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BMC Research Notes Oct 2018Knowing the purpose of a clinical study may provoke expectancies among subjects that may influence the study outcome. For example, expectancies about a drug effect may...
OBJECTIVE
Knowing the purpose of a clinical study may provoke expectancies among subjects that may influence the study outcome. For example, expectancies about a drug effect may cause subjects to put in more effort to counteract these effects on performance tasks, or cause stress or other mood alterations in anticipation of expected adverse effects. The objective of this study was to investigate to what extent expectancy effects will influence the magnitude of cognitive performance decrement in the alcohol hangover state.
RESULTS
Forty subjects with a mean (SD) age of 24.0 (7.4) years old participated in a naturalistic study to examine the alcohol hangover effects on cognitive performance. Subjects in the expectancy group were informed of the purpose of the study. In the control group subjects were told that the purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of time of day on cognitive performance. Subjects consumed a mean (SD) of 12.9 (10.0) alcoholic drinks the night before testing. Cognitive tests included the Stroop test, Eriksen's flanker test, a divided attention test, intra-extra dimensional set shifting test, spatial working memory test, and free word recall test. Expectancy effects did not differentially affect cognitive performance in the alcohol hangover state.
Topics: Adult; Alcoholic Intoxication; Anticipation, Psychological; Attention; Executive Function; Female; Humans; Male; Memory, Short-Term; Psychomotor Performance; Young Adult
PubMed: 30333045
DOI: 10.1186/s13104-018-3827-2 -
Current Biology : CB Dec 2005In many manual tasks, a specific repertoire of eye movements accompanies the actions. A new study has shown how this pattern changes as eye and hand become coordinated... (Review)
Review
In many manual tasks, a specific repertoire of eye movements accompanies the actions. A new study has shown how this pattern changes as eye and hand become coordinated when learning a new skill.
Topics: Eye Movements; Hand; Humans; Learning; Psychomotor Performance; Time Factors
PubMed: 16332523
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2005.11.014 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2023Abundant evidence shows that consolidated memories are susceptible to modifications following their reactivation. Processes of memory consolidation and...
Abundant evidence shows that consolidated memories are susceptible to modifications following their reactivation. Processes of memory consolidation and reactivation-induced skill modulation have been commonly documented after hours or days. Motivated by studies showing rapid consolidation in early stages of motor skill acquisition, here we asked whether motor skill memories are susceptible to modifications following brief reactivations, even at initial stages of learning. In a set of experiments, we collected crowdsourced online motor sequence data to test whether post-encoding interference and performance enhancement occur following brief reactivations in early stages of learning. Results indicate that memories forming during early learning are not susceptible to interference nor to enhancement within a rapid reactivation-induced time window, relative to control conditions. This set of evidence suggests that reactivation-induced motor skill memory modulation might be dependent on consolidation at the macro-timescale level, requiring hours or days to occur.
Topics: Motor Skills; Learning; Memory Consolidation; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 36808164
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29963-5 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Jun 2014A one-boundary diffusion model was applied to the data from two experiments in which subjects were performing a simple simulated driving task. In the first experiment,... (Review)
Review
A one-boundary diffusion model was applied to the data from two experiments in which subjects were performing a simple simulated driving task. In the first experiment, the same subjects were tested on two driving tasks using a PC-based driving simulator and the psychomotor vigilance test. The diffusion model fit the response time distributions for each task and individual subject well. Model parameters were found to correlate across tasks, which suggests that common component processes were being tapped in the three tasks. The model was also fit to a distracted driving experiment of Cooper and Strayer (Human Factors, 50, 893-902, 2008). Results showed that distraction altered performance by affecting the rate of evidence accumulation (drift rate) and/or increasing the boundary settings. This provides an interpretation of cognitive distraction whereby conversing on a cell phone diverts attention from the normal accumulation of information in the driving environment.
Topics: Attention; Automobile Driving; Humans; Models, Psychological; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 24297620
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-013-0541-x -
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) Jan 2021Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are promising tools for assisting patients with paralysis, but suffer from long training times and variable user proficiency. Mind-body...
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are promising tools for assisting patients with paralysis, but suffer from long training times and variable user proficiency. Mind-body awareness training (MBAT) can improve BCI learning, but how it does so remains unknown. Here, we show that MBAT allows participants to learn to volitionally increase alpha band neural activity during BCI tasks that incorporate intentional rest. We trained individuals in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; a standardized MBAT intervention) and compared performance and brain activity before and after training between randomly assigned trained and untrained control groups. The MBAT group showed reliably faster learning of BCI than the control group throughout training. Alpha-band activity in electroencephalogram signals, recorded in the volitional resting state during task performance, showed a parallel increase over sessions, and predicted final BCI performance. The level of alpha-band activity during the intentional resting state correlated reliably with individuals' mindfulness practice as well as performance on a breath counting task. Collectively, these results show that MBAT modifies a specific neural signal used by BCI. MBAT, by increasing patients' control over their brain activity during rest, may increase the effectiveness of BCI in the large population who could benefit from alternatives to direct motor control.
Topics: Adult; Brain-Computer Interfaces; Electroencephalography; Female; Humans; Learning; Male; Mindfulness; Psychomotor Performance; Rest; Task Performance and Analysis
PubMed: 32965471
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa234 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2022Learning a motor adaptation task produces intrinsically unstable or transient motor memories. Despite the presence of effector-independent motor memories following the... (Clinical Trial)
Clinical Trial
Learning a motor adaptation task produces intrinsically unstable or transient motor memories. Despite the presence of effector-independent motor memories following the learning of novel environmental dynamics, it remains largely unknown how those memory traces decay in different contexts and whether an "offline" consolidation period protects memories against decay. Here, we exploit inter-effector transfer to address these questions. We found that newly acquired motor memories formed with one effector could be partially retrieved by the untrained effector to enhance its performance when the decay occurred with the passage of time or "washout" trials on which error feedback was provided. The decay of motor memories was slower following "error-free" trials, on which errors were artificially clamped to zero or removed, compared with "washout" trials. However, effector-independent memory components were abolished following movements made in the absence of task errors, resulting in no transfer gains. The brain can stabilize motor memories during daytime wakefulness. We found that 6 h of wakeful resting increased the resistance of effector-independent memories to decay. Collectively, our results suggest that the decay of effector-independent motor memories is context-dependent, and offline processing preserves those memories against decay, leading to improvements of the subsequent inter-effector transfer.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Brain; Female; Humans; Male; Memory; Motor Skills; Psychomotor Performance; Wakefulness
PubMed: 35210478
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07032-7 -
Physiological Reviews Jul 2024Humans use their fingers to perform a variety of tasks, from simple grasping to manipulating objects, to typing and playing musical instruments, a variety wider than any... (Review)
Review
Humans use their fingers to perform a variety of tasks, from simple grasping to manipulating objects, to typing and playing musical instruments, a variety wider than any other species. The more sophisticated the task, the more it involves individuated finger movements, those in which one or more selected fingers perform an intended action while the motion of other digits is constrained. Here we review the neurobiology of such individuated finger movements. We consider their evolutionary origins, the extent to which finger movements are in fact individuated, and the evolved features of neuromuscular control that both enable and limit individuation. We go on to discuss other features of motor control that combine with individuation to create dexterity, the impairment of individuation by disease, and the broad extent of capabilities that individuation confers on humans. We comment on the challenges facing the development of a truly dexterous bionic hand. We conclude by identifying topics for future investigation that will advance our understanding of how neural networks interact across multiple regions of the central nervous system to create individuated movements for the skills humans use to express their cognitive activity.
Topics: Humans; Biological Evolution; Biomechanical Phenomena; Fingers; Motor Skills; Movement; Neurobiology; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 38385888
DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00030.2023 -
Physiology & Behavior Mar 2015The primary purpose of this study was to examine, using meta-analytical measures, whether research into the performance of whole-body, psychomotor tasks following... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
The primary purpose of this study was to examine, using meta-analytical measures, whether research into the performance of whole-body, psychomotor tasks following moderate and heavy exercise demonstrates an inverted-U effect. A secondary purpose was to compare the effects of acute exercise on tasks requiring static maintenance of posture versus dynamic, ballistic skills. Moderate intensity exercise was determined as being between 40% and 79% maximum power output (ẆMAX) or equivalent, while ≥80% ẆMAX was considered to be heavy. There was a significant difference (Zdiff=4.29, p=0.001, R(2)=0.42) between the mean effect size for moderate intensity exercise (g=0.15) and that for heavy exercise size (g=-0.86). These data suggest a catastrophe effect during heavy exercise. Mean effect size for static tasks (g=-1.24) was significantly different (Zdiff=3.24, p=0.001, R(2)=0.90) to those for dynamic/ballistic tasks (g=-0.30). The result for the static versus dynamic tasks moderating variables point to perception being more of an issue than peripheral fatigue for maintenance of static posture. The difference between this result and those found in meta-analyses examining the effects of acute exercise on cognition shows that, when perception and action are combined, the complexity of the interaction induces different effects to when cognition is detached from motor performance.
Topics: Exercise; Humans; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 25582516
DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.01.010 -
PloS One 2023Previous studies highlighted spatial compatibility effects other than those strictly arising from stimulus-response locations. In particular, the so-called Destination...
Previous studies highlighted spatial compatibility effects other than those strictly arising from stimulus-response locations. In particular, the so-called Destination Compatibility (DC) effect refers to faster responses for dynamic (i.e., moving) stimuli the end point of which is spatially compatible with the response key. Four experiments examined whether the DC effect also occurs with static visual stimuli symbolically representing either motion destination alone (Experiment 1a), or both motion origin and destination (Experiments 1b, 2a, and 2b). Overall, our results are consistent in showing a DC effect; most importantly, the present findings reveal a predominance of the effect of destination of motion over that of origin, even when both the starting and ending positions of the stimulus are symbolically represented and participants are instructed to respond according to motion origin. This finding suggests that the DC effect is independent from other stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effects.
Topics: Humans; Reaction Time; Psychomotor Performance; Motion Perception; Motion
PubMed: 36800378
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281829 -
Sleep Aug 2013
Topics: Arousal; Female; Humans; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders
PubMed: 23904670
DOI: 10.5665/sleep.2866