How about running on Mars? Influence of sensorimotor coherence on running and spatial perception in simulated reduced gravity.

Motor control, including locomotion, strongly depends on the gravitational field. Recent developments such as lower-body positive pressure treadmills (LBPPT) have enabled studies on Earth about the effects of reduced body weight (BW) on walking and running, up to 60% BW. The present experiment was set up to further investigate adaptations to a more naturalistic simulated hypogravity, mimicking a Martian environment with additional visual information during running sessions on LBPPT.

Neuromuscular adjustments to unweighted running: the increase in hamstring activity is sensitive to trait anxiety.

Originally developed for astronauts, lower body positive pressure treadmills (LBPPTs) are increasingly being used in sports and clinical settings because they allow for unweighted running. However, the neuromuscular adjustments to unweighted running remain understudied. They would be limited for certain lower limb muscles and interindividually variable.

Sensation Seeking and Adaptation in Parabonauts.

Evidence from extreme environments suggests that there are relationships between difficulties of adaptation and psychological factors such as personality. In the framework of microgravity research on humans, the aim of this exploratory study was to investigate inter-individual differences of parabonauts on the basis of quality of adaptation to the physical demands of parabolic flights. The personality characteristics of two groups of parabonauts with a different quality of adaptation (an Adaptive group, = 7, and a Maladaptive group, = 15) were assessed using the Sensation Seeking Scale, Brief COPE, and MSSQ-Short.

Impact of anxiety on verbal and visuospatial working memory in patients with acute stroke without severe cognitive impairment.

Background: Working memory is the most impaired cognitive domain in the acute phase of stroke. In a context where anxiety is highly prevalent, close attention must be paid to anxiety which could mimic mild to moderate working memory impairments. This is the first study to assess the contribution of state anxiety (the currently experienced level of anxiety) to the working memory (verbal, visuospatial) in patients with first-ever acute stroke without severe cognitive impairment.

Personality traits of people attracted by parabolic flight.

Background: Studies have shown that members of expeditions in extreme environments differed on the basis of personality factors (e.g., they were highly competitive, higher on Extraversion and Conscientiousness) compared to the control population.

Paradoxical state anxiety and working memory in a patient with acute stroke.

Objective: In view of the negative impact of anxiety on working memory, we induced anxiety in 26 patients with acute stroke and 33 healthy controls, and studied how the anxiety affected their emotional reactivity and how the reactivity affected their verbal and visuospatial working memory. We compared the overall findings with those in 1 of our patients (C.B.

The time course of autonomic parameters and muscle tension during recovery following a moderate cognitive stressor: dependency on trait anxiety level.

It has proved difficult to demonstrate the differences in physiological response in individuals with contrasting trait anxiety levels. The purpose of this study was to examine tonic autonomic activity and muscle tension in male subjects with different levels of trait anxiety during and especially after a stressful situation. Twenty-eight low anxiety (LA) and thirty-one high anxiety (HA) individuals performed a video-recorded Stroop color-word interference test.

The trapezius muscle uniquely lacks adaptive process in response to a repeated moderate cognitive stressor.

The aim of this study was to examine the adaptive process of muscular responses in healthy subjects over two repeated exposures to the same moderate cognitive stressor. The electromyographic (EMG) activity of the flexor pollicis brevis, biceps brachii, triceps brachii, trapezius, gastrocnemius and soleus muscles was recorded in 35 males during video-recorded Stroop color-word interference tests. The results showed lower EMG activity in all muscles during the second exposure to the stressful task, but not in the trapezius muscle.

Vibrotactile pattern recognition: a portable compact tactile matrix.

Compact tactile matrix (CTM) is a vibrotactile device composed of a seven-by-seven array of electromechanical vibrators "tactip" used to represent tactile patterns applied to a small skin area. The CTM uses a dynamic feature to generate spatiotemporal tactile patterns. The design requirements focus particularly on maximizing the transmission of the vibration from one tactip to the others as well as to the skin over a square area of 16 cm (2) while simultaneously minimizing the transmission of vibrations throughout the overall structure of the CTM.

The role of trait anxiety on static balance performance in control and anxiogenic situations.

Recent studies have highlighted interactions between state anxiety, sensory processing involved in motor performance, and personality traits such as trait anxiety. In the present study, we investigated the effects of moderate state anxiety on static balance performance with eyes open and eyes closed in two groups of healthy subjects with contrasting trait anxiety. We found that an anxiogenic condition induces larger and faster body swaying in both groups in the eyes-open test.

Age-related differences in sensorimotor representation of space in drawing by hand.

Objective: To address the question of the space sensorimotor representation during hand-writing and its modifications with aging. We have chosen to study the drawing ellipses without visual guidance. We hypothesized that the decreased manual dexterity associated with aging could be attributed, in part, to the modification of space representation for action.

Mood states and anxiety influence abilities to maintain balance control in healthy human subjects.

Previous studies have shown that anxiety and balance disorders could be related; however, the association between psychological processes and equilibrium remains ambiguous. In this study, we have examined whether mood states and anxiety may influence the ability to use the somatosensory, visual and vestibular systems and affect balance control in healthy subjects. Seven male students were submitted to a program testing equilibrium over a 12-day period, during which moods and anxiety states were assessed using self-evaluated questionnaires.