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Recent research on mental representation of complex action has revealed distinct differences in the structure of representational frameworks between experts and novices. More recently, research on the development of mental representation structure has elicited functional changes in novices' representations as a result of practice. However, research investigating if and how mental practice adds to this adaptation process is lacking. In the present study, we examined the influence of mental practice (i.e., motor imagery rehearsal) on both putting performance and the development of one's representation of the golf putt during early skill acquisition. Novice golfers (N = 52) practiced the task of golf putting under one of four different practice conditions: mental, physical, mental-physical combined, and no practice. Participants were tested prior to and after a practice phase, as well as after a three day retention interval. Mental representation structures of the putt were measured, using the structural dimensional analysis of mental representation. This method provides psychometric data on the distances and groupings of basic action concepts in long-term memory. Additionally, putting accuracy and putting consistency were measured using two-dimensional error scores of each putt. Findings revealed significant performance improvements over the course of practice together with functional adaptations in mental representation structure. Interestingly, after three days of practice, the mental representations of participants who incorporated mental practice into their practice regime displayed representation structures that were more similar to a functional structure than did participants who did not incorporate mental practice. The findings of the present study suggest that mental practice promotes the cognitive adaptation process during motor learning, leading to more elaborate representations than physical practice only. (Autor).

This paper describes the CPR Tutor, a real-time multimodal feedback system for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training. The CPR Tutor detects training mistakes using recurrent neural networks. The CPR Tutor automatically recognises and assesses the quality of the chest compressions according to five CPR performance indicators. It detects training mistakes in real-time by analysing a multimodal data stream consisting of kinematic and electromyographic data. Based on this assessment, the CPR Tutor provides audio feedback to correct the most critical mistakes and improve the CPR performance. The mistake detection models of the CPR Tutor were trained using a dataset from 10 experts. Hence, we tested the validity of the CPR Tutor and the impact of its feedback functionality in a user study involving additional 10 participants. The CPR Tutor pushes forward the current state of the art of real-time multimodal tutors by providing: (1) an architecture design, (2) a methodological approach for delivering real-time feedback using multimodal data and (3) a field study on real-time feedback for CPR training. This paper details the results of a field study by quantitatively measuring the impact of the CPR Tutor feedback on the performance indicators and qualitatively analysing the participants' questionnaire answers. (DIPF/Orig.).

This study investigated to what extent multimodal data can be used to detect mistakes during Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training. We complemented the Laerdal QCPR ResusciAnne manikin with the Multimodal Tutor for CPR, a multi-sensor system consisting of a Microsoft Kinect for tracking body position and a Myo armband for collecting electromyogram information. We collected multimodal data from 11 medical students, each of them performing two sessions of two-minute chest compressions (CCs). We gathered in total 5254 CCs that were all labelled according to five performance indicators, corresponding to common CPR training mistakes. Three out of five indicators, CC rate, CC depth and CC release, were assessed automatically by the ReusciAnne manikin. The remaining two, related to arms and body position, were annotated manually by the research team. We trained five neural networks for classifying each of the five indicators. The results of the experiment show that multimodal data can provide accurate mistake detection as compared to the ResusciAnne manikin baseline. We also show that the Multimodal Tutor for CPR can detect additional CPR training mistakes such as the correct use of arms and body weight. Thus far, these mistakes were identified only by human instructors. Finally, to investigate user feedback in the future implementations of the Multimodal Tutor for CPR, we conducted a questionnaire to collect valuable feedback aspects of CPR training. (DIPF/Orig.).

Objectives To investigate associated dimensions of fatigue regarding cognitive impairment, psychomotor performances, muscular effort power and circulating cytokine levels and their relations to symptom intensity in a sample of pure chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients without overlapping objective sleepiness or sleep disorders. Methods 16 CFS patients were compared to 14 matched controls. We assessed structured symptom-scales, polysomnography, multiple sleep latency tests, attention (Zazzo-Cancellation ZCT, digit-symbol-substitution DSST), psychomotor vigilance and speed (PVT, finger tapping test, FTT), dynamometer handgrip force (tonic and phasic trials) and circulating cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-1b, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-α). Results In addition to fatigue, CFS patients presented with higher affective symptom intensity and worse perceived sleep quality. Polysomnography showed more slow-wave sleep and microarousals in CFS but similar sleep time, efficiency and light-sleep durations than controls. Patients presented with impaired attention (DSST, ZCT), slower reaction times (PVT) but not with lower hit rates (FTT). Notwithstanding lower grip strength during tonic and phasic trials, CFS also presented with higher fatigability during phasic trials. Cytokine levels were increased for IL-1b, IL-8, IL-10 and TNF-α and fatigue intensity was correlated to grip strength and IL-8. Conclusions In contrast to sleepiness, chronic fatigue is a more complex phenomenon that cannot be reduced to one single measured dimension (i.e., sleep propensity). Showing its relations to different measurements, our study reflects this multidimensionality, in a psychosomatic disorder such as CFS. To obtain objective information, routine assessments of fatigue should rule out sleepiness, combine aspects of mental and physical fatigue and focus on fatigability.

Motor difficulties are present in 50–73% of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and are associated with social difficulties. This review aims to synthesize the literature regarding psychomotor therapist use of psychomotor intervention for 3- to 6-year preschool children with ASD. A systematic search of electronic of six databases and other electronic journals was conducted without time limitation. Out of 1351 studies, 14 meet the inclusion criteria. Studies were summarized in terms of participant characteristics, study design, outcomes measures, intervention characteristics, target skills, and outcomes. Outcomes in psychomotor and social development and peer interaction and verbal communication domains were identified. This review adds insights for future research and revealed critical considerations of psychomotor interventions with children with ASD.

Movement goals and task mechanics differ substantially between actual tool use and corresponding pantomimes. In addition, apraxia seems to be more severe during pantomime than during actual tool use. Comparisons of these two modes of action execution using quantitative methods of movement analyses are rare. In the present study, repetitive scooping movements with a ladle from a bowl into a plate were recorded and movement kinematics was analyzed. Brain-damaged patients using their ipsilesional hand and healthy control subjects were tested in three conditions: pantomime, demonstration with the tool only, and actual use in the normal context. Analysis of the hand trajectories during the transport component revealed clear differences between the tasks, such as slower actual use and moderate deficits in patients with left brain damage (LBD). LBD patients were particularly impaired in the scooping component: LBD patients with apraxia exhibited reduced hand rotation at the bowl and the plate. The deficit was most obvious during pantomime but actual use was also affected, and reduced hand rotation was consistent across conditions as indicated by strong pair-wise correlations between task conditions. In healthy control subjects, correlations between movement parameters were most evident between the pantomime and demonstration conditions but weak in correlation pairs involving actual use. From these findings and published neuroimaging evidence, we conclude that for a specific tool-use action, common motor schemas are activated but are adjusted and modified according to the actual task constraints and demands. An apraxic LBD individual can show a deficit across all three action conditions, but the severity can differ substantially between conditions. Verf.-Referat.

The article analyzes one of the main problems of physical rehabilitation of children with psychomotor disorders – the problem of motivation in corrective motor activity. This determined the aim – to determine the main directions of the motivational sphere formation in the process of correctional play activity of children with psychomotor disorders. The following research methods were used: the method of analysis, which made it possible to identify the main characteristics and types of motivational support of children for various types of activity; the method of pedagogical observations and the method of synthesis revealed the powerful method of motivating – theatricalization of the correctional process using physical education. The research results were expressed in the definition of the concepts: motive, motivational field, motivational impulse, which are the components of the concept of motivation, the variety of which is defined in four types. There were made following conclusions: The motivation of corrective motor-play activity is based on the unconscious influences of the unconscious, caused by the external use by the teacher of the corresponding children's fairy-tale archetypes and the emotional experiences, caused by them. One of the main methods of increasing motivation is the use of the possibilities of pedagogical \"drama\" in the form of a method of dosed dramatization of the motor-game plot of a remedial lesson, which should be considered as a physical culture fairy tale. For the implementation of effective dramatic motivation, it is necessary to provide points of dramatization of different influence strength.

The present study shows evidence for conscious motor intention in motor preparation prior to movement execution. We demonstrate that conscious motor intention of directed movement, combined with minimally supra-threshold transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex, determines the direction and the force of resulting movements, whilst a lack of intention results in weak and omni-directed muscle activation. We investigated changes of consciously intended goal directed movements by analyzing amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials of the forearm muscle, flexor carpi radialis (FCR), and extensor carpi radialis (ECR), induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right motor cortex and their motor outcome. Right-handed subjects were asked to develop a strong intention to move their left wrist (flexion or extension), without any overt motor output at the wrist, prior to brain stimulation. Our analyses of hand acceleration and electromyography showed that during the strong motor intention of wrist flexion movement, it evoked motor potential responses that were significantly larger in the FCR muscle than in the ECR, whilst the opposite was true for an extension movement. The acceleration data on flexion/extension corresponded to this finding. Under no-intention conditions again, which served as a reference for motor evoked potentials, brain stimulation resulted in undirected and minimally simultaneous extension/flexion innervation and virtually no movement. These results indicate that conscious intentions govern motor function, which in turn shows that a neuronal activation representing an \"intention network\" in the human brain pre-exists, and that it functionally represents target specific motor circuits. Until today, it was unclear whether conscious motor intention exists prior to movement, or whether the brain constructs such an intention after movement initiation. Our study gives evidence that motor intentions become aware before any motor execution. Verf.-Referat.

To examine neurocognitive and balance performance in recreational athletes, prior to and following a dual-task training intervention compared to single-task controls in order to assess the utility and feasibility of these interventions in the clinical setting. Controlled laboratory study. Thirty healthy, physically active recreational athletes (dual-task group=15; single-task group=15; age: 20.3±1.9 years) completed neurocognitive and balance assessments before and after a four-week intervention. Sensory Organization Test composite score and ratio scores, Balance Error Scoring System total score, and nine CNS Vital Signs composite scores served as outcome measures. Mixed model analyses of variance were used to examine each measure. The single-task group showed greater improvement for complex attention (F1,26=5.48, p=.027) following the training period. Both groups improved their performance on the complex attention domain (F1,26=6.73, p=.015), the Balance Error Scoring System score (F1,26=42.34, p<.001), and the Sensory Organization Test vestibular ratio score (F1,28=6.55, p=.016) following the intervention. Our findings suggest combining cognitive and balance tasks as performed does not provide additional benefit to performing these tasks independently among healthy individuals, but appear to be feasible in this setting. Future research should examine integration of single-task and dual-task exercises for concussed patients.

A multi-disciplinary look at the current state of knowledge regarding motor control and movement—from molecular biology to robotics The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the number of sophisticated tools and methodologies for exploring motor control and movement. Multi-unit recordings, molecular neurogenetics, computer simulation, and new scientific approaches for studying how muscles and body anatomy transform motor neuron activity into movement have helped revolutionize the field. Neurobiology of Motor Control brings together contributions from an interdisciplinary group of experts to provide a review of the current state of knowledge about the initiation and execution of movement, as well as the latest methods and tools for investigating them. The book ranges from the findings of basic scientists studying model organisms such as mollusks and Drosophila, to biomedical researchers investigating vertebrate motor production to neuroengineers working to develop robotic and smart prostheses technologies. Following foundational chapters on current molecular biological techniques, neuronal ensemble recording, and computer simulation, it explores a broad range of related topics, including the evolution of motor systems, directed targeted movements, plasticity and learning, and robotics. ● Explores motor control and movement in a wide variety of organisms, from simple invertebrates to human beings ● Offers concise summaries of motor control systems across a variety of animals and movement types ● Explores an array of tools and methodologies, including electrophysiological techniques, neurogenic and molecular techniques, large ensemble recordings, and computational methods ● Considers unresolved questions and how current scientific advances may be used to solve them going forward Written specifically to encourage interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration, and offering the most wide-ranging, timely, and comprehensive look at the science of motor control and movement currently available, Neurobiology of Motor Control is a must-read for all who study movement production and the neurobiological basis of movement—from molecular biologists to roboticists.