Search results for "Motion"
showing 10 items of 4368 documents
Biomechanical loading in the triple jump
2000
The triple jump is a demanding field event in which a jumper must tolerate extremely high impact forces while maintaining high horizontal speed. The present study was designed to clarify the mechanical loading characteristics and the role of neuromuscular function in the triple jump. Seven national triple jumpers (4 males, 3 females) volunteered to perform 3-6 jumps. The mean best performances were 14.32+/-0.45 m and 11.90+/-0.28 m for males and females, respectively. The three longest triple jumps for each jumper were selected for final analysis. The mean contact times were 0.139 s (hop), 0.157 s (step) and 0.177 s (jump). The largest ground reaction forces were observed in the step (15.2 …
Visual distractors differentially interfere with the reaching and grasping components of prehension movements
1998
In the present study we addressed the issue of how an object is visually isolated from surrounding cues when a reaching-grasping (prehension) movement towards it is planned. Subjects were required to reach and grasp an object presented either alone or with a distractor. In five experiments, different degrees of elaboration of the distractor were induced by varying: (1) the position of the distractor (central or peripheral); (2) the time when the distractor was suppressed (immediately or delayed, with respect to stimulus presentation); and (3) the type of distractor analysis (implicit or explicit). In addition, we tested whether the possible effects of the distractor on reaching-grasping wer…
Social cognition dysfunctions in patients with epilepsy: Evidence from patients with temporal lobe and idiopathic generalized epilepsies
2015
Abstract Background and aim Despite an extensive literature on cognitive impairments in focal and generalized epilepsy, only a few number of studies specifically explored social cognition disorders in epilepsy syndromes. The aim of our study was to investigate social cognition abilities in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE). Materials and methods Thirty-nine patients (21 patients with TLE and 18 patients with IGE) and 21 matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. All subjects underwent a basic neuropsychological battery plus two experimental tasks evaluating emotion recognition from facial expression (Ekman-60-Faces test…
Emotional communication in the context of joint attention for food stimuli: Effects on attentional and affective processing
2014
Guided by distinct theoretical frameworks (the embodiment theories, shared-signal hypothesis, and appraisal theories), we examined the effects of gaze direction and emotional expressions (joy, disgust, and neutral) of virtual characters on attention orienting and affective reactivity of participants while they were engaged in joint attention for food stimuli contrasted by preference (disliked, moderately liked, and liked). The participants were exposed to videos of avatars looking at food and displaying facial expressions with their gaze directed either toward the food only or toward the food and participants consecutively. We recorded eye-tracking responses, heart rate, facial electromyogr…
Modular Control of Pointing beyond Arm's Length
2009
Hand reaching and bipedal equilibrium are two important functions of the human motor behavior. However, how the brain plans goal-oriented actions combining target reaching with equilibrium regulation is not yet clearly understood. An important question is whether postural control and reaching are integrated in one single module or controlled separately. Here, we show that postural control and reaching motor commands are processed by means of a modular and flexible organization. Principal component and correlation analyses between pairs of angles were used to extract global and local coupling during a whole-body pointing beyond arm's length. A low-dimensional organization of the redundant ki…
Electrophysiological correlates of cross-linguistic semantic integration in hearing signers : N400 and LPC
2014
We explored semantic integration mechanisms in native and non-native hearing users of sign language and non-signing controls. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a semantic decision task for priming lexeme pairs. Pairs were presented either within speech or across speech and sign language. Target-related ERP responses were subjected to principal component analyses (PCA), and neurocognitive basis of semantic integration processes were assessed by analyzing the N400 and the late positive complex (LPC) components in response to spoken (auditory) and signed (visual) antonymic and unrelated targets. Semantically-related effects triggered across modali…
Coping Strategies: Gender Differences and Development throughout Life Span
2012
Development during life-span implies to cope with stressful events, and this coping may be done with several strategies. It could be useful to know if these coping strategies differ as a consequence of personal characteristics. This work uses the Coping with Stress Questionnaire with this aim using a sample of 400 participants. Specifically, the effects of gender and age group (young people, middle age and elderly), as well as its interaction on coping strategies is studied. With regard to age, on one hand, it is hypothesised a decrement in the use of coping strategies centred in problem solving and social support seeking as age increases. On the other hand, the use of emotional coping is h…
Job Satisfaction and Cortisol Awakening Response in Teachers Scoring high and low on Burnout
2010
The burnout syndrome is an important psychosocial risk in the job context, especially in professions with a strong social interaction, as in the case of teaching. High levels of burnout have been related to negative psychological indicators and hormonal alterations. This study compares job satisfaction and the cortisol awakening response (CAR) in teachers scoring high (HB) and low (LB) on burnout. HB teachers showed lower job satisfaction and no significant differences in the CAR when compared with the LB group. The results of the study suggest a general dissatisfaction with work along with a different functioning of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in HB teachers. Although non…
Development and Validation of the Escala de Actitudes Emprendedoras para Estudiantes (EAEE).
2015
AbstractDuring the last few years, entrepreneurship has gained an important role in many economic and social policies, with the consequent growth of entrepreneurial research in many social areas. However, in the Spanish psychometric context, there is not an updated scale including recent contributions to entrepreneurship attitudes literature. The aim of this study is to present and validate a new scale named Escala de Actitudes Emprendedoras para Estudiantes-EAEE, (Entrepreneurial Attitudes Scale for Students, EASS), in two samples of high school and university Spanish students. Data comes from a cross-sectional survey of 524 high school and undergraduate students, from Valencia (Spain). Tw…
High Anger Expression is Associated with Reduced Cortisol Awakening Response and Health Complaints in Healthy Young Adults
2016
AbstractThe extant evidence suggests a robust positive association between expression (anger expression-out) and suppression (anger expression-in) of anger and compromised health. Nevertheless, the underlying psychobiological mechanisms which explain these relationships are not well understood. This study examined whether anger expression would predict general health, cortisol awakening response (CAR) and evening cortisol levels in a community sample of 156 healthy young adults of both genders. Participants were distributed into two groups according to their anger expression scores: high and low anger expression (HAE and LAE, respectively). Findings indicated that those with HAE had worse s…