Activation and inhibition of bimanual movements in school-aged children.

The development of motor activation and inhibition was compared in 6-to-12 year-olds. Children had to initiate or stop the externally paced movements of one hand, while maintaining that of the other hand. The time needed to perform the switching task (RT) and the spatio-temporal variables show different age-related evolutions depending on the coordination pattern (in- or anti-phase) and the type of transition (activation, selective inhibition, non selective inhibition) required. In the anti-phase mode, activation perturbs the younger subjects' responses while temporal and spatial stabilities transiently decrease around 9 years when activating in the in-phase mode. Aged-related changes differed between inhibition and activation in the anti-phase mode, suggesting either the involvement of distinct neural networks or the existence of a single network that is reorganized. In contrast, stopping or adding one hand in the in-phase mode shows similar aged-related improvement. We suggest that selectively stopping or activating one arm during symmetrical coordination rely on the two faces of a common processing in which activation could be the release of inhibition.

Shock wave therapy as an innovative technology in skeletal disorders: study on transmembrane current in stimulated osteoblast-like cells.

Extracorporeal shock wave treatment (ESWT) is successfully used in various musculoskeletal disorders and pathologies. Despite the increasing use of this kind of therapy, some aspects of its mechanism of action are still unclear. In vitro bone cell behavior under ESWT were previously investigated by the present author and MG63 osteoblast-like cells showed an enhancement in proliferation and in the osteoblast differentiation after therapy with a low-energy flux density. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of ESWT on the permeabilization of cell membrane. We characterized physiological changes in the MG63 associated with ESWT generated by an ESW device and patch clamp recording was performed to study ion channels. Experiments were carried out using the whole-cell recording configuration of the patch-clamp technique and the ionic current measurements were performed on cell samples of ESW treated and control groups. The patch-clamp technique showed the effect of ESWT on the amplitude of transmembrane currents. The treatment with ESW enhanced the transmembrane current as well the voltage dependence of Ca-activated and K channels that mediate these currents: the differences between treated cells and control at 80mV were over 1000 pA (p<0.05). These modifications of ion channels activity positively influence cell proliferation (MTT test, p<0.0001) without interfering with the normal synthesis activity of stimulated osteoblasts.