El control de esfínteres : gran avance en la autonomía infantil.

Resumen basado en la publicación

Perfiles de desarrollo motor y deficiencia mental.

Identificar perfiles de desarrollo motor grueso en alumnos con deficiencia mental. Grupo de 97 alumnos de entre 6 y 16 años, matriculados en un centro concertado de Educación Especial de la Comunidad de Madrid. Se mide el desarrollo motor de los alumnos que componen la muestra, atendiendo a varios aspectos: agilidad, equilibrio, coordinación bilateral, fuerza, coordinación entre los miembros superiores, velocidad de respuesta, control viso-motor, velocidad en miembros superiores y lateralidad. Después, se realiza un análisis de Cluster sobre los datos obtenidos, que permite obtener cuatro grupos con perfiles de desarrollo motor distintos. Además, se observa la relación existente entre las funciones motrices y las funciones cognitivas para determinar las variables cognitivas que caracterizan a los perfiles obtenidos. Estas variables proporcionan la información necesaria para realizar adaptaciones curriculares en el área de Educación Física. Se utiliza el Test de Bruininks-Ozeretsky para medir la eficacia motriz. Además, se realizan varias pruebas psicológicas: Escala de Inteligencia de Wechsler para Niños, Escalas McCarthy de Aptitudes y Psicomotricidad para Niños, Test Guestáltico Viso-Motor de Bender, Test Illinois de Habilidades Psicolingüísticas,y Signos Neurológicos Menores. Se utiliza la metodología ex-post-facto o no experimental, que comprende análisis descriptivos y correlativos. Esta investigación proporciona orientaciones para la adaptación de métodos, programas, terapias y actividades encaminados a la mejora del desarrollo motor de los alumnos con deficiencias mentales.

Estudio del nivel de integración perceptivo-motor en el escolar de ciclo inicial : diseño y baremo de una batería de pruebas.

Estructurar un método de examen no tecnicantal, de fácil aplicación por los educadores, que permita obtener criterios de referencia cuantificados sobre el nivel de integración perceptivo-motor en la población infantil de Ciclo Inicial. Muestra aleatoria estratificada, compuesta por 100 niños/as, escolarizados en Ciclo Inicial, de centros educativos públicos y privados de las distintas zonas de Pamplona, durante el curso 83-84. I. Síntesis teórica de las aportaciones en el área de los trastornos psicomotores. II. Aplicación de una prueba de predominio lateral como variable, que afecta al nivel de integración perceptivo-motriz. III. Elaboración de una batería de doce ítems que permita medir diversos aspectos del desarrollo psicomotor. IV. Estudio individual de cada prueba explorada. V. Análisis estadístico global y por áreas de la batería a fin de elaborar un perfil psicomotor. I. Prueba de dominancia lateral: ojo, mano, pie. II. Prueba de persistencia motriz. III. Prueba de actividad coreiforme. IV. Prueba de marcha en tandem. V. Prueba de equilibrio sobre un pie. VI. Prueba de salto sobre un pie. VII. Prueba de canto, palma, puño. VIII. Prueba de círculos. IX. Prueba de diadococinesias. X. Pruebas de sincinesias: imitación contralateral e irradiación homolateral; irradiación axo-segmentaria; irradiación facio-segmentaria; irradiación intersegmentaria. XI. Prueba de estereognosias. XII. Prueba de somatognosia. XIII. Prueba de gnosias visuales. Todas ellas modificaciones y agrupamientos de las pruebas de Peters, Youners y Touwen. I. El tecnicanto construido considera sujeto a riesgo aquel que supere la puntuación 23, o aquellos que no superándola muestran notable dispersión entre los items. II. Las niñas superan a los niños en destreza manual, velocidad y control de movimientos delicados, control motor global y equilibrio. III. Los sujetos de mayor edad y curso superior presenta nivel perceptivomotor más desarrollado. IV. Las variables: nivel socio-económico-cultural, lateralidad, posición entre hermanos y tipo de centro no influyen significativamente en el desarrollo perceptivo-motor de los escolares de 6 a 8 años. I. La batería elaborada permite obtener un perfil psicomotor que indica si el sujeto presenta riesgo de tener problemas de aprendizaje o de conducta, y si necesita diagnóstico y tratamiento más específico. II. El tecnicanto elaborado permite explorar en un único examen los niveles de coordinación motriz e integración perceptiva, a diferencia de otros que olvidan aspectos gnósicos. III. Las niñas de segundo de EGB están en condiciones más favorables de enfrentarse a los aprendizajes escolares. IV. Teniendo en cuenta los resultados más deficientes en niños con lateralidad no definida o mal definida, deberán estudiarse en posteriores investigaciones con más detenimiento.

Cotxe de ràdio control basat en un Fórmula 1 a escala 1/5

L’objecte d’aquest projecte és dissenyar un Renault R26 de Fórmula 1 a escala 1/5 capaç de córrer i realitzar les accions pròpies d’un cotxe, de forma teledirigida. La carrosseria, el tipus de suspensions i xassís seran el més semblant possible al cotxe real i estarà propulsat amb un motor de combustió interna de 2 temps

Neural systems in the visual control of steering

Visual control of locomotion is essential for most mammals and requires coordination between perceptual processes and action systems. Previous research on the neural systems engaged by self-motion has focused on heading perception, which is only one perceptual subcomponent. For effective steering, it is necessary to perceive an appropriate future path and then bring about the required change to heading. Using function magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we reveal a role for the parietal eye fields (PEFs) in directing spatially selective processes relating to future path information. A parietal area close to PEFs appears to be specialized for processing the future path information itself. Furthermore, a separate parietal area responds to visual position error signals, which occur when steering adjustments are imprecise. A network of three areas, the cerebellum, the supplementary eye fields, and dorsal premotor cortex, was found to be involved in generating appropriate motor responses for steering adjustments. This may reflect the demands of integrating visual inputs with the output response for the control device.

Determining feature relevance for the grouping of motor unit action potentials through generative topographic mapping

The study of motor unit action potential (MUAP) activity from electrornyographic signals is an important stage on neurological investigations that aim to understand the state of the neuromuscular system. In this context, the identification and clustering of MUAPs that exhibit common characteristics, and the assessment of which data features are most relevant for the definition of such cluster structure are central issues. In this paper, we propose the application of an unsupervised Feature Relevance Determination (FRD) method to the analysis of experimental MUAPs obtained from healthy human subjects. In contrast to approaches that require the knowledge of a priori information from the data, this FRD method is embedded on a constrained mixture model, known as Generative Topographic Mapping, which simultaneously performs clustering and visualization of MUAPs. The experimental results of the analysis of a data set consisting of MUAPs measured from the surface of the First Dorsal Interosseous, a hand muscle, indicate that the MUAP features corresponding to the hyperpolarization period in the physisiological process of generation of muscle fibre action potentials are consistently estimated as the most relevant and, therefore, as those that should be paid preferential attention for the interpretation of the MUAP groupings.

Architecture for neuronal cell control of a mobile robot

It is usually expected that the intelligent controlling mechanism of a robot is a computer system. Research is however now ongoing in which biological neural networks are being cultured and trained to act as the brain of an interactive real world robot - thereby either completely replacing or operating in a cooperative fashion with a computer system. Studying such neural systems can give a distinct insight into biological neural structures and therefore such research has immediate medical implications. In particular, the use of rodent primary dissociated cultured neuronal networks for the control of mobile `animals' (artificial animals, a contraction of animal and materials) is a novel approach to discovering the computational capabilities of networks of biological neurones. A dissociated culture of this nature requires appropriate embodiment in some form, to enable appropriate development in a controlled environment within which appropriate stimuli may be received via sensory data but ultimate influence over motor actions retained. The principal aims of the present research are to assess the computational and learning capacity of dissociated cultured neuronal networks with a view to advancing network level processing of artificial neural networks. This will be approached by the creation of an artificial hybrid system (animal) involving closed loop control of a mobile robot by a dissociated culture of rat neurons. This 'closed loop' interaction with the environment through both sensing and effecting will enable investigation of its learning capacity This paper details the components of the overall animat closed loop system and reports on the evaluation of the results from the experiments being carried out with regard to robot behaviour.

Impedance mismatch: some differences between the way humans and robots control interaction forces

In over forty years of research robots have made very little progress still largely confined to industrial manufacture and cute toys, yet in the same period computing has followed Moores Law where the capacity double roughly every two years. So why is there no Moores Law for robots? Two areas stand out as worthy of research to speedup progress. The first is to get a greater understanding of how human and animal brains control movement, the second to build a new generation of robots that have greater haptic sense, that is a better ability to adapt to the environment as it is encountered. A remarkable property of the cognitive-motor system in humans and animals is that it is slow. Recognising an object may take 250 mS, a reaction time of 150 mS is considered fast. Yet despite this slow system we are well designed to allow contact with the world in a variety of ways. We can anticipate an encounter, use the change of force as a means of communication and ignore sensory cues when they are not relevant. A better understanding of these process has allowed us to build haptic interfaces to mimic the interaction. Emerging from this understanding are new ways to control the contact between robots, the user and the environment. Rehabilitation robotics has all the elements in the subject to not only enable and change the lives of people with disabilities, but also to facilitate revolution change in classic robotics.

Generative topographic mapping applied to clustering and visualization of motor unit action potentials

The identification and visualization of clusters formed by motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) is an essential step in investigations seeking to explain the control of the neuromuscular system. This work introduces the generative topographic mapping (GTM), a novel machine learning tool, for clustering of MUAPs, and also it extends the GTM technique to provide a way of visualizing MUAPs. The performance of GTM was compared to that of three other clustering methods: the self-organizing map (SOM), a Gaussian mixture model (GMM), and the neural-gas network (NGN). The results, based on the study of experimental MUAPs, showed that the rate of success of both GTM and SOM outperformed that of GMM and NGN, and also that GTM may in practice be used as a principled alternative to the SOM in the study of MUAPs. A visualization tool, which we called GTM grid, was devised for visualization of MUAPs lying in a high-dimensional space. The visualization provided by the GTM grid was compared to that obtained from principal component analysis (PCA). (c) 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thought communication and control: a first step using radiotelegraphy

A signalling procedure is described involving a connection, via the Internet, between the nervous system of an able-bodied individual and a robotic prosthesis, and between the nervous systems of two able-bodied human subjects. Neural implant technology is used to directly interface each nervous system with a computer. Neural motor unit and sensory receptor recordings are processed real-time and used as the communication basis. This is seen as a first step towards thought communication, in which the neural implants would be positioned in the central nervous systems of two individuals.

Investigation of language and motor skills in Serbian speaking children with specific language impairment and in typically developing children

Specific language impairment (SLI) is usually defined as a developmental language disorder which does not result from a hearing loss, autism, neurological and emotional difficulties, severe social deprivation, low non-verbal abilities. Children affected with SLI typically have difficulties with the acquisition of different aspects of language and by definition, their impairment is specific to language and no other skills are affected. However, there has been a growing body of literature to suggest that children with SLI also have non-linguistic deficits, including impaired motor abilities. The aim of the current study is to investigate language and motor abilities of a group of thirty children with SLI (aged between 4 and 7) in comparison to a group of 30 typically developing children matched for chronological age. The results showed that the group of children with SLI had significantly more difficulties on the language and motor assessments compared to the control group. The SLI group also showed delayed onset in the development of all motor skills under investigation in comparison to the typically developing group. More interestingly, the two groups differed with respect to which language abilities were correlated with motor abilities, however Imitation of Complex Movements was the unique skill which reliably predicted expressive vocabulary in both typically developing children and in children with SLI.

Speed sensorless vector control of induction machines

A novel rotor velocity estimation scheme applicable to vector controlled induction motors has been described. The proposed method will evaluate rotor velocity, ωr, on-line, does not require any extra transducers or injection of any signals, nor does it employ complicated algorithms such as MRAS or Kalman filters. Furthermore, the new scheme will operate at all velocities including zero with very little error. The procedure employs motor model equations, however all differential and integral terms have been eliminated giving a very fast, low-cost, effective and practical alternative to the current available methods. Simulation results verify the operation of the scheme under ideal and PWM conditions.

Single tap identification for fast BCI control

One of the major aims of BCI research is devoted to achieving faster and more efficient control of external devices. The identification of individual tap events in a motor imagery BCI is therefore a desirable goal. EEG is recorded from subjects performing and imagining finger taps with their left and right hands. A Differential Evolution based feature selection wrapper is used in order to identify optimal features in the spatial and frequency domains for tap identification. Channel-frequency band combinations are found which allow differentiation of tap vs. no-tap control conditions for executed and imagined taps. Left vs. right hand taps may also be differentiated with features found in this manner. A sliding time window is then used to accurately identify individual taps in the executed tap and imagined tap conditions. Highly statistically significant classification accuracies are achieved with time windows of 0.5 s and more allowing taps to be identified on a single trial basis.

Word frequency and bigram frequency effects on linguistic processing and speech motor performance in individuals with aphasia and normal speakers

Models of normal word production are well specified about the effects of frequency of linguistic stimuli on lexical access, but are less clear regarding the same effects on later stages of word production, particularly word articulation. In aphasia, this lack of specificity of down-stream frequency effects is even more noticeable because there is relatively limited amount of data on the time course of frequency effects for this population. This study begins to fill this gap by comparing the effects of variation of word frequency (lexical, whole word) and bigram frequency (sub-lexical, within word) on word production abilities in ten normal speakers and eight mild–moderate individuals with aphasia. In an immediate repetition paradigm, participants repeated single monosyllabic words in which word frequency (high or low) was crossed with bigram frequency (high or low). Indices for mapping the time course for these effects included reaction time (RT) for linguistic processing and motor preparation, and word duration (WD) for speech motor performance (word articulation time). The results indicated that individuals with aphasia had significantly longer RT and WD compared to normal speakers. RT showed a significant main effect only for word frequency (i.e., high-frequency words had shorter RT). WD showed significant main effects of word and bigram frequency; however, contrary to our expectations, high-frequency items had longer WD. Further investigation of WD revealed that independent of the influence of word and bigram frequency, vowel type (tense or lax) had the expected effect on WD. Moreover, individuals with aphasia differed from control speakers in their ability to implement tense vowel duration, even though they could produce an appropriate distinction between tense and lax vowels. The results highlight the importance of using temporal measures to identify subtle deficits in linguistic and speech motor processing in aphasia, the crucial role of phonetic characteristics of stimuli set in studying speech production and the need for the language production models to account more explicitly for word articulation.

A sequential procedure for comparing two experimental treatments with a control

A procedure is described in which patients are randomized between two experimental treatments and a control. At a series of interim analyses, each experimental treatment is compared with control. One of the experimental treatments might then be found sufficiently superior to the control for it to be declared the best treatment, and the trial stopped. Alternatively, experimental treatments might be eliminated from further consideration at any stage. It is shown how the procedure can be conducted while controlling overall error probabilities. Data concerning evaluation of different doses of riluzole in the treatment of motor neurone disease are used for illustration.