Publications by authors named "Nozomi Tomita"
Article Synopsis
- - The Ohta Nishinouchi Hospital established a trauma protocol in 2013 aimed at improving outcomes for patients with severe trunk trauma, but its effectiveness had not been thoroughly evaluated until this study.
- - The study analyzed data from 4,558 trauma patients treated between 2004 and 2019, using interrupted time-series analysis (ITSA) to assess in-hospital mortality rates before and after the protocol implementation.
- - While ITSA showed no significant change in mortality rates, logistic regression analysis indicated that the protocol likely contributed to a reduction in in-hospital deaths, suggesting a more detailed analysis method is needed for future assessments.
Article Synopsis
- * The study tested whether transcranial static magnetic field stimulation (tSMS) could lower rFPA activity and reduce SFA during speech tasks in university students with social anxiety.
- * Results showed that tSMS successfully decreased rFPA activity and SFA related to bodily sensations, while also improving perspectives focused on the external environment, suggesting tSMS could be a potential treatment for SAD.
Background: Self-focused attention (SFA) is a major maintenance factor of social anxiety disorder. The two types of SFA, the observer perspective and self-focus on body sensation, increase anxiety in individuals with high levels of social anxiety. However, the triggers of each SFA remain unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to investigate the neurocognitive effects of the Attention Training Technique (ATT) on brain activity in healthy participants. The participants included 20 university students who were asked to practice ATT as a homework assignment for 20 days. The intracerebral source localization of their electroencephalogram during rest and the ATT task, which comprised selective attention, attention switching, and divided attention conditions, was evaluated by standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial anxiety disorder is characterized by a marked fear and avoidance of social situations or a fear of being evaluated by others. Although training for top-down attentional control has been an effective treatment for social anxiety disorder, few studies have demonstrated that individuals with social anxiety have top-down attentional dysfunction. This study used dichotic listening (DL) tasks to investigate the relationship between social anxiety and top-down attentional control over relevant brain activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- * Participants underwent brain scanning while performing various cognitive tasks, revealing different regions of the brain were active for each task, indicating that DL tasks assess specific cognitive functions.
- * The lack of correlation between task performance (accuracy and response times) suggests that these tasks evaluate distinct cognitive abilities, which may help in understanding various psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Article Synopsis
- Humans and animals adjust their walking rhythms to adapt to changing environments, and the neural mechanism behind this has been studied, but detailed evaluations of rhythm changes due to disturbances at different times are limited.
- The study explores the Phase Response Curve (PRC) of human walking in response to variations in floor velocity, specifically using a new method called the Weighted Spike-Triggered Average (WSTA) for better precision.
- The research finds that using the WSTA method leads to clearer and more stable PRC waveforms compared to traditional methods and reveals that rhythm changes are observed during the touchdown and mid-single support phases of walking.
Article Synopsis
- Human standing involves natural body sway, which is observed to be greater than what simple noise would suggest, and is affected by neurological disorders.
- The study theorizes that this substantial sway arises from intermittent nonlinear control, which can undergo transitions influenced by environmental stability, potentially explaining changes seen in those with neurological issues.
- Mathematical modeling reveals that such nonlinear control can demonstrate Hopf bifurcation and that noise may help moderate sway variations, aligning model predictions with real-life observations of human sway on different floor types.
Human walking behaviour adaptation strategies have previously been examined using split-belt treadmills, which have two parallel independently controlled belts. In such human split-belt treadmill walking, two types of adaptations have been identified: early and late. Early-type adaptations appear as rapid changes in interlimb and intralimb coordination activities when the belt speeds of the treadmill change between tied (same speed for both belts) and split-belt (different speeds for each belt) configurations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- A walking motion relies on two types of control: feedforward for rhythmic movement and feedback for adjusting to changes in the environment.
- The study utilized uncontrolled manifold (UCM) analysis to assess how variations in body segment movements during walking could indicate feedback control mechanisms.
- Findings revealed that fluctuations in the coordination between body segments were smaller compared to other movement characteristics, suggesting that intersegmental coordination plays a crucial role in controlling walking.
Hysteresis in the metachronal-tripod gait transition of insects: a modeling study.
Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
July 2013
Article Synopsis
- The study explores how insects change their gaits based on locomotion speed, revealing a phenomenon called hysteresis during these transitions.
- A neuromechanical model of an insect is created to simulate and analyze the dynamic interactions between its body mechanics, nervous system, and environment.
- The results show that the insect can produce different gaits, such as metachronal and tripod, and undergoes transitions between them with hysteresis depending on speed changes.
Article Synopsis
- Obstacle avoidance is crucial for smooth locomotion, and muscle activities during this process can be explained by a few basic movement patterns alongside additional ones specifically for obstacle navigation.
- The study utilized a neuromusculoskeletal model of rats, based on anatomical and physiological data, to explore how sensory-motor coordination aids in avoiding obstacles with hindlimbs.
- Findings indicate that phase regulation linked to interlimb coordination helps with overcoming taller obstacles, while phase resetting is important for quick recovery after navigating an obstacle, highlighting the role of sensory regulation in successful locomotion.
Article Synopsis
- Quadrupeds change their walking patterns based on speed, with transitions showing a phenomenon called hysteresis, which is not yet fully understood.
- Researchers used a robotic model of a quadruped to study these gait changes and their stability during the shift from walking to trotting.
- The experiments suggested that the interactions between the robot's mechanics, its nervous system model, and the environment play a crucial role in gait changes and that the walk-trot transition features hysteresis, similar to what is observed in real dogs.
Article Synopsis
- Modern science often separates humans from nature, treating it as an object, which oversimplifies its complexity and limits our understanding.
- Many real-world problems are too intricate for current scientific methods, especially in areas like information processing and motion control systems, which struggle with unpredictable environments.
- To effectively navigate these complexities, life systems must develop autonomy to generate the information necessary for self-control, enabling them to adapt and thrive in dynamic surroundings, as exemplified by adaptive bipedal walking.
Article Synopsis
- The review focuses on understanding normal gait and the causes of gait failure in conditions like Parkinson's disease, highlighting the role of the basal ganglia in movement control.
- It discusses how Parkinson's affects both voluntary and automatic movement processes, leading to issues such as muscle rigidity and postural instability that impair walking ability.
- The authors propose that effective bipedal gait relies on complex neural networks, proper muscle tone, and efficient sensory processing, suggesting that dysfunction in these areas contributes to movement disorders.