Search results for " Facilitation"
showing 10 items of 36 documents
Sweet taste of prosocial status signaling: When eating organic foods makes you happy and hopeful.
2018
As the current research suggests that there are links between prosocial acts and status signaling (including sustainable consumer choices), we empirically study (with three experiments) whether food consumers go green to be seen. First, we examine how activating a motive for status influences prosocial organic food preferences. Then, we examine how the social visibility of the choice (private vs. public) affects these preferences. We found that when consumers' desire for status was elicited, they preferred organic food products significantly over their nonorganic counterparts; making the choice situation visible created the same effect. Finally, we go beyond consumers' evaluative and behavi…
Spinal plasticity with motor imagery practice.
2019
KEY POINTS: While a consensus has now been reached on the effect of motor imagery (MI) – the mental simulation of an action – on motor cortical areas, less is known about its impact on spinal structures. The current study, using H‐reflex conditioning paradigms, examined the effect of a 20 min MI practice on several spinal mechanisms of the plantar flexor muscles. We observed modulations of spinal presynaptic circuitry while imagining, which was even more pronounced following an acute session of MI practice. We suggested that the small cortical output generated during MI may reach specific spinal circuits and that repeating MI may increase the sensitivity of the spinal cord to its effects. T…
Addictive neurons
2017
Since the reward center is considered to be the area tegmentalis ventralis of the hypothalamus, logically its neurons could mainly be responsible for addiction. However, the literature asserts that almost any neurons of CNS can respond to one or another addictive compound. Obviously not only addictive nicotine, but also alcohol, amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, heroin and morphine may influence dopaminergic cells alone in VTA. Moreover, paradoxically some of these drugs ameliorate symptoms, counterbalance syndromes, cure diseases and improve health, not only those related to the CNS and in adults, but also almost all other organs and in children, e.g. epilepsy.
Modulatory effects of 1 Hz rTMS over the cerebellum on motor cortex excitability
2005
Clinical observations and data from animal experiments point to a physiological facilitatory influence of the deep cerebellar structures on the motor system through the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathways. The aim of the present study was to explore the long-term effects of low-frequency (1 Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the cerebellum on short intracortical inhibition (SICI) and facilitation (ICF) of the motor cortex in normal subjects. Eight healthy subjects (mean age 26.9 +/- 3.1) underwent 1 Hz frequency rTMS delivered on the right cerebellar hemisphere. Before and after cerebellar rTMS, SICI and ICF were assessed in the motor cortex contralateral to the st…
Facilitatory effects of 1 Hz rTMS in motor cortex of patients affected by migraine with aura
2004
We previously showed paradoxical facilitatory effects of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on striate and extrastriate cortex of patients suffering migraine with aura. In this study we evaluated the effects of 1 Hz rTMS on the excitability of inhibitory and facilitatory circuits of motor cortex to explore whether the abnormal pattern of excitability extends beyond the sensory cortex also involving motor areas in migraine with aura. Nine patients affected by migraine with aura and eight healthy controls entered into the study. The hot spot for activation of the right abductor pollicis brevis (APB) was checked by means of a figure-of-eight coil and motor thresh…
Impairments in top down attentional processes in right parietal patients: Paradoxical functional facilitation in visual search
2014
AbstractIt is well known that the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in attentional processes, including binding features. It remains unclear whether PPC is implicated in top-down and/or bottom-up components of attention. We aim to clarify this by comparing performance of seven PPC patients and healthy controls (HC) in a visual search task involving a conflict between top-down and bottom-up processes. This task requires essentially a bottom-up feature search. However, top-down attention triggers feature binding for object recognition, designed to be irrelevant but interfering to the task. This results in top-down interference, prolonging the search reaction time. This interfe…
High-Frequency Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Motor Cortex of Patients Affected by Migraine With Aura: A Way to Restore Normal Cortical Excitab…
2009
We showed reduced motor intracortical inhibition (ICI) and paradoxical increase of intracortical facilitation (ICF) to 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in patients affected by migraine with aura (MA). In conditions of enhanced excitability due to a reduced inhibition, high-frequency rTMS was found to potentiate intracortical inhibition. Here we explored the conditioning effects of high-frequency priming stimulation of motor cortex with the aim of normalizing excitability reverting paradoxical facilitation by 1 Hz rTMS in MA. Nine patients with MA and nine healthy controls underwent a paired-pulse TMS paradigm to evaluate motor intracortical excitability (ICI and ICF…
Paired pulse TMS over the right posterior parietal cortex modulates visuospatial perception
2006
Abstract Objective We previously observed a relative contralateral neglect by right parietal single-pulse TMS given 150 ms after visual stimulus presentation. Here we investigated the effects of parietal paired TMS in normal subjects performing a visuospatial task. Methods Thirteen right-handed healthy subjects underwent a line-length judgement task during single-pulse and paired (1, 3, 5, 10 ms ISIs) TMS, delivered on the right parietal cortex 150 ms after visual stimulus. Results Single pulse TMS over the right parietal cortex induced a significant rightward bias compared to the baseline condition. At 1 and 3 ms ISIs, paired-pulse TMS did not show any effect in comparison with single puls…
Tracking the corticospinal responses to strength training
2020
Purpose\ud The motor cortex (M1) appears to be a primary site of adaptation following both a single session, and repeated strength-training sessions across multiple weeks. Given that a single session of strength-training is sufficient to induce modification at the level of the M1 and corticospinal tract, this study sought to determine how these acute changes in M1 and corticospinal tract might accumulate across the course of a 2-week heavy-load strength-training program.\ud \ud Methods\ud Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to infer corticospinal excitability (CSE), intracortical facilitation (ICF), short and long-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI and LICI) and silent per…
Latitudinal- and local-scale variations in a rocky intertidal interaction web
2015
Natural assemblages are structured by a complex combination of positive and negative interactions, and the relative importance of each interaction can vary across spatial scales. By using a simple interaction web (barnacles-grazers-microphytobenthos) in a rocky intertidal system, we tested the hypothesis that the relative strength of positive and negative interactions would vary as a function of different environmental stress between 2 latitudinal levels and local environmental conditions. We manipulated the cover of barnacles and the presence of limpets at 2 sites in northern and southern Italy and non-destructively examined the response of microphyto - benthos (MPB) (photosynthetic biomas…