Search results for "Motor performance"
showing 10 items of 378 documents
Age dependent changes of distractibility and reorienting of attention revisited: an event-related potential study.
2012
Adults of three age groups (18-27, 39-45, and 59-66 years) performed an auditory duration discrimination task with short (200 ms) or long (400 ms) sinusoidal tones. Performance was highly accurate and reaction times were on the same level in all groups, indicating no differences in auditory duration processing. Task irrelevant rare changes of the frequency of the stimuli were introduced to check whether the subjects, firstly, were distracted by changes in the environment while focusing on the task relevant information (indicated by prolonged responses), and, secondly, could re-focus on the relevant task after distraction. The results show that a distraction effect is present in all groups. …
Decline in motor prediction in elderly subjects: right versus left arm differences in mentally simulated motor actions.
2008
This study investigates the effects of age upon the temporal features of executed and imagined movements performed with the dominant (D; right) and nondominant (ND; left) arms. Thirty right-handed subjects were divided into two groups: (i) the young group (n=15; mean age: 22.5+/-2.5 years) and (ii) the elderly group (n=15; mean age: 70.2+/-2.2 years). The motor task, involving arm pointing movements among four pairs of targets (.5cm, 1cm, 1.5cm and 2cm), imposed strong spatiotemporal constraints. During overt performance, young and elderly subjects modulated movement duration according to the size of targets, despite the fact that movement speed decreased with age as well as in the left arm…
Mentally represented motor actions in normal aging: III. Electromyographic features of imagined arm movements.
2009
Abstract Motor imagery is a cognitive process during which subjects mentally simulate movements without actually performing them. Here, we investigated the temporal and electromyographic (EMG) features of imagined arm movements in healthy elderly adults. Twelve young (mean age: 24.0 ± 1.3 years) and 12 elderly (mean age: 67.0 ± 4.5 years) participants executed and mentally simulated, with their right and left arms and as fast and as accurately as possible, arm pointing movements between three targets located in the frontal plane. We used the mental chronometry paradigm as an indicator of the accuracy of the motor imagery process (i.e. isochrony between executed and imagined movements) and t…
Effect of caffeine on simulator flight performance in sleep-deprived military pilot students.
2007
Caffeine has been suggested to act as a countermeasure against fatigue in military operations. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effect of caffeine on simulator flight performance was examined in 13 military pilots during 37 hours of sleep deprivation. Each subject performed a flight mission in simulator four times. The subjects received either a placebo (six subjects) or 200 mg of caffeine (seven subjects) 1 hour before the simulated flights. A moderate 200 mg intake of caffeine was associated with higher axillary temperatures, but it did not affect subjectively assessed sleepiness. Flight performance was similar in both groups during the four rounds flown und…
Broad disruption of brain white matter microstructure and relationship with neuropsychological performance in male patients with severe alcohol depen…
2012
Aims In the last years, refined magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) methods have become available to study microstructural alterations in the human brain. We investigated to what extent white matter tissue abnormalities are present in male patients after chronic, excessive alcohol consumption and if these alterations are correlated with measures of alcohol consumption and neuropsychological performance. Methods Twenty-four detoxified adult male patients with severe alcohol dependence and 23 healthy male control subjects were included in the study. Neuropsychological tests were assessed for executive function, attention, memory and visuospatial function. DTI was acquired and pr…
Differences in hand and foot psychomotor speed among 18 pairs of monozygotic twins discordant for lifelong vehicular driving.
1997
The purpose of this study was to examine driving as a determinant of hand and foot psychomotor reaction times. Visual simple and choice hand and foot psychomotor reaction times were measured. The occupational driving contrast was determined by an interview reviewing every job held during each subject's lifetime. Comparison was made of psychomotor speed among 18 pairs of 39- to 62-year-old monozygotic male twins discordant for lifelong occupational driving. The mean discordance was the equivalent of 16 years of full-time driving. The twins who drove more tended to have slower hand simple and choice reaction times, although only the difference in hand-choice decision time was statistically si…
Cognitive impairment in Behçet's disease patients without overt neurological involvement
2003
We investigated the prevalence of cognitive impairment in patients with Behc¸et’s disease (BD) without overt neurological involvement. The influence of disease duration, disease activity, prednisone dosage, and anxiety and depression levels was evaluated. Twenty-six consecutive BD outpatients and 26 healthy controls matched for age, education and sex completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery including tests of memory, visuospatial and constructional abilities, language, attention and psychomotor speed, non-verbal reasoning and executive functioning. The Hamilton scales for anxiety and depression were administered. Disease activity was assessed using the Behc¸et’s Disease Current …
Treatment nonadherence and neurocognitive impairment in bipolar disorder.
2009
OBJECTIVE: Little is known regarding the relationship between treatment adherence and residual cognitive dysfunction in euthymic bipolar disorder patients. This study aimed to investigate whether poor treatment adherence is associated with cognitive impairment in euthymic bipolar patients and whether other factors may be associated with both adherence and cognitive functioning. METHOD: Euthymic DSM-IV bipolar I or II disorder patients (N = 103: 61 with high levels of treatment adherence and 42 with poor treatment adherence) were assessed using a neuropsychological battery targeting attention, psychomotor speed, verbal memory, and executive functions and compared with 35 healthy controls of …
Kinesthetic motor imagery training modulates frontal midline theta during imagination of a dart throw.
2016
Motor imagery (MI) is a frequently used and effective method for motor learning in sports as well as in other domains. Electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicated that experts within a certain sport exhibit a more pronounced brain activity during MI as compared to novices. Similar to the execution, during MI the motor sequence has to be planned. Thus, the frontal attentional system, in part represented by the frontal midline theta (4-7Hz), is closely related to these processes and presumably plays a major role in MI as well. In this study, a MI dart training and its impact on frontal midline theta activity (fmt) during MI are examined. 53 …
''Modulation of Anticipatory Postural Activity For Multiple Conditions of A Whole-body Pointing Task''
2012
Tolambiya, A. | Chiovetto, E. | Pozzo, T. | Thomas, E.; International audience; ''This is a study on associated postural activities during the anticipatory segments of a multijoint movement. Several previous studies have shown that they are task dependant. The previous studies, however, have mostly been limited in demonstrating the presence of modulation for one task condition, that is, one aspect such as the distance of the target or the direction of reaching. Real-life activities like whole-body pointing, however, can vary in several ways. How specific is the adaptation of the postural activities for the diverse possibilities of a whole-body pointing task? We used a classification paradig…