Load Auditory Feedback Boosts Crutch Usage in Subjects With Central Nervous System Lesions: A Pilot Study

Background: Crutches are the most common walking aids prescribed to improve mobility in subjects with central nervous system (CNS) lesions. To increase adherence to the appropriate level of crutch usage, providing load-related auditory feedback (aFB) may be a useful approach. We sensorized forearm crutches and developed a custom software to provide aFB information to both user and physical therapist (PhT).Aim: Evaluate aFB effects on load control during gait by a self-controlled case series trial.Methods: A single experimental session was conducted enrolling 12 CNS lesioned participants. Load on crutch was recorded during 10 Meter Walk Test performed with and without aFB. In both cases, crutch load data, and gait speed were recorded. Usability and satisfaction questionnaires were administered to participants and PhTs involved.Results: Reliable data were obtained from eight participants. Results showed that compared to the no FB condition, aFB yielded a significant reduction in the mean load on the crutches during gait (p = 0.001). The FB did not influence gait speed or fatigue (p > 0.05). The experience questionnaire data indicated a positive experience regarding the use of aFB from both participants' and PhTs' perspectives.Conclusion: aFB significantly improves compliance with crutch use and does not affect gait speed or fatigue by improving the load placed on crutches. The FB is perceived by users as helpful, safe, and easy to learn, and does not interfere with attention or concentration while walking. Furthermore, the PhTs consider the system to be useful, easy to learn and reliable.

“Now I get it !”: Eureka experiences during the acquisition of mathematical concepts

Many famous scientists have reported anecdotes where a new understanding occurred to them suddenly, in an unexpected flash. Do people generally experience such “Eureka” moments when learning science concepts, and how do these episodes relate to learning mechanisms? To address these questions, we developed a new paradigm where participants learned a mathematical concept in the lab, in a single experimental session. Participants were given 1 to 7 lessons introducing the concept of geodesic, which generalizes the common notion of straight line to straight trajectories drawn on curved surfaces. They were then tested on their understanding of geodesics in several tasks requiring increasing levels of generalization from the information taught in the lessons. Our findings indicate that insight experiences are common when learning mathematics, as such experiences were reported by about 61% of our participants. Moreover, the participants who experienced insights performed better in a generalization test where they needed to identify a type of geodesic that had not been presented in the lessons, and this, even after controlling for their confidence in their own understanding. Based on these findings, we suggest that concept learning involves mechanisms that generally are not accessible to introspection, except when the process reaches key computational steps and insights are triggered.

“Now I get it !”: Eureka experiences during the acquisition of mathematical concepts

Many famous scientists have reported anecdotes where a new understanding occurred to them suddenly, in an unexpected flash. Do people generally experience such “Eureka” moments when learning science concepts, and how do these episodes relate to learning mechanisms? To address these questions, we developed a new paradigm where participants learned a mathematical concept in the lab, in a single experimental session. Participants were given 1 to 7 lessons introducing the concept of geodesic, which generalizes the common notion of straight line to straight trajectories drawn on curved surfaces. They were then tested on their understanding of geodesics in several tasks requiring increasing levels of generalization from the information taught in the lessons. Our findings indicate that insight experiences are common when learning mathematics, as such experiences were reported by about 61% of our participants. Moreover, the participants who experienced insights performed better in a generalization test where they needed to identify a type of geodesic that had not been presented in the lessons, and this, even after controlling for their confidence in their own understanding. Based on these findings, we suggest that concept learning involves mechanisms that generally are not accessible to introspection, except when the process reaches key computational steps and insights are triggered.

Similarities in Metabolic Flexibility and Hunger Hormone Ghrelin Exist between FTO Gene Variants in Response to an Acute Dietary Challenge

The rs9939609 polymorphism of the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene has been associated with obesity, and studies have also shown that environmental/lifestyle interaction such as dietary intake might mediate this effect. The current study investigates the postprandial hormonal regulators of hunger and indirect markers of substrate utilisation and metabolic flexibility following a dietary challenge to determine if suppression of circulating ghrelin levels and/or reduced metabolic flexibility exist between FTO genotypes. One hundred and forty seven healthy, sedentary males and females (29.0 ± 0.7 yrs; 70.2 ± 1.1 kg; 169.1 ± 0.8 cm; 24.5 ± 0.3 kg/m2) complete a single experimental session. Anthropometric measures, circulating levels of active ghrelin, insulin and glucose, and substrate oxidation via indirect calorimetry, are measured pre-prandial and/or post-prandial. The FTO rs9939609 variant is genotyped using a real-time polymerase chain reaction. Metabolic flexibility (∆RER) is similar between FTO genotypes of the rs9939609 (T > A) polymorphism (p > 0.05). No differences in pre-prandial and/or postprandial substrate oxidation, plasma glucose, serum insulin or ghrelin are observed between genotypes (p > 0.05). These observations are independent of body mass index and gender. Altered postprandial responses in hunger hormones and metabolic flexibility may not be a mechanism by which FTO is associated with higher BMI and obesity in healthy, normal-weighted individuals.

Motor Memory: Revealing Conditioned Action Tendencies Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Action tendencies can be elicited by motivationally salient stimuli (e.g., appetitive rewards) or objects that support utilization behaviors. These action tendencies can benefit behavioral performance through speeded RTs in response tasks and improve detection accuracy in attentional capture tasks. However, action tendencies can be counterproductive when goals change (e.g., refraining from junk foods or abstaining from alcohol). Maintaining control over cue-elicited action tendencies is therefore critical for successful behavior modification. To better understand this relationship, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate the neural signatures of action tendencies in the presence of previously trained response cues. Participants were presented with a continuous letter stream and instructed to respond quickly to two target letters using two different response keys. Following this training phase, the target letters were embedded in a new task (test phase), and we applied transcranial magnetic stimulation to the motor cortex and measured motor evoked potentials as an index of corticospinal excitability (CSE). We found that CSE could be potentiated by a former response cue trained within a single experimental session, even when participants were instructed to withhold responses during the test phase. Critically, attention to the previously trained response cue was required to elicit the primed modulation in CSE, and successful control of this activity was accompanied by CSE suppression. These findings suggest that well-trained response cues can come to prime a conditioned action tendency and provide a model for understanding how the implementation of cognitive control can override action automaticity.

Modeling Risk-Taking from Different Measurement Instruments

Risk-taking researches have presented different forms of construction measurements. First, we aimed at evaluating the evidence of validity of the instruments/methods based on external criteria by contrasting the groups on their gender under the three different risk-taking measures: a domain-specific scale and two decision-making tasks in risky situations (Driving a Car game and card games). After that, we aimed at constructing a risk-taking model from the analysis of the relationship between the instruments/methods. The 211 participants (121 women; M = 21.60 years old; SD = 2.19; and 91 men; M = 21.46 years old; SD = 2.0) answered the research in a single experimental session with an average duration of 30 min. Individually, the instruments presented criterion validity for contrasting groups. There was no correlation between the scores obtained for the different instruments in the risk-taking model. In conclusion, the data was designed in a three-factor structure indicating the multidimensionality of the risk-taking construct.

The role of consolidation in learning context-dependent phonotactic patterns in speech and digital sequence production

Speakers implicitly learn novel phonotactic patterns by producing strings of syllables. The learning is revealed in their speech errors. First-order patterns, such as “/f/ must be a syllable onset,” can be distinguished from contingent, or second-order, patterns, such as “/f/ must be an onset if the vowel is /a/, but a coda if the vowel is /o/.” A metaanalysis of 19 experiments clearly demonstrated that first-order patterns affect speech errors to a very great extent in a single experimental session, but second-order vowel-contingent patterns only affect errors on the second day of testing, suggesting the need for a consolidation period. Two experiments tested an analogue to these studies involving sequences of button pushes, with fingers as “consonants” and thumbs as “vowels.” The button-push errors revealed two of the key speech-error findings: first-order patterns are learned quickly, but second-order thumb-contingent patterns are only strongly revealed in the errors on the second day of testing. The influence of computational complexity on the implicit learning of phonotactic patterns in speech production may be a general feature of sequence production.

Of cricket chirps and car horns: The effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance

The psychological benefits of interacting with nature have been discussed for well over a century. More recently, research has begun to assess how interactions with nature specifically may benefit cognition and cognitive development. Attention Restoration Theory (ART) posits that stimuli found in nature may restore directed attention functioning through reducing demands on the endogenous attention system. In the present experiment, we assessed whether nature-related cognitive benefits extended to auditory presentations of nature. To assess directed attention, we created a composite measure consisting of a backward digit span task and a dual n-back task. Participants completed these cognitive measures and an affective questionnaire before and after listening to and aesthetically judging either nature or urban soundscapes. Relative to participants who were exposed to urban soundscapes, we observed significant improvements in cognitive performance for individuals who listened to nature soundscapes. Urban soundscapes did not systematically affect performance either adversely or beneficially. The improvement in directed attention functioning was not meaningfully related to the aesthetic ratings of the soundscapes. These results provide initial evidence that brief experiences with nature sounds can improve directed attention functioning in a single experimental session.

Increasing expertise to a novel script modulates the visual N1 ERP in healthy adults

Neural tuning to print develops when children learn to read and is reflected by a more pronounced left occipito-temporal negativity to orthographic stimuli as compared to non-orthographic false fonts or symbols after around 150–250 ms in their N1, a visual event-related potential (ERP). In adults, initial expertise for a novel script can emerge in less than 2 hours through repeated exposure or training. Here, we aimed to assess changes in the visual N1 related to the process of learning associations between unknown written characters and familiar, spoken syllables or words. Thirty-two healthy literate adults learned to associate a set of foreign characters with either syllables or German words within a single experimental session. EEG was recorded during a visual one-back character repetition detection task in which trained characters, untrained characters and familiar letters were presented before and after the training. A bilateral occipito-temporal increase in the N1 negativity with training was only found for the newly learned characters, but not for the control characters. In conclusion, the present data indicate that expertise to novel characters can be induced by a short character–sound association training and is reflected by a bilateral modulation of the visual N1 amplitude. However, no differentiation was found regarding the comparison of word or syllable training, indicating that the visual N1 most likely reflects gaining expertise driven by phonological associations common to both training types.