People often perform spontaneous body movements during spatial tasks such as giving complex directions or orienting themselves on maps. How are these spontaneous gestures related to spatial problem-solving? We measured spontaneous movements during a perspective-taking task inspired by map reading. Analyzing the motion data to isolate rotation and translation components of motion in specific geometric relation to the task, we found out that most participants executed spontaneous miniature rotations of the head that were significantly related to the main task parameter. These head rotations were as if participants were trying to align themselves with the orientation on the map either in the image plane or on the ground plane, but with tiny amplitudes, typically below 1% of the actual movements. Our results are consistent with a model of sensorimotor prediction driving spatial reasoning. The efference copy of planned movements triggers this prediction mechanism. The movements themselves may then be mostly inhibited; the small spontaneous gestures that we measure are the visible traces of these planned but inhibited actions.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00136 | DOI Listing |
J Integr Neurosci
January 2025
Neuroscience Department, University of Connecticut Health, School of Medicine, Institute for Systems Genomics, Farmington, CT 06030, USA.
Background: In neuroscience, Ca imaging is a prevalent technique used to infer neuronal electrical activity, often relying on optical signals recorded at low sampling rates (3 to 30 Hz) across multiple neurons simultaneously. This study investigated whether increasing the sampling rate preserves critical information that may be missed at slower acquisition speeds.
Methods: Primary neuronal cultures were prepared from the cortex of newborn pups.
Medicina (Kaunas)
January 2025
Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Konyang University Hospital, Konyang University Myunggok Medical Research Institute, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon 35365, Republic of Korea.
: Neuromuscular blocking agents are essential to ensure optimal surgical conditions during general anesthesia. Sugammadex, a selective binding agent, is widely used to reverse neuromuscular blockade. While weight-based dosing (2 mg/kg for moderate blockade) is recommended, many clinicians administer a fixed dose of 200 mg in clinical practice, potentially leading to overdosing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimals (Basel)
January 2025
Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Medioambiente, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4780000, Chile.
Worldwide, there are reports indicating that sheep raised in insular systems spontaneously consume seaweed. In the southern hemisphere, there exists , a brown seaweed that possesses minerals and fatty acids that could improve some aspects of sheep production and meat quality, respectively. However, the consumption of this algae in lambs has been scarcely studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagnostics (Basel)
January 2025
Research Coordination and Support Service, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
The early identification of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in infants is crucial for effective intervention and improved long-term outcomes. Recent evidence indicates a correlation between deficits in spontaneous movements in newborns and the likelihood of developing NDDs later in life. This study aims to address this aspect by employing a marker-less Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach for the automatic assessment of infants' movements from single-camera video recordings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResuscitation
January 2025
West Virginia University School of Medicine, Department of Surgery.
Introduction: Effective defibrillation is essential to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival. International guidelines recommend initial defibrillation energies between 120 and 360 Joules, which has led to widespread practice variation. Leveraging this natural experiment, we aimed to explore the association between initial defibrillation dose and outcome following OHCA.
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