Converging evidence suggests that understanding our first-language (L1) results in reactivation of experiential sensorimotor traces in the brain. Surprisingly, little is known regarding the involvement of these processes during second-language (L2) processing. Participants saw L1 or L2 words referring to entities with a typical location (e.g., star, mole) (Experiment 1 & 2) or to an emotion (e....

Preterm birth engenders an increased risk of conditions like cerebral palsy and therefore this time may be crucial for the brain's developing sensori-motor system. However, little is known about how cortical sensori-motor function matures at this time, whether development is influenced by experience, and about its role in spontaneous motor behavior. We aimed to systematically characterize spati...

The effects of morphine on intraluminal pressures recorded from the sphincter of Oddi (SO) at endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in 19 patients who were without evidence of biliary or pancreatic disease were studied. Morphine was given in four successive doses of 2.5, 2.5, 5, and 10 micrograms/kg iv at five minute intervals. Morphine in subanalgesic doses increased the frequency of ...

OBJECTIVE Transcranial double magnetic stimulation on the motor cortex was used to investigate central motor tract function in 16 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, five with spinal muscular atrophy, and 16 age matched normal controls. METHODS Surface EMG responses were recorded from the relaxed abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscle. RESULTS Responses to test stimuli were markedly...

[Purpose] This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of motor neuron excitability by examining the soleus H-reflex in the ready position adopted immediately before making a return during badminton games. [Subjects] Sixteen individuals with (badminton group) and 16 without (control group) experience of playing badminton were studied. [Methods] Each subject was instructed to take up various ...

Aggregate signals in cortex are known to be spatiotemporally organized as propagating waves across the cortical surface, but it remains unclear whether the same is true for spiking activity in individual neurons. Furthermore, the functional interactions between cortical neurons are well documented but their spatial arrangement on the cortical surface has been largely ignored. Here we use a func...

When a peripheral nerve is subjected to percutaneous electrical stimulation, action potentials are induced in the innervated skeletal muscle. The induced action potential is recorded by evoked EMG, which includes the H-wave, the M-wave, and the F-wave (Fig. 1). The H-wave is a good indicator of the strength and distribution of the stimulus input from muscle spindle to the motor neuron pool, whi...

A single transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulse typically evokes a short series of spikes in corticospinal neurons [known as indirect (I)-waves] which are thought to arise from transynaptic input. Delivering a second pulse at inter-pulse intervals (IPIs) corresponding to the timing of these I-waves leads to a facilitation of the response, and if stimulus pairs are delivered repeatedly, a...

Abstract. This paper gives a review of research activities at the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives in Paderborn to the control of rotary travelling wave type ultrasonic motors. Based on a special designed hardware environment an advanced control scheme for inverter-fed travelling wave type ultrasonic motors is presented. After several modelling steps, including an averaged ...