how precisely timed corollary discharge inhibition of ventral GIs can prevent self-generated airflow from triggering inadvertent escape responses in singing crickets. The results indicate that the responsiveness of the auditory and wind-sensitive pathway is modulated by distinct CDIs in singing crickets and that the corollary discharge inhibition in the auditory pathway can be attenuated by cercal wind stimulation. PMID:25318763

Characteristic phasic evolution of convulsive seizure in PCDH19-related epilepsy.

PubMed

Ikeda, Hiroko; Imai, Katsumi; Ikeda, Hitoshi; Shigematsu, Hideo; Takahashi, Yukitoshi; Inoue, Yushi; Higurashi, Norimichi; Hirose, Shinichi

2016-03-01

PCDH19-related epilepsy is a genetic disorder that was first described in 1971, then referred to as "epilepsy and mental retardation limited to females". PCDH19 has recently been identified as the responsible gene, but a detailed characterization of the seizure manifestation based on video-EEG recording is still limited. The purpose of this study was to elucidate features of the seizure semiology in children with PCDH19-related epilepsy. To do this, ictal video-EEG recordings of 26 convulsive seizures in three girls with PCDH19-related epilepsy were analysed. All seizures occurred in clusters, mainly during sleep accompanied by fever. The motor manifestations consisted of six sequential phases: "jerk", "reactive", "mild tonic", "fluttering", "mild clonic", and "postictal". Some phases were brief or lacking in some seizures, whereas others were long or pronounced. In the reactive phase, the patients looked fearful or startled with sudden jerks and turned over reactively. The tonic and clonic components were less intense compared with those of typical tonic-clonic seizures in other types of epilepsy. The fluttering phase was characterised initially by asymmetric, less rhythmic, and less synchronous tremulous movement and was then followed by the subtle clonic phase. Subtle oral automatism was observed in the postictal phase. The reactive, mild tonic, fluttering and mild clonic phases were most characteristic of seizures of PCDH19-related epilepsy. Ictal EEG started bilaterally and was symmetric in some patients but asymmetric in others. It showed asymmetric rhythmic discharges in some seizures at later phases. The electroclinical pattern of the phasic evolution of convulsive seizure suggests a focal onset seizure with secondary generalisation. Based on our findings, we propose that the six unique sequential phases in convulsive seizures suggest the diagnosis of PCDH19-related epilepsy when occurring in clusters with or without high fever in girls. [Published with video sequences online].

Dynamic Skin Patterns in Cephalopods

PubMed Central

How, Martin J.; Norman, Mark D.; Finn, Julian; Chung, Wen-Sung; Marshall, N. Justin

2017-01-01

Cephalopods are unrivaled in the natural world in their ability to alter their visual appearance. These mollusks have evolved a complex system of dermal units under neural, hormonal, and muscular control to produce an astonishing variety of body patterns. With parallels to the pixels on a television screen, cephalopod chromatophores can be coordinated to produce dramatic, dynamic, and rhythmic displays, defined collectively here as “dynamic patterns.” This study examines the nature, context, and potential functions of dynamic patterns across diverse cephalopod taxa. Examples are presented for 21 species, including 11 previously unreported in the scientific literature. These range from simple flashing or flickering patterns, to highly complex passing wave patterns involving multiple skin fields. PMID:28674500

The impact of dance-aerobics training on the morpho-motor status in female high-schoolers.

PubMed

Viskić-Stalec, Natasa; Stalec, Janez; Katić, Ratko; Podvorac, Durda; Katović, Darko

2007-03-01

The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of special programmed physical education including dance, aerobics and rhythmic gymnastics on the development of motor and functional abilities and morphological characteristics of female fourth-grade high-schoolers in Zagreb. A total sample of 220 high-schoolers aged 16-18 years were divided into two groups: experimental group of 115 students attending the program composed of dance structures and aerobics, and control group of 105 students attending classic program of physical education. A set of 3 morphological variables, 6 motor variables and one functional variable were applied in both groups on three occasions during an academic year (initial, transient and final measurements). Two-factor analysis of variance (MANOVA repeated measure design) showed the experimental program to significantly influence the development of coordination/agility and specific rhythm coordination, functional aerobic ability, repetitive and explosive strength and flexibility, along with significant reduction of overweight and adipose tissue. Study results clearly indicate that the existing programs of physical education should be revised and replaced by more appropriate ones.

[Postural control characteristics in elderly women with fallers].

PubMed

Gudkov, A B; Dyomin, A V; Gribanov, A V

Using computer posturografic (stabilometric) complex a study of postural control peculiarities was carried out in 108 women aged 65-74 years who had experienced two or more falls during the year (fallers). These tests were: Sensory Organization Test, Motor Control Test, Rhythmic Weight Shift. It was found that elderly women with fallers had a decrease of sensory information (somatosensory - by 1,8 %, of the visual - by 6 %, and of the vestibular - by 10,1 %), the neurophysiological mechanisms of postural control (by 5,7 points), violation of adaptation possibilities of sensory and motor components of the legs to respond quickly to changes in the center of gravity within the support base of its footing (7,3 ms), as well as reducing balance control in the frontal (by 7,2 %) and sagittal (by 23,2 % ) planes compared with the women of the same age without fallers.

Spontaneous tempo and rhythmic entrainment in a bonobo (Pan paniscus).

PubMed

Large, Edward W; Gray, Patricia M

2015-11-01

The emergence of speech and music in the human species represent major evolutionary transitions that enabled the use of complex, temporally structured acoustic signals to coordinate social interaction. While the fundamental capacity for temporal coordination with complex acoustic signals has been shown in a few distantly related species, the extent to which nonhuman primates exhibit sensitivity to auditory rhythms remains controversial. In Experiment 1, we assessed spontaneous motor tempo and tempo matching in a bonobo (Pan paniscus), in the context of a social drumming interaction. In Experiment 2, the bonobo spontaneously entrained and synchronized her drum strikes within a range around her spontaneous motor tempo. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the evolution of acoustic communication builds upon fundamental neurodynamic mechanisms that can be found in a wide range of species, and are recruited for social interactions. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Knockout of Foxp2 disrupts vocal development in mice.

PubMed

Castellucci, Gregg A; McGinley, Matthew J; McCormick, David A

2016-03-16

The FOXP2 gene is important for the development of proper speech motor control in humans. However, the role of the gene in general vocal behavior in other mammals, including mice, is unclear. Here, we track the vocal development of Foxp2 heterozygous knockout (Foxp2+/-) mice and their wildtype (WT) littermates from juvenile to adult ages, and observe severe abnormalities in the courtship song of Foxp2+/- mice. In comparison to their WT littermates, Foxp2+/- mice vocalized less, produced shorter syllable sequences, and possessed an abnormal syllable inventory. In addition, Foxp2+/- song also exhibited irregular rhythmic structure, and its development did not follow the consistent trajectories observed in WT vocalizations. These results demonstrate that the Foxp2 gene is critical for normal vocal behavior in juvenile and adult mice, and that Foxp2 mutant mice may provide a tractable model system for the study of the gene's role in general vocal motor control.

Captured by motion: dance, action understanding, and social cognition.

PubMed

Sevdalis, Vassilis; Keller, Peter E

2011-11-01

In this review article, we summarize the main findings from empirical studies that used dance-related forms of rhythmical full body movement as a research tool for investigating action understanding and social cognition. This work has proven to be informative about behavioral and brain mechanisms that mediate links between perceptual and motor processes invoked during the observation and execution of spatially-temporally coordinated action and interpersonal interaction. The review focuses specifically on processes related to (a) motor experience and expertise, (b) learning and memory, (c) action, intention, and emotion understanding, and (d) audio-visual synchrony and timing. Consideration is given to the relationship between research on dance and more general embodied cognition accounts of action understanding and social cognition. Finally, open questions and issues concerning experimental design are discussed with a view to stimulating future research on social-cognitive aspects of dance. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Head turning as a prominent motor symptom in status epilepticus.

PubMed

Bauer, Gerhard; Broessner, Gregor; Unterberger, Iris; Walser, Gerald; Pfausler, Bettina; Trinka, Eugen

2008-06-01

Head and eye turning is frequently observed during seizures. Versions with tonic and/or clonic symptoms can be differentiated from smooth head deviations. Head turning as a prominent symptom of status epilepticus has not previously been reported. We present eight case reports, (7 women/1 man, mean age 41 years, median 41.5, range 10 to 74), of status epilepticus (SE), with head turning as a prominent motor symptom. Six were accompanied by continuous frontal, occipital and temporal ictal epileptiform discharges. Furthermore, two patients had absence status with rhythmic and clonic head versions. While the localizing significance of head turnings in SE is low, in our cases, the direction was away from the discharging hemisphere in all cases of focal SE regardless of whether the turning was classified as version (three cases) or deviation (three cases). In this small series of SE, the classical observation of a patient looking away from the discharging hemisphere is still valid.

A method for discrimination of noise and EMG signal regions recorded during rhythmic behaviors.

PubMed

Ying, Rex; Wall, Christine E

2016-12-08

Analyses of muscular activity during rhythmic behaviors provide critical data for biomechanical studies. Electrical potentials measured from muscles using electromyography (EMG) require discrimination of noise regions as the first step in analysis. An experienced analyst can accurately identify the onset and offset of EMG but this process takes hours to analyze a short (10-15s) record of rhythmic EMG bursts. Existing computational techniques reduce this time but have limitations. These include a universal threshold for delimiting noise regions (i.e., a single signal value for identifying the EMG signal onset and offset), pre-processing using wide time intervals that dampen sensitivity for EMG signal characteristics, poor performance when a low frequency component (e.g., DC offset) is present, and high computational complexity leading to lack of time efficiency. We present a new statistical method and MATLAB script (EMG-Extractor) that includes an adaptive algorithm to discriminate noise regions from EMG that avoids these limitations and allows for multi-channel datasets to be processed. We evaluate the EMG-Extractor with EMG data on mammalian jaw-adductor muscles during mastication, a rhythmic behavior typified by low amplitude onsets/offsets and complex signal pattern. The EMG-Extractor consistently and accurately distinguishes noise from EMG in a manner similar to that of an experienced analyst. It outputs the raw EMG signal region in a form ready for further analysis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Daily and estrous rhythmicity of body temperature in domestic cattle

PubMed Central

Piccione, Giuseppe; Caola, Giovanni; Refinetti, Roberto

2003-01-01

Background Rhythmicity in core body temperature has been extensively studied in humans and laboratory animals but much less in farm animals. Extending the study of rhythmicity of body temperature to farm animals is important not only from a comparative perspective but also from an economic perspective, as greater knowledge of this process can lead to improvements in livestock production practices. In this study in cattle, we investigated the maturation of the daily rhythm of body temperature in newborn calves, characterized the parameters of the daily rhythm in young cows, and studied the oscillation in body temperature associated with the estrous cycle in adult cows. Results We found that the daily rhythm of body temperature is absent at birth but matures fully during the first two months of life. The mature rhythm had a mean level of 38.3°C, a range of excursion of 1.4°C, and was more robust than that of any mammalian species previously studied (90% of maximal robustness). Sexually mature cows also exhibited a robust estrous rhythm of body temperature. An elevation of about 1.3°C was observed every 21 days on the day of estrus. Small seasonal variations in this pattern were observed. Conclusion In conclusion, calves exhibit a very robust daily rhythm of body temperature, although this rhythm is absent at birth and develops during the first two months of life. Adult cows exhibit also 21-day rhythmicity in body temperature reflecting the duration of the estrous cycle. PMID:12882649

Quantification of effectiveness of bilateral and unilateral neuromodulation in the rat bladder rhythmic contraction model

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Using the isovolumetric bladder rhythmic contraction (BRC) model in anesthetized rats, we have quantified the responsiveness to unilateral and bilateral stimulation of the L6 spinal nerve (SN) and characterized the relationship between stimulus intensity and inhibition of the bladder micturition reflex. Methods A wire electrode was placed under either one or both of the L6 SN roots. A cannula was placed into the bladder via the urethra and the urethra was ligated. Saline infusion induced BRC. Results At motor threshold (Tmot) intensity, SN stimulation of both roots (10 Hz) for 10 min reduced bladder contraction frequency from 0.63 ± 0.04 to 0.17 ± 0.09 contractions per min (26 ± 14% of baseline control; n = 10, p < 0.05). However, the same intensity of unilateral stimulation (n = 15) or sequential stimulation of both SNs (e.g. 5 min per side alternatively for a total of 10 min or 20 min) was less efficacious. The greater sensitivity to bilateral stimulation is not dependent upon precise bilateral timing of the stimulation pulses. Bilateral stimulation also produced both acute and prolonged- inhibition on bladder contractions in a stimulation intensity dependent fashion. Conclusions Using the bladder rhythmic contraction model, bilateral stimulation was more effective than unilateral stimulation of the SN. Clinical testing should be conducted to further compare efficacies of unilateral and bilateral stimulation. Bilateral stimulation may allow the use of lower stimulation intensities to achieve higher efficacy for neurostimulation therapies on urinary tract control. PMID:23866931

Neuronal Diversity in GABAergic Long-Range Projections from the Hippocampus

PubMed Central

Jinno, Shozo; Klausberger, Thomas; Marton, Laszlo F.; Dalezios, Yannis; Roberts, J. David B.; Fuentealba, Pablo; Bushong, Eric A.; Henze, Darrell; Buzsáki, György; Somogyi, Peter

2008-01-01

The formation and recall of sensory, motor, and cognitive representations require coordinated fast communication among multiple cortical areas. Interareal projections are mainly mediated by glutamatergic pyramidal cell projections; only few long-range GABAergic connections have been reported. Using in vivo recording and labeling of single cells and retrograde axonal tracing, we demonstrate novel long-range GABAergic projection neurons in the rat hippocampus: (1) somatostatin- and predominantly mGluR1α-positive neurons in stratum oriens project to the subiculum, other cortical areas, and the medial septum; (2) neurons in stratum oriens, including somatostatin-negative ones; and (3) trilaminar cells project to the subiculum and/or other cortical areas but not the septum. These three populations strongly increase their firing during sharp wave-associated ripple oscillations, communicating this network state to the septotemporal system. Finally, a large population of somatostatin-negative GABAergic cells in stratum radiatum project to the molecular layers of the subiculum, presubiculum, retrosplenial cortex, and indusium griseum and fire rhythmically at high rates during theta oscillations but do not increase their firing during ripples. The GABAergic projection axons have a larger diameter and thicker myelin sheet than those of CA1 pyramidal cells. Therefore, rhythmic IPSCs are likely to precede the arrival of excitation in cortical areas (e.g., subiculum) that receive both glutamatergic and GABAergic projections from the CA1 area. Other areas, including the retrosplenial cortex, receive only rhythmic GABAergic CA1 input. We conclude that direct GABAergic projections from the hippocampus to other cortical areas and the septum contribute to coordinating oscillatory timing across structures. PMID:17699661

Design, implementation and stabilization of a Bipedal robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nath, Alok; Das, Goutam; Mallick, Anik; Chowdhury, Shovan

2017-12-01

In this paper, we have presented the mechanical design and fabrication of a Bipedal walking robot as well as control strategies to be implemented for walking and balance recovery. For this robot, we considered Six Degree of Freedom (D.O.P) in the lower body one at each hip, one at each knee and one at each ankle. Each degree of freedom is powered by a RC servo motor and this robot is controlled by Arduino Mega 2560 micro controller. By balancing center of mass (C.O.M) it walks in rhythmic way as like as human one.

Daily rhythms of blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature in fed and fasted male dogs.

PubMed

Piccione, G; Caola, G; Refinetti, R

2005-10-01

Daily or circadian rhythmicity in physiological processes has been described in a large number of species of birds and mammals. However, in dogs, most studies have either failed to detect rhythmicity or have found that rhythmicity reflects merely an acute exogenous effect of feeding rather than an autonomous rhythmic process. In the present study, we investigated the rhythmicity of body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate in dogs fed daily as well as in dogs deprived of food for 60 h. Our results document clear rhythmicity in all three parameters and demonstrate that the rhythmicity is independent of the feeding schedule. The failure of various previous investigations to document daily rhythmicity in dogs is probably due to lack of experimental rigour rather than to weakness of daily rhythmicity in dogs.

The Enhanced Musical Rhythmic Perception in Second Language Learners

PubMed Central

Roncaglia-Denissen, M. Paula; Roor, Drikus A.; Chen, Ao; Sadakata, Makiko

2016-01-01

Previous research suggests that mastering languages with distinct rather than similar rhythmic properties enhances musical rhythmic perception. This study investigates whether learning a second language (L2) contributes to enhanced musical rhythmic perception in general, regardless of first and second languages rhythmic properties. Additionally, we investigated whether this perceptual enhancement could be alternatively explained by exposure to musical rhythmic complexity, such as the use of compound meter in Turkish music. Finally, it investigates if an enhancement of musical rhythmic perception could be observed among L2 learners whose first language relies heavily on pitch information, as is the case with tonal languages. Therefore, we tested Turkish, Dutch and Mandarin L2 learners of English and Turkish monolinguals on their musical rhythmic perception. Participants’ phonological and working memory capacities, melodic aptitude, years of formal musical training and daily exposure to music were assessed to account for cultural and individual differences which could impact their rhythmic ability. Our results suggest that mastering a L2 rather than exposure to musical rhythmic complexity could explain individuals’ enhanced musical rhythmic perception. An even stronger enhancement of musical rhythmic perception was observed for L2 learners whose first and second languages differ regarding their rhythmic properties, as enhanced performance of Turkish in comparison with Dutch L2 learners of English seem to suggest. Such a stronger enhancement of rhythmic perception seems to be found even among L2 learners whose first language relies heavily on pitch information, as the performance of Mandarin L2 learners of English indicates. Our findings provide further support for a cognitive transfer between the language and music domain. PMID:27375469

Rhythmic Gymnastics: A Challenge with Balls and Ropes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, John P.

Rhythmic gymnastics is an outgrowth of rhythmic and dance gymnastics and promotes good posture, strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination, along with appreciation of music and movement together. The current status of rhythmic gymnastics and its historical development are briefly discussed. Descriptions are given of rhythmic gymnastic…

Motor cortical representation of the pelvic floor muscles.

PubMed

Schrum, A; Wolff, S; van der Horst, C; Kuhtz-Buschbeck, J P

2011-07-01

Pelvic floor muscle training involves rhythmical voluntary contractions of the external urethral sphincter and ancillary pelvic floor muscles. The representation of these muscles in the motor cortex has not been located precisely and unambiguously. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine brain activity during slow and fast pelvic floor contractions. Cerebral responses were recorded in 17 healthy male volunteers, 21 to 47 years old, with normal bladder control. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed during metronome paced slow (0.25 Hertz) and fast (0.7 Hertz) contractions of the pelvic floor that mimicked the interruption of voiding. To study the somatotopy of the cortical representations, flexion-extension movements of the right toes were performed as a control task. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during pelvic floor contractions detected activity of the supplementary motor area in the medial wall and of the midcingulate cortex, insula, posterior parietal cortex, putamen, thalamus, cerebellar vermis and upper ventral pons. There were no significant differences in activation between slow and fast contractions. Toe movements involved significantly stronger activity of the paracentral lobule (ie the medial primary motor cortex) than did the pelvic floor contractions. Otherwise the areas active during pelvic floor and leg muscle contractions overlapped considerably. The motor cortical representation of pelvic floor muscles is located mostly in the supplementary motor area. It extends further ventrally and anteriorly than the representation of distal leg muscles. Copyright © 2011 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Approximation to the Temporal Order in Endogenous Circadian Rhythms of Genes Implicated in Human Adipose Tissue Metabolism

PubMed Central

GARAULET, MARTA; ORDOVÁS, JOSÉ M.; GÓMEZ-ABELLÁN, PURIFICACIÓN; MARTÍNEZ, JOSE A.; MADRID, JUAN A.

2015-01-01

Although it is well established that human adipose tissue (AT) shows circadian rhythmicity, published studies have been discussed as if tissues or systems showed only one or few circadian rhythms at a time. To provide an overall view of the internal temporal order of circadian rhythms in human AT including genes implicated in metabolic processes such as energy intake and expenditure, insulin resistance, adipocyte differentiation, dyslipidemia, and body fat distribution. Visceral and subcutaneous abdominal AT biopsies (n = 6) were obtained from morbid obese women (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2). To investigate rhythmic expression pattern, AT explants were cultured during 24-h and gene expression was analyzed at the following times: 08:00, 14:00, 20:00, 02:00 h using quantitative real-time PCR. Clock genes, glucocorticoid metabolism-related genes, leptin, adiponectin and their receptors were studied. Significant differences were found both in achrophases and relative-amplitude among genes (P <0.05). Amplitude of most genes rhythms was high (>30%). When interpreting the phase map of gene expression in both depots, data indicated that circadian rhythmicity of the genes studied followed a predictable physiological pattern, particularly for subcutaneous AT. Interesting are the relationships between adiponectin, leptin, and glucocorticoid metabolism-related genes circadian profiles. Their metabolic significance is discussed. Visceral AT behaved in a different way than subcutaneous for most of the genes studied. For every gene, protein mRNA levels fluctuated during the day in synchrony with its receptors. We have provided an overall view of the internal temporal order of circadian rhythms in human adipose tissue. PMID:21520059

Circadian processes in the RNA life cycle.

PubMed

Torres, Manon; Becquet, Denis; Franc, Jean-Louis; François-Bellan, Anne-Marie

2018-05-01

The circadian clock drives daily rhythms of multiple physiological processes, allowing organisms to anticipate and adjust to periodic changes in environmental conditions. These physiological rhythms are associated with robust oscillations in the expression of at least 30% of expressed genes. While the ability for the endogenous timekeeping system to generate a 24-hr cycle is a cell-autonomous mechanism based on negative autoregulatory feedback loops of transcription and translation involving core-clock genes and their protein products, it is now increasingly evident that additional mechanisms also govern the circadian oscillations of clock-controlled genes. Such mechanisms can take place post-transcriptionally during the course of the RNA life cycle. It has been shown that many steps during RNA processing are regulated in a circadian manner, thus contributing to circadian gene expression. These steps include mRNA capping, alternative splicing, changes in splicing efficiency, and changes in RNA stability controlled by the tail length of polyadenylation or the use of alternative polyadenylation sites. RNA transport can also follow a circadian pattern, with a circadian nuclear retention driven by rhythmic expression within the nucleus of particular bodies (the paraspeckles) and circadian export to the cytoplasm driven by rhythmic proteins acting like cargo. Finally, RNA degradation may also follow a circadian pattern through the rhythmic involvement of miRNAs. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the post-transcriptional circadian mechanisms known to play a prominent role in shaping circadian gene expression in mammals. This article is categorized under: RNA Processing > Splicing Regulation/Alternative Splicing RNA Processing > RNA Editing and Modification RNA Export and Localization > Nuclear Export/Import. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Rootless tephra stratigraphy and emplacement processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamilton, Christopher W.; Fitch, Erin P.; Fagents, Sarah A.; Thordarson, Thorvaldur

2017-01-01

Volcanic rootless cones are the products of thermohydraulic explosions involving rapid heat transfer from active lava (fuel) to external sources of water (coolant). Rootless eruptions are attributed to molten fuel-coolant interactions (MFCIs), but previous studies have not performed systematic investigations of rootless tephrostratigraphy and grain-size distributions to establish a baseline for evaluating relationships between environmental factors, MFCI efficiency, fragmentation, and patterns of tephra dispersal. This study examines a 13.55-m-thick vertical section through an archetypal rootless tephra sequence, which includes a rhythmic succession of 28 bed pairs. Each bed pair is interpreted to be the result of a discrete explosion cycle, with fine-grained basal material emplaced dominantly as tephra fall during an energetic opening phase, followed by the deposition of coarser-grained material mainly as ballistic ejecta during a weaker coda phase. Nine additional layers are interleaved throughout the stratigraphy and are interpreted to be dilute pyroclastic density current (PDC) deposits. Overall, the stratigraphy divides into four units: unit 1 contains the largest number of sediment-rich PDC deposits, units 2 and 3 are dominated by a rhythmic succession of bed pairs, and unit 4 includes welded layers. This pattern is consistent with a general decrease in MFCI efficiency due to the depletion of locally available coolant (i.e., groundwater or wet sediments). Changing conduit/vent geometries, mixing conditions, coolant and melt temperatures, and/or coolant impurities may also have affected MFCI efficiency, but the rhythmic nature of the bed pairs implies a periodic explosion process, which can be explained by temporary increases in the water-to-lava mass ratio during cycles of groundwater recharge.

Sedimentation rhythmicity as a reflection of astronomical cyclicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avsyuk, Yu. N.; Saltykovskii, A. Ya.; Sokolova, Yu. F.

2011-05-01

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic rhythmic continental sedimentary rocks are analyzed for every particular period and epoch from the Triassic to the Pliocene. The maximal distribution areas of rhythmic deposits are within the latitudinal zone of 20°-40°. Investigation of rhythmic Mesozoic-Cenozoic carbonate-containing deposits of Europe and North America enables us to attribute rhythmicity to climate change owing to insolation and eustatic variations of oceanosphere's level, on the one hand, and to compare duration values of the rhythmic unit and rhythmic sequence with cycles of orbital precession, ecliptic plane inclination, and the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit, on the other hand.

Learning Science Using Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smolinski, Keith

2011-01-01

For thousands of years, people have used music to transfer information and narrate stories. The musical structure, consisting of words set to melodies in rhythmic patterns, made the content easier to remember. Researchers have investigated the long- and short-term effects of song on memory and found that music aided in the recall of information.…

Beginning to Disentangle the Prosody-Literacy Relationship: A Multi-Component Measure of Prosodic Sensitivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holliman, A. J.; Williams, G. J.; Mundy, I. R.; Wood, C.; Hart, L.; Waldron, S.

2014-01-01

A growing number of studies now suggest that sensitivity to the rhythmic patterning of speech (prosody) is implicated in successful reading acquisition. However, recent evidence suggests that prosody is not a unitary construct and that the different components of prosody (stress, intonation, and timing) operating at different linguistic levels…