Subject(s)
Hippocampus/physiology , Memory/physiology , Sleep/physiology , Action Potentials , Animals , Bias , Motor Activity , Rats , Time FactorsSubject(s)
Mathematics , Psychomotor Performance , Time Perception , Feedback , Humans , Models, Psychological , Time FactorsABSTRACT
The acceptance of ASYST by the scientific community could dramatically change the way scientific data are handled and reduce the need for extensive in-house software development for many applications. However, there is no substitute for a well-conceived use of any software. We feel that the full acceptance of the ideas and concepts pioneered by Adaptable Laboratory Software and other software houses will depend on the ability of the scientific community to fully test and verify the procedures used by such products. Only then can the results produced by these software packages be subjected to confirmation which is crucial to rigorous scientific endeavor.
Subject(s)
Electromyography/instrumentation , Adult , Electric Conductivity , Electrodes , Equipment Design , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Models, BiologicalABSTRACT
Temporal information processing was studied in humans attempting to tap a key in synchrony with a metronome whose base period was subjected to subliminal random changes. Statistical measures of the sequential timing of metronome and key-tap events were compared with similar time series generated by computer-simulated models of synchronization strategies. From this analysis, synchronization appears to be a sensory-dependent second-order recursive process indexed and stabilized by a combination of internal and external resetting events, with at least two independent sources of timing error.
Subject(s)
Models, Biological , Movement , Time , Computer Simulation , Humans , MathematicsABSTRACT
Timing measures were obtained from subjects instructed to tap a Morse key in synchrony with a metronome which marked a timing pattern consisting of alternating blocks of intervals of imperceptibly different duration. "Synchronization strategies", which consisted of computer-simulated sets of rules, or algorithms, hypothesized to be the basis of synchronization behavior, were used to simulate tapping sequences in response to the same metronome sequences. The human and computer-simulated synchronization data were analyzed identically and compared to determine which of the postulated strategies could explain the observed human tapping behavior. The strategies generating timing data statistically indistinguishable from the human data involve a pattern of human-metronome interaction, and a corresponding transfer of information, more complex and subtle than previous investigations had implied.
Subject(s)
Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Time , Computers , Humans , Music , Psychophysics , Time Perception/physiologySubject(s)
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe/psychology , Violence , Adult , Aggression/psychology , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
EMG and bandlimited noise (BLN) signals of comparable spectra were processed to compute the centroid and median frequencies and the high/low ratio for different record lengths, signal amplitudes, and noise bandwidths. The spectral moments of EMG and BLN showed similar statistical properties, independent of record length and amplitude. The signal-to-noise ratios of the moments increased with record length. Relatively short records were sufficient to obtain low coefficients of variations especially for the centroid, which was the most stable and sensitive to changes in the underlying spectra. The high/low ratio was the least stable moment. A change of 10 and 3.9% in the centroid over successive records of overall duration of 8 and 10 s, respectively, was just sufficient to detect a spectral shift at the P less than 0.05 level. The equivalent percents for the high/low ratio were 66 and 32.5, respectively. These thresholds of significance were related to time constants of equivalent exponential trends in the spectra used to study fatigue. This relationship makes the results of the present study applicable to a wide variety of EMG tests of endurance.
Subject(s)
Electromyography , Physical Endurance , Humans , Muscles/physiology , Statistics as TopicABSTRACT
The correlation between sleep pattern and cognition was studied in a follow-up of 9 patients with traumatic brain injury. The follow-up extended for a mean of 38 weeks after regaining consciousness, with 4-7 study periods for each patient. In addition to sleep pattern, 3 other variables were evaluated: independence in activities of daily living, locomotor and cognitive functions. In 7 patients there was a high correlation (r greater than 0.89) between cognition and REM sleep improvement whereas in 2 patients the correlation was lower (r less than 0.6). It is suggested that in the first group the REM mechanism was intact whereas in the latter, where a brain stem lesion was present, the REM mechanism was damaged. It is also suggested that the sleep pattern recovery time constant depends on the insult to the sleep mechanism structure whereas the REM steady-state recovery process depends on both cognitive maximal capacity and REM neural mechanism integrity.
Subject(s)
Brain Injuries/physiopathology , Electroencephalography , Sleep Stages/physiology , Adolescent , Adult , Brain Damage, Chronic/physiopathology , Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology , Cognition/physiology , Electromyography , Female , Humans , Locomotion , Male , Prognosis , Sleep, REM/physiology , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Saccades, smooth movements and vergence were recorded in 28 patients with brain lesions using an infrared scleral reflexion technique. Large impairment in eye movement responses under visual feedback were recorded from the majority of the patients. The implication of these deficiencies on the vocational rehabilitation of the patients is discussed.
