Early Blindness Limits the Head-Trunk Coordination Development for Horizontal Reorientation

During locomotion, goal-directed orientation movements in the horizontal plane require a high degree of head-trunk coordination. This coordination is acquired during childhood. Since early visual loss is linked to motor control deficits, we hypothesize that it may also affect the development of head-trunk coordination for horizontal rotations. However, no direct evidence exists about such a deficit. To assess this hypothesis, we tested early blind and sighted individuals on dynamic sound alignment through a head-pointing task with sounds delivered in acoustic virtual reality. Participants could perform the head-pointing with no constraints, or they were asked to immobilize their trunk voluntarily. Kinematics of head and trunk were assessed individually and with respect to each other, together with spatial task performance. Results indicated a head-trunk coordination deficit in the early blind group; yet, they could dampen their trunk movements so as not to let their coordination deficit affect spatial performance. This result highlights the role of vision in the development of head-trunk coordination for goal-directed horizontal rotations. It also calls for clarification on the impact of the blindness-related head-trunk coordination deficit on the performance of more complex tasks akin to daily life activities such as steering during locomotion or reaching to targets placed sideways.

Dopamine and serotonin interplay for valence-based spatial learning

Dopamine and serotonin are important modulators of synaptic plasticity and their action has been linked to our ability to learn the positive or negative outcomes or valence learning. In the hippocampus, both neuromodulators affect long-term synaptic plasticity but play different roles in the encoding of uncertainty or predicted reward. Here, we examine the differential role of these modulators on learning speed and cognitive flexibility in a navigational model. We compare two reward-modulated spike time-dependent plasticity (R-STDP) learning rules to describe the action of these neuromodulators. Our results show that the interplay of dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) improves overall learning performance and can explain experimentally reported differences in spatial task performance. Furthermore, this system allows us to make predictions regarding spatial reversal learning.

The Effects of Three Different Background Music between Vocal, Instrumental and Silent on Verbal and Spatial Task Performance in Learning

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of three different backgrounds of music vocal, instrumental and silent on the verbal and spatial task performance in learning. The samples from Master students of Education in University Putra Malaysia which consisted of 36 students from Faculty of Educational Studies. This experimental research design to test hypothesis the effect of three different backgrounds of music vocal, instrumental and silent on the verbal and spatial task performance in learning. Data was analyse using IBM Statistics where this study used independent sample T-test and two-way analysis variance (ANOVA). The T-test result of analysis show there is differences between vocal condition (t = 1.101, p = 0.172), instrumental condition (t = 2.06, p = 0.018), and silent condition difference (t = 2.712, p = 0.022) on the verbal and spatial task in learning. Two-way ANOVA Task-Music group Greenhouse-Geisserwas reported in the significant level (p<0.05).