The worldwide prevalence of obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in both adults and children and leading to increased risk of non-communicable diseases (WHO, 2004), including coronary heart disease, circulatory disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. In the UK, increasing levels of obesity may relate to a decrease in sport and physical activity participation as only 39% of males and 32% of females are sufficiently active to meet stated targets for physical activity (Townsend et al., 2012). In Britain, approximately 8% of the population originate from ethnic minorities that includes a high proportion of individuals from Arabic countries, with a significantly greater odds ratio for a sedentary leisure-time physical activity pattern than people from other countries. The thesis contains three studies which identify the patterns of physical activity in Arabic males (men and boys) in Liverpool, and explores the barriers and motivations to adopting physically active lifestyles, before addressing the feasibility of an intervention to enhance levels of physical activity. Study 1 examined the patterns of physical activity in 62 Arabic men and 65 boys during 7 consecutive days of continuous accelerometry recording. Men and boys were more active during weekdays than weekend days. Although boys were more active than men, they did not perform sufficient minutes of moderate to vigorous activity (60 min per day) to reach recommendations of MVPA. The men, however completed 190 mins per week of activity in the moderate intensity category and therefore satisfied Government guidelines. Study 2 investigated the barriers and motivators in becoming physically active by using focus group semi-structured interview techniques, followed by transcription and content analysis. The findings of the study indicated that physical activity plays a significant role in the individual’s health and that Arabic males perceive several benefits of physical activity for the individual, such as self-confidence, mental health and improved physical condition. There was a mixed interpretation and understanding of physical activity in these groups, with barriers to becoming more active cited as lack of time and socio-cultural barriers of not being accustomed to being physically activity. Facilitators, that encouraged participants to become physically active, included religion and enjoyment. Study 3 used a mixed methods approach to investigate the feasibility of an awareness raising intervention to increasing the levels of physical activity in Arabic males who owned exergames at home. An intervention group of men and boys were provided with physical activity guidelines. Changes in their physical activity levels were measured (using accelerometry) 4 weeks after receiving the guidelines and compared with a control group. The intervention provoked more light activity, moderate and MVPA activity in the men but no reduction in their sedentary behaviour. In boys, light and moderate activity increased, sedentary behavior decreased, but there was no significant difference in MVPA levels. Semi-structured interviews showed that the men found physical activity guidelines alone were not sufficient to motivate them to change their physical activity levels, but the boys found the provision of these useful. Conclusion. This study demonstrated that Arabic men met recommendations for physical activity, whereas boys did not. Barriers to the adoption of physical activity revolved mainly around a lack of understanding of physical activity and guidelines. The intervention strategy was regarded as family-focused and entertaining but not useful in promoting sustainable change in physical activity levels.

Intentionale Kontrolle ist ein fundamentaler Aspekt menschlichen Verhaltens. Jedoch gibt es bei der neuronalen Basis solcher Kontrollprozesse noch immer viele offene Fragen. Bis heute bleibt beispielsweise umstritten wie das frontoparietale Intentions-Netzwerk organisiert ist. Weiterhin üben motivationale Prozesse einen großen Einfluss auf intentionale Kontrollprozesse aus. In früheren Studien wurden motivationale und intentionale Kontrollprozesse jedoch oft als unabhängige Funktionen verstanden und untersucht. Diese Dissertation untersucht die neuronalen Grundlagen intentionaler Kontrolle, vor allem auf den Einfluss zweier motivationaler Variablen (Aufgabenschwierigkeit, monetäre Belohnungen) und die funktionelle Organisation des Kontrollnetzwerkes fokussierend. Experiment 1 untersuchte Effekte motivationaler Prozesse auf volitionales Verhalten sowie die neuronale Grundlage dieser Effekte. Experiment 2 untersuchte welche Hirnregionen Verhalten mit seinen Konsequenzen assoziiert. Dies ist eine zentrale Funktion, möchte man die positiven Konsequenzen eigenen Verhaltens maximieren. Experiment 3 untersuchte direkt die Repräsentationen frei gewählter und extern determinierter Intentionen und somit auch die funktionale Architektur des intentionalen Kontrollnetzwerkes. Die Ergebnisse aller drei Studien betonen die Wichtigkeit des anterioren zingulären Kortex, dorsomedialen Präfrontalkortex und des parietalen Kortex für die Vermittlung motivationaler Effekte auf intentionale Kontrolle. Weiterhin deuten die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass das frontoparietale Kontrollnetzwerk sowohl für die Kontrolle frei gewählten als auch extern determinierten Verhaltens wichtig ist. Diese Ergebnisse stellen einen wichtigen Beitrag für aktuelle Debatten über die neuronale Grundlage intentionalen Verhaltens dar, und erweitern aktuelle Theorien über motivationale und intentionale Kontrolle. / Freely choosing one’s own course of action is a fundamental aspect of human behavior. Yet, despite its importance, there remain many open questions about the neural basis underlying intentional control of action. On the one hand, the functional organization of the fronto-parietal brain network associated with intentional control remains a debated topic. On the other hand, motivational processes evidently affect intentional control, as we often choose actions which promise desirable outcomes. Despite this, previous research largely treated intentional and motivational control as two independent functions. This thesis aims at shedding light on the neural basis of intentional control, focusing on the effects of two motivational variables on intentional control processes (effort, monetary rewards), as well as the functional organization of the intentional control network. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of motivational processes on voluntary behavior and its neural basis. Experiment 2 assessed which brain regions associate behaviors with their outcomes, an important piece of information for choosing actions which lead the most desirable outcomes. Experiment 3 directly contrasted the representations of freely chosen and externally cued intentions, in this way investigating the functional organization of the intentional control network. Overall, results from those three experiments highlight the role of the dorsal anterior cingulate, dorso-medial prefrontal, and parietal cortex in mediating motivational effects on intentional control. They further suggest that the fronto-parietal intentional control network likely has a role in both controlling behavior that is freely chosen and externally cued. These results inform debates on the neural basis of intentional control and extend some recent theories of motivational and intentional control functions. They provide a promising starting point for a systematic investigation of the neural basis of intentional control.

Introduction With an increasing knowledge of the health benefits from physical activity (PA) the interest in objectively measuring PA in free living environment has increased. ActiGraph is the most commonly used accelerometer to objectively measure PA, while ActivPAL is considered gold standard when it comes to measuring sedentary behavior. Aims The aim of this study was to investigate if ActivPAL could be used to measure Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) instead of ActiGraph. Methods Data from 79 overweight office workers carrying the ActivPAL and ActiGraph device simultaneously were analyzed. All activities with a cadence of 90 steps per minute (spm) or more lasting for at least 30 seconds from one day from ActivPAL data was extracted and compared to the corresponding activity from ActiGraph. An activity was classified as MVPA by using the cut points of 100 spm for ActivPAL and 3208 activity-counts per minute (cpm) for ActiGraph using vector magnitude (VM). Results A correlation of r=0.326 (p<0.001) was seen between ActiGraph and ActivPAL with a Cohen’s kappa of K=0.14, a percentage agreement of 60.7%, a sensitivity of 61.5% with ActiGraph as denominator and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 84.3% for ActivPAL. Neither age nor BMI affected the association between the estimates by these devices. There was no correlation for time spent in MVPA between devices. Conclusion Cadence from ActivPAL cannot replace ActiGraph to measure MVPA in a free living environment in overweight adults.

Repeating a word or nonword requires a speaker to map auditory representations of incoming sounds onto learned speech items, maintain those items in short-term memory, interface that representation with the motor output system, and articulate the target sounds. This dissertation seeks to clarify the nature and neuroanatomical localization of speech sound representations in perception and production through multivariate analysis of neuroimaging data. The major portion of this dissertation describes two experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure responses to the perception and overt production of syllables and multivariate pattern analysis to localize brain areas containing associated phonological/phonetic information. The first experiment used a delayed repetition task to permit response estimation for auditory syllable presentation (input) and overt production (output) in individual trials. In input responses, clusters sensitive to vowel identity were found in left inferior frontal sulcus (IFs), while clusters responsive to syllable identity were found in left ventral premotor cortex and left mid superior temporal sulcus (STs). Output-linked responses revealed clusters of vowel information bilaterally in mid/posterior STs. The second experiment was designed to dissociate the phonological content of the auditory stimulus and vocal target. Subjects were visually presented with two (non)word syllables simultaneously, then aurally presented with one of the syllables. A visual cue informed subjects either to repeat the heard syllable (repeat trials) or produce the unheard, visually presented syllable (change trials). Results suggest both IFs and STs represent heard syllables; on change trials, representations in frontal areas, but not STs, are updated to reflect the vocal target. Vowel identity covaries with formant frequencies, inviting the question of whether lower-level, auditory representations can support vowel classification in fMRI. The final portion of this work describes a simulation study, in which artificial fMRI datasets were constructed to mimic the overall design of Experiment 1 with voxels assumed to contain either discrete (categorical) or analog (frequency-based) vowel representations. The accuracy of classification models was characterized by type of representation and the density and strength of responsive voxels. It was shown that classification is more sensitive to sparse, discrete representations than dense analog representations.

A diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can impact the entire family. Parents of children with ASD reportedly have greater stress levels, family conflict, financial concerns, and poor health habits than parents of neurotypical (NT) children. While many parent-focused interventions have been developed, these interventions focus on parent training and child behavior outcomes rather than the health and well-being of the parents. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of a 15-week family judo program on physical and psychosocial health in parents of children with ASD. A total of 18 parents of children with ASD participated in a weekly judo program, with each session lasting 45 minutes. Parents completed online surveys that asked about sociodemographic information and parental stress and wore wrist accelerometers that measured their physical activity and sleep quality. Paired samples t-tests were used to examine parental stress, physical activity, and sleep quality differences in parents of children with ASD pre- and post-judo program. Both a decrease in parental stress (47.77 vs. 41.61, p High-stress levels can also negatively impact physical health and have been linked to poor sleep and low physical activity levels. This is particularly concerning as research suggests that parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders already report worse sleep quality and lower levels of physical activity than parents of NT children. Furthermore, the treatment of sleep disorders in children with ASD has been related to reductions in parental stress. Additionally, child engagement in health behaviors has been correlated with parent behaviors. The majority of these studies, however, have utilized self-report measures of sleep and physical activity, which are prone to bias. Furthermore, while there are several components that make up sleep quality, the majority of studies have primarily focused on sleep duration rather than other aspects of sleep, such as sleep efficiency. Parental stress can also spill over into the parent-child relationship, resulting in diminished communication quality and decreased optimism about the future. Furthermore, evidence suggests a bidirectional relationship exists between parent/caregiver stress and child ASD symptoms. In other words, increased stress levels of the parent/caregiver may exacerbate the child's ASD symptoms, further worsening parent/caregiver stress. The immediate need for interventions to ease parents' stress and improve the quality of life for both parents and children is apparent. Physical activity has been deemed an intervention to reduce stress and is associated with improved well-being and mental health for both neurotypical and ASD populations. Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of physical activity interventions incorporating mind-body interaction, such as yoga or martial arts, for children with ASD. Martial arts training, such as judo, benefits participants and their families by encompassing mindfulness, balance, strength, and coordination, emphasizing social interaction. Despite the increasing prevalence of ASD, the reported stress on families of children with ASD, and the negative effects of parent stress on both parents and their children with ASD, there are no studies that have examined the benefits of a family-based, mind-body physical activity program on stress and health behaviors in parents of children with ASD. The current study will address this gap by examining the effects of a family judo intervention on parent stress and sleep patterns of parents of children with ASD. There is a significant decrease in parent-reported stress post-judo program. Parents also have increased levels of physical activity. Finally, we see parents reporting decreased stress and improved self-confidence with their children during the semi-structured interviews at the end of the program. These findings may be used to explore further whether a family judo program may lead to better parent and family outcomes, such as increased parental efficacy, improved parent-child bonding, and strengthened family resiliency.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och jämföra mängden och nivån på fysisk aktivitet under skoldagen, där även lektioner i idrott och hälsa ingår, hos elever på gymnasie- och gymnasiesärskolan. Metod: Målgruppen utgjordes av en klass från gymnasiesärskolan bestående av sex elever och45 elever från fyra klasser från årskurs 1–3 i gymnasieskolan. För att undersöka mängden och nivån av den fysiska aktiviteten användes som mätinstrument stegräknare och pulsmätare. Undersökningen pågick under två skoldagar som inkluderade lektioner i idrott och hälsa. Som teoretiskt ramverk kommer uppsatsen utgå från begreppet fysisk aktivitet, indelat i nivå och mängd, vilket kommer analyseras utifrån begreppet moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) samt hälsorekommendationerna gällande antal steg per dag. Resultat: Undersökningen visade att eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan och gymnasieskolan i genomsnitt ackumulerade ungefär lika många steg under en skoldag. Det var däremot signifikant skillnad när det gällde hur många av skoldagens steg som utfördes under lektionen i idrott och hälsa. Eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan gick ca 34 procent av skoldagens totala antal steg under lektionen i idrott och hälsa medan eleverna i gymnasieskolan gick ca 50 procent. Det var också signifikant skillnad gällande vilken nivå av fysisk aktivitet eleverna låg på under lektionen i idrott och hälsa. Eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan spenderade ca 33 procent av lektionen i MVPA medan motsvarande var 70 procent av lektionen för eleverna gymnasieskolan.    Slutsats: Resultatet gällande total fysisk aktivitet under skoldagen indikerar att eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan har en mer fysisk aktiv skoldag utöver lektionerna i idrott och hälsa än eleverna på gymnasieskolan. Detta eftersom resultatet visar att de kommer upp i liknande antal steg över en hel skoldag, trots att de har färre antal steg på lektionen i idrott och hälsa än eleverna på gymnasieskolan. Beträffande nivån på fysisk aktivitet under lektionen i idrott och hälsa visade resultaten signifikanta skillnader gällande tid spenderad i MVPA mellan grupperna. Eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan spenderade mindre än hälften av lektionstiden i MVPA jämfört med eleverna i gymnasieskolan. En förklaring till det skulle kunna var olika lektionsinnehåll eller problematiken kring utvecklingsstörning. / Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to examine and compare amount and level of physical activity during the school day, which also include a physical education lesson, among pupils in upper secondary school with and without mental retardation. Method: The target group of this study composed of six high school students from one class from special school and 45 students from four classes of first to third grade in the upper secondary school. In order to examine the amount and level of physical activity, the study used pedometers and heart rate monitors. The survey of this study lasted two whole school days which included physical education lessons. As for theoretical framework, this study presupposes from the concept physical activity which is divided into level and amount of physical activity. It will be analyzed with the concept moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA)and the recommendation of health regarding steps taken per day. Results: The study showed that students from the special school and upper secondary school on average accumulated the same amount of steps during one school day. There was however a significant difference in how much of the total steps of the school day that was accumulated during the physical education lesson. For the students in the special school about 34 percent of the steps taken during the school day came from the physical education lesson and equal result for the students in upper secondary school was about 50 percent. There were also significant differences regarding the level of physical activity among the students during the lesson in physical education. Students in special school spent about 33 percent of the lesson in MVPA while the students in upper secondary school spent 70 percent of the lesson in MVPA. Conclusion: The result indicates that the students in special school overall have a more active schoolday beyond the lessons in physical education than the students in upper secondary school. This is because the results show that they have the same amount of steps during the whole school day, despite the fact that they have fewer steps than the students in upper secondary school during the lesson in physical education. Regarding the level of physical activity during the lesson in physical education the result showed significant difference between the study groups. The students in the special school spent less than half the time in MVPA compared with the students in upper secondary school. An explanation to that could be different lesson content or the complex of problems regarding intellectual disabilities.

An ever-increasing number of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies are now using information-based multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) techniques to decode mental states. In doing so, they achieve a significantly greater sensitivity compared to when they use univariate analysis frameworks. Two most prominent MVPA methods for information mapping are searchlight decoding and classifier weight mapping. The new MVPA brain mapping methods, however, have also posed new challenges for analysis and statistical inference on the group level. In this thesis, I discuss why the usual procedure of performing t-tests on MVPA derived information maps across subjects in order to produce a group statistic is inappropriate. I propose a fully nonparametric solution to this problem, which achieves higher sensitivity than the most commonly used t-based procedure. The proposed method is based on resampling methods and preserves the spatial dependencies in the MVPA-derived information maps. This enables to incorporate a cluster size control for the multiple testing problem. Using a volumetric searchlight decoding procedure and classifier weight maps, I demonstrate the validity and sensitivity of the new approach using both simulated and real fMRI data sets. In comparison to the standard t-test procedure implemented in SPM8, the new results showed a higher sensitivity and spatial specificity. The second goal of this thesis is the comparison of the two widely used information mapping approaches -- the searchlight technique and classifier weight mapping. Both methods take into account the spatially distributed patterns of activation in order to predict stimulus conditions, however the searchlight method solely operates on the local scale. The searchlight decoding technique has furthermore been found to be prone to spatial inaccuracies. For instance, the spatial extent of informative areas is generally exaggerated, and their spatial configuration is distorted. In this thesis, I compare searchlight decoding with linear classifier weight mapping, both using the formerly proposed non-parametric statistical framework using a simulation and ultra-high-field 7T experimental data. It was found that the searchlight method led to spatial inaccuracies that are especially noticeable in high-resolution fMRI data. In contrast, the weight mapping method was more spatially precise, revealing both informative anatomical structures as well as the direction by which voxels contribute to the classification. By maximizing the spatial accuracy of ultra-high-field fMRI results, such global multivariate methods provide a substantial improvement for characterizing structure-function relationships.

Inhibitory control processes have intensively been studied in cognitive science for the past decades. Even though the neural dynamics underlying these processes are increasingly better understood, a critical open question is how the representational dynamics of the inhibitory control processes are modulated when engaging in response inhibition in a relatively automatic or a controlled mode. Against the background of an overarching theory of perception-action integration, we combine temporal and spatial EEG signal decomposition methods with multivariate pattern analysis and source localization to obtain fine-grained insights into the neural dynamics of the representational content of response inhibition. For this purpose, we used a sample of N = 40 healthy adult participants. The behavioural data suggest that response inhibition was better in a more controlled than a more automated response execution mode. Regarding neural dynamics, effects of response inhibition modes relied on a concomitant coding of stimulus-related information and rules of how stimulus information is related to the appropriate motor programme. Crucially, these fractions of information, which are encoded at the same time in the neurophysiological signal, are based on two independent spatial neurophysiological activity patterns, also showing differences in the temporal stability of the representational content. Source localizations revealed that the precuneus and inferior parietal cortex regions are more relevant than prefrontal areas for the representation of stimulus–response selection codes. We provide a blueprint how a concatenation of EEG signal analysis methods, capturing distinct aspects of neural dynamics, can be connected to cognitive science theory on the importance of representations in action control.

Background: Exercise behaviour has largely been studied via reflective social cognitive approaches over the last thirty years. Emerging findings have shown habit to demonstrate predictive validity with physical activity. Habit represents an automatic behaviour that becomes developed from repeated stimulus-response bonds (cued and repetitive action) overtime. Despite the correlation with PA, the literature lacks research in understanding habit formation in new exercisers and experimental evidence of this construct. Hence, the purpose of this dissertation was to: i) understand the behavioural and psychological requirements of habit formation in new gym members, ii) investigate how regular gym members maintain their exercise habit, and iii) incorporate these findings to design a randomized-controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of an exercise habit building workshop in new gym members. In particular, the RCT sought to test if the habit group would develop greater exercise improvement over a control condition and another intervention group that employed a variety-based approach. Methods: Participants for all three studies were healthy adults (18-65) who were recruited from local gym and recreation centres in Victoria, BC. Studies I and III included only new gym members who were not meeting the Canadian Physical Activity guidelines upon recruitment while study II were a sample of gym members who have been exercising for at least one year. The first two studies were prospective, observational designs (twelve and six weeks respectively) while the third was a CONSORT based experimental study. Results: The first study found that exercising for at least four bouts per week for six weeks was the minimum requirement to establish an exercise habit. Trajectory change analysis revealed habit and intention to be parallel predictors of exercise in the trajectory analysis while consistency of practice revealed to be the best predictor. The second study highlighted the distinction between the preparatory and performance phases of exercise and further found intention and preparatory habit to be responsible for behaviour change across time. This study also found consistency to be the strongest predictor for habit formation. The intervention found the habit group to increase in exercise time compared to the control (p<.05, d=.40) and variety (p<.05, d=.36) groups. Mediation analysis found habit to partially mediate between group and behaviour. Contextual predictors revealed cues and consistency to mediate habit formation and group type. Conclusions: This dissertation provided significant novel contributions to the literature which included: i) calculating the behavioural and psychological requirements for establishing an exercise habit, ii) distinguishing two behavioural phases of exercise and iii) conducting the first exercise habit-based RCT. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed habit-based worksheet which could be helpful for trainers and new gym members in facilitating an exercise habit. / Graduate / kaushal@uvic.ca

Abstract: It is believed that Flag Rugby may produce physical activity (PA) in middle school students that is more vigorous than other sports. PURPOSE: To examine the effects of different sports on physical activity in middle school students. METHODS: 101 (55 M; 46 F, ages 11-14, grades 6-8 ) middle schoolers were randomly selected to participate in three different sports on three separate days during their regular scheduled PE class. The participants engaged in flag football on day one, basketball on day two and flag rugby on day three of the research study. These days were not consecutive. All physiological-related variables were collected using the Stayhealthy RT3TM accelerometer (Monrovia, USA). Enjoyment and competence were measured using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) (McAuley et. al., 1989; Ryan, 1982). The research design utilized a repeated measure analysis of variance (RMANOVA) followed by dependent t-tests. RESULTS: Flag football mean MET values were 4.93 + 1.35(SD). Basketball mean MET values were 5.51 + 2.02. Flag rugby mean MET values were 6.02 + 1.52. These results indicate a significant difference between flag football vs. basketball (p = 0.023) and flag rugby vs. flag football (p < 0.000), but no significant difference between basketball vs. flag rugby (p = 0.109). The results from the enjoyment and competence paired samples t-test found a significant difference between play of flag rugby (6.24 + 1.59, enjoyment; 6.00 + 1.46, competence) and flag football (5.38 + 1.69, enjoyment; 5.26 + 1.56) at (p < 0.000) for both scales. There was a significant difference between flag rugby and basketball (5.21 + 1.80 enjoyment; 5.21 + 1.68) at (p < 0.000) enjoyment and (p< 0.001) competence. However, there was no significant difference between basketball and flag football (p = 0.481) enjoyment and (p = 0.827) competence. DISCUSSION: There is, in fact, a significant difference in physical activity intensities and durations between flag rugby and that of flag football and/or basketball (p < 0.001) F, 7.66. Results from this study suggest that there is not a significant difference in between flag rugby and basketball but there is a significant difference in enjoyment and competence between flag rugby and flag football.