The purpose of this study was to observe the joint reposition error and tactile acuity of patients with chronic mild to moderate neck pain and compare those values to healthy controls to further investigate the effect of neck pain on neck function and the need for sensorimotor training in patients with chronic neck pain. In spite of some inconsistencies in the literature and methodology, both the two-point discrimination test and the joint reposition error test can give clinicians valuable, inexpensive and quick objective data that can be used in the diagnostic portion of an examination as well as in designing and assessing change during a rehabilitation program. This study found a significant increase in neck joint reposition error (JRE) in flexion in participants suffering from neck pain when compared to healthy controls. JRE averaged 2.75° ± 1.52° in flexion healthy controls and 4.53° ± 1.74° in flexion in participants with chronic neck pain. Additionally, the dermatome found to be most affected by neck pain was C5. Further research is needed to examine both the effect of proprioceptive training on neck pain and the effectiveness of the two-point discrimination threshold test and the joint reposition error test as diagnostic tools and indicators of progress in the treatment of chronic neck pain.

Syftet med arbetet var att ta reda på vilka möjligheter det finns att integrera matematik och idrott i skolan och av vilka anledningar man gör/eller kan göra det. Inom matematiken har vi koncentrerat oss på taluppfattning. Vi har sökt information i litteratur, genom intervju med två pedagoger samt genom observation av en elevgrupp i förskoleklass. Resultatet av våra ansträngningar har utmynnat i att vi på tre olika sätt starkt kan knyta matematik och idrott till varandra i elevernas lärande. Vi kan se en länk mellan matematiskt tänkande och proprioceptionen i vår kropp. Vi ser även att många elevers lärande är knutet till att göra och uppleva med kroppen. Dessutom har vi funnit att motoriska svårigheter kan vara ett hinder för kognitivt lärande om vissa motoriska rörelser inte är automatiserade. Vi menar också att det finns möjlighet för eleverna att göra stora hälsovinster om de under skoldagen erbjuds någon form av fysisk aktivitet.

As more composers consciously incorporate the body into their musical works, so too should musical analyses probe these works through the lens of the body. Drawing upon Mauricio Kagel’s Repertoire from his opera Staatstheater (1970) and Marina Rosenfeld’s My Body (2019) for Rosenfeld herself and Yarn | Wire, this dissertation looks at the ways in which the body can be inextricably tied to music. In Chapter 1, I pursue a corporeal analysis of Repertoire from the perspective of disability studies. Oppressive aesthetic decrees, disability studies concepts, operas involving disabled characters, and freak shows are discussed and related to Kagel’s Repertoire. In the analysis of Rosenfeld’s My Body in Chapter 2, I examine the ways bodies sensually interact with other living and nonliving bodies through touch. By taxonomizing touch between human and dubplate as well as human and human, I show how My Body uses connection to collapse the boundaries between subject and object identifiers. In neither example can music exist in a vacuum; I demonstrate that the sound must either be seen or felt in order to be fully appreciated. Both works summon the use of the sixth sense, proprioception, in their total body approach to music-making and musical appreciation.

Comprised of six distinct layers, the neocortex is a key brain structure for many of our advanced cognitive abilities, ranging from sensation to decision making to movement. Each layer contains distinct cell types differing in their genes, biophysical properties, and connectivity with other parts of the brain. Yet how these diverse cortical layers and cell types contribute to any given behavior remains unresolved. Because sensory cortical areas have stereotyped anatomies and the six cortical layer organization is highly conserved across all mammals, understanding computations in one cortical area, such as the mouse barrel cortex within the primary somatosensory cortex, may inform us of computations being performed by similar microcircuits across the neocortex. This thesis is an investigation of cortical circuit function as it pertains to (1) distinct functional role of cortical layers in sensory discrimination, (2) increased cortical connectivity enhancing sensation, (3) a cautionary tale of selecting appropriate transgenic mouse lines for in vivo manipulations, (4) and the role of proprioception in the establishment of long-term visuospatial memory. Investigating layer-specific function first requires a cortex-dependent task. Yet, despite our extensive understanding of cortical anatomy and physiology, the contributions of different cortical layers to behaviors remain unknown. We developed a two-alternative forced choice paradigm in which head-fixed mice use a single whisker to either discriminate textures of parametrically varied roughness or detect the same textured surfaces. Lesioning barrel cortex revealed that texture discrimination, but not detection, was cortex-dependent. Paralyzing the whisker pad demonstrated that passive can rival active perception and cortical dependence is not movement-related. Transgenic Cre lines were used to target inhibitory opsins to excitatory cortical neurons of specific layers for selective perturbations. Discrimination required all layers, but deep layers (layers 5/6) were critical for accumulation of sensory evidence whereas superficial layers (layers 2-4) appeared to provide top-down motor input. This thesis shows that superficial layers contextually interpret sensory evidence to modify the deep layer output in behaviorally appropriate ways. Having identified distinct functional roles of deep and superficial layers through perturbation experiments, we next sought to enhance texture task performance by selectively activating texture-encoding neurons. However, given that all layers are involved in the task and the technical difficulties of targeting stimulus-selective cells, we turned to humanized mouse model (SRGAP2C) that exhibits increased local and long-range cortico-cortical connections and increased response selectivity to whisker stimulations in layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in the barrel cortex. This thesis demonstrates that the increased cortico-cortical connectivity not only improved sensory coding accuracy in SRGAP2C mice, but the humanized animals trained on the texture discrimination task displayed increased learning rate and were more likely to learn the task compared to control. Next, we provide a cautionary tale of selecting appropriate mouse lines for in vivo experiments. Advances in optogenetics and transgenic Cre mouse lines enable us to probe the function of genetically defined neuronal populations, but transgene expression can adversely affect cell health and cause neural and behavioral abnormalities. We discovered learning impairments specific to cortex-dependent sensory discrimination behaviors in Emx1-Cre animals that express inhibitory opsins in excitatory cortical neurons. We suggest Nex1-Cre line as a more reliable and robust alternative to Emx1-Cre animals. The thesis highlights the importance of characterizing and selecting appropriate transgenic lines for in vivo optogenetic experiments.  In addition to touch, the primary somatosensory cortex processes other tactile information including temperature, pain, and proprioception. Creating a spatially accurate representation of the visual world requires transforming spatially inaccurate visual information coming from a constantly moving retina into a representation that can be used for accurate perception and action. This thesis shows that the dysgranular zone, the proprioceptive region of the primary somatosensory cortex, is required to establish long-term visuospatial memory.

Hand proprioception is crucial for daily activities and may be compromised by diseases or injuries,impacting patients' independence. The lack of feasible, accurate, and affordable clinical tools forhand proprioception assessment poses a significant challenge, essential for identifying dysfunctionand evaluating treatment effects.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the concurrent validity of the LeapMotion controller(LMC) for assessing hand proprioception. We compared the LMC with a 3D camera system formotion analysis (Qualisys Motion Capture, QTM), known for its high measurement accuracy as thegold standard. Twenty participants (10 men, 10 women), 15 without, and 5 with hand injury or pain,took part in this cross-sectional study. Assessments included pointing acuity with open and closedeyes using the right and left hand. There were moderate to good correlations between LMC andQTM performed with closed eyes, with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values of 0.6 and0.89. Contrary, tests with open eyes showed a poor overall correlation with ICC between 0.003 and0.3. Bland-Altman analysis showed median biases of≤ 1.5 mm between LMC and QTM with eyes open, and ≤ 5.1 mm with eyes closed. Limits ofagreement ranged from -0.4 to 3.5 mm with eyes open and -31.6 to 21.5 mm with eyes closed.The results indicate that the LMC could be a cost-effective and feasible tool for quantifying handproprioception with a clinically acceptable bias. Although the median biases were small formeasurements with eyes open, the ICCs were poor. This may be due to a high pointing acuity withinthe group combined with limited variability between the participants in the eyes open tests.

Bakgrund: Tio till tjugo procent av akuta skador på ligamenten kring fotleden resulterar ikronisk fotledsinstabilitet, vilket innebär en instabilitetskänsla, stukningstendens, smärta ochsvullnad i fotleden. Det är värdefullt att som fysioterapeut ha kunskap om vilkenrehabiliteringsmetod som förbättrar balans i syfte att öka stabiliteten i foten. Syfte: Sammanställa litteraturen och bedöma det vetenskapliga underlaget gällande effektenpå balansen hos individer med kronisk fotledsinstabilitet genom träning med balansbräda.Detta ställs upp i två sammanvägningar: balansbräda jämfört med styrketräning, ochbalansbräda jämfört med ingen behandling. Metod: En systematisk litteratursökning efter randomiserade kontrollerade studier utfördes idatabaserna PubMed, Uppsala universitetsbibliotek, samt Cochrane Library. Totaltinkluderades åtta studier med sammanlagt 286 deltagare. Samtliga studier kvalitetsgranskadesenligt PEDro-skalan, och GRADEstud användes för bedömning av det sammanvägdaresultatets tillförlitlighet. Resultat: Signifikant förbättring av balans kopplat till styrketräning samt balansträning medbalansbräda, men liten fördel för en kombination för de båda kopplat till statisk balans. Kvalitetsgranskning enligt PEDro visade på att sex studier hade en måttlig kvalité och tvåstudier hade hög kvalité. Utifrån evidensbedömningen anses det föreligga en lågtillförlitlighet till det vetenskapliga underlaget för styrketräning med motståndsband förfotleden samt balansträning med balansbräda. Konklusion: Både styrketräning för relevant muskulatur och balansträning med balansbrädaförbättrar balansen efter ett ≥4 veckor långt protokoll med ≥3 träningssessioner/vecka.Evidensen talar för att båda rehabiliteringsmetoder ger liknande utfall, men fler studierbehövs för att bekräfta resultatet då de sammanvägda resultaten har låg tillförlitlighet. / Background: Ten to twenty percent of acute ankle injuries result in chronic ankle instability,which results in instability in the foot, distorsion tendency, and pain and swelling around theankle. Thus it´s valuable for physiotherapists to have knowledge regarding whichrehabilitation methods yield the most positive effect on balance in order to increase stabilityin the foot. Purpose: To compile the literature and assess the evidence regarding the effects on balanceof people diagnosed with chronic ankle instability through rehabilitation with awobble-board. This is set up in two comparisons: wobble-board compared tostrength-training, and wobble-board compared to no treatment. Method: A systematic literature search for randomized controlled trials was done inPubMed, Uppsala University Library, and CochraneLibrary. A total of eight studies wereincluded in this review, with a total of 286 participants. Study quality was judged by using the PEDro-scale, and GRADEstud was used to assess the reliability of the combined results. Results: Significant improvement in balance related to resistance training and balancetraining with wobble-board, with a small advantage to training with a combination of the twowhen measuring static balance. Quality according to PEDro showed six studies of moderatequality and two studies of high quality. Grading of the evidence is deemed insufficient whenit comes to training with resistance bands and training with a wobble-board. Conclusion: Both strength-training for the relevant muscles and balance-training using thewobble-board improves the balance after a ≥4 week-long protocol with ≥3 sessions/week.The evidence shows that both methods give similar results, however further research isrequired to confirm the results because the reliability of the combined results was deemedinsufficient.

No description available.

Yes / Huntington’s disease (HD) is associated with impairments in dual-task performance. Despite that, only a few studies have investigated dual-tasking in HD. We examined dual-task performance in 15 participants in the early stages of HD and 15 healthy controls. Participants performed direct circle tracing (able to view arm) and indirect circle tracing (arm obscured) either on their own (single tasks) or paired with serial subtraction by twos or threes (dual tasks). Overall, our results suggested that HD participants were significantly slower and less accurate than controls. Both groups were slower and less accurate when performing indirect circle tracing compared with direct circle tracing. HD participants experienced greater dual-task interference in terms of accuracy when performing direct circle tracing compared with indirect circle tracing. Despite that, controls were more inclined to speed–accuracy trade-offs compared with HD participants. Importantly, unlike controls, HD participants were not disproportionately faster when performing direct circle tracing as a single task compared with the dual-task conditions. Our results suggest that simple tasks place greater attentional demands on HD participants compared with controls. These findings support that impaired automaticity may be responsible for some of the attentional deficits manifested in HD. / Supported by the School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University.

Yes / The aim of this study was to investigate age-related differences in dual task performance by using an upper limb proprioceptive task. Twenty-eight younger (18–30 years) and 28 older (>60 years) healthy adults performed circle tracing and serial subtraction tasks separately and concurrently. The tasks had two levels of difficulty: easy and hard. The circle tracing task included direct (easy) and indirect (hard) visual feedback conditions, and it was paired with serial subtraction by twos (easy) or threes (hard). We found that older adults were significantly slower than younger adults across all conditions and had significantly greater dual task costs when they performed circle tracing with easy serial subtraction. Higher levels of task difficulty were associated with slower speed in both groups. We found no age differences in accuracy. Participants either traded speed for accuracy or accuracy for speed regardless of age group. Overall, the findings suggest that speed and accuracy may be affected differently during dual tasking. In addition, older adults may rely more extensively on proprioceptive feedback to guide upper limb movement compared with younger adults. / Financial support for this study was obtained from the School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University.

Human postural control is a complex process, but that is critical to understand in order to reduce the prevalence of occupational falls. Localized muscle fatigue (LMF), altered sensory input, and inter-individual differences (e.g. age and gender) have been shown to influence postural control, and numerous methods have been developed in order to quantify such effects. Recently, methods based on statistical mechanics have become popular, and when applied to center of pressure (COP) data, appear to provide new information regarding the postural control system. This study addresses in particular the stabilogram diffusion and Hurst exponent methods. An existing dataset was employed, in which sway during quiet stance was measured under different visual and surface compliance conditions, among both genders and different age groups, as well as before and after induction of localized muscle fatigue at the ankle, knee, torso, and shoulder. The stabilogram diffusion method determines both short-term and long-term diffusion coefficients, which correspond to open- and closed-loop control of posture, respectively. To do so, a "critical point" (or critical time interval) needs to be determined to distinguish between the two diffusion regions. Several limitations are inherent in existing methods to determine this critical point. To address this, a new algorithm was developed, based on a wavelet transform of COP data. The new algorithm is able to detect local maxima over specified frequency bands within COP data; therefore it can identify postural control mechanisms correspondent to those frequency bands. Results showed that older adults had smaller critical time intervals, and indicating that sway control of older adults was essentially different from young adults. Diffusion coefficients show that among young adults, torso LMF significantly compromised sway stability. In contrast, older adults appeared more resistance to LMF. Similar to earlier work, vision was found to play a crucial role in maintaining sway stability, and that stability was worse under eyes-closed (EC) than eyes-opened (EO) conditions. It was also found that the short-term Hurst exponent was not successful at detecting the effects of LMF on sway stability, likely because of a small sample size. The new critical point identification algorithm was verified to have better sensitivity and reliability than the traditional approach. The new algorithm can be used in future work to aid in the assessment of postural control and the mechanisms underlying this control. / Master of Science