Clear and unequivocal evidence shows that observation of object affordances or transitive actions facilitates the activation of a compatible response. By contrast, the evidence showing response facilitation following observation of intransitive actions is less conclusive because automatic imitation and spatial compatibility have been confounded. Three experiments tested whether observation of a...

In human subjects, two mechanisms for improving the efficiency of saccades in visual search have recently been described: color priming and concurrent processing of two saccades. Since the monkey provides an important model for understanding the neural underpinnings of target selection in visual search, we sought to explore the degree to which the saccadic system of monkeys uses these same mech...

Dynamic stability is an essential physical component for team sport athletes. Certain Functional Movement Screen (FMS) exercises (deep squat; left- and right-leg hurdle step; left- and right-leg in-line lunge [ILL]; left- and right-leg active straight-leg raise; and trunk stability push-up [TSPU]) have been suggested as providing an indication of dynamic stability. No research has investigated ...

Mental practice refers to the cognitive rehearsal of a physical activity. It is widely used by athletes to enhance their performance and its efficiency to help train motor function in people with physical disabilities is now recognized. Mental practice is generally based on motor imagery (MI), i.e., the conscious simulation of a movement without its actual execution. It may also be based on ver...

Psychophysical and neurophysiological studies suggest that human body motions can be readily recognized. Human bodies are highly articulated and can move in a nonrigid manner. As a result, we perceive highly dissimilar views of the human form in motion. How does the visual system integrate multiple views of a human body in motion so that we can perceive human movement as a continuous event? The...

Can behavior be unconsciously primed via the activation of attitudes, stereotypes, or other concepts? A number of studies have suggested that such priming effects can occur, and a prominent illustration is the claim that individuals' accuracy in answering general knowledge questions can be influenced by activating intelligence-related concepts such as professor or soccer hooligan. In 9 experime...

Participants completed a questionnaire priming them to perceive themselves as either objective or biased, either before or after evaluating a young or old job applicant for a position linked to youthful stereotypes. Participants agreed that they were objective and tended to disagree that they were biased. Extending past research, both the objective and bias priming conditions led to an increase...

BACKGROUND The bench press exercise (BP) plays an important role in recreational and professional training, in which muscle activity is an important multifactorial phenomenon. The objective of this paper is to systematically review electromyography (EMG) studies performed on the barbell BP exercise to answer the following research questions: Which muscles show the greatest activity during the f...

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ratio of Electromyography (EM G) activities of the vastus medialis obliqus (VMO) and vastus lateralis (VL) within seven angles of knee joint range of motion using isometric contraction in open kinetic chain (OK C) and closed kinetic chain (CKC). Methods: The dominant knees of 44 healthy female subjects (mean age: 24.84 with range...