Impaired perception of a partner's synchronizing behavior reduces positive attitude toward humanoid robot in schizophrenia patients.

As interpersonal synchrony plays a key role in building rapport, the perception of another agent's synchronizing behavior could be an important feature to assess, especially with patients with social deficits such as in schizophrenia. Twenty-four schizophrenia patients and twenty-four matched healthy controls performed jointly fitness movements with another agent embodied by a humanoid robot which was programmed to either synchronize with the participants or move at a fixed frequency with them. Self-report of participants' perception of the robot's synchronizing behavior was collected after each interaction.

Leg movements affect speech intensity.

Coordination between speech acoustics and manual gestures has been conceived as "not biologically mandated" (McClave E. 27(1): 69-89, 1998). However, recent work suggests a biomechanical entanglement between the upper limbs and the respiratory-vocal system (Pouw W, de Jonge-Hoekstra D, Harrison SJ, Paxton A, Dixon JA.

Effects of unintentional coordination on attentional load.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of unintentional (spontaneous) coordination on high attentional visual load. More precisely, we wondered whether such coordination could free up some attentional resources and help improve performance in other more demanding attentional tasks. An experiment was performed in which participant attentional allocation was challenged by performing three tasks simultaneously while simultaneously being induced to unintentional entrain to an environmental rhythm.

Speech breathing: variable but individual over time and according to limb movements.

Breathing is variable but also highly individual. Since the 1980s, evidence of a ventilatory personality has been observed in different physiological studies. This original term refers to within-speaker consistency in breathing characteristics across days or even years.

Transient hyperthermia protects against subsequent seizures and epilepsy-induced cell damage in the rat.

Many mild preconditioning stress conditions, including physical and metabolic injuries, increase the resistance of neurons to subsequent more severe stresses of the same or different type. This "tolerance phenomenon" lasts one to several weeks, providing a unique opportunity to investigate endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms. The aim of this study was to find a physiological and easily applicable preconditioning stimulus able to confer protection against convulsant-induced neuronal damage and seizures.