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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of left-hand training on piano performance among college students with no piano background. A pilot study and an expanded study were conducted over a two year period. Volunteers for each study were randomly assigned to either a control group or a treatment group. The control group was instructed in the traditional manner, using simple melodies in the right hand and chordal figures in the left hand. The treatment group, however, was instructed using simple melodies in the left hand and chordal figures in the right hand. At the end of the training period, a posttest was given. The areas tested included "Pitch Accuracy in the Left Hand," "Pitch Accuracy in the Right Hand," "Rhythmic Accuracy in the Left Hand," "Rhythmic Accuracy in the Right Hand," and "Overall Technical Proficiency." The results of both studies consistently showed significantly improved playing skills in the treatment group. Future experimental research was recommended. This should include an extended training period, larger sample size, different age groups, different socioeconomic backgrounds, and different preferred hands. / Master of Arts

This exploratory study aims to elucidate the mental processes of wayfinding in an outdoor area and the effects of map contour representations, map color, individual differences of users (gender, brain dominance, experience level, and cultural differences), and environmental cues using a field study in an established trail network in Jefferson National Forest. Six maps with three different contour representations (contour lines, shaded relief, and schematic) and two color codes (color and black-and-white) were tested for wayfinding performance. Thirty-six participants of different nationalities (Locals versus Internationals), experience in map usage (experienced versus novice), handedness, and gender took part in the study. Three out of ten junctions on the test route had directional signs while the rest had no sign. The participants performed wayfinding tasks in a national forest trail park, using the think aloud and retrospective protocols to obtain the information processes used by the participants during wayfinding. Subjective feedback was also obtained to find out users' map preferences and opinions on their experience during the experiment. Multiple regression analyses were used to predict the relationship of the predictor variables to wayfinding performance. It was found that cultural differences and signage presence were significant predictors of decision-making accuracy at trail junctions. The rest of the predictors were not significant in predicting total time of completion, time for decision-making at junction, accuracy of decision-making, and time deviated from route due to choosing a wrong path at junction. Cultural differences were also significant in the prediction of the time deviated from route. It was also found that the participants were using maps to derived route information for wayfinding. They utilized structural matching of the map with the terrain, by orientation principle, to continuously check the current position on the map. There was some evidence of participants gaining survey knowledge from the map during wayfinding but this could not be confirmed by the study. A set of design guidelines were given for map and trail design to improve the wayfinding performance of recreational users. / Master of Science

When the target of a reaching movement is displaced suddenly, people update their movement to take account of the jump, correcting their trajectory online to end the movement at the new target location. These corrections are initiated too rapidly to be conscious, and occur when they are uninstructed (Pisella et al., 2000) or the participant is unaware of the change in location (Goodale et al., 1986). These findings have been taken as evidence that fast corrections occur automatically, and the spatial updating of reach trajectories has become known as the ‘automatic pilot’ (Pisella et al., 2000). This thesis set out to investigate the cognitive, attentional and neurological aspects of the automatic pilot, in three series of related experiments, all employing a double-step reaching task. Experiments 1 - 4 investigated how strongly automatic reach corrections are, by manipulating the influence of conscious intention and cognitive load. These experiments confirmed that the automatic pilot is at most weakly automatic, as correction efficiency is enhanced by an explicit instruction to follow target jumps and, conversely, corrections can be overridden by an intention to resist them. However, voluntary inhibition of the automatic pilot can be disrupted by placing participants under heavy cognitive load, whilst voluntary enhancement is unaffected by this manipulation. Thus, voluntary suppression of the automatic pilot is effortful, but enhancement towards greater responsiveness is seemingly effortless. Experiments 5 - 8 explored the properties of the visual target displacement that drive the automatic pilot response in a double-step reaching task. These experiments demonstrate that correction efficiency is lawfully related to jump salience, but that the onset of the new target location drives correction responses more powerfully than the offset of the original target. However, the maximal correction rates obtained from a simultaneous onset and offset, were too great to be attributed simply to the additive influences of onsets and offsets. The onset and offset components of the target jump are thus synergistic. It is suggested that this reflects the contribution of an apparent motion signal induced by simultaneous onset and offsets, which strongly drives the automatic pilot system. Experiment 9 examined an asymmetry in correction efficiency, favouring rightward over leftward target jumps, evident throughout the earlier experiments. Correction efficiency was assessed for right- and left-handed participants responding to rightward and leftward target jumps. The pattern of results indicated that each hand is advantaged for responding to ipsilaterallydirected jumps, which may reflect biomechanical or hemispheric compatibility effects. However, there was also an overall differential advantage for rightward jumps, which was independent of handedness, or hand used. This suggests a left-hemispheric advantage for automatic correction behaviour, independent of handedness. Finally, Experiments 10 - 14 considered whether the automatic pilot deficit in optic ataxia is simply a manifestation of the more general misreaching deficit. Across several different target conditions, the pattern of online correction in optic ataxia refuted a simple misreaching explanation, suggesting that it is a specific functional consequence of dorsal stream damage.

Human functional laterality, typically involving a right-sided preference in most sensory-motor activities, is still a poorly understood issue. This is perhaps particularly true in terms of what underlying mechanisms that may govern lateral biases, as well as the developmental origins and course of events. The present thesis aims at investigating functional asymmetries in the upper and lower body movements of young human infants. In Study I, the presence of side biases in the stepping and placing responses and head turning in healthy fullterm newborns were explored. No evident lateral bias for the leg responses in terms of the first foot moved or direction of head turning was found. However, a lateral bias was revealed for onset latency in relation to the first foot moved in both stepping and placing. Asymmetries in head turning did not correspond to asymmetries in leg movements. In Study II, functional asymmetries in the stepping response of newborn infants were investigated in more detail by means of 3-D kinematic movement registration. Evident side differences were found in relation to smoother movement trajectories of the right leg by means of less movement segmentation compared to the left leg. Side differences were also found in relation to intralimb coordination in terms of stronger ankle-knee couplings and smaller phase shifts in the right leg than the left. In Study III, using the same movement registration technique, the kinematics of left and right arm movements during goal-directed reaching in infants were prospectively studied over the ages 6, 9, 12, and 36 months. Main findings included side differences and developmental trends related to the segmentation of the reaching movements and the reaching trajectory, as well as the distribution of arm-hand-use frequency. The results from Study I and II are discussed in relation to underlying neural mechanisms for lateral biases in leg movements and the important role of a thorough methodology in investigating newborn responses. Findings from Study III are discussed in terms of what they imply about the developmental origins for hand preference. An emphasis is also put on developmental differences between fullterm and preterm infants. Overall, the studies of the present thesis show that an increased understanding of subtle expressions of early functional asymmetries in the upper and lower body movements of young infants may be gained by means of refined measurements. Furthermore, such knowledge may provide an insight into the underlying neural mechanisms subserving asymmetries in the movements of young infants. The present studies also add new information to the current understanding of the development of human lateralized functions, in particular the findings derived from the longitudinal data. Apart from theoretical implications, the present thesis also involves a discussion with regard to the clinical relevance of investigating functional asymmetries in the movements of young infants.

1 Title: Manifestation of cerebellar dominance in the form of extinction physiological syndrome on upper and lower limbs and its relationship to human laterality. Objectives: The aim of this diploma thesis is to determinate size of relationship between manifestation of cerebellar dominance in the form of extinction physiological syndrome and preference of limbs. Methods: A total of 27 individuals (male and female students of UK FTVS) were involved in the current quantitative research. We used indicators which were selected from Musalek's test battery (2013) to assess limb preferences. The evaluation of joint passivity asymmetry was based on angle and time parameters during walk and during controlled falls of forearm and shank on a constructed fall-machine. The movement was registered in real time by Qualisys Motion Capture System. For data analysis, descriptive statistics methods, paired t-test, level of statistical and substantive significance (Cohen's d) and tetrachoric coefficient of correlation were used. Results: Our research suggests that there is no significant difference in joint passivity when comparing preferred and non preferred limbs. Though it is necessary to take into consideration specifics and the size of research sample in which everybody was an active athlete. The result of tetrachoric...

Cette thèse a pour thème l'étude les mécanismes neurocognitifs impliqués dans la détermination de la latéralité intrinsèque d'objets. Dans une première étude, nous avons montré qu'une projection de son propre schéma corporel sur un objet est nécessaire pour en différencier la gauche de la droite. Cette inscription corporelle fut observée aussi bien pour des stimuli humains que non humains, suggérant que la présence d'axes intrinsèques à l'objet est suffisante pour y permettre la projection du corps. Une seconde étude nous a permis de mieux comprendre les mécanismes neuronaux de l'inscription corporelle, en utilisant une tâche de comparaison de formes identiques ou miroir différemment orientées. Les stimuli étaient soit des corps humains, soit des assemblages de cubes. La magnetoencephalographie (MEG) révéla une implication du lobe pariétal supérieur gauche dans l'incarnation et la transformation spatiale des deux stimuli. Par ailleurs, une contribution de l'aire motrice supplémentaire fut observée dans le cas des cubes. Ainsi, nous proposons de considérer le lobe pariétal supérieur comme le substrat neural d'un émulateur utilisant le schéma corporel afin d'encoder la latéralité d'un objet et de prédire les conséquences visuelles d'une transformation spatiale. La contribution additionnelle de l'aire motrice supplémentaire a probablement facilité la transformation de formes non familières, par l'envoi d'une commande motrice à l'émulateur visant à accroître la cohérence de l'objet tourné mentalement. Ces interprétations supportent l'idée d'une cognition incarnée dans les actions corporelles. / The aim of this thesis was to study the neurocognitive mechanisms implicated in the determination of objects intrinsic handedness. In a first study, we evidenced that distinguishing the left from the right of an object requires a mental projection of the body schema onto the stimulus. This embodiment process occured for human and non human stimuli as well, suggesting that the mere presence of intrinsic axes on stimulus enables the bodily projection. In a second study, we explored the neural mechanisms underlying embodiment in a handedness shape matching task, using human bodies and cubes assemblies as stimuli with different orientations. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) revealed that the left superior parietal lobe participated in the embodiment and spatial transformation of both stimuli. In addition, we observed a contribution of the supplementary motor area for cube assemblies specifically. Therefore, we consider the superior parietal lobe as the neural substrate of an emulator processing the body schema to encode handedness and to predict the visual consequences of a spatial transformation. Besides, the additional contribution of the supplementary motor area probably helped the spatial transformation of unfamiliar shapes by backpropagating a motor command to the emulator to increase cohesiveness of the mentally rotated object. These interpretations support the grounding of cognition in bodily actions.