Research progress on the effect of rhythmic sensory cueing on motor function of Parkinson's disease / 中华神经科杂志

Oral medicine and deep brain stimulation are two main treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD).But their long-term efficacies are decreasing,which limit the choice of patients in advanced stage.As a special way of sensory intervention,rhythmic cueing can improve gait parameters,reduce freezing of gait severity and improve gait-related mobility by activating the motor pathway directly,repairing internal clock,promoting internal dopamine release and improving cognitive function to maintain gait stability.Rhythmic auditory and visual cueing has a potential in PD treatment.

Research progress on the effect of rhythmic sensory cueing on motor function of Parkinson′s disease / 中华神经科杂志

Oral medicine and deep brain stimulation are two main treatments for Parkinson′s disease (PD). But their long-term efficacies are decreasing, which limit the choice of patients in advanced stage. As a special way of sensory intervention, rhythmic cueing can improve gait parameters, reduce freezing of gait severity and improve gait-related mobility by activating the motor pathway directly, repairing internal clock, promoting internal dopamine release and improving cognitive function to maintain gait stability. Rhythmic auditory and visual cueing has a potential in PD treatment.

The Influence of Audio-Visual Cueing (Traffic Light) on Dual Task Walking in Healthy Older Adults and Older Adults with Balance Impairments

Background: The walking gait of older adults with balance impairment is affected by dual tasking. Several studies have shown that external cues can stimulate improvement in older adults’ performance. There is, however, no current evidence to support the usefulness of external cues, such as audio-visual cueing, in dual task walking in older adults. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of an audio-visual cue (simulated traffic light) on dual task walking in healthy older adults and in older adults with balance impairments. Methods: A two-way repeated measures study was conducted on 14 healthy older adults and 14 older adults with balance impairment, who were recruited from the community in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Their walking performance was assessed using a four-metre walking test at their preferred gait speed and while walking under two further gait conditions, in randomised order: dual task walking and dual task walking with a simulated traffic light. Each participant was tested individually, with the testing taking between 15 and 20 minutes to perform, including two-minute rest periods between walking conditions. Two Kinect cameras recorded the spatio-temporal parameters using MFU gait analysis software. Each participant was tested for each condition twice. The mean parameters for each condition were analysed using a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with participant group and gait condition as factors. Result: There was no significant between-group effect for walking speed, stride length and cadence. There were also no significant effects between gait condition and stride length or cadence. However, the effect between gait condition and walking speed was found to be significant [F(1.557, 40.485) = 4.568, P = 0.024, η = 0.149]. Conclusion: An audio-visual cue (simulated traffic light) was found to influence walking speed in both healthy older adults and in older adults with balance impairment. The results suggest that audio-visual cues could be incorporated into healthy lifestyle promotion in older adults with balance impairment.

Sensory cueing in the treatment of unilateral spatial neglect / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective To investigate the effects of sensory cueing (SC) on unilateral spatial neglect after stroke.Methods Five stroke survivors with unilateral spatial neglect underwent a tailored sensory cueing treatment (wearing a sensory cueing device 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 2 weeks) in addition to their conventional rehabilitation.Two weeks before and one day before the treatment, and then one day, two weeks and 4 weeks after the treatment, all five patients were assessed using the Hong Kong edition of the behavioral inattention test (BIT-C).Results No significant changes were identified in the average BIT-C ratings at the two time point before the intervention.However, the average score had increased significantly only one day after the start of the intervention, with further significant improvement at each of the succeeding 2 week intervals.The greatest improvement was in finishing cancellation tasks, and the most severely affected patient showed the greatest improvement.Conclusion Sensory cueing treatment may be useful and feasible in reducing unilateral spatial neglect for stroke survivors.However, randomized and controlled trials with larger samples are needed to further verify its effects.

Modulation of spatial attention to visual targets by emotional environmental sounds

Previous research has shown that visual spatial attention can be modulated by emotional prosody cues, but it is not known whether such crossmodal modulation of visual attention is associated with the engagement or disengagement of attentional resources. To test this, we employed a modified spatial cueing task, where participants indicated whether a visual target appeared either on the left or the right, after hearing a spatially non-predictive peripheral sound. Prior studies using prosody cues have found that modulation of visual attention by emotional auditory cues was lateralized, but this may have been due to the speech content of the stimuli; here instead we used non-speech environmental sounds. The sound was either emotional (pleasant, unpleasant) or neutral, and was presented either on the same side as the visual target ('valid' trial) or on the opposite side ('invalid' trial). For the cue validity index (RT to invalid cue minus RT to valid cue), we found differences between emotional and neutral cues, but only for visual targets presented in the right hemifield; here the cue validity index was lower for unpleasant compared to neutral and pleasant cues. Absolute RTs for targets on the right were faster for invalid trials following unpleasant cues, compared to pleasant and neutral cues, indicating that the reduced cue validity effect was due to faster disengagement from unpleasant auditory cues. Further, our results show that the laterality effect is related to the emotional nature of the cues, rather than the speech content of the stimuli...

Gaze-cueing of attention distorts visual space / La señalización atencional de la mirada distorsiona el espacio visual

A briefly presented peripheral flash is often mislocalized with a bias toward an attended object. The target mislocalization has been ascribed to the integration of location signals between a target and an attended object, and this results in the mislocalization of the target toward the attended object. It was unclear whether external objects that attract observer's attention were necessary to cause the target mislocalization. This study aimed at examining whether the target mislocalization occurred when the shift of observers' attention was induced by gaze cueing, in which observer's attention is shifted in the direction of other's gaze. This cueing paradigm requires no external object to attract attention, thus it enabled us to directly examine the necessity of external objects in the target mislocalization. Stimuli consisted of a pictorial face, a target, and a probe. First, the pictorial face was presented, and its gaze was shifted so as to look at either upper-right or upper-left. The target was successively presented for 50 msec. After a temporal interval of 0 or 2000 msec was inserted as a retention interval, the probe was presented below the target. The observers' task was to judge whether the target had appeared at the left or right side of the probe location. The target was significantly mislocalized in the direction of gaze shift only when the retention interval was 2000 msec. Moreover, reaction time for detecting a target was shorter at the gazed than non-gazed location. These results suggest that the mislocalization does not require external objects attracting attention. Neural signals of target location are possibly averaged with the attention-induced local change in neural signals, and this results in the target mislocalization toward the gazed location.

Un flash presentado brevemente de forma periférica a menudo es mal localizado con un sesgo hacia un objeto atendido. El foco de esta mala localización se ha atribuido a la integración de las señales de localización entre un blanco y un objeto que se está atendiendo, y esto da lugar a la mala localización del objetivo hacia el objeto que se atiende. No es claro si los objetos externos que atraen la atención del observador son necesarios para causar la mala localización del objetivo. Este estudio está dirigido a examinar si la mala localización de objetivo se produce cuando el cambio de la atención del observador es inducida por las pistas de mirada, en la que la mirada del observador se desplaza en la dirección de la mirada del otro. Este paradigma de pistas no requiere de ningún objeto externo para llamar la atención, así nos permite examinar directamente la necesidad de los objetos externos en la mala localización de objetivos. Los estímulos fueron una ilustración de la cara, un objetivo, y una prueba. En primer lugar, la ilustración de la cara se presentó y la mirada se desplazaba hacia la parte superior derecha o superior izquierda. El objetivo fue presentado sucesivamente por 50 mseg. Después seguía un intervalo temporal de 0 o 2000 mseg como un intervalo de retención, la prueba se presentó por debajo del objetivo. La tarea de los observadores consistió en juzgar si el objetivo apareció en el lado izquierdo o derecho de la ubicación de la prueba. El objetivo fue mal localizado significativamente en la dirección de desplazamiento de la mirada sólo cuando el intervalo de retención fue de 2,000 mseg. Por otra parte, el tiempo de reacción para la detección del objetivo fue más corto en la mirada que en la localización no mirada. Estos resultados sugieren que la mala localización no requiere objetos externos que atraigan la atención. Señales neurales de la localización de objetivo se promedian con el cambio local de atención inducida en señales neurales, lo que resulta en la mala localizacion de objetivos hacia la ubicación contemplada.

Influence of cueing on the preparation and execution of untrained and trained complex motor responses

This study investigated the influence of cueing on the performance of untrained and trained complex motor responses. Healthy adults responded to a visual target by performing four sequential movements (complex response) or a single movement (simple response) of their middle finger. A visual cue preceded the target by an interval of 300, 1000, or 2000 ms. In Experiment 1, the complex and simple responses were not previously trained. During the testing session, the complex response pattern varied on a trial-by-trial basis following the indication provided by the visual cue. In Experiment 2, the complex response and the simple response were extensively trained beforehand. During the testing session, the trained complex response pattern was performed in all trials. The latency of the untrained and trained complex responses decreased from the short to the medium and long cue-target intervals. The latency of the complex response was longer than that of the simple response, except in the case of the trained responses and the long cue-target interval. These results suggest that the preparation of untrained complex responses cannot be completed in advance, this being possible, however, for trained complex responses when enough time is available. The duration of the 1st submovement, 1st pause and 2nd submovement of the untrained and the trained complex responses increased from the short to the long cue-target interval, suggesting that there is an increase of online programming of the response possibly related to the degree of certainty about the moment of target appearance.

Treadmill training with music cueing: a new approach for Parkinson’s gait facilitation.

Background: It has been pointed that cueing techniques may have influence upon gait training in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Objective: Study the effects of music cue on treadmill training in PD patients. Subject and methods: A randomized single-blind controlled trial was conducted. Thirty male PD patients, aged 60 to 80 years with Hoehn and Yahr stage 2-3 were allocated into three groups (each 10 patients). Group A: treadmill with music three days and home walking three days/week, Group B: treadmill three days and home walking three days/week, and Group C: home walking six days/week. Each group received four weeks training followed by selfpractice for other four weeks. Gait performances at pre-program, fourth, and eighth week were compared. Results: The results showed that A, B, and C, stride length gained 12%, 5.2%, and 6.7% (p=0.042), walking-speed gained 8.6%, 6.5%, and -2.4%, six-minute walk distance gained 10.2%, 5.4%, and 2.9%, and Timed Up and Go (TUG) gained 14.2%, 12.5%, and 7.6%. Conclusion: Music cue enhanced gait training in mild to moderate PD patients.

The effect of voice cues on nonfluent aphasia patients' performance in reading idioms / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective To examine the effect of voice cues on nonfluent aphasia patients'performance in reading idioms.Methods Very familiar idioms were presented to aphasia patients on a computer screen either with or without an accompanying voice cue.The patients were asked to say the last two words of each idiom.The number of errors with the last two words of the idioms wag used to compare the patients'performance under the two conditions.Results The mean correct score was 9.46±13.08 when the idioms were presented without a voice cue,but 13.61±6.06 with the voice cue.The difference was statistically significant.Conclusion Voice cues can improve the speaking of familiar idioms for nonfluent aphasia patients.

Comparison research on the inhibition of return capacity of attention between expert and novice pilots / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the differences in the inhibition of return (IOR) capacity of attention between expert and novice pilots.Methods Compared the capacity of IOR of 10 expert pilots and 10 novice pilots under the conditions of adjacent and spaced clueing positions by experiment and by means of simultaneous cueing processes.Results These data suggested that in simultaneous cueing processes,no matter that the clueing positions were adjacent or spaced,the reaction time of expert pilots( adjacent:(428.01 ± 64.89) ms,spaced:(425.24 ± 63.94 ) ms) was slower novice pilots ( adjacent:( 363.05 ± 38.95 ) ms,spaced:( 360.61 ± 41.70 ) ms )(P ＜ 0.01 ) ; the capacity of IOR in no matter that the clueing positions were adjacent or spaced.The expert pilots showed IOR at only one location when the 5 clues all appearance in simultaneous cueing processes (P＜ 0.05 ),and no IOR could be see in the other locations.The novice pilots showed IOR when the from 3 to 5 of clues appearance in simultaneous cueing processes,the disparity was significantly predominance(P＜ 0.01 ).Conclusion The expert pilots of stability of capacity of IOR is better than novice pilots,and show solidly and highly efficient space searching ability.

Attentional Bias for Negative Emotional Facial Expressions in Major Depressive Disorder / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective:To investigate the attentional bias for negative emotional facial expressions in major depressive disorder(MDD).Methods:Twenty MDD participants were selected from a larger pool of patients (n=35),diagnosed as depression with the Chinese Classification and Diagnostic Criteria of Mental Disorders Version 3 (CCMD-3),according to the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).And 20 non-depression control participants(NC)matched with MDD group on age,gender and education level.All participants completed an exogenous cueing task which consisted of two kinds of cue types(valid and invalid trial)and two kinds of face types(neutral faces and negative faces).Results:Patients with MDD showed more larger cue validity effect for negative faces compared with neutral faces(21.73 ms vs.3.91 ms,P<0.01).They showed a stronger attentional engagement for negative faces in comparison with non-depressed participants(17.25 ms vs.1.64 ms,P<0.001).The NC group directed attention away from negative faces,more rapidly disengaging their attention compared with MDD,but the differences showed no significant(-1.50 ms vs.0.57 ms,P>0.05).Conclusion:These results support the assumption that MDD is associated with attentional bias for negative information,and deficits protective bias for it.

The Efficacy of Repetitive Bilateral Arm Training with Rhythmic Auditory Cueing for Patients with Stroke

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of repetitive bilateral arm training with rhythmic auditory cueing (BATRAC) on functional motor performances of the hemiplegic upper limb. METHOD: Twenty four subjects with stroke (12 males, 12 females) were enrolled and classified into two groups, experimental and control group. The control group received conventional rehabilitation therapy while the experimental group received additional BATRAC. The motor function of patient's upper extremity was assessed by Fugl-Meyer Motor Function Assessment (FMA), Manual Function Test (MFT), and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) before the treatment, at 4 weeks and at 6 weeks after begining of the treatment. RESULTS: There were no differences in FMA between two groups before the treatment and the continual improvements in the function at 4 weeks and at 6 weeks after begining of the treatment (p0.05). CONCLUSION: BATRAC improves motor performance of the paretic upper extremity and will be useful as an additional tool of improving motor function in patients with stroke.