Apprendre de nouvelles habiletés motrices est fondamental à l'expérience humaine et à l'exécution des activités quotidiennes. L'apprentissage moteur peut être défini comme un ensemble de processus associés à la pratique ou à l'expérience menant à la capacité d'exécuter une nouvelle habileté motrice. À l'origine de ces mécanismes d'apprentissage, un contrôle moteur précis et une intégration sensorimotrice adéquate sont essentiels. De plus, la capacité d'identifier une séquence dans des évènements sériels et de reproduire avec précision la série de mouvements détectés est également importante en ce qui concerne l'apprentissage des séquences motrices présentes dans de nombreux comportements humains. Si l'un de ces processus élémentaires est compromis par une pathologie, on peut s'attendre à observer des difficultés à apprendre différentes habiletés motrices. Les études qui composent la présente thèse avaient pour objectif principal de caractériser les capacités d'apprentissage moteur dans deux populations cliniques présentant une anomalie sensorielle ou motrice avec la tâche de temps de réaction sérielle (TTRS). Dans l'article 1, les conséquences de la surdité sur l'apprentissage moteur ont été étudiées. Peu d'études ont examiné les capacités motrices chez les sourds profonds et ces quelques études ont suggéré la présence de déficits en dextérité manuelle et des retards dans la production de mouvements. Avant la publication de cet article, la capacité d'apprendre des séquences motrices complexes n'avait pas été explorée dans une population adulte sourde. L'apprentissage non-spécifique et spécifique à la séquence à la TTRS a été analysé en fonction des caractéristiques individuelles liées à la perte auditive. Les résultats ont révélé des différences significatives entre les groupes dans l'apprentissage spécifique à la séquence, les sujets sourds étant moins efficaces que les contrôles à acquérir les connaissances spécifiques à la séquence. Nous avons interprété les résultats à la lumière de la plasticité intermodale et de l'hypothèse d'échafaudage auditif. Dans l'article 2, l'apprentissage moteur, le transfert intermanuel d'une habileté motrice nouvellement acquise et la modulation du débordement moteur électrophysiologique (mouvements miroirs physiologiques; MMp) ont été évalués dans une grande famille de quatre générations avec des mutations du gène Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) et des mouvements miroirs congénitaux (MMC). Les MMC sont des contractions musculaires involontaires de l'autre côté du corps survenant lors d'un mouvement unilatéral volontaire. Ils ont été associés à une mutation dans le gène DCC, entraînant des voies cortico-spinales anormales et une inhibition interhémisphérique réduite (IIH). Comparativement aux membres de la famille sans MMC et aux contrôles sains non-apparentés, les MMp des individus avec MMC ont été significativement augmentés après l'exécution de la TTRS. L'apprentissage moteur et le transfert intermanuel ne différaient pas entre les groupes. Cependant, lorsque les participants avec la mutation DCC, avec ou sans MMC, étaient spécifiquement comparés aux participants sans la mutation DCC, l'apprentissage non-spécifique d'une séquence motrice était significativement réduit chez les personnes atteintes de la mutation DCC. Ces données suggèrent qu'une augmentation de l'activité miroir physiologique chez les patients atteints de MMC est associée à une réduction de l'IIH. De plus, les diminutions d'apprentissage moteur non-spécifique chez les porteurs de la mutation DCC pourraient être liés aux altérations de l'activité cérébelleuse et de la connectivité rapportées antérieurement. En résumé, les études comprises dans la présente thèse ont approfondi nos connaissances des capacités d'apprentissage moteur dans les contextes de déficits sensoriels ou moteurs. / Learning new motor skills is essential to the human experience and to the performance of everyday activities. Motor learning can be defined as a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to the ability to skillfully perform a new motor skill. At the root of these learning mechanisms, precise motor control and adequate sensorimotor integration are critical. Additionally, the ability to identify a sequence in serial events and accurately reproduce the series of detected movements is also important with regards to learning motor sequences that are present in many human behaviors. If any of these fundamental processes are compromised by any pathology, one can expect to observe difficulties in learning different motor skills. The studies that compose the present thesis had as a main objective to characterize the motor learning abilities in two clinical populations presenting a sensory or motor abnormality with the serial reaction time task (SRTT). In article 1, the consequences of hearing impairment on motor learning were investigated. Few studies have examined motor capacities in the profoundly deaf and these studies have suggested the presence of deficits in manual dexterity and delays in movement production. Before the publication of this article, the ability to learn complex sequential motor patterns had not been explored in a deaf adult population. Non-specific and sequence-specific learning on the SRTT were analyzed in relation to individual features related to the hearing loss. The results revealed significant differences between groups in sequence-specific learning, with deaf subjects being less efficient than controls in acquiring sequence-specific knowledge. We interpreted the results in light of cross-modal plasticity and the auditory scaffolding hypothesis. In article 2, motor learning, intermanual transfer of a newly acquired motor skill and activity-dependent modulation of electrophysiological motor overflow (physiological mirror movements; pMM) were assessed in a large, four-generational family with a Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) gene mutation and congenital mirror movements (CMM). CMM are involuntary muscle contractions in the opposite side of the body occurring during voluntary unilateral movement. They have been associated with a frameshift mutation in the DCC gene, resulting in abnormal corticospinal tracts and reduced interhemispheric inhibition (IHI). Compared with family members without CMM and unrelated healthy controls, pMM were significantly increased in CMM individuals following execution of the SRTT. Motor learning and intermanual transfer did not differ between groups. However, when participants with the DCC mutation, with or without CMM, were compared with participants without the DCC mutation, non-specific learning of a motor sequence was significantly reduced in individuals with the DCC mutation. These data suggest that increased physiological mirroring in CMM patients is associated with reduced IHI. Furthermore, impairments in non-specific motor learning in DCC mutation carriers may be related to the reported alterations in cerebellar activity and connectivity. In summary, the studies comprised in the present thesis significantly increase our knowledge of motor learning abilities in the contexts of sensory or motor deficits.

Phantom limb pain may occur after the accidental removal or surgical amputation of a limb. Phantom limb pain is the experience of pain in the limb that is no longer present. The clinical management of phantom limb pain is essential in the overall reduction of patient rehabilitation and poor patient outcomes. A patient’s degree of phantom limb pain is influenced by their personal response to loss and pain and can have devastating effects to a person’s social performance, occupational role, family role, relationships, and involvement in activities or hobbies. Like most chronic pain, phantom limb pain decreases the quality of life. Not all amputees who suffer from chronic pain respond to traditional therapies. The purpose of this integrated review of the literature was to explore current research and determine the efficacy of mirror therapy in the treatment of Phantom limb pain in amputees. A database search of CINAHL, PubMed (MEDLINE), and OneSearch was conducted. Mirror therapy had no reported side effects, was inexpensive, and was capable of being practiced at home and at the bedside. Relevant findings in the literature revealed a significant decrease in phantom limb pain when using mirror therapy for more than 4 weeks. Although limited research on the use of mirror therapy as an intervention for amputees, existing research supports the efficacy of mirror therapy for the management of phantom limb pain. Nurses and healthcare providers need education on mirror therapy to advocate for their patients to ensure the best possible outcome and reduction of phantom limb pain. Further research on mirror therapy is needed.

No description available.

This dissertation explored the social cognitive abilities of the Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), a relatively non-social, food-caching corvid. Corvids are a family of large-brained birds, which are capable of remarkable cognitive feats (e.g., future planning, tool use). These cognitive abilities have been revealed predominantly by testing social species, supporting popular theories that living in social groups drove the evolution of complex cognition. However, few studies have investigated the social cognitive abilities of corvid species that do not live in large groups. Here, I developed novel procedures using the food-caching behaviour of Clark’s nutcrackers as a tool to explore two cognitive abilities predicted to be limited to social species: mirror self-recognition (Chapter 2) and cooperation (Chapter 4). In Chapter 2, birds cached food when alone, with a conspecific present, and with a regular or blurry mirror. The nutcrackers suppressed caching with a regular mirror (as done with a conspecific), but not with the blurry mirror. When integrated with the traditional ‘mark test’, the birds also showed evidence of self-recognition with the blurry mirror by attempting to remove a coloured mark placed on their body with the blurry mirror, but not with an opaque barrier. In Chapter 3, I discuss the importance of self-recognition as a precursor for complex and flexible social cognitive abilities such as cooperation. To investigate cooperation, in Chapter 4 the birds experienced having their caches exchanged with another bird over multiple trials. This procedure assessed whether the normal response of cache suppression with a conspecific could be over-ridden if the experimental contingencies made cache sharing beneficial. The nutcrackers continued to cache in this context, and male birds increased caching when cooperation from the conspecific was exaggerated artificially by the experimenter. Combined, the results indicate the non- social Clark’s nutcracker is capable of mirror self-recognition, and the ability to distinguish one’s ‘self’ from others may facilitate flexible caching decisions, contrary to the predictions of the social living hypotheses. The findings indicate social living alone does not strongly predict complex cognitive abilities and, instead, that multiple evolutionary paths exist for the development of complex cognition. / October 2016

Le sujet prend appui sur une hypothèse : à l’origine, la musique est un phénomène culturel et biologique, social (et donc pas privé) et communautaire (et donc pas individuel). Les travaux de plusieurs théoriciens évolutionnistes du langage et/ou de la musique étayent l’hypothèse selon laquelle l’objet de la musique dépasse l’opposition nature-culture. Quelle est alors l’influence de ces caractéristiques sur l’apparition de la musicalité ou d’une faculté de musique ? Pour avancer dans notre réflexion, nous mesurons la contribution des recherches sur les amusies quant à la question des origines de la musique. Par la suite, nous étudions le rapport entre l’intentionnalité et l’évolution de la musique. Nous nous concentrons sur la nature sociale du phénomène musical, puis proposons l'intégration de la caractérisation biologique et sociale de la musique dans une conception institutionnelle et communautaire. Ainsi fondée philosophiquement, notre hypothèse de départ devient le véhicule du dépassement disciplinaire convoité. Enfin, certaines options proposées par différents auteurs décrivant la contribution de la musique au développement de réseaux neuronaux à la propriété miroir sont évoquées. Et nous tentons de répondre à cette question, inévitable : la musique peut-elle, étant donné son caractère irréductiblement culturel, social et communautaire, entretenir des connexions neuronales? Nous examinons notamment à cette fin les implications de la théorie du chaos et des résultats des simulations informatiques multi-agents. / The subject is based on an assumption: originally, the music is a cultural and a biological phenomenon, it is social (and not private) and institutional (and not individual). Several evolutionary theorists of language and/or music support the hypothesis that the purpose of language/music is beyond the opposition between nature and culture. Assuming those characteristics, then what is their influence on the development of musicality or of a faculty of music? To advance our thinking, we point out researches on the musical brain. Precisely, we evaluate the contribution of researches on amusia to the question of the origin of music. Subsequently, we study the relationship between intentionality and the evolution of music. Then, we focus on the social nature of the musical phenomenon, and propose to integrate social and biological characterization of music in a community and institutional conception. From then on, our assumption is philosophically founded and we assume that it can be an appropriate vehicle to exceed the disciplinary’s limits. Finally, we present some options proposed by different authors describing the contribution of music to the development of neural networks with a “mirror” property. Then, we try to answer this inevitable question: can music, given its irreducibly cultural, social and institutional characteristics, maintain neural connections? About this part, we examine the implications of chaos theory and the results of computer simulations.

I vacillate between all extremes, beauty vs. ugly, internal vs. external, micro vs. macro. It is these disparate notions that inspire what I make. We cannot ever see ourselves objectively, but does that mean we shouldn’t try? This thesis is my attempt to dissect what I created in my 2 years at Virginia Commonwealth University, my exploration of the illness within and the psychological nature of how we go about hiding our insecurities.

La discipline neurologique met en présence des soignants sains et des patients frappés de handicaps extrêmes auxquels le progrès médico-technique, fondé au XVIIe sur la mathématisation de la nature et le modèle du « corps-machine », n’a pas mis de terme. Comment se représenter l’aphasie, l’anosognosie, les altérations motrices et sensorielles chez autrui ? On se réfèrera aux travaux de Husserl et aux phénoménologues du corps pour approcher le mystère du vécu de la chair dans la maladie neurologique autrement que la sémiologie conventionnelle l’enseigne. Ce contact bouleversant avec les grands cérébrolésés n’est pas exempt d’intérêt, voire de jouissance : le spectacle du dépouillement humain par la perte du langage, du mouvement ou d’autres attributs, pourrait, dans un effet de miroir, et par une « association accouplante », permettre au témoin ici neurologue de se démonter lui-même et tendre vers l’élucidation de sa propre chair. Mais le système nerveux, par quoi la douleur ou le plaisir se manifestent à la conscience et au corps, qui afflige en même tant qu’il est affligé, est condamné à la forclusion du fait de son rôle nécessaire de médiateur physiologique. L’exclusivité d’une visée intentionnelle, dénoncée par Michel Henry, soutenue et entretenue par l’essor hégémonique de l’imagerie médicale, semble manquer ici la souffrance insoluble dans la donation extatique. Ce travail qui proposait, dans une démarche critique, de revisiter les soubassements du savoir neurologique, nous conduit vers une aporie : quelle est la phénoménologie du handicap neurologique s’il ne s’écrit ni ne se lit en termes positifs ? Devant l’insuffisance du logos à dire les altérations du monde et des vécus de la chair, s’invitent la réserve puis la métaphore artistique. C’est spécifiquement le travail du peintre Simon Hantaï qui ouvrira une voie entre phénomène mondain et incarnation. Il s’agira avec lui, dans un renoncement au savoir totalisant, d’apprendre à mettre en perspective les données des neurosciences et, ce que ni la science ni l’empathie pour autrui ne peuvent expliciter. Nous suggèrerons d’intégrer à la pratique médicale neurologique une démarche éthique autrement appelée « sagesse des limites » ; limites entre les savoirs, dont la figure toujours complexe, instable et miroitante, n’est pas sans évoquer une dimension baroque de la neurologie. / [Summary made by Reverso] The neurological discipline puts in the presence of nursing healthy and patients struck by extreme handicaps in which the medical technical progress, based(established) in the XVIIth on the mathématisation of the nature and the model of the "body-machine", did not put term. How to represent itself the aphasia, the anosognosie, the driving and sensory changes to others? We shall refer to the works of Husserl and to the phénoménologues of the body to approach the mystery of the real-life experience of the flesh in the neurological disease otherwise than the conventional semiology teaches him(it). This contact upsetting with the cérébrolésés big is not exempt from interest, even from enjoyment: the show(entertainment) of the human perusal by the loss of the language, the movement or the other attributes, could, in an effect of mirror, and by an accouplante " association ", allow the witness(baton) here neurologist to get confused itself and to aim towards the clarification of its own flesh. But the nervous system, by which the pain or the pleasure show themselves in the consciousness and in the body, which saddens even so much that it is saddened, is condemned to the debarment because of its necessary role of physiological mediator. The exclusivity of a deliberate aim, denounced(cancelled) by Michel Henry, supported and maintained by the hegemonic development of the medical imaging, seems to miss here the insoluble suffering in the ecstatic donation. This work which suggested, in a critical approach(initiative), revisiting the bases of the neurological knowledge, leads(drives) us towards an aporia: what is the phenomenology of the neurological handicap if he does not spell nor is read in positive terms? In front of the insufficiency of logos to say the changes of the world and the real-life experiences of the flesh, invite each other the reserve then the artistic metaphor. It is specifically the work of the painter Simon Hantaï that will open a way between worldly phenomenon and embodiment. It will be a question with him, in a renunciation of the adding up knowledge, of learning to put in perspective the data of the neurosciences and, what neither the science nor the empathy for others can clarify. We shall suggest to integrate(join) into the neurological medical practice an ethical otherwise called approach(initiative) " wisdom of the limits "; limits between the knowledges, the face(figure) of which always complex, unstable and gleaming, is not without evoking a baroque dimension(size) of the neurology.

“LINDA LAND” is a short story about a man who created an amusement park based on Hell, and his teenage son, who has developed a crush on the preacher’s daughter. Though there are many real-life muses that inspired the story—like Simon Rodia, the artist behind the Watts Towers—the four main literary sources are William Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet,” Karen Russell’s novel, “Swamplandia!,” Sylvia Plath’s poem, “Mirror,” and Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay, “Adaptation.”

This research report presents a pilot study exploring the possibility of applying a Lacanian clinical methodology for analyzing unconscious dynamics in extra-analytic material. This research initially investigates the legitimacy and utility of this endeavour, followed by immersion in Lacanian thinking and the subsequent selection of potentially relevant data sets; samples of extra-analytic textual material. As this stage a recursive interaction between reading Lacanian theory and reflecting on the text is enacted. Five Lacanian concepts are identified (mirror phase, the three orders of the imaginary, the symbolic and the real, as well as the paternal agency). Although these concepts are, in process inextricable from another, they are presented as though discrete entities given that this allows for the foregrounding of different aspects in the process. The interaction between these concepts is considered with respect to Lacan‟s requirement in clinical practice of a tentative preliminary diagnosis of the patient into one of three diagnostic categories; perversion, neurosis and psychosis. Consequently, in a step that mirrors the clinical process, the textual subject of the data sets is tentatively classified as a (Lacanian) psychotic whose characteristic psychic structure is constituted out of foreclosure. Ways of discerning this structure in textual matter outside of the analytic setting are then considered. Four ways are proposed here. These are the unified or unbounded use of personal pronouns; evidence of thinking towards resolution or disintegration; denial or tolerance of difference and fourthly, the manifestation of regressive or libidinal speech actions. These four provide the basis for approaching the analysis of the selected data sets, which consist of carefully selected instances of Jacob Zuma‟s ostensibly unscripted public utterances. It is proposed that the four ways identified can be used in the analysis of other extra-analytic material.

Background: Joint attention (JA) is selectively and pervasively impaired in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and has been found to link to later outcomes in language, theory of mind, play and social development. This study investigated the effectiveness of a social interactive intervention to improve initiating JA skills in children with ASD. The intervention was based on the mirror neuron hypothesis, in that techniques used encouraged the children to take on their communication partners’ perspective through a process of embodied simulation. Method: Three participants diagnosed with ASD, under the age of 5, were recruited as well as 3 typically developing children for the setting of training criteria. A multiple-baseline design across participants was implemented. Results: All three participants displayed improvements in their ability to initiate JA. Skills generalized to other settings and communication partners. Improvements were observed by both trained and naïve observers. Conclusions: A social interactive model, based on the mirror neuron hypothesis, utilizing specific techniques which follow the child’s lead may be used to effectively improve initiating joint attention (IJA) in some children with ASD.