Kinematic pelvic tilt during gait alters functional cup position in total hip arthroplasty.

Static pelvic tilt impacts functional cup position in total hip arthroplasty (THA). In the current study we investigated the effect of kinematic pelvic changes on cup position. In the course of a prospective controlled trial postoperative 3D-computed tomography (CT) and gait analysis before and 6 and 12 months after THA were obtained in 60 patients.

Regarding loads after spinal fusion, every level should be seen separately: a musculoskeletal analysis.

Introduction: The number of spinal fusion surgeries is steadily increasing and biomechanical consequences are still in debate. The aim of this study is to provide biomechanical insights into the sagittal balance of the spine and to compare spinal load before and after spinal fusion.

Method: The joint reaction forces of 52 patients were analyzed in proximo-distal and antero-posterior direction from the levels T12-L1 to L5-S1 using musculoskeletal simulations.

A numerical study to determine the effect of ligament stiffness on kinematics of the lumbar spine during flexion.

Background: There is a wide range of mechanical properties of spinal ligaments documented in literature. Due to the fact that ligaments contribute in stabilizing the spine by limiting excessive intersegmental motion, those properties are of particular interest for the implementation in musculoskeletal models. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of varying ligament stiffness on the kinematic behaviour of the lumbar spine.

Mental imagery of emotions: Electrophysiological evidence.

Affective stimuli such as emotional words, scenes or facial expressions elicit well-investigated emotional responses. For instance, two distinct event-related brain potentials (ERPs) have been reported in response to emotional facial expressions, the early posterior negativity (EPN), associated with enhanced attention and perception of affective stimuli, and a later centro-parietal positivity (LPP) that is taken to reflect evaluations of the intrinsic relevance of emotional stimuli. However, other rich sources of emotions that have as yet received little attention are internal mental events such as thoughts, memories and imagination.

Perceiving emotions in neutral faces: expression processing is biased by affective person knowledge.

According to a widely held view, basic emotions such as happiness or anger are reflected in facial expressions that are invariant and uniquely defined by specific facial muscle movements. Accordingly, expression perception should not be vulnerable to influences outside the face. Here, we test this assumption by manipulating the emotional valence of biographical knowledge associated with individual persons.