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Neuron Jun 2023In this issue of Neuron, Khazali et al. record neural activity during coordinated reaches and saccades. They find that excitatory neurons link arm and eye movement...
In this issue of Neuron, Khazali et al. record neural activity during coordinated reaches and saccades. They find that excitatory neurons link arm and eye movement regions of parietal cortex, creating a multiregional mode that predicts movement timing and direction.
Topics: Animals; Psychomotor Performance; Macaca mulatta; Neurons; Parietal Lobe; Saccades
PubMed: 37348458
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.05.030 -
Scientific Reports Sep 2019Limited evidence exists regarding cognitive and psychomotor function in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Therefore, we aimed to compare the neurocognitive...
Limited evidence exists regarding cognitive and psychomotor function in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Therefore, we aimed to compare the neurocognitive and psychomotor function of 60 IBD patients with 60 age/sex-matched controls. Computer-based instrument Complex Reactinometer Drenovac (CRD) was used for assessment of cognitive domains: convergent thinking (simple mathematical tasks; CRD-11), perceptive abilities (light signal position discrimination; CRD-311) and sophisticated operative thinking (complex psychomotor coordination; CRD-411). The most important analyzed parameters were total test solving time (T); minimal time of particular test solving (T) and total number of wrong reactions (N). Performance in all three cognitive tests showed statistically significantly longer T and T in IBD patients (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference in N. Aforementioned findings were adjusted for BMI, age and duration of education. Our study has shown impaired neurocognitive and psychomotor function in IBD patients compared to controls, especially in mental processing speed and mental endurance of perceptive abilities, convergent thinking and complex operative thinking.
Topics: Adult; Cognition; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Male; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 31551482
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50192-2 -
Scientific Reports Mar 2022Combat tasks involving special units often put a mental and physical strain on the soldiers. During the military operation, soldiers may struggle with multiple...
Combat tasks involving special units often put a mental and physical strain on the soldiers. During the military operation, soldiers may struggle with multiple difficulties such as extreme physical effort, sleep deprivation, weather conditions, limited access to food and stress. These circumstances require a high level of cognitive ability (including psychomotor abilities) to overcome the physiological stress response and to be able to quickly and efficiently make decisions under stressful situations, especially in combat. The aim of the study was to assess the level of the psychomotor abilities of candidates for the Polish Special Forces. The study comprised 48 candidates for the Polish Special Forces (age: [Formula: see text]), 40 athletes (age: [Formula: see text]) and 40 non-athletes (age: 24). The study was performed using Test2Drive software. Four computer-based tests were used to assess the following psychomotor abilities: simple reaction time, choice reaction time, hand-eye coordination and two-dimensional visuomotor coordination/spatial orientation test (SPANT). The analysis demonstrated statistically significant differences in reaction time and motor time between the study groups. The shortest reaction time in each test was observed in athletes, while the shortest motor time was observed in soldiers. All the psychomotor tests, except for the number of correct answers in SPANT, demonstrated statistically significant differences between the studied groups. It was also found that military training had a positive effect on the motor time in every psychomotor test. As regards the reaction time, it was observed that the athletes were characterised with better reaction times than the special forces candidates. The study has confirmed that military training and sports training have a positive effect on the level of psychomotor abilities, especially motor time.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Military Personnel; Poland; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Sports; Young Adult
PubMed: 35332229
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09138-4 -
Scientific Reports Dec 2022Speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) in the decision making of humans and animals is a well-documented phenomenon, but its underlying neuronal mechanism remains unclear....
Speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) in the decision making of humans and animals is a well-documented phenomenon, but its underlying neuronal mechanism remains unclear. Modeling approaches have conceptualized SAT through the threshold hypothesis as adjustments to the decision threshold. However, the leading neurophysiological view is the gain modulation hypothesis. This hypothesis postulates that the SAT mechanism is implemented through changes in the dynamics of the choice circuit, which increase the baseline firing rate and the speed of neuronal integration. In this paper, I investigated alternative computational mechanisms of SAT and showed that the threshold hypothesis was qualitatively consistent with the behavioral data, but the gain modulation hypothesis was not. In order to reconcile the threshold hypothesis with the neurophysiological evidence, I considered the interference of alpha oscillations with the decision process and showed that alpha oscillations could increase the discriminatory power of the decision system, although they slowed down the decision process. This suggests that the magnitude of alpha waves suppression during the event related desynchronization (ERD) of alpha oscillations depends on a SAT condition and the amplitude of alpha oscillations is lower in the speed condition. I also showed that the lower amplitude of alpha oscillations resulted in an increase in the baseline firing rate and the speed of neuronal intergration. Thus, the interference of the event related desynchronization of alpha oscillations with a SAT condition explains why an increase in the baseline firing rate and the speed of neuronal integration accompany the speed condition.
Topics: Humans; Animals; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Decision Making; Neurons; Neurophysiology
PubMed: 36539428
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-26120-2 -
Journal of Neurophysiology Jan 2023Bilateral training systems look to promote the paretic hand's use in individuals with hemiplegia. Although this is normally achieved using mechanical coupling (i.e., a...
Bilateral training systems look to promote the paretic hand's use in individuals with hemiplegia. Although this is normally achieved using mechanical coupling (i.e., a physical connection between the hands), a virtual reality system relying on virtual coupling (i.e., through a shared virtual object) would be simpler to use and prevent slacking. However, it is not clear whether different coupling modes differently impact task performance and effort distribution between the hands. We explored how 18 healthy right-handed participants changed their motor behaviors in response to the uninstructed addition of mechanical coupling, and virtual coupling using a shared cursor mapped to the average hands' position. In a second experiment, we then studied the impact of connection stiffness on performance, perception, and effort imbalance. The results indicated that both coupling types can induce the hands to actively contribute to the task. However, the task asymmetry introduced by using a cursor mapped to either the left or right hand only modulated the hands' contribution when not mechanically coupled. The tracking performance was similar for all coupling types, independent of the connection stiffness, although the mechanical coupling was preferred and induced the hands to move with greater correlation. These findings suggest that virtual coupling can induce the hands to actively contribute to a task in healthy participants without hindering their performance. Further investigation on the coupling types' impact on the performance and hands' effort distribution in patients with hemiplegia could allow for the design of simpler training systems that promote the affected hand's use. We showed that the uninstructed addition of a virtual and/or a mechanical coupling can induce both hands to actively contribute in a continuous redundant bimanual tracking task without impacting performance. In addition, we showed that the task asymmetry can only alter the effort distribution when the hands are not connected, independent of the connection stiffness. Our findings suggest that virtual coupling could be used in the development of simpler VR-based training devices.
Topics: Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Hemiplegia; Hand; Task Performance and Analysis; Hand Strength; Functional Laterality
PubMed: 36475891
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00057.2022 -
Psychological Research Mar 2021An emerging literature has suggested that self-relevance automatically enhances stimulus processing (i.e., the self-prioritization effect). Specifically, during... (Review)
Review
An emerging literature has suggested that self-relevance automatically enhances stimulus processing (i.e., the self-prioritization effect). Specifically, during shape-label matching tasks, geometric shapes associated with the self are identified more rapidly than comparable stimuli paired with other targets (e.g., friend, stranger). Replicating and extending work that challenges the putative automaticity of this effect, here we hypothesized that self-relevance facilitates stimulus processing only when task sets draw attention to previously formed shape-label associations in memory. The results of a shape-classification task confirmed this prediction. Compared to shapes associated with a friend, those paired with the self were classified more rapidly when participants were required to report who the stimulus denoted (i.e., self or friend). In contrast, self-relevance failed to facilitate performance when participants judged either what the shape was (i.e., triangle or square, diamond or circle) or where it was located on the screen (i.e., above or below fixation). These findings further elucidate the conditions under which self-relevance does-and does not-influence stimulus processing.
Topics: Adult; Auditory Perception; Female; Humans; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Recognition, Psychology; Self Concept; Social Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 31919569
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-019-01283-2 -
Behavioural Neurology 2015
Topics: Auditory Perception; Brain; Humans; Music; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 26543324
DOI: 10.1155/2015/927274 -
Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology :... Nov 2014Literature on test validity and performance validity is reviewed to propose a framework for specification of an ability-focused battery (AFB). Factor analysis supports... (Review)
Review
Literature on test validity and performance validity is reviewed to propose a framework for specification of an ability-focused battery (AFB). Factor analysis supports six domains of ability: first, verbal symbolic; secondly, visuoperceptual and visuospatial judgment and problem solving; thirdly, sensorimotor skills; fourthly, attention/working memory; fifthly, processing speed; finally, learning and memory (which can be divided into verbal and visual subdomains). The AFB should include at least three measures for each of the six domains, selected based on various criteria for validity including sensitivity to presence of disorder, sensitivity to severity of disorder, correlation with important activities of daily living, and containing embedded/derived measures of performance validity. Criterion groups should include moderate and severe traumatic brain injury, and Alzheimer's disease. Validation groups should also include patients with left and right hemisphere stroke, to determine measures sensitive to lateralized cognitive impairment and so that the moderating effects of auditory comprehension impairment and neglect can be analyzed on AFB measures.
Topics: Aptitude; Brain Diseases; Humans; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychomotor Performance; Reproducibility of Results
PubMed: 25280794
DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acu049 -
Psychological Research Apr 2023The ability to learn and reproduce sequences is fundamental to every-day life, and deficits in sequential learning are associated with developmental disorders such as...
The ability to learn and reproduce sequences is fundamental to every-day life, and deficits in sequential learning are associated with developmental disorders such as specific language impairment. Individual differences in sequential learning are usually investigated using the serial reaction time task (SRTT), wherein a participant responds to a series of regularly timed, seemingly random visual cues that in fact follow a repeating deterministic structure. Although manipulating inter-cue interval timing has been shown to adversely affect sequential learning, the role of metre (the patterning of salience across time) remains unexplored within the regularly timed, visual SRTT. The current experiment consists of an SRTT adapted to include task-irrelevant auditory rhythms conferring a sense of metre. We predicted that (1) participants' (n = 41) reaction times would reflect the auditory metric structure; (2) that disrupting the correspondence between the learned visual sequence and auditory metre would impede performance; and (3) that individual differences in sensitivity to rhythm would predict the magnitude of these effects. Altering the relationship via a phase shift between the trained visual sequence and auditory metre slowed reaction times. Sensitivity to rhythm was predictive of reaction times over all. In an exploratory analysis, we, moreover, found that approximately half of participants made systematically different responses to visual cues on the basis of the cues' position within the auditory metre. We demonstrate the influence of auditory temporal structures on visuomotor sequential learning in a widely used task where metre and timing are rarely considered. The current results indicate sensitivity to metre as a possible latent factor underpinning individual differences in SRTT performance.
Topics: Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Learning; Reaction Time; Task Performance and Analysis; Cues; Serial Learning
PubMed: 35690927
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01690-y -
Sleep Apr 2015Chronic sleep restriction (CSR) impairs sustained attention in humans, as commonly assessed with the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). To further investigate the...
STUDY OBJECTIVES
Chronic sleep restriction (CSR) impairs sustained attention in humans, as commonly assessed with the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). To further investigate the mechanisms underlying performance deficits during CSR, we examined the effect of CSR on performance on a rat version of PVT (rPVT).
DESIGN
Adult male rats were trained on a rPVT that required them to press a bar when they detected irregularly presented, brief light stimuli, and were then tested during CSR. CSR consisted of 100 or 148 h of continuous cycles of 3-h sleep deprivation (using slowly rotating wheels) alternating with a 1-h sleep opportunity (3/1 protocol).
MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
After 28 h of CSR, the latency of correct responses and the percentages of lapses and omissions increased, whereas the percentage of correct responses decreased. Over 52-148 h of CSR, all performance measures showed partial or nearly complete recovery, and were at baseline levels on the first or second day after CSR. There were large interindividual differences in the magnitude of performance impairment during CSR, suggesting differential vulnerability to the effects of sleep loss. Wheel-running controls showed no changes in performance.
CONCLUSIONS
A 28-h period of the 3/1 chronic sleep restriction (CSR) protocol disrupted performance on a sustained attention task in rats, as sleep deprivation does in humans. Performance improved after longer periods of CSR, suggesting allostatic adaptation, contrary to some reports of progressive deterioration in psychomotor vigilance task performance during CSR in humans. However, as observed in humans, there were individual differences among rats in the vulnerability of their attention performance to CSR.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Animals; Attention; Humans; Individuality; Male; Models, Animal; Psychomotor Performance; Rats; Sleep; Sleep Deprivation; Task Performance and Analysis; Time Factors; Wakefulness
PubMed: 25515100
DOI: 10.5665/sleep.4562