A novel instrumentation system has been designed for the correct detection of small dc currents emitted by characteristics points of the human skin using a non invasive probe. The probe presents an integrated pressure compensation system based on a force sensor allowing to obtain reliable and repeatable measurements that are virtually insensitive to pressure fluctuations. The current acquisitio...

Purpose. The effects of practice were analyzed in the control of fast and accurate spatially constrained movements. Methods. Twenty men (20–26 years old) evenly divided into an experimental and control group were analyzed in three time periods: pre-test, post-test, and retention. Discrete Aiming Task ver. 2.0 software simulated Fitts’ task (1954) and provided kinematic analysis of mouse cursor ...

Purpose. The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the physical activity patterns of preschoolers aged 6–7 years. Methods. A sample of 221 preschool children (116 boys and 105 girls) aged 6 (5.92 ± 0.30) and 7 (6.91 ± 0.25) years was recruited. Physical activity was assessed over 7 consecutive days by using pedometers to determine step counts (steps/day). Accrued anthropometric data incl...

How does the human motor system encode our incredibly diverse motor repertoire in an efficient manner? One possible way of encoding movements efficiently is to represent them according to their shape/trajectory without regard to their size, by using neural populations that are invariant across scale. To examine this hypothesis, we recorded movement kinematics and functional magnetic resonance i...

Purpose. To evaluate gait asymmetry during obstacle crossing by young and elderly adults performing normal and dual-task gait. Methods. Ten healthy young adults and ten elderly adults with mild cognitive impairment performed a gait protocol by stepping over a foam obstacle during normal gait and while performing a secondary task (Stroop task). Sagittal kinematics of the lead and trail limbs wer...

Purpose. The prevalence of exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH) has mainly been investigated in male endurance athletes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of EAH in female 100-km ultra-marathoners and to compare them to male ultra-runners since females are considered more at risk of EAH. Methods. changes in body mass, hematocrit, [Na+] and [K+] levels in both plas...

Purpose. It is assumed that analogy learning helps prevent individuals from choking under pressure by limiting the conscious control of movements when performing in high-pressure situations. The aim of the study was to extend the application of analogy learning to golf putting and include an assessment on the proposed mechanisms of analogy learning and performance under pressure. Methods. Golf ...

Purpose. This study investigated if (1) the beneficial effects of an external focus of attention on learning a motor skill were influenced by an internal focus of attention provided at initial instruction (2) or by an internal focus of attention at the early stage of the acquisition phase and (3) their relation to the automation hypothesis. Methods. Three separate experiments were performed wit...

Neurons in macaque primary motor cortex (M1) are broadly tuned to arm movement direction. Recent evidence suggests that human M1 contains directionally tuned neurons, but it is unclear which other areas are part of the network coding movement direction and what characterizes the responses of neuronal populations in those areas. Such information would be highly relevant for the implementation of...

During natural vision, humans make frequent eye movements but perceive a stable visual world. It is therefore likely that the human visual system contains representations of the visual world that are invariant to eye movements. Here we present an experiment designed to identify visual areas that might contain eye-movement-invariant representations. We used functional MRI to record brain activit...