scholarly journals Variation and Variability: Key Words in Human Motor Development

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 (12) ◽  
pp. 1823-1837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mijna Hadders-Algra
Keyword(s):  
Motor Development ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Variability ◽  
Motor Disorder ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
The One ◽  
Large Repertoire

This article reviews developmental processes in the human brain and basic principles underlying typical and atypical motor development. The Neuronal Group Selection Theory is used as theoretical frame of reference. Evidence is accumulating that abundance in cerebral connectivity is the neural basis of human behavioral variability (ie, the ability to select, from a large repertoire of behavioral solutions, the one most appropriate for a specific situation). Indeed, typical human motor development is characterized by variation and the development of adaptive variability. Atypical motor development is characterized by a limited variation (a limited repertoire of motor strategies) and a limited ability to vary motor behavior according to the specifics of the situation (ie, limited variability). Limitations in variation are related to structural anomalies in which disturbances of cortical connectivity may play a prominent role, whereas limitations in variability are present in virtually all children with atypical motor development. The possible applications of variation and variability in diagnostics in children with or at risk for a developmental motor disorder are discussed.

Motor Development Research: Designs, Analyses, and Future Directions

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 410-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Getchell ◽  
Nadja Schott ◽  
Ali Brian
Keyword(s):  
Motor Development ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Development Research ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Experimental Approaches ◽  
Human Motor ◽  
Alternative Research

Throughout this special issue, different authors have discussed diverse aspects of past, present, and future motor development research. In such research, understanding how people move involves much more than studying motor behavior in individuals of different ages. Rather, empirical designs should embed some element of past, present, and future motor behavior into research questions, designs, methodologies, and interpretations. In this article, we provide an overview on the process of asking movement-related developmental questions and designing appropriate research studies that will answer them to provide a foundation for both new and returning investigators interested in studying human motor development. We compare descriptive and experimental approaches as well as longitudinal, cross-sectional, and alternative research designs, followed by a discussion of common statistical analyses suited for these designs. Through this discussion, we offer suggestions for the most appropriate ways in which to study developmental change. We finish with our thoughts on future directions for investigational methods within motor development research.

Perspectives in Human Motor Behavior

1983 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 785-786
Author(s):  
Beth Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Human Motor

DISTRIBUTIONS OF LOCAL MANDELBROT-HURST EXPONENTS: MOTOR ACTIVITY IN FETAL RATS OF COCAINIZED MOTHERS AND MANIC-DEPRESSIVE PATIENTS

Fractals ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 03 (04) ◽  
pp. 893-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAREN A. SELZ ◽  
ARNOLD J. MANDELL ◽  
CARL M. ANDERSON ◽  
WILLIAM P. SMOTHERMAN ◽  
MARTIN H. TEICHER
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Motor Activity ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Pregnant Rats ◽  
Behavioral Systems ◽  
Statistical Indices ◽  
Manic Depressive ◽  
The One ◽  
Depressive Patients ◽  
Hurst Exponents

Intermittency, in which the normalized weight of large fluctuations grows for increasingly longer statistical samples, is seen as irregular bursting activity in time and is characteristic of the behavior of many brain and behavioral systems. This pattern has been related to the brain-stabilizing interplay of the general mechanisms of silence-evoked sensitization and activity-evoked desensitization, which can be found at most levels of neurobiological function and which vary more smoothly and at much longer times than the phasic observables. We use both the global Mandelbrot-Hurst exponent and the distribution of local Mandelbrot-Hurst exponents, in combination with dynamical entropies, to quantitate the property of nonuniform persistence which we treat as both deterministically expansive and statistically diffusive. For example, varying the parameter of the one-dimensional, Manneville-Pomeau intermittency map generated time series which demonstrated systematic changes in these statistical indices of persistence. Relatively small doses of cocaine administered to pregnant rats increased statistical indices of expansiveness and persistence in fetal motor behavior. These techniques also model and characterize a breakdown of statistical scaling in 72-hour time series of the amount of motor activity in some hospitalized manic-depressive patients.

Régis Debray – the Last Oracle of the French Republic

2021 ◽  
pp. 92-102
Author(s):  
Natalia A. Rutkevich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Western Atlantic ◽  
Revolutionary Movement ◽  
Late Work ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The One ◽  
Che Guevara

The article examines the main themes of the work of Régis Debray, one of the most important French philosophers and writers of our time. Debray is familiar to Russian readers primarily as an associate of Che Guevara and a theorist of the Cuban revolutionary movement, as well as the author of works on mediology – a science he himself created on the study of the transmission of ideas and sym­bols. Central to his mature and late work are the ideas of sacred in human com­munities, the conditions of the emergence, transmission and disappearance of re­ligious, national and other forms of sacrality, and the related evolution of world civilizations. Debray is recognized by his peers as one of the most perceptive an­alysts of French political culture, and his article, Are you a Democrat or a Re­publican?, written in the year of the bicentennial of the French revolution in 1989, anticipates the processes that will unfold over the next thirty years. Debray describes these processes as a gradual desacralization of the Republic, the emas­culation of its basic principles and its transformation into “a common Anglo-Saxon democracy”. As a result, the “one and indivisible secular Republic” is falling apart into communities, each of which establishes its own shrines. The dissolution of France’s particular republican model is taking place in the background, and as part of a more global process of the decline of European civilisation and its dissolution into Western Atlantic civilisation.

Pictorial Scale of Physical Self-Concept for Younger Children (P-PSC-C): A Feasibility Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (s2) ◽  
pp. S391-S402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maike Tietjens ◽  
Dennis Dreiskaemper ◽  
Till Utesch ◽  
Nadja Schott ◽  
Lisa M. Barnett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Fitness ◽  
Motor Development ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Face Validity ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Gross Motor Development ◽  
The Face ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
The One

Children’s self-perception of motor skills and physical fitness is said to be an important mediator between skills and physical fitness on the one hand and physical activity on the other hand. An age-appropriate self-perception scale is needed to understand the development and the differentiation of the physical self-concept of children and its components. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (1) to develop a pictorial scale of physical fitness for pre-school children (3–6 years old), and (2) to describe the face validity and feasibility of the scale. The study sample included 27 kindergarten children. In order to determine the psychometric properties, validity was assessed by administrating the Pictorial Scale for Physical Self-Concept in Kindergarten Children (P-PSC-C) compared with children’s fundamental movement skill competency (Test of Gross Motor Development [TGMD]-3; six locomotor and seven object-control skills), height, weight, and demographics. The face validity was favorable. Expectable negatively skewed response distributions were found in all items. Medium correlations with related constructs and with sport enjoyment were found. The results indicate that the new scale is usable for kindergarten children. Future validation studies are needed so that the new scale can contribute to the research about physical self-concept development in kindergarten children.

scholarly journals Design and Implementation of a Virtual Reality System for Treating Highway Phobias: VRStreet

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge A Fuentes ◽  
Rodrigo Nieto ◽  
Francisca Melis ◽  
Luz María González ◽  
Gonzalo Mauricio Rojas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Steering Wheel ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Virtual Reality System ◽  
Patient Will ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Immersive Environment ◽  
The One ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Physical Responses

To feel fear in a specific situation is a normal human experience, however, when this fear or aversion becomes excessive and disrupts the day to day life of an individual, it is said the person suffers from a type of anxiety disorder called phobia. One common type of treatment for phobias is exposure therapy (professionals expose the patient gradually to the feared object or situation).The objective of this paper is to implement a Virtual Reality system that simulates a real highway environment which allows to treat patients affected by highway phobias in a safe place.In cooperation with psychologists and psychiatrists, an action protocol was conducted to create and recreate the variables of the virtual environment to which the patient will be subjected to. Once this was completed, a Virtual Reality application was made that simulates a realistic highway which includes exits, overpasses, underpasses, and tunnels, among others.This hardware/software system will include Oculus Rift DK2 VR glasses in order to create an immersive environment that the patient can consider real and who will be able to interact with it. The performance of the vehicle was programmed through physical responses similar to reality as well as techniques of artificial intelligence in the vehicles that will interact with the one controlled by the patient. Also, this system includes a steering wheel, pedals, and a gearshift (manual or automatic).We think that this system will contribute to treating highway phobias, allowing the psychiatrist or psychologist to carry out therapy in an appropriate manner and through the support of technology the professional will have the ability to simulate the anxiogenic environment in a realistic manner so as to achieve effective treatment. In a future work, we must quantify the possible benefits of this type of VR system in phobia patients.

scholarly journals Information devices as a factor causing children’s disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2 (131)) ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Elena Nachinova ◽  
Alla Vasilevskaya
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Motor Development ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
Younger Generation ◽  
The One ◽  
Primary School Pupils

The article addresses the problem of the negative impact of the irregular use of electronic information carriers on primary school pupils’ psychophysical development. Foreign researches and WHO data on the allowed time of use of information devices for children and teenagers, their impact on heath, speech and motor development of the younger generation are presented. The concept “information device” is defined, the main contradictions of the active use of information devices by children are described which are resulted, on the one hand, from the impossibility of education and socialisation of the younger generation apart from electronic information devices, and, on the other hand, due to their negative impact on children’s health and psychophysical development. The choice of the age group for the study is substantiated – the primary school age, at which psychophysical and psychosocial changes take place, significant for the entire subsequent period of a child’s schooling. It is emphasised that at this age period children’s computer dependence has not yet formed, even a positive effect of the use of a computer on the mental development of a primary school pupil is noted. At the same time, the use of information devices in the education and leisure of primary school pupils requires a proper organisation of their educational work, balance of various activities, formation of pupils’ conscious behaviour, which will contribute both to the education of the child and his / her proper psychophysical development. The content of the experimental research work, which was carried out at the elementary grades of schools in Odessa region involving second-third-grade pupils and their parents, is described. The results of the surveys represented by pupils and their parents, pedagogical observations, assessment of pupils’ performance, the characteristics of their speech and motor development have shown an increase in the time allotted to children to work with information devices and the negative impact of their irregular use on the psychophysical development of primary school children.

scholarly journals Haloperidol ameliorates androgen-induced behavioral deficits in developing male rats

2018 ◽  
Vol 237 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunxiao Qi ◽  
Xiaoming Ji ◽  
Guoliang Zhang ◽  
Yunxiao Kang ◽  
Yuanxiang Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Dopamine D2 Receptor ◽  
D2 Receptor ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Disorders ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Childhood Onset ◽  
Early Postnatal Development ◽  
Androgen Exposure

The purpose of present study was to infer the potential effects of testosterone increase in some male-based childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Tourette syndrome. Thus, the influence of early postnatal androgen exposure upon the neurobehaviors and its possible neural basis were investigated in the study. Male pup rats received consecutive 14-day testosterone propionate (TP) subcutaneous injection from postnatal day (PND) 7. The TP treatment produced the hyperactive motor behavior and grooming behavior as well as the increased levels of dopamine, tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine transporter in the mesodopaminergic system and the elevated levels of serotonin in the nucleus accumbens, without affecting the levels of glutamate, γ-aminobutyric acid, norepinephrine and histamine in the caudate putamen and nucleus accumbens of PND21 and PND49 rats. Dopamine D2 receptor antagonist haloperidol was administered to the early postnatal TP-exposed PND21 and PND49 male rats 30 min prior to open field test. Haloperidol significantly ameliorated the motor behavioral and grooming behavioral defects induced by early postnatal TP exposure. The results demonstrated that early postnatal androgen exposure significantly disturbed the brain activity of developing male rats via enhancing the mesodopaminergic activity. It was suggested that abnormal increments of testosterone levels during the early postnatal development might be a potential risk factor for the incidence of some male-based childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders by affecting the mesodopaminergic system.

Design thinking in hospitality education and research

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-457
Author(s):  
Sudhanshu Bhushan
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hospitality Education ◽  
Disciplinary Problems ◽  
Research And Education ◽  
The One ◽  
Functional Areas

Purpose This paper aims to outline why design thinking is an engaging process and provide a methodical framework to approach complex, multi-disciplinary problems in ways that consistently yield solutions that are successful and often creative in unpredictable ways. It is a framework for thinking about complex, multidisciplinary problems and the one that applies to just about anything. Design/methodology/approach Service design is all about taking a service and making it meet the user and customer needs for that service. It can be used to improve an existing service or to create a new service from scratch. To adapt to service design, the designer will need to understand the basic principles of service design thinking and be able to focus on it. Findings This paper explores the possibilities for applying design thinking in the hospitality industry in general and hospitality education and research in particular. The functional areas of the hospitality profession are explored, evaluated and then integrated as a holistic design to provide coherence, connectivity and linkages. Originality/value The paper illustrates an application of design thinking to hospitality research and education.

Ex Vivo Brain Preparation to Analyze Vocal Pathways of Xenopus Frogs

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (9) ◽  
pp. pdb.prot106872
Author(s):  
Ayako Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Neural Circuitry ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Electrophysiological Recordings ◽  
The Brain

Understanding the neural basis of behavior is a challenging task for technical reasons. Most methods of recording neural activity require animals to be immobilized, but neural activity associated with most behavior cannot be recorded from an anesthetized, immobilized animal. Using amphibians, however, there has been some success in developing in vitro brain preparations that can be used for electrophysiological and anatomical studies. Here, we describe an ex vivo frog brain preparation from which fictive vocalizations (the neural activity that would have produced vocalizations had the brain been attached to the muscle) can be elicited repeatedly. When serotonin is applied to the isolated brains of male and female African clawed frogs, Xenopus laevis, laryngeal nerve activity that is a facsimile of those that underlie sex-specific vocalizations in vivo can be readily recorded. Recently, this preparation was successfully used in other species within the genus including Xenopus tropicalis and Xenopus victorianus. This preparation allows a variety of techniques to be applied including extracellular and intracellular electrophysiological recordings and calcium imaging during vocal production, surgical and pharmacological manipulation of neurons to evaluate their impact on motor output, and tract tracing of the neural circuitry. Thus, the preparation is a powerful tool with which to understand the basic principles that govern the production of coherent and robust motor programs in vertebrates.

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