Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Performance motor errors trigger animals’ adaptive learning behaviors to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the movement. The cerebellum is one of the key brain centers for encoding motor performance and motor learning. Climbing fibers relay information related to motor errors to the cerebellar cortex, evoking elevation of intracellular Ca2+ signals at Purkinje cell dendrites and inducing plasticity at coactive parallel fiber synapses, ultimately recalibrating sensorimotor associations to alter behavior. Molecular layer interneurons (MLIs) inhibit Purkinje cells to modulate dendritic excitability and action potential output. How MLIs contribute to the regulation and encoding of climbing fiber-evoked adaptive movements remains poorly understood. In this dissertation, I used genetic tools to manipulate the activity of MLIs while monitoring Purkinje cell dendritic activity during a cerebellum-dependent motor learning task with different contexts to evaluate how MLIs are involved in this process. The results show that by suppressing dendritic Ca2+ signals in Purkinje cells, MLI activity coincident with climbing fiber-mediated excitation prevents the occurrence of learning when adaptation is not necessary. On the other hand, with error signals present, disinhibition onto Purkinje cells, mediated by MLI-MLI microcircuit, unlocked the ability of climbing fibers to induce plasticity and motor learning. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The prevalence of children with autism is increasing each year and so should services that can be rendered. One type of therapy that is utilized by a large portion of children with autism is Sensory Integration Therapy. Sensory integration is an essential part of normal functioning. Our nervous system takes in, filters, organizes, and makes use of motor and sensory information. This is the neurological process of sensory integration (Sensory Integration International, 1986). Sensory Integration Therapy takes that premise and provides sensory stimulating activities that will enhance the child's performance in certain areas of life. Its use on children with autism has grown tremendously in the last several years. The support for Sensory Integration Therapy has primarily been in the form of testimonials. Though empirical evidence supporting the use of Sensory Integration is lacking, it continues to be used by many parents. In an effort to better understand parents, this study investigated their perceptions of Sensory Integration Therapy and its negative and positive impact on their child with autism.

Sensorimotor integration refers to the process of combining incoming sensory information with outgoing motor commands to control movement. Short-Latency Afferent Inhibition (SAI), Long-Latency Afferent Inhibition (LAI) and Afferent Facilitation (AF) are three neurophysiological measures collected using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to assess sensorimotor integration in humans. No studies to date have investigated the influence of tactile discrimination training on these measures. This study aimed to determine whether SAI, LAI, and AF are modulated following training on a custom-designed sensorimotor task which required participants to use their sense of touch to successfully navigate 3D printed maze with interchangeable paths. The maze training was separated into “high difficulty” and “low difficult” conditions which reflected the tactile challenge embedded within the maze. On an additional visit, no maze training was performed to serve as a control condition. Despite evidence of performance improvements during training, there were no significant changes in SAI, LAI or AF following training in either condition. Further, there was no correlation between the % change in SAI/LAI and improvements in total dwell time on the maze. As the functional significance of these measures is still unclear, these findings suggest that changes in SAI, LAI or AF may not be a valid metric to measure meaningful or functional changes related to skills or performance improvements induced by training. / Thesis / Master of Science in Kinesiology / Sensorimotor integration refers to the combination of incoming sensory information with outgoing motor commands in the nervous system to control movement. Short- Latency Afferent Inhibition, Long-Latency Afferent Inhibition and Afferent Facilitation are three measures that probe sensorimotor integration in humans using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Although these measures have been well studied in both healthy and clinical populations in a variety of contexts, the influence of sensorimotor training on these measures remains unclear. This thesis aimed to determine if SAI, LAI and AF change following training on a novel tactile discrimination maze task. Further, the relationship between changes in sensorimotor integration and improvements in maze performance was explored. SAI, LAI and AF were not shown to be influenced by training, and there was no association between the changes in these measures and improvements in maze performance.

No description available.

The sensorimotor theory is an influential, non-mainstream account of perception and perceptual consciousness intended to improve in various ways on orthodox theories. It is often taken to be a variety of enactivism, and in common with enactivist cognitive science more generally, it de-emphasises the theoretical role played by internal representation and other purely neural processes, giving theoretical pride of place instead to interactive engagements between the brain, non-neural body and outside environment. In addition to offering a distinctive account of the processing that underlies perceptual consciousness, the sensorimotor theory aims to offer a new and improved account the logical and phenomenological character of perceptual experience, and the relation between physical and phenomenal states. Since its inception in a 2001 paper by O'Regan and Noë, the theory has prompted a good deal of increasingly prominent theoretical and practical work in cognitive science, as well as a large body of secondary literature in philosophy of cognitive science and philosophy of perception. In spite of its influential character, many of the theory's most basic tenets are incompletely or ambiguously defined, and it has attracted a number of prominent objections. This thesis aims to clarify the conceptual foundations of the sensorimotor theory, including the key theoretical concepts of sensorimotor contingency, sensorimotor mastery, and presence-as-access, and defends a particular understanding of the respective theoretical roles of internal representation and behavioural capacities. In so doing, the thesis aims to highlight the sensorimotor theory's virtues and defend it from some leading criticisms, with particular attention to a response by Clark which claims that perception and perceptual experience plausibly depend on the activation of representations which are not intimately involved in bodily engagements between the agent and environment. A final part of the thesis offers a sensorimotor account of the experience of temporally extended events, and shows how with reference to this we can better understand object experience.

Thesis (MOccTher)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As a South African occupational therapist (OT) trained to provide occupational therapy using a sensory integration approach (OT/SI), to children and their families, I have personal experience of different parent perceptions and experiences regarding OT/SI as a treatment approach to improving their children’s occupational performance. This made me question the various factors that may influence a parent’s perceptions and experiences, and how these factors may ultimately influence the outcome of OT/SI intervention for the child and family. Additionally, I wanted to know what OT/SI intervention was like for parents of a child with difficulties processing and integrating sensory information and what changes should be made to ensure we are meeting both child and parents’ needs. To date, no research exists regarding parents’ perceptions and experiences of OT/SI intervention in South Africa. Despite this, OT/SI intervention is widely used among South African paediatric occupational therapists. This study focused on the lived experience of OT/SI intervention for parents in the Western Cape, South Africa. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe South African parents’ perceptions and experiences of OT/SI intervention received. This study not only sought to explore whether parents thought OT/SI intervention was valuable or not, but also to understand the meaning, the broader context and the process by which parent’s opinions had come into being, and how these may have influenced the meaning ascribed to the intervention. The study sample consisted of nine parents, including mothers and a father, of children with difficulties processing and integrating sensory information, who lived in various regions of the Western Cape, South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to select participants in this study. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach, data was collected during face=to=face interviews, participant observation and researcher’s field notes. Four themes that pertain to the aims of the study were revealed during the analysis. They included: “It was tough because we didn’t understand”, “Just suddenly everything made so much sense”, “Mobilized my child into the world”, and “OT/SI intervention facilitators proposed by participants”. These themes describe the progression of the participant’s perceptions and experiences before OT/SI intervention, during intervention, and after having received the intervention, as well as the recommendations they proposed to facilitate OT/SI intervention in South Africa. I found that factors such as poor awareness and understanding of OT/SI intervention amongst the participants negatively influenced their understanding of their child’s occupational performance, their role as parents and their social performance as a family in various social contexts. Key points of transformation were identified during the ‘input phase’ of OT/SI intervention, which either facilitated or created a barrier in the participants’ shift to the ‘after phase’ of OT/SI intervention. Despite the barriers, all participants perceived and experienced a shift to the ‘after phase’ of OT/SI intervention. For some participants, this shift included changes they perceived in their child, which influenced social performance of the child and family. However, for the majority of participants, this shift meant a number of factors: a better understanding and expectations of their child; changes in their child’s abilities, activities and self=worth; changes in themselves as parents and how this influenced their parent=child relationship; as well as changes in their child’s and family’s social performance in various contexts. Insight gained from the participants’ recommendations and my interpretation of findings, allowed recommendations to be made in an attempt to overcome the barriers and promote the facilitators that will make a difference to OT/SI intervention in South Africa. Recommendations were made within two contexts: the broader social context of South Africa and the context of OT/SI intervention received by children and their parents. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: As ‘n Suid=Afrikaanse arbeidsterapeut (AT), opgelei om arbeidsterapie met ‘n sensoriese integrasie benadering (AT=SI) te verskaf aan kinders en hul families, het ek persoonlike ondervinding van verskeie ouers se persepsies en ervarings omtrent AT=SI as ‘n behandelingsbenadering om die kind se arbeidsprestasie te bevorder. Dit het my laat wonder watter faktore die ouer se persepsies en ervarings sou beïnvloed, asook hoe hierdie faktore die uitkoms van die AT=SI behandeling vir die kind en die familie sou beïnvloed. Ek wou ook uitvind hoe die ouer van ‘n kind met SIA (SID), AT=SI intervensie beleef het en watter veranderinge behoort aangebring te word om te verseker dat beide die kind en die ouers se behoeftes nagekom word. Tot dusver bestaan daar geen navorsing aangaande die ouer se persepsies en ervarings van AT=SI intervensie in Suid=Afrika nie. Ten spyte hiervan word AT=SI alom gebruik deur pediatriese arbeidsterapeute in Suid=Afrika. Hierdie studie fokus dus op ouers se persoonlike ervaring van AT= SI intervensie in die Wes=Kaap, Suid=Afrika. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die persepsies en ervarings van Suid=Afrikaanse ouers wat AT= SI intervensie ontvang het, te ondersoek. Hierdie studie het nie net gepoog om vas te stel of die ouers gedink het dat AT=SI waardevol was aldan nie, maar ook om die betekenis, die breër konteks, en die proses waardeur hul opinies gevorm is en hoe dit hulle beïnvloed het, te verstaan. Die steekproef het bestaan uit nege ouers, insluitend moeders en ‘n vader, van kinders met SIA (SID), woonagtig in verskillende streke in die Wes=Kaap, Suid=Afrika. ‘n Doelgerigte steekproef is gebruik om die deelnemers vir die studie te kies. ‘n Kwalitatiewe=fenomenologiese benadering is gebruik om data in te samel deur aangesig=tot=aangesig onderhoude, waarneming van deelnemers, asook die navorser se veldnotas. Vier temas wat direk verwant was aan die doelwitte van die studie, is tydens die analise van die data geïdentifiseer. Dit het die volgende ingesluit: “Dit was moeilik want ons het nie verstaan nie”, “Ewe skielik het alles so baie sin gemaak”, “My kind in die wêreld gemobiliseer ”, “AT=SI intervensie fasiliteerders voorgestel deur die deelnemers”. Hierdie temas beskryf die vordering van die deelnemers se persepsies en ervarings voor die aanvang van AT=SI intervensie, gedurende die intervensie en ook nadat intervensie voltooi is, asook die aanbevelings wat hulle gemaak het om AT=SI intervensie in Suid=Afrika te fasiliteer. Ek het bevind dat faktore soos deelnemers se swak bewustheid en begrip van AT=SI intervensie, hul begrip van hul kind se arbeidsprestasie, hul rol as ouers en hul sosiale optrede as ‘n familie in verskeie sosiale kontekste, negatief beïnvloed het. Kernpunte van verandering is geïdentifiseer gedurende die ‘inset=fase’ van die AT=SI intervensie, wat die deelnemers se vordering na die ‘na= fase’ van AT=SI intervensie òf gefasiliteer het, òf bemoeilik het. Ten spyte van die struikelblokke het alle deelnemers ‘n skuif na die ‘na=fase’ van AT=SI intervensie waargeneem en ervaar. Vir sommige deelnemers was hierdie skuif die veranderde optrede wat hulle in hul kind waargeneem het, wat die kind en familie se sosiale gedrag verander het. Vir die meerderheid deelnemers het hierdie skuif egter ‘n aantal faktore ingesluit: ‘n beter begrip en verwagting van hulle kind; veranderinge in hulle kind se vermoëns, aktiwiteite en eiewaarde; veranderinge in hulself as ouers en hoe dit hul ouer=kind verhouding beïnvloed het; asook veranderinge in die kind en familie se sosiale gedrag in verskeie kontekste. Die deelnemers se voorstelle en my interpretasie van die bevindinge het my in staat gestel om voorstelle te maak om die struikelblokke te probeer oorkom en die fasiliteerders aan te moedig wat die verskil gaan maak in AT=SI intervensie in Suid=Afrika. Aanbevelings is gemaak vir twee areas: die wyer sosiale konteks van Suid=Afrika, asook die konteks van die AT=SI intervensie wat ontvang word deur kinders en hulle ouers.

La respiration est une activité motrice autonome rythmique au cours de laquelle de nombreux muscles se contractent de manière coordonnée afin de produire des mouvements ventilatoires adaptés aux contraintes environnementales et aux exigences de l'organisme. Cette fonction vitale doit être fiable et adaptable à très court terme, c’est pourquoi elle est influencée, entre autres, par un grand nombre d’activités motrices. Par exemple, lors d’exercices physiques, le rythme respiratoire peut se coupler au rythme locomoteur. Les objectifs de ce travail doctoral sont centrés sur l’exploration des mécanismes neurogènes à la base du couplage entre ces deux fonctions motrices chez le rat nouveau-né. Pour une grande partie, cette étude a été réalisée sur préparation isolée in vitro de tronc cérébral-moelle épinière de rat nouveau-né (0 à 3 jours), ce modèle permettant de conserver dans leur intégrité les centres responsables des rythmes respiratoire et locomoteur. Compte tenu de l’accessibilité directe aux réseaux neuronaux, les mécanismes de couplage et d'entraînement respiratoire ont été abordés par des approches combinées électrophysiologique, neuroanatomique, pharmacologique et lésionnelle. Dans ce contexte, un des principaux résultats de ce travail doctoral est le rôle crucial joué par les informations sensorielles en provenance des membres antérieurs et postérieurs dans l'entraînement respiratoire observé lors de séquences locomotrices. Ainsi, les afférences proprioceptives spinales capables de réinitialiser et d'entraîner l’activité des centres respiratoires bulbaires via un relais pontique, établissent également des connexions sur l’ensemble des populations de motoneurones spinaux respiratoires phréniques, intercostaux et abdominaux. / Respiration is an autonomous rhythmic motor activity that requires the coordinated contractions of diverse muscles to produce ventilatory movements adapted to organismal needs. This crucial physiological function must be reliable and adaptable on a short-term basis, and requires coordianted movements with various other motor activities. For instance, respiratory rhythmicity becomes coupled to locomotion during physical exercise. My doctoral work aimed to explore the neurogenic mechanisms underlying the interactions between these two motor functions in the neonatal rat. This work was mainly conducted on isolated in vitro brain stem-spinal cord preparations of newborn rats (0-3 days), an experimental model that allows the maintenance of the still functional respiratory and locomotor CPGs in vitro. Due to the easy access to the neuronal networks in these preparations, locomotor-respiratory coupling and respiratory entrainment mechanisms were investigated by combined electrophysiological, neuroanatomical, pharmacological and lesional approaches. A major finding was the crucial played by sensory information from fore- and hindlimb in respiratory entrainment induced by locomotor rythmicity. Spinal sensory afferents can reset and entrain the activity of the medullary respiratory centres via a pontine relay, as well as making direct connections with the various spinal respiratory motoneuron (phrenic, intercostal and abdominal) populations.

La crampe de l'écrivain est la forme la plus fréquente de dystonies de fonction. Elle se caractérise par l’apparition de contractions musculaires involontaires et soutenues aboutissant à une perturbation sévère de l’écriture. Cette dernière est une tâche motrice séquentielle complexe nécessitant un contrôle continu des informations proprioceptives afin d’adapter la position du membre supérieur et la pression des doigts sur le stylo au cours de l’activité motrice. Dans ce travail de thèse nous avons postulé que l’élément fondamental de la physiopathologie de la crampe de l’écrivain est un trouble de l’intégration sensori-motrice. Pour tester cette hypothèse, nous avons utilisé deux tâches comportementales n’induisant pas de symptôme dystonique. Le sujet devait exécuter une séquence motrice, soit de façon spontanée (tâche SGT), soit sur la base d’une séquence de stimulation tactile précédemment apprise (ST). Les modifications d’activité cérébrale au cours de ces deux tâches ont été étudiées par couplage des techniques d’imagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle (IRMf) et d’électroencéphalographie quantitative (EEGq). Nos résultats suggèrent qu’en l’absence de symptôme dystonique, les patients atteints de crampe de l’écrivain présentent une altération de leur performance motrice dans les deux tâches. Durant l’analyse des informations proprioceptives, l’IRMf montre qu’il existe une diminution du signal Bold au niveau du cortex somesthésique primaire, de l’aire motrice supplémentaire (AMS) et du cortex pariétal. Les données d’EEGq révèlent une diminution de la désynchronisation β (DLEβ) au niveau de l’AMS et celles de la cohérence intra-corticale des perturbations du fonctionnement des réseaux pariéto-prémoteurs. Durant la phase motrice, l’IRMf ne révèle aucune différence inter-groupe, mais l’EEGq montre une augmentation de la DLEβ dans les régions pariétales postérieures pour la situation SGT, associée à une augmentation de cohérence intra-corticale. Après l’exécution du mouvement, des anomalies de synchronisation β (SLEβ) sont également retrouvées dans les deux tâches. Ces données montrent qu’il existe chez les patients présentant une crampe de l’écrivain, des perturbations de l’analyse séquentielle des informations proprioceptives, ainsi que des anomalies de l’intégration sensori-motrice. Elles sont en rapport avec une altération des relations fonctionnelles entre les cortex pariétaux et prémoteurs. Ces éléments expliquent pourquoi ces patients au cours de l’écriture ont des difficultés à élaborer une réponse motrice adaptée sur la base d’information proprioceptive séquentielle. / Writer's cramp is the most frequent form of task-specific dystonia. It is characterized by excessive and inappropriate muscle activation resulting in severe disturbance of writing. Writing is a complex sequential motor task requiring the on-line continuous monitoring of proprioceptive information to adjust the position of the upper limb and finger pressure on the pen. In this experimental work, we postulated that the main feature in the pathophysiology of writer's cramp is a sensorimotor integration disorder. To test this hypothesis, we used two behavioral tasks that does not induce dystonic symptoms. The subject performed a motor sequence, either spontaneously (SGT task), or on the basis of a sequence of proprioceptive stimuli previously presented (ST). Changes in brain activity during both tasks were studied by coupling functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG). Our results show that writer's cramp patients had impaired motor performances in both tasks whereas they did not exhibit any dystonic symptoms. During the analysis of proprioceptive information, fMRI shows a Bold signal decrease in the primary somatosensory cortex, the supplementary motor area (SMA) and parietal cortex. EEGq data revealed a decrease of β desynchronization (βERD) in SMA and intra-cortical coherence a disruption of the functional connectivity of parieto-premotor networks. During the motor phase, fMRI reveals no between-group difference, but EEGq showed an increase of βERD in the posterior parietal regions for the SGT task associated with an increased intra-cortical coherence. During the post-movement period, abnormal β synchronization (βERS) is also found in both tasks. This data shows that writer's cramp patient exhibited a disruption in the sequential analysis of proprioceptive information, as well as abnormalities in sensorymotor integration during motor planning. These features are related to an alteration of the functional relationships between the parietal and premotor cortices. These phenomenons explain why writer's cramp patient fail to develop an appropriate motor response on the basis of sequential proprioceptive information, as in writing.

This study examines whether forming a single identity is crucial to learning to bind faces and voices, or if people are equally able to do so without tying this information to an identity. To test this, individuals learned paired faces and voices that were in one of three different conditions: True voice, Gender Matched, or Gender Mismatched conditions. Performance was measured in a training phase as well as a test phase, and results show that participants were able to learn more quickly and have higher overall performance for learning in the True Voice and Gender Matched conditions. During the test phase, performance was almost at chance in the Gender Mismatched condition which may mean that learning in the training phase was simply memorization of the pairings for this condition. Results support the hypothesis that learning to bind faces and voices is a process that involves forming a supramodal identity from multisensory learning. / by Meredith Davidson. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.