Background
Analysis of the errors in the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) has been previously performed for children with intellectual disabilities but has not been investigated for those ...with cerebral palsy (CP). This study aimed to investigate whether the types and positions of errors made by individuals with CP differed from those made by typically developing (TD) controls.
Methods
Forty‐five participants with CP aged 4–18 years and 30 TD children aged 3–9 years underwent RCPM testing. We first compared the RCPM performance and error characteristics between the groups and then examined the association between RCPM and the severity of CP and receptive vocabulary in the CP group.
Results
The results showed that while mean total scores in the two groups were comparable, the types and positions of errors made by individuals with CP differed from those of TD controls. The development of non‐verbal intelligence in children with CP increased with age; when controlling for age, non‐verbal intelligence was significantly correlated with all three functional levels of CP severity and receptive vocabulary.
Conclusions
This study provides valuable insights into the problem‐solving strategies employed by children with CP.
The major aim of the present study was to investigate whether painful stimuli have a differential effect on the Readiness Potential (RP) in terms of the early and late components. We hypothesized ...that painful stimuli would modulate the cortical movement preparatory activity and the components to a different extent when compared to non-painful stimuli.
The readiness potential (RP), which is a slow negative electrical brain potential that occurs before voluntary movement, can be interpreted as a measure of intrinsic brain activity originating from self-regulating mechanisms. Early and late components of the RP may indicate clinical-neurophysiological features such as motivation, preparation, intention, and initiation of voluntary movements. 15 healty volunteers were enrolled in this study. We conducted electrical stimulation trials in two randomized blocks termed as “no-pain condition” and “pain condition“. Our results demonstrated that painful stimuli were preceded by an enhanced RP at the Cz channel (p<0.05). The mean amplitude of the RP at the early phase was significantly higher for the painful stimuli when compared to the non-painful stimuli (p<0.05). Our results indicate that electrical painful stimuli, which can be considered as an unpleasant and stressful condition, modulate the motor preparation at sensory motor regions to a different extent when compared to non-painful electrical stimuli. Since early component of the RP represents cortical activation due to anticipation of the stimuli and the allocation of attentional resources, our results suggest that painful stimuli may affect the motor preparation processes and the prediction of the movement at the cortical level.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has an analgesic effect and increases the peak alpha frequency (PAF) on electroencephalography. The analgesic effect of tDCS also appears to be greater ...when combined with another intervention (e.g. motor imagery), compared to tDCS alone. Aerobic exercise (AE) itself was reportedly effective for decreasing pain sensivity. Therefore, we hypothesize that tDCS/AE would exert a larger analgesic effect that tDSC alone, or sham tDCS/AE.
Ten healthy adults participated in this study under three conditions: tDCS, tDCS/AE, or sham tDCS/AE. All conditions were performed over a single session. For tDCS, the anode was placed just above the left primary motor cortex and the stimulation intensity was 2mA for 20min. AE was carried out using an ergometer at an intensity of 50%∼60% for 20min. We used a measure of pressure pain threshold (PPT) on the right middle finger to investigate the effects of interventions. PPT was measured at pre-intervention and at every 5min and post-15min. We recorded resting-state electroencephalography for 3min, both before and after the intervention. PAF was defined as the frequency with the highest mean power within the alpha band. Statistical analyses included the Friedman and Wilcoxon signed rank tests, Bonferroni correction, and the level of statistical significance was set at 5%. This study was approved by our institution's ethics committee.
Significant differences were found in PPT among the three conditions at all time points. On post-hoc testing, PPT increases during tDCS/AE were earlier and higher magnitude than other two conditions. No significant differences were found in PAF.
The combined intervention of tDCS/AE exerted analgesic effects that manifested earlier, and at a higher magnitude, than those produced during the other two conditions. However, PAF did not significantly vary among the three conditions.
Sense of agency (SoA), the feeling of control over one's own actions and their effects, is fundamental to goal-directed actions at the individual level and may constitute a cornerstone of everyday ...life, including cooperative behavior (i.e., goal sharing). Previous studies have demonstrated that goal sharing can activate the motor prediction of both agent's action and partner's action in joint-action tasks. Moreover, given that from an SoA perspective, predictive processes are an essential basis, there is a possibility that goal sharing may modulate SoA. However, the possibility for goal sharing to modulate SoA remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether goal sharing modulates the intentional binding (IB) effect (a method that can quantitatively measure SoA) of self-generated and observed partner's actions and improves motor accuracy. Participants were required to stop a circular horizontal moving object by pressing a key when the object reaches the center of a target in a social situation. This task measured IB by having participants estimate the time interval between action and effect in several 100 milliseconds, with shorter time interval estimations indicating enhancement of SoA. Participants were randomly divided into 13 Cooperative groups (goal sharing) and 13 Independent groups (non-goal sharing). Cooperative groups were instructed to perform the task together, while Independent groups did so individually. Participants estimated the time interval between them by pressing the key and hearing the corresponding sound (Self-generated action) and the other person pressing the key and hearing the sound (Observed action). Our results indicated that goal sharing improved motor accuracy and enhanced both the IB of Self-generated and Observed actions compared to non-goal sharing. We suggest that SoA can be modulated by goal sharing in specific social contexts.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PURPOSEAn internal model deficit is considered to underlie developmental coordination disorder (DCD); thus, children with DCD have an altered sense of agency (SoA), which is associated with ...depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the perception of action-outcome regularity is present in early development, is involved in the generation of SoA, and has roles in adaptive motor learning and coordinated motor skills. However, perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity has not been examined in children with DCD. METHODSWe investigated perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity in 6-15-year-old children with DCD and age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children. Both groups were assessed for coordinated motor skills with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2nd Edition, while the DCD group was assessed with the DCD Questionnaire, Social Communication Questionnaire, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Rating Scale, and Depression Self- Rating Scale for Children. RESULTSPerceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity was significantly reduced in children with DCD. However, there was a significant correlation between perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity and age in DCD and TD children. Perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity was significantly lower in younger children with DCD than in younger and older TD children, but there were no significant differences between older children with DCD and younger and older TD children. CONCLUSIONThe current results suggest that children with DCD have significantly reduced perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity at younger ages, which may alter SoA and inhibit internal model development, thereby reducing motor skill coordination.
•Fear of movement-related pain caused earlier awareness of motor intention.•Fear of movement-related pain disturbed preparatory brain activity.•Conflict between the required action and an avoidance ...response disturb movement preparation.
Fear of movement-related pain is known to disturb the process of motor preparation in patients with chronic pain. In the present study, we aimed to clarify the neural mechanisms underlying the influence of fear movement-related pain on motor preparatory brain activity using Libet’s clock and electroencephalography (EEG). Healthy participants were asked to press a button while watching a rotating Libet’s clock-hand, and report the number on the clock (“W time”) when they made the “decision” to press the button with their right index finger. Immediately after pressing the button, a painful electrical stimulus was delivered to the dorsum of the left hand, causing participants to feel fear of movement (button press-related pain). We found that fear of movement-related pain caused the W time to be early, and that the amplitudes of readiness potentials (RPs) increased after awareness of motor intention emerged. In addition, fear of movement-related pain caused over-activation of the medial frontal cortex, supplementary motor area, cingulate motor area, and primary motor cortex after participants became aware of their motor intention. Such over-activation might result from conflict between the unrealized desire to escape from a painful experience and motivation to perform a required motor task.
Changing the visual body appearance by use of as virtual reality system, funny mirror, or binocular glasses has been reported to be helpful in rehabilitation of pain. However, there are ...interindividual differences in the analgesic effect of changing the visual body image. We hypothesized that a negative body image associated with changing the visual body appearance causes interindividual differences in the analgesic effect although the relationship between the visual body appearance and analgesic effect has not been clarified. We investigated whether a negative body image associated with changes in the visual body appearance increased pain. Twenty-five healthy individuals participated in this study. To evoke a negative body image, we applied the method of rubber hand illusion. We created an "injured rubber hand" to evoke unpleasantness associated with pain, a "hairy rubber hand" to evoke unpleasantness associated with embarrassment, and a "twisted rubber hand" to evoke unpleasantness associated with deviation from the concept of normality. We also created a "normal rubber hand" as a control. The pain threshold was measured while the participant observed the rubber hand using a device that measured pain caused by thermal stimuli. Body ownership experiences were elicited by observation of the injured rubber hand and hairy rubber hand as well as the normal rubber hand. Participants felt more unpleasantness by observing the injured rubber hand and hairy rubber hand than the normal rubber hand and twisted rubber hand (p<0.001). The pain threshold was lower under the injured rubber hand condition than with the other conditions (p<0.001). We conclude that a negative body appearance associated with pain can increase pain sensitivity.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PDF
