BACKGROUND A geste antagoniste or sensory trick is a well described phenomenon associated with primary cervical dystonia. Craniocervical tactile stimulation or stereotyped limb movements allow patients to transiently ameliorate dystonic activation of cervical musculature. CASE REPORT We report a patient with primary cervical dystonia who presented with a novel "ocular" geste antagoniste. Thro...

Neurovascular coupling (NVC) in the adult central nervous system (CNS) is a mechanism that provides regions of the brain with more oxygen and glucose upon increased levels of neural activation. Hemodynamic changes that go along with neural activation evoke a blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that can be used to study brain activity non-in...

OBJECTIVE Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder characterized by chronic pain and enhanced responses to acute noxious events. However, the sensory systems affected in FM may extend beyond pain itself, as FM patients show reduced tolerance to non-nociceptive sensory stimulation. Characterizing the neural substrates of multisensory hypersensitivity in FM may thus provide important clues about the under...

Multicellular sensory hairs were excised from the leaf of Venus's flytrap, and the sensory cells were identified by a destructive dissection technique. The sensory layer includes a radially symmetrical rosette of 20-30 apparently identical cells, and the sensory cells are organized in a plane normal to the long axis of the sensory hair. The sensory cells were probed with intracellular glass ele...

A recorded nerve signal via an electrode is composed of many evokes or action potentials, (originated from individual axons) which may be considered as different initial sources. Recovering these primitive sources in its turn may lead us to the anatomic originations of a nerve signal which will give us outstanding foresights in neural rehabilitations. Accordingly, clinical interests may be r...

Serotonin (5-HT) has provided a useful tool to study plasticity of nociceptive sensory neurons in Aplysia. Because noxious stimulation causes release of 5-HT and long-term hyperexcitability (LTH) of sensory neuron somata and because 5-HT treatment can induce long-term synaptic facilitation of sensory neuron synapses, a plausible hypothesis is that 5-HT also induces LTH of the sensory neuron som...

Interactive surfaces are promising to support multisensory stimulation during early development of children and for therapy for children with autism, as they offer a casual and engaging experience in a multisensory environment. In this paper, we present preliminary results of two field deployment studies of the use of BendableSound, a fabric-based interactive surfaces that allows children to pl...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of Snoezelen therapy on physiological, cognitive and behavioural changes in children recovering from severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS An observational study was conducted to assess the physiological, cognitive and behavioural changes of children recovering from severe TBI while receiving Snoezelen therapy. Fifteen subjects completed the pre- an...

Multi-sensory displays try to take advantage of a range of human senses, for example, displaying information visually and also with sound and haptic feedback. Designing multi-sensory displays is complex and needs to carefully consider human perceptual capabilities. Developing guidelines to support designers of multi-sensory displays is an important way to capture and communicate existing knowle...