Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:40:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline Rodrigues Sorcinelli.pdf: 545203 bytes, checksum: 537c38908ca66dbcaceb6f9079a917e5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-29 / The shortage of normative data in instruments and specific tests for the Brazilian population is a challenge to the professionals that intend to measure the effectiveness of its work. At the practical clinic, many diagnoses, preventions and treatments are established with the use of tests or measuring instruments. Instruments and tests that cover the motor developing aspects of manual coordination ability are even harder to find on the Brazilian children s norms and are important to notice the motor coordination issues that may affect their ability to take care of themselves, social activities and school performance. This study intended to find validation evidences of three manual motor ability tests, Purdue Pegboard, Finger Tapping and Simple Reaction Time in 134 right-handed children of 5 and 6 years old from two schools based in São Paulo, one of which is a private school and the other one is a public school with different socioeconomic levels. The specific objectives were intended to compare the performance of the manual motor ability tests between sexes and ages of 5 and 6 years olds, and to verify whether there was a performance difference in the tests between the children from the public and private school. The results showed a significant correlation between the three tests helping to validate the theory. Regarding the specified objectives, it was observed that between all the manual motor ability, only on the Purdue Pegboard 3 and 4 sub-tests did the girls perform better than the boys; the older children achieved a better performance on the tests; and the manual motor ability tests performance doesn t depend on which type of school the children attend. / A escassez de dados normativos em instrumentos e testes específicos para a população brasileira é um desafio aos profissionais que propõem mensurar a efetividade de seu trabalho. Na prática clínica, muitos diagnósticos, assim como prevenções e tratamentos podem ser estabelecidos com o uso de testes ou instrumentos de mensuração. Instrumentos e testes que abrangem aspectos do desenvolvimento motor como habilidade motora manual são ainda mais difíceis de estarem disponíveis nas normas para crianças brasileiras. Estes são importantes para a detecção de problemas de coordenação motora, que podem influenciar nas atividades de auto-cuidado, nas atividades sociais e no desempenho escolar. Este estudo propôs buscar evidências de validação de três testes de habilidade motora manual, Purdue Pegboard, Finger Tapping e Tempo de Reação Simples em 134 crianças de cinco e seis anos de idade. Todas destras, de duas escolas paulistanas, sendo uma escola particular e outra pública, com níveis sócioeconômicos distintos. Como objetivos específicos, a pesquisa propôs comparar o desempenho dos testes de habilidade motora manual entre os sexos, e entre as idades de cinco e seis anos. Além de verificar se existe diferenças no desempenho dos testes entre os sujeitos da escola pública e particular. Os resultados apontaram correlações significantes entre os três testes, o que auxiliou no processo de validade da construção. Em relação aos objetivos específicos observamos que entre todos os testes de habilidade motora manual, apenas nos sub-testes 3 e 4 do Purdue Pegboard, as meninas tiveram melhor desempenho que os meninos, os sujeitos com maior idade obtiveram melhor desempenho nos testes e o desempenho dos testes de habilidade motora manual independe do tipo de escola que o sujeito freqüenta.

As an extension of previous studies (Urbanczyk, Angel, & Kennelly, 1988) examining the effects of unimanual finger tapping on lateralized cognitive tasks, lateral body orienting was added to an established dual task paradigm to generate differential hemispheric activation and shifts of attention. One hundred twenty university students retained sequences of digits or spatial locations for 20 seconds either alone or during finger tapping. By turning both head and eyes left or right, the hemisphere congruent with the sequences (LH for digits, RH for locations) or incongruent (vice versa) was activated. Activation had little effect on retention means but greatly affected resource composition supporting task performance. Congruent orientation produced significantly higher positive correlations between digit and location tasks than incongruent orientation. Females showed higher sequence retention correlations than males across both orienting groups. For females, congruent activation enhanced tapping rates and retention-tapping correlations. For males, activation affected neither of these. Discussed in light of neuroanatomical research, these results suggest that congruent attentional orienting may integrate regions of the less activated hemisphere into networks of the more activated hemisphere. This unification may occur more readily across the female corpus callosum, producing a greater dependence upon a general attentional resource than for males, who appear to depend more upon hemispheric resources.

<p>Trajectory formation is an important quality of human movement wherein the analysis of its kinematic structure often permits inferences regarding the underlying sensorimotor organization. The studies reported herein aimed to reveal how task-specific encoding of saccades contribute to two movement models. We first examined saccades for changes in the evidence for online spatial corrections in response to different instances of visual tracking. Results from our first study indicated the sensorimotor operations associated with making timed series responses permitted unhindered operation of online corrections in predictive saccades. These saccades imposed a demand on spatial working memory without suffering diminished corrections typical of single delayed memory-guided saccades. Next, we queried the role of ventral stream visuomotor processing, as well as the contribution of basic stimulus features to explaining known modulations of online saccadic corrections. Our results are consistent with the explanation that ventral stream contribution to target metrics influence trajectory kinematics, but did not induce diminished online corrections if vision of that illusory target was available at saccade onset. Using another movement task, we examined how different saccadic tracking behaviours dissociated the contribution of various sensorimotor operations involved in oculomotor preparation and execution to eye-hand coupling. By observing changes in manual trajectory in an oculo-manual task, we contrasted the effects of saccadic tracking in predictive and reactive modes, overt and covert, horizontal and vertical, spatially congruent or perpendicular axes of primary motion relative to eye-hand coupling. From these data we concluded that saccadic encoding induced execution-dependent coupling, and optionally motor planning-dependent coupling when task constraints specified temporal synchrony between eye and hand movements. Moreover, eventual motor execution was a prerequisite for the emergence of oculomotor planning-dependent coupling effects. This implied no apparent contribution to the coupling dynamic as an exclusive function of shifts in the spatial allocation of attention without oculomotor output.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

To understand more about the neural underpinnings for leading and following is the driving force behind this thesis. To do so, there is a need to study leading and following on a basic level. For study I, an fMRI study of neuronal reactivity during leading and following, a minimal model was developed to study leader and follower behavior in a standardized way. This model uses finger tapping of rhythms representing the core of the interactions during leading and following. Participants are invited to both lead and follow, and no expertise is expected. The status difference between the leader and follower is not a part of the model. Data collection is made in Japan, and most of the analyses are carried out in Sweden. In study II the Swedish Universities Scales of Personality is translated from Swedish to Japanese. Personality can be described as a crucial feature in a person’s social and emotional functioning; they are relatively stable over the course of a lifetime. Three dimensions representing personality facets probably relevant for leading and following are emotional stability, extraversion, and agreeableness. Study II resulted in SSPJ-11 with eleven reliable personality scales representing theses three facets relevant for leading and following. Study I presented an effective model to investigate leading and following during fMRI scanning. This model can be used with other designs for further brain imaging and behavior studies. From Study I, it became clear that the neuronal reactivation for leading and following largely overlap, with some specific differences in insular, temporal, and cerebellar reactivity. These results could be a first step towards a revealing the crucial components of neuro reactivations for leading and following.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a widely used, noninvasive technique to map brain activation, and has provided considerable insight into human brain function over the past two decades. Until recently, fMRI studies have focused on gray matter; however, reports of fMRI activation in white matter are mounting. White matter fMRI activation has the potential to greatly expand the breadth of brain connectivity research, as well as improve the assessment and diagnosis of white matter and connectivity disorders. Despite these potential benefits, white matter fMRI activation remains controversial. The controversy is partially due to the existence of incompletely understood facets of fMRI signals in white matter. This thesis describes three experiments that aim to refine what is currently known about white matter fMRI activation. In the first experiment, one of the main concerns about fMRI activation in white matter was addressed; namely, whether white matter has sufficient cerebrovascular reactivity to support hemodynamic changes that can be measured with fMRI. It was demonstrated that white matter has the capacity to support detectable hemodynamic changes in the absence of partial volume effects. In the second experiment, the effect of static magnetic field strength on sensitivity to white matter fMRI activation was explored as a possible cause of the relative paucity of reports of white matter fMRI activation. The results showed greater sensitivity to white matter fMRI activation at 4 T relative to 1.5 T MRI. In the third experiment, the relationship between white matter activation and the activated network of gray matter regions was explored. This was accomplished using fMRI-guided tractography in which structural connections between activated clusters are evaluated. Structural connectivity between white matter fMRI activation and regions of gray matter activation was demonstrated, providing evidence of the functional significance of fMRI activation in white matter. These experiments provide important insights, which will allow for improved investigations of white matter fMRI activation in the future. In addition, it is posited that experimenter bias, via selective reporting of activation clusters, has contributed to the slow acceptance of fMRI activation in white matter.

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