Frame-difference analysis of video-recorded laser-beam projections.

Laser beams have been applied in many human motion research contexts to project movements in specific motor tasks. Currently, there are no objective analysis methods for laser projection recordings. The principal aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of quantifying motion by applying frame differencing and image analysis methods to video streams of laser beam projections. The laser projection was controlled by a mechanical device that produced pseudo random rotations. The 2D motion recorded by the video was compared with recordings obtained with an electromagnetic system where a sensor was fixed to the same device as the laser. High correlations in the time and frequency domains were found between the methods. We conclude that the proposed method can accurately quantify complex motion patterns from laser beam projections.

Individual differences in timing of discrete and continuous movements: a dimensional approach.

This study investigated aspects of individual differences in timing of continuous and discontinuous movements to different pacing signals (auditory or visual), pacing intervals (500, 650, 800, 950 ms), and across effectors (dominant versus non-dominant hand). Correlation and principal component analysis demonstrated that a single statistical dimension accounted for up to 60% of the explained variance in discontinuous tasks and 25% of the variance in continuous tasks, when applied to performance obtained from tasks conducted with different effectors and at different pacing rates. Correlation analysis of factor scores representing effector and rate independent task performances showed that timing of discrete or continuous movements can be associated with modality independent mechanisms. Timing variability from discrete and continuous trials was not significantly correlated. This study goes beyond previous correlational work on individual differences in discrete and continuous movements, demonstrating that individual differences in discrete (event-based) or continuous (emergent) motor timing tasks can be modeled as distinctive statistical components with dissimilar capability to capture effector, rate, and modality independent variance.

Assessment of intramuscular activation patterns using ultrasound M-mode strain.

The intramuscular activation pattern can be connected to the motor unit recruitment strategy of force generation and fatigue resistance. Electromyography has earlier been used in several studies to quantify the spatial inhomogeneity of the muscle activation. We applied ultrasound M-mode strain to study the activation pattern through the tissue deformation. Correlation values of the strain at different force levels were used to quantify the spatial changes in the activation. The assessment was done including the biceps brachii muscle of 8 healthy subjects performing isometric elbow flexion contractions ranging from 0% to 80% of maximum voluntary contraction. The obtained results were repeatable and demonstrated consistent changes of the correlation values during force regulation, in agreement with previously presented EMG-results. Both intra-subject and inter-subject activation patterns of strain were considered along and transverse the fiber direction. The results suggest that ultrasound M-mode strain can be used as a complementary method to study intramuscular activation patterns with high spatial resolution.

Upper body 3-dimensional kinematics during gait in psychotic patients: a pilot-study.

Gait is recognized as a key item related to mental function. Anomalous gait in psychotic individuals has been described for the lower extremities, whereas irregularities for upper body dynamics are not described, explained or verified with unbiased methods. Reduced walking velocity and increased somatic tension defined in this patient category may influence upper body dynamics during gait. The aim of this pilot-study was to describe upper body kinematics and investigate the biomechanical association with walking velocity and muscle tension. Twelve inpatients in a psychiatric ward with first-episode psychosis and 18 healthy control subjects walked at different self-chosen velocities. Movement and walking velocity were registered, and 3D kinematics was analysed for thorax and shoulder joint. Time-synchronized EMG from the trapezius muscle, chosen as indicator for general somatic tension, was analysed for maximal amplitude and variability. Results showed that patients walked with reduced arm swing at the shoulder joint and increased lateral thorax movements. Thorax rotations about the vertical axis, walking velocity and EMG measures were similar in patients and healthy subjects. The present study could not provide a biomechanical explanation for kinematic findings based on walking velocity or somatic tension.

Timing continuous or discontinuous movements across effectors specified by different pacing modalities and intervals.

Sensorimotor synchronization is hypothesized to arise through two different processes, associated with continuous or discontinuous rhythmic movements. This study investigated synchronization of continuous and discontinuous movements to different pacing signals (auditory or visual), pacing interval (500, 650, 800, 950 ms) and across effectors (non-dominant vs. non-dominant hand). The results showed that mean and variability of asynchronization errors were consistently smaller for discontinuous movements compared to continuous movements. Furthermore, both movement types were timed more accurately with auditory pacing compared to visual pacing and were more accurate with the dominant hand. Shortening the pacing interval also improved sensorimotor synchronization accuracy in both continuous and discontinuous movements. These results show the dependency of temporal control of movements on the nature of the motor task, the type and rate of extrinsic sensory information as well as the efficiency of the motor actuators for sensory integration.

Ensemble coding of muscle stretches in afferent populations containing different types of muscle afferents.

Ensemble coding of simple mechanical stimuli (small sinusoidal stretches) was studied in simultaneously recorded mixed ensembles of primary- and secondary muscle spindle afferents (MSAs), and Golgi tendon organ (GTO) afferents recorded from L7-S1 dorsal root filaments. The experiments were made on 48 recorded afferents (29 primary MSAs, 6 secondary MSAs and 13 GTO afferents) in chloralose anaesthetised cats. For the analyses, we used a combination of principal component analysis and algorithms for quantification of stimulus discrimination. Mixed ensembles of primary- and secondary MSAs, and GTO afferents, discriminated significantly better between different muscle stretches than ensembles of only one or two types of these afferents. All kinds of ensembles showed a successive increase in discriminative ability with increased ensemble size and this ability seemed to level at larger populations. However, the increase in discriminative ability was significantly greater for the mixed ensembles. It is hypothesised that the main reason for the greater discriminative ability achieved by mixed ensembles, might be that the variation in response profiles (sensitivity tuning) among the individual afferents of the mixed ensemble will be larger than that for ensembles of only one type of afferent. Finally, the results in the present study give experimental support to some of the teleological arguments in favour of the ensemble coding theory.

A neural network approach to real-time spike discrimination during simultaneous recording from several multi-unit nerve filaments.

A multi-channel, real-time, unsupervised spike discriminator was developed in order to reconstruct single spike trains from several simultaneously recorded multi-unit nerve filaments. The program uses a Self Organising Map (SOM) algorithm for the classification of the spikes. In contrast to previous similar techniques, the described method is made for use on a PC, and the method may thus be implemented at relatively low cost. In order to test the accuracy of the program, a robustness test was performed, where noise with different RMS levels was superimposed on the spikes. Furthermore, the maximal classification rate was determined. The program is easy to use, since the only manual inputs needed are the voltage threshold for spike detection, and the number of units present in each recorded nerve filament.