Search results for "reflex"

Brainstem reflex circuits revisited

2004

Our current understanding of brainstem reflex physiology comes chiefly from the classic anatomical-functional correlation studies that traced the central circuits underlying brainstem reflexes and establishing reflex abnormalities as markers for specific areas of lesion. These studies nevertheless had the disadvantage of deriving from post-mortem findings in only a few patients. We developed a voxel-based model of the human brainstem designed to import and normalize MRIs, select groups of patients with or without a given dysfunction, compare their MRIs statistically, and construct three-plane maps showing the statistical probability of lesion. Using this method, we studied 180 patients with…

The Narration to Take Care of Oneself in the Development of Educational Professions

2019

This work aims to highlight the importance of narration and autobiographic practice in looking after oneself. The narration represents a technology of taking care of oneself (Foucault, 1992) and at the same time, facilitates the person in oneself recognition and self-training. The merit of narrating is extremely educational and formative for whoever is preparing to operate a practical training in the field of caring professions, including the educational ones (Zannini, 2003). An active methodology to work through the narration is the autobiographic practice which offers to the pedagogy and the educational research the opportunity to place subjects at the hearth, adding depth to the educatio…

Los 'think-tanks' y los 'neocons' / 1

2008

Neural Activation During Submaximal Contractions Seems More Reflective of Neuromuscular Ageing than Maximal Voluntary Activation

2016

International audience; This study aimed at testing the hypothesis that differences in neural activation strategy during submaximal but not maximal plantarflexions exist between young and older men. Eleven young men (YM, 26 +/- 4 years) and thirteen old men (OM, 76 +/- 3 years) volunteered for the investigation. Maximal voluntary torque (MVT) was 38.2%, lower (p < 0.001) in OM than in YM, while voluntary activation was equivalent (similar to 97%). The relationship between the interpolated twitch torque and the voluntary torque (IT-VT relationship) was composite (curvilinear + exponential) for both age-groups. However, the OM showed accentuated concavity, as attested by the occurrence of the…

Isolated, Subtle Neurological Abnormalities in Mild Cognitive Impairment Types.

2019

Isolated, subtle neurological abnormalities (ISNA) are commonly seen in aging and have been related to cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) and subcortical atrophy in neurologically and cognitively healthy aging subjects.To investigate the frequency of ISNA in different mild cognitive impairment (MCI) types and to evaluate for each MCI type, the cross-sectional relation between ISNA and white matter hyperintensities (WMH), lacunes, caudate atrophy, and ventricular enlargement.One thousand two hundred fifty subjects with different MCI types were included in the analysis and underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging. WMHs were assessed through two visual rating scales. Lacunes were also rated…

Sociolinguistics from the Periphery

2016

This leading team of scholars presents a fascinating book about change: shifting political, economic and cultural conditions; ephemeral, sometimes even seasonal, multilingualism; and altered imaginaries for minority and indigenous languages and their users. The authors refer to this network of interlinked changes as the new conditions surrounding small languages (Sámi, Corsican, Irish and Welsh) in peripheral sites. Starting from the conviction that peripheral sites can and should inform the sociolinguistics of globalisation, the book explores how new modes of reflexivity, more transactional frames for authenticity, commodification of peripheral resources, and boundary-transgression with hu…

Role of non-neuronal and neuronal acetylcholine in the airways

2001

It is well known that acetylcholine represents a dominant neurotransmitter within mammalian airways and that airway functions, like smooth muscle activity and secretion, are under a continuous cholinergic tone. However, the teleology of this basal cholinergic tone, assumed to originate from neuronal activity, appears difficult to understand, whereas neuronal cholinergic reflex activity can be regarded as a rational regulatory pathway to protect the airways from injury [1-3]. Based on recent experimental observations, both phenomena may reflect two different biological roles of acetylcholine, acting first as a universal cytomolecule (non-neuronal) and second as a classical neurotransmitter (…

Bivariate nonlinear prediction to quantify the strength of complex dynamical interactions in short-term cardiovascular variability.

2005

A nonlinear prediction method for investigating the dynamic interdependence between short length time series is presented. The method is a generalization to bivariate prediction of the univariate approach based on nearest neighbor local linear approximation. Given the input and output series x and y, the relationship between a pattern of samples of x and a synchronous sample of y was approximated with a linear polynomial whose coefficients were estimated from an equation system including the nearest neighbor patterns in x and the corresponding samples in y. To avoid overfitting and waste of data, the training and testing stages of the prediction were designed through a specific out-of-sampl…

Obesity interferes with the orosensory detection of long-chain fatty acids in humans

2014

Background: The association between the orosensory detection of lipids, preference for fatty foods, and body mass index (BMI; in kg/m 2 ) is controversial in humans. Objective: We explored the oral lipid-sensing system and the orosensory-induced autonomic reflex system in lean and obese subjects. Design: Lean (BMI: 19 to ,25; n = 30) and obese (BMI .30; n = 29) age-matched men were enrolled. Their oral threshold sensitivity to linoleic acid (LA) was determined by using a 3-alternative forced-choice ascending procedure, and their eating habits were established by the analysis of 4 consecutive 24-h food-consumption diaries. The effect of brief oral lipid stimulations on plasma triglyceride [(…

Towards understanding the complexity of cardiovascular oscillations: Insights from information theory.

2018

Abstract Cardiovascular complexity is a feature of healthy physiological regulation, which stems from the simultaneous activity of several cardiovascular reflexes and other non-reflex physiological mechanisms. It is manifested in the rich dynamics characterizing the spontaneous heart rate and blood pressure variability (HRV and BPV). The present study faces the challenge of disclosing the origin of short-term HRV and BPV from the statistical perspective offered by information theory. To dissect the physiological mechanisms giving rise to cardiovascular complexity in different conditions, measures of predictive information, information storage, information transfer and information modificati…