Timing and trajectory in rhythm production

The Wing-Kristofferson movement timing model (A. M. Wing & A. B. Kristofferson, 1973a, 1973b) distinguishes central timer and motor implementation processes. Previous studies have shown that increases in interresponse interval (IRI) variability with mean IRI are due to central timer processes, not motor implementation. The authors examine whether this is true with IRI duration changes in binary rhythm production. Ten participants provided IRI and movement data in bimanual synchronous tapping under equal (isochronous) and alternating (rhythm) interval conditions. Movement trajectory changes were observed with IRI duration (300, 500, or 833 ms) and for 500-ms IRIs produced in rhythm contexts (300/500 ms, 500/833 ms). However, application of the Wing-Kristofferson model showed that duration and context effects on IRI variability were attributable largely to timer processes with relatively little effect on motor processes.

LOCALIZATION OF DIPLOPTERA-PUNCTATA ALLATOSTATIN-LIKE IMMUNOREACTIVITY IN HELMINTHS - AN IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL STUDY

The nervous systems of helminths are predominantly peptidergic in nature, although it is likely that the full range of regulatory peptides used by these organisms has yet to be elucidated. Attempts to identify novel helminth neuropeptides are being made using immunocytochemistry with antisera raised against peptides isolated originally from insects. One of these antisera was raised against allatostatin III, a peptide isolated originally from the cockroach, Diploptera punctata, and a member of a family of related peptides found in insects. Allatostatin immunoreactivity was found throughout the nervous systems of Mesocestoides corti tetrathyridia, and adult Moniezia expansa, Diclidophora merlangi, Fasciola hepatica, Schistosoma mansoni, Ascaris suum and Panagrellus redivivus. Immunostaining was observed in the nerve cords and anterior ganglia of all the helminths. It was also apparent in the subtegumental nerves and around the reproductive apparatus of the flatworms, in neurones in the pharynx of D. merlangi, F. hepatica, A. suum and P. redivivus, and in fibres innervating the anterior sense organs in the nematodes. Immunostaining in all species was both reproducible and specific in that it could be abolished by pre-absorption of the antiserum with allatostatins I-IV. These results suggest that molecules related to the D. punctata allatostatins are important components in the nervous systems of a number of helminth parasites, and a free-living nematode. Their distribution within the nervous system suggests they function as neurotransmitters/ neuromodulators with roles in locomotion, feeding, reproduction and sensory perception.

Timekeeping strategies operate independently from spatial and accuracy demands in beat-interception movements

The prevailing paradigm for researching sensorimotor synchronisation in humans involves finger tapping and temporal accuracy measures. However, many successful sensorimotor synchronisation actions require not only to be 'in time', but also to be in a predefined spatial position. Reaching this spatial position in many everyday actions often exceeds the average amplitude of a finger movement. The aim of this study is to address how people coordinate their movement to be in the right place at the right time when the scale of the movement varies. Does the scale of the movement and accuracy demands of the movement change the ability to accurately synchronise? To address these questions, a sensorimotor synchronisation task with three different inter-beat intervals, two different movement amplitudes and two different target widths was used. Our experiment demonstrated that people use different timing strategies-employing either a movement strategy (varying movement time) or a waiting strategy (keeping movement time constant) for large-scale movements. Those two strategies were found to be equally successful in terms of temporal accuracy and variability (spread of errors). With longer interval durations (2.5 and 3.5 s), variability of sensorimotor synchronisation performance increased (measured as the spread of errors). Analysing the data using the Vorberg and Wing (Handbook of perception and action. Academic Press, New York, pp 181-262, 1996) model shows a need to develop further existing timing models of sensorimotor synchronisation so that they could apply to large-scale movements, where different movement strategies naturally emerge.

Perceiving and Reenacting Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Walking Sounds

Many studies have examined the processes involved in recognizing types of human action through sound, but little is known about whether the physical characteristics of an action (such as kinetic and kinematic parameters) can be perceived and imitated from sound. Twelve young healthy adults listened to recordings of footsteps on a gravel path taken from walks of different stride lengths (SL) and cadences. In 1 protocol, participants performed a real-time reenactment of the walking action depicted in a sound sample. Second, participants listened to 2 different sound samples and discriminated differences in SL. In a 2nd experiment, these procedures were repeated using synthesized sounds derived from the kinetic interactions between the foot and walking surface. A 3rd experiment examined the influence of altered cadence on participants' ability to discriminate changes in SL. Participants significantly adapted their own SL and cadence according to those depicted in both real and synthesized sounds (p <.01). However, although participants accurately discriminated between large changes in SL, these perceptions were heavily influenced by temporal factors, that is, when cadence changed between samples. These findings show that spatial attributes of action sounds can be both mimicked and discriminated, even when only basic kinetic interactions present within the action are specified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Tracking the Links to Social Functioning: Asperger Syndrome and Gaze Patterns

The application of Eye Tracking (ET) to the study of social functioning in Asperger Syndrome (AS) provides a unique perspective into social attention and cognition in this atypical neurodevelopmental group. Research in this area has shown how ET can capture social attention atypicalities within this group, such as diminished fixations to the eye region when viewing still images and movie clips; increased fixation to the mouth region; reduced face gaze. Issues exist, however, within the literature, where the type (static/dynamic) and the content (ecological validity) of stimuli used appear to affect the nature of the gaze patterns reported. Objectives: Our research aims were: using the same group of adolescents with AS, to compare their viewing patterns to age and IQ matched typically developing (TD) adolescents using stimuli considered to represent a hierarchy of ecological validity, building from static facial images; through a non-verbal movie clip; through verbal footage from real-life conversation; to eye tracking during real-life conversation. Methods: Eleven participants with AS were compared to 11 TD adolescents, matched for age and IQ. In Study 1, participants were shown 2 sets of static facial images (emotion faces, still images taken from the dynamic clips). In Study 2, three dynamic clips were presented (1 non-verbal movie clip, 2 verbal footage from real-life conversation). Study 3 was an exploratory study of eye tracking during a real-life conversation. Eye movements were recorded via a HiSpeeed (240Hz) SMI eye tracker fitted with chin and forehead rests. Various methods of analysis were used, including a paradigm for temporal analysis of the eye movement data. Results: Results from these studies confirmed that the atypical nature of social attention in AS was successfully captured by this paradigm. While results differed across stimulus sets,
collectively they demonstrated how individuals with AS failed to focus on the most socially relevant aspects of the various stimuli presented. There was also evidence that the eye movements of the AS group were atypically affected by the presence of motion and verbal information. Discriminant Function Analysis demonstrated that the ecological validity of stimuli was an important factor in identifying atypicalities associated with AS, with more accurate classifications of AS and TD groups occurring for more naturalistic stimuli (dynamic rather than static). Graphical analysis of temporal sequences of eye movements revealed the atypical manner in which AS participants followed interactions within the dynamic stimuli. Taken together with data on the order of gaze patterns, more subtle atypicalities were detected in the gaze behaviour of AS individuals towards more socially pertinent regions of the dynamic stimuli. Conclusions: These results have potentially important implications for our understanding of deficits in Asperger Syndrome, as they show that, with more naturalistic stimuli, subtle differences in social attention can be detected that

Modelling the control of interceptive actions

In recent years, several phenomenological dynamical models have been formulated that describe how perceptual variables are incorporated in the control of motor variables. We call these short-route models as they do not address how perception-action patterns might be constrained by the dynamical properties of the sensory, neural and musculoskeletal subsystems of the human action system. As an alternative, we advocate a long-route modelling approach in which the dynamics of these subsystems are explicitly addressed and integrated to reproduce interceptive actions. The approach is exemplified through a discussion of a recently developed model for interceptive actions consisting of a neural network architecture for the online generation of motor outflow commands, based on time-to-contact information and information about the relative positions and velocities of hand and ball. This network is shown to be consistent with both behavioural and neurophysiological data. Finally, some problems are discussed with regard to the question of how the motor outflow commands (i.e. the intended movement) might be modulated in view of the musculoskeletal dynamics.

The alterations of Ca2+/Calmodulin/CaMKII/CaV1.2 signaling in experimental models of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia

The two critical forms of dementia are Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD).The alterations of Ca2+/calmodulin/CaMKII/CaV1.2 signaling in AD and VD have not been well elucidated. Here we have demonstrated changes in the levels of CaV1.2, calmodulin, p-CaMKII, p-CREB and BDNF proteins by Western blot analysis and the co-localization of p-CaMKII/CaV1.2 by double-labeling immunofluorescence in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice and VD gerbils. Additionally, expression of these proteins and intracellular calcium levels were examined in cultured neurons treated with Aß1–42. The expression of CaV1.2 protein was increased in VD gerbils and in cultured neurons but decreased in APP/PS1 mice; the expression of calmodulin protein was increased in APP/PS1 mice and VD gerbils; levels of p-CaMKII, p-CREB and BDNF proteins were decreased in AD and VD models. The number of neurons in which p-CaMKII and CaV1.2 were co-localized, was decreased in the CA1 and CA3 regions in two models. Intracellular calcium was increased in the cultured neurons treated with Aß1–42. Collectively, our results suggest that the alterations in CaV1.2, calmodulin, p-CaMKII, p-CREB and BDNF can be reflective of an involvement in the impairment in memory and cognition in AD and VD models.

Physical Activity and Cognitive Function in the Elderly: a Systematic Review

Background: Physical activity appears important contributor for healthy aging, including cognitive function. However, it is unclear whether late life physical activity alone is beneficial to cognitive function. We performed a systematic review to examine the effect of late life physical activity in maintaining cognitive function in older persons.
Methods: Search Strategy and Selection criteria: The search sources consisted of PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CENTRAL), and the University of Washington Medical School Library Database between July 15, 2011 and August 15, 2012 with language restricted to English. Studies that were published in journals on or after January 2000 with participants older than 60 years of age were reviewed. Randomized controlled trials including at least 30 participants and lasting for at least 6 months and all observational studies of at least 100 participants and lasting at least 1 year in duration were eligible for inclusion Two reviewers assessed the applicability and results of these studies.
Results: Twenty-six studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria are included. Twenty-one studies reported that late life physical activity resulted in maintenance or enhancement of cognitive function. Three studies reported a dose-response relationship between physical activity and cognition.
Conclusions: Late life physical activity is beneficial for cognitive function in the elderly. However, the majority of the evidence is of medium quality with moderate risk of bias. Larger, randomized controlled trials are needed to better define the association between late life physical activity and cognitive function. Further research is required to determine which types of exercise have the greatest benefits on specific cognitive domains. Despite these caveats, current data are sufficient to recommend that moderate level, late life physical activity may be an effective method to improve cognitive function and delay the onset and progression of cognitive disease in the elderly.

Temporal and statistical information in causal structure learning

Three experiments examined children’s and adults’ abilities to use statistical and temporal information to distinguish between common cause and causal chain structures. In Experiment 1, participants were provided with conditional probability information and/or temporal information and asked to infer the causal structure of a three-variable mechanical system that operated probabilistically. Participants of all ages preferentially relied on the temporal pattern of events in their inferences, even if this conflicted with statistical information. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants observed a series of interventions on the system, which in these experiments operated deterministically. In Experiment 2, participants found it easier to use temporal pattern information than statistical information provided as a result of interventions. In Experiment 3, in which no temporal pattern information was provided, children from 6-7 years, but not younger children, were able to use intervention information to make causal chain judgments, although they had difficulty when the structure was a common cause. The findings suggest that participants, and children in particular, may find it more difficult to use statistical information than temporal pattern information because of its demands on information processing resources. However, there may also be an inherent preference for temporal information.

Falling in love outwards: Eco-social work and the sensuous event

Summary: Social work is a discipline that focuses on the person-in-the-environment. However, the social domains of influence have traditionally received more attention from the profession compared with the impact of the natural world on human well-being. With the development of ecological theories, and growing threats to the environment, this gap has been addressed and now the notion of eco-social work is attracting more interest. This article builds on this corpus of work by exploring, and augmenting, the thinking of the philosopher, David Abram, and his phenomenological investigation of perception, meaning, embodiment, language and Indigenous experience. The implications for eco-social work are then addressed.

Findings: The development of Abram’s philosophical thesis is charted by reviewing his presentation of the ideas of the European phenomenologists, Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It is argued that Abram uses phenomenology to explore the character of perception and the sensual foundations of language which, in Indigenous cultures, are connected with the natural world. A gap in Abram’s thinking is then revealed showing the need to set human perception and language within an understanding of power. Overall, this re-worked thesis is underpinned by a meta-narrative in which ecology engages with philosophy, psychology and Indigenous experience.

Applications: By grounding such ideas in Slavoj Žižek’s construct of the sensuous event, three applications within social work are evinced, namely: (i) reflecting on the sensuous event in social work education; (ii) rekindling the sensuous event with Indigenous Peoples; and (iii) instigating the sensuous event with non-Indigenous populations.

Human Perception of Laughter from Context-free Whole Body Motion Dynamic Stimuli

Laughter is a ubiquitous social signal in human interactions yet it remains understudied from a scientific point of view. The need to understand laughter and its role in human interactions has become more pressing as the ability to create conversational agents capable of interacting with humans has come closer to a reality. This paper reports on three aspects of the human perception of laughter when context has been removed and only the body information from the laughter episode remains. We report on ability to categorise the laugh type and the sex of the laugher; the relationship between personality factors with laughter categorisation and perception; and finally the importance of intensity in the perception and categorisation of laughter.

How Video Lecture Capture affects Student Engagement in a University Computer Programming Course: Attendance, Video Viewing Behaviours and Student Attitudes

Introduction
The use of video capture of lectures in Higher Education is not a recent occurrence with web based learning technologies including digital recording of live lectures becoming increasing commonly offered by universities throughout the world (Holliman and Scanlon, 2004). However in the past decade the increase in technical infrastructural provision including the availability of high speed broadband has increased the potential and use of videoed lecture capture. This had led to a variety of lecture capture formats including pod casting, live streaming or delayed broadcasting of whole or part of lectures.
Additionally in the past five years there has been a significant increase in the popularity of online learning, specifically via Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) (Vardi, 2014). One of the key aspects of MOOCs is the simulated recording of lecture like activities. There has been and continues to be much debate on the consequences of the popularity of MOOCs, especially in relation to its potential uses within established University programmes.
There have been a number of studies dedicated to the effects of videoing lectures.
The clustered areas of research in video lecture capture have the following main themes:
• Staff perceptions including attendance, performance of students and staff workload
• Reinforcement versus replacement of lectures
• Improved flexibility of learning
• Facilitating engaging and effective learning experiences
• Student usage, perception and satisfaction
• Facilitating students learning at their own pace
Most of the body of the research has concentrated on student and faculty perceptions, including academic achievement, student attendance and engagement (Johnston et al, 2012).
Generally the research has been positive in review of the benefits of lecture capture for both students and faculty. This perception coupled with technical infrastructure improvements and student demand may well mean that the use of video lecture capture will continue to increase in frequency in the next number of years in tertiary education. However there is a relatively limited amount of research in the effects of lecture capture specifically in the area of computer programming with Watkins 2007 being one of few studies . Video delivery of programming solutions is particularly useful for enabling a lecturer to illustrate the complex decision making processes and iterative nature of the actual code development process (Watkins et al 2007). As such research in this area would appear to be particularly appropriate to help inform debate and future decisions made by policy makers.
Research questions and objectives
The purpose of the research was to investigate how a series of lecture captures (in which the audio of lectures and video of on-screen projected content were recorded) impacted on the delivery and learning of a programme of study in an MSc Software Development course in Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The MSc is conversion programme, intended to take graduates from non-computing primary degrees and upskill them in this area. The research specifically targeted the Java programming module within the course. It also analyses and reports on the empirical data from attendances and various video viewing statistics. In addition, qualitative data was collected from staff and student feedback to help contextualise the quantitative results.
Methodology, Methods and Research Instruments Used
The study was conducted with a cohort of 85 post graduate students taking a compulsory module in Java programming in the first semester of a one year MSc in Software Development. A pre-course survey of students found that 58% preferred to have available videos of “key moments” of lectures rather than whole lectures. A large scale study carried out by Guo concluded that “shorter videos are much more engaging” (Guo 2013). Of concern was the potential for low audience retention for videos of whole lectures.
The lecturers recorded snippets of the lecture directly before or after the actual physical delivery of the lecture, in a quiet environment and then upload the video directly to a closed YouTube channel. These snippets generally concentrated on significant parts of the theory followed by theory related coding demonstration activities and were faithful in replication of the face to face lecture. Generally each lecture was supported by two to three videos of durations ranging from 20 – 30 minutes.
Attendance
The MSc programme has several attendance based modules of which Java Programming was one element. In order to assess the consequence on attendance for the Programming module a control was established. The control used was a Database module which is taken by the same students and runs in the same semester.
Access engagement
The videos were hosted on a closed YouTube channel made available only to the students in the class. The channel had enabled analytics which reported on the following areas for all and for each individual video; views (hits), audience retention, viewing devices / operating systems used and minutes watched.
Student attitudes
Three surveys were taken in regard to investigating student attitudes towards the videoing of lectures. The first was before the start of the programming module, then at the mid-point and subsequently after the programme was complete.
The questions in the first survey were targeted at eliciting student attitudes towards lecture capture before they had experienced it in the programme. The midpoint survey gathered data in relation to how the students were individually using the system up to that point. This included feedback on how many videos an individual had watched, viewing duration, primary reasons for watching and the result on attendance, in addition to probing for comments or suggestions. The final survey on course completion contained questions similar to the midpoint survey but in summative view of the whole video programme.
Conclusions and Outcomes
The study confirmed findings of other such investigations illustrating that there is little or no effect on attendance at lectures. The use of the videos appears to help promote continual learning but they are particularly accessed by students at assessment periods. Students respond positively to the ability to access lectures digitally, as a means of reinforcing learning experiences rather than replacing them. Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive indicating that the videos benefited their learning. Also there are significant benefits to part recording of lectures rather than recording whole lectures. The behaviour viewing trends analytics suggest that despite the increase in the popularity of online learning via MOOCs and the promotion of video learning on mobile devices in fact in this study the vast majority of students accessed the online videos at home on laptops or desktops However, in part, this is likely due to the nature of the taught subject, that being programming.
The research involved prerecording the lecture in smaller timed units and then uploading for distribution to counteract existing quality issues with recording entire live lectures. However the advancement and consequential improvement in quality of in situ lecture capture equipment may well help negate the need to record elsewhere. The research has also highlighted an area of potentially very significant use for performance analysis and improvement that could have major implications for the quality of teaching. A study of the analytics of the viewings of the videos could well provide a quick response formative feedback mechanism for the lecturer. If a videoed lecture either recorded live or later is a true reflection of the face to face lecture an analysis of the viewing patterns for the video may well reveal trends that correspond with the live delivery.

Parasite neuropeptide biology:Seeding rational drug target selection?

The rationale for identifying drug targets within helminth neuromuscular signalling systems is based on the premise that adequate nerve and muscle function is essential for many of the key behavioural determinants of helminth parasitism, including sensory perception/host location, invasion, locomotion/orientation, attachment, feeding and reproduction. This premise is validated by the tendency of current anthelmintics to act on classical neurotransmitter-gated ion channels present on helminth nerve and/or muscle, yielding therapeutic endpoints associated with paralysis and/or death. Supplementary to classical neurotransmitters, helminth nervous systems are peptide-rich and encompass associated biosynthetic and signal transduction components - putative drug targets that remain to be exploited by anthelmintic chemotherapy. At this time, no neuropeptide system-targeting lead compounds have been reported, and given that our basic knowledge of neuropeptide biology in parasitic helminths remains inadequate, the short-term prospects for such drugs remain poor. Here, we review current knowledge of neuropeptide signalling in Nematoda and Platyhelminthes, and highlight a suite of 19 protein families that yield deleterious phenotypes in helminth reverse genetics screens. We suggest that orthologues of some of these peptidergic signalling components represent appealing therapeutic targets in parasitic helminths.

Bright Molecules for Sensing, Computing and Imaging: A Tale of Two Once-troubled Cities

The circumstances in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which led to a) the generalization of luminescent PET (photoinduced electron transfer) sensing/switching as a design tool, b) the construction of a market-leading blood electrolyte analyzer and c) the invention of molecular logic-based computation as an experimental field, are delineated. Efforts to extend the philosophy of these approaches into issues of small object identification, nanometric mapping, animal visual perception and visual art are also outlined.