There is growing evidence supporting a role for eye movements during autobiographical recall, but their potential functionality remains unclear. We hypothesise that the oculomotor system facilitates the process of mental scene construction, in which complex scenes associated with an autobiographical event are generated and maintained during recall. To explore this, we examined spontaneous eye movements during retrieval of cued autobiographical memories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Given that patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Freezing of Gait (FoG) may lack the cognitive resources necessary to activate the motor imagery (MI) process, investigating how to boost MI vividness and accuracy could be a valuable therapeutic strategy in MI Practice (MIP).
Objective: We aim to evaluate the priming effect of visual, or auditory, or attentional stimuli in enhancing MI ability by using quantitative data on gait and turning performance.
Methods: Nineteen PD participants with FoG underwent four one-week sessions of MIP, with pre and post clinical assessments.
Ann N Y Acad Sci
October 2024
Recent research on healthy individuals suggests that the valence of emotional stimuli influences behavioral reactions only when relevant to ongoing tasks, as they impact reaching arm movements and gait only when the emotional content cued the responses. However, it has been suggested that emotional expressions elicit automatic gaze shifting, indicating that oculomotor behavior might differ from that of the upper and lower limbs. To investigate, 40 participants underwent two Go/No-go tasks, an emotion discrimination task (EDT) and a gender discrimination task (GDT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe consider properties of dichroic antenna arrays on a silicon substrate with integrated cold-electron bolometers to detect radiation at frequencies of 210 and 240 GHz. This frequency range is widely used in cosmic microwave background experiments in space, balloon, and ground-based missions such as BICEP Array, LSPE, LiteBIRD, QUBIC, Simons Observatory, and AliCPT. As a direct radiation detector, we use cold-electron bolometers, which have high sensitivity and a wide operating frequency range, as well as immunity to spurious cosmic rays.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Assessing prior to surgery the functionality of brain areas exposed near the tumor requires a multimodal approach that combines the use of neuropsychological testing and fMRI tasks. Paradigms based on motor imagery, which corresponds to the ability to mentally evoke a movement, in the absence of actual action execution, can be used to test sensorimotor areas and the functionality of mental motor representations.
Methods: The most commonly used paradigm is the Limb Laterality Recognition Task (LLRT), requiring judgments about whether a limb belongs to the left or right side of the body.