Focus areas and methodological characteristics of North American-based health disparity research in sports medicine: a scoping review.

Objective: Health disparities are widely prevalent; however, little has been done to examine and address their causes and effects in sports and exercise medicine (SEM). We aimed to summarise the focus areas and methodology used for existing North American health disparity research in SEM and to identify gaps in the evidence base.

Design: Scoping review.

Sexual violence in sport: American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Position Statement.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) convened a group of experts to develop a Position Statement addressing the problem of sexual violence in sport. The AMSSM Sexual Violence in Sport Task Force held a series of meetings over 7 months, beginning in July 2019. Following a literature review, the Task Force used an iterative process and expert consensus to finalise the Position Statement.

Sexual Violence in Sport: American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Position Statement.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) convened a group of experts to develop a Position Statement addressing the problem of sexual violence in sport. The AMSSM Sexual Violence in Sport Task Force held a series of meetings over 7 months, beginning in July 2019. Following a literature review, the task force used an iterative process and expert consensus to finalize the Position Statement.

Sexual Violence in Sport: American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Position Statement.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) convened a group of experts to develop a Position Statement addressing the problem of sexual violence in sport. The AMSSM Sexual Violence in Sport Task Force held a series of meetings over 7 months, beginning in July 2019. Following a literature review, the task force used an iterative process and expert consensus to finalize the position statement.

Sexual Violence in Sport: American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Position Statement.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) convened a group of experts to develop a position statement addressing the problem of sexual violence in sport. The AMSSM Sexual Violence in Sport Task Force held a series of meetings over 7 months, beginning in July 2019. Following a literature review, the task force used an iterative process and expert consensus to finalize the position statement.

Representation of Behavioral Tactics and Tactics-Action Transformation in the Primate Medial Prefrontal Cortex.

Unlabelled: To expedite the selection of action under a structured behavioral context, we develop an expedient to promote its efficiency: tactics for action selection. Setting up a behavioral condition for subhuman primates (Macaca fuscata) that induced the development of a behavioral tactics, we explored neuronal representation of tactics in the medial frontal cortex. Here we show that neurons in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex, but not much in the medial premotor cortex, exhibit activity representing the behavioral tactics, in advance of action-selective activity.

Surprise signals in the supplementary eye field: rectified prediction errors drive exploration-exploitation transitions.

Visual search is coordinated adaptively by monitoring and predicting the environment. The supplementary eye field (SEF) plays a role in oculomotor control and outcome evaluation. However, it is not clear whether the SEF is involved in adjusting behavioral modes based on preceding feedback.

Representation of spatial- and object-specific behavioral goals in the dorsal globus pallidus of monkeys during reaching movement.

The dorsal aspect of the globus pallidus (GP) communicates with the prefrontal cortex and higher-order motor areas, indicating that it plays a role in goal-directed behavior. We examined the involvement of dorsal GP neurons in behavioral goal monitoring and maintenance, essential components of executive function. We trained two macaque monkeys to choose a reach target based on relative target position in a spatial goal task or a target shape in an object-goal task.

Two-dimensional representation of action and arm-use sequences in the presupplementary and supplementary motor areas.

The medial frontal cortex has been thought to be crucially involved in temporal structuring of behavior in monkeys and humans. We examined neuronal activity in the supplementary and presupplementary motor areas of monkeys to investigate how the nervous system deals with the coding of 16 motor sequences resulting from multiple actions involving bilateral use of the arms. We first found in both areas that this behavioral demand resulted in attribute-based representation of individual motor acts, reflecting functional (action) or anatomical (right/left arm) attributes.

Involvement of the globus pallidus in behavioral goal determination and action specification.

Multiple loop circuits interconnect the basal ganglia and the frontal cortex, and each part of the cortico-basal ganglia loops plays an essential role in neuronal computational processes underlying motor behavior. To gain deeper insight into specific functions played by each component of the loops, we compared response properties of neurons in the globus pallidus (GP) with those in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and the ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC and dlPFC) while monkeys performed a behavioral task designed to include separate processes for behavioral goal determination and action selection. Initially, visual signals instructed an abstract behavioral goal, and seconds later, a choice cue to select an action was presented.

Exercise at 65 and beyond.

Aging is characterized by increasing muscle loss, physical inactivity and frailty. Physical inactivity is known to be associated with increased incidence of obesity and many life-threatening chronic conditions. We know that exercise, through many factors including antiinflammatory effects and enhanced fitness, can help prevent and treat many chronic diseases as well as help maintain independent living.

Neurons in the cingulate motor area signal context-based and outcome-based volitional selection of action.

Volitional selection of action is subject to continuous adjustment under the influence of information obtained by monitoring behavioral consequences and by exploiting behavioral context based on prior knowledge about the environment. The rostral cingulate motor area (CMAr) is thought to be responsible for adjusting behavior by monitoring its consequences. To investigate whether the CMAr also plays a role in exploitation of behavioral context in action selection, we recorded neuronal activities from the CMAr while monkeys performed a reward-based motor selection task that required them to switch from one action to the other based on the amount of reward.

Goal-oriented, flexible use of numerical operations by monkeys.

Previous studies have shown that elementary aspects of numerical abilities have developed in non-human primates. In the present study, we explored the potential for the development of a novel ability in the use of numerical operations by macaque monkeys (Macaca fuscata): adequate selection of a series of numerical actions toward achieving a behavioral goal. We trained monkeys to use a pair of devices to selectively add or subtract items to/from a digital array in order to match a previously viewed sample array.

Distinct information representation and processing for goal-directed behavior in the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the dorsal premotor cortex.

Although the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) and dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) are thought to be involved in goal-directed behavior, the specific roles of each area still remain elusive. To characterize and compare neuronal activity in two sectors of the lPFC [dorsal (dlPFC) and ventral (vlPFC)] and the PMd, we designed a behavioral task for monkeys to explore the differences in their participation in four aspects of information processing: encoding of visual signals, behavioral goal retrieval, action specification, and maintenance of relevant information. We initially presented a visual object (an instruction cue) to instruct a behavioral goal (reaching to the right or left of potential targets).

Neuronal activity in the primate dorsomedial prefrontal cortex contributes to strategic selection of response tactics.

The functional roles of the primate posterior medial prefrontal cortex have remained largely unknown. Here, we show that this region participates in the regulation of actions in the presence of multiple response tactics. Monkeys performed a forelimb task in which a visual cue required prompt decision of reaching to a left or a right target.

Representational switching by dynamical reorganization of attractor structure in a network model of the prefrontal cortex.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role in flexible cognitive behavior by representing task relevant information with its working memory. The working memory with sustained neural activity is described as a neural dynamical system composed of multiple attractors, each attractor of which corresponds to an active state of a cell assembly, representing a fragment of information. Recent studies have revealed that the PFC not only represents multiple sets of information but also switches multiple representations and transforms a set of information to another set depending on a given task context.

Development of multidimensional representations of task phases in the lateral prefrontal cortex.

The temporal structuring of multiple events is essential for the purposeful regulation of behavior. We investigated the role of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) in transforming external signals of multiple sensory modalities into information suitable for monitoring successive events across behavioral phases until an intended action is prompted and then initiated. We trained monkeys to receive a succession of 1 s visual, auditory, or tactile sensory signals separated by variable intervals and to then release a key as soon as the fourth signal appeared.

Deciphering elapsed time and predicting action timing from neuronal population signals.

The proper timing of actions is necessary for the survival of animals, whether in hunting prey or escaping predators. Researchers in the field of neuroscience have begun to explore neuronal signals correlated to behavioral interval timing. Here, we attempt to decode the lapse of time from neuronal population signals recorded from the frontal cortex of monkeys performing a multiple-interval timing task.

[Neural mechanisms underlying the integration of perception and action].

The hallmark of higher-order brain functions is the ability to integrate and associate diverse sets of information in a flexible manner. Thus, fundamental knowledge about the mechanisms underlying of information in the brain can be obtained by examining the neural mechanisms involved in the generation of an appropriate motor command based on perceived sensory signals. In this review article, we have focused on the involvement of the neuronal networks centered at the lateral aspect of the frontal cortex in the process of motor selection and motor planning based on visual signals.

Origins of multisynaptic projections from the basal ganglia to rostrocaudally distinct sectors of the dorsal premotor area in macaques.

We examined the organization of multisynaptic projections from the basal ganglia (BG) to the dorsal premotor area in macaques. After injection of the rabies virus into the rostral sector of the caudal aspect of the dorsal premotor area (F2r) and the caudal sector of the caudal aspect of the dorsal premotor area (F2c), second-order neuron labeling occurred in the internal segment of the globus pallidus (GPi) and the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr). Labeled GPi neurons were found in the caudoventral portion after F2c injection, and in the dorsal portion at the rostrocaudal middle level after F2r injection.

Deficits in action selection based on numerical information after inactivation of the posterior parietal cortex in monkeys.

A previous study identified neuronal activity in area 5 of the monkey posterior parietal cortex that reflects the numerosity of a series of self-performed actions. It is not known, however, whether area 5 is crucially involved in the selection of an action based on numerical information or, instead, merely reflects numerosity-related signals that originate in other brain regions. We transiently and focally inactivated area 5 to test its functional contributions to numerosity-based action selection.

Motor and non-motor projections from the cerebellum to rostrocaudally distinct sectors of the dorsal premotor cortex in macaques.

In the caudal part of the dorsal premotor cortex of macaques (area F2), both anatomical and physiological studies have identified two rostrocaudally separate sectors. The rostral sector (F2r) is located medial to the genu of the arcuate sulcus, and the caudal sector (F2c) is located lateral to the superior precentral dimple. Here we examined the sites of origin of projections from the cerebellum to F2r and F2c.

[On somatotopical organization of cortical motor areas].

Early studies on cortical motor areas have been centered on their somatotopical organization: a reasonable direction of research from the standpoint of skeletomotor control of limb and body movements. On the primary motor cortex, anatomical and physiological studies revealed aspects of somatotopical organization in progressively finer scales. Earlier studies were directed at elucidating the fine-grain modular organization of the primary motor cortex.

Processing of visual signals for direct specification of motor targets and for conceptual representation of action targets in the dorsal and ventral premotor cortex.

Previous reports have indicated that the premotor cortex (PM) uses visual information for either direct guidance of limb movements or indirect specification of action targets at a conceptual level. We explored how visual inputs signaling these two different categories of information are processed by PM neurons. Monkeys performed a delayed reaching task after receiving two different sets of visual instructions, one directly specifying the spatial location of a motor target (a direct spatial-target cue) and the other providing abstract information about the spatial location of a motor target by indicating whether to select the right or left target at a conceptual level (a symbolic action-selection cue).