health news: Motion

Showing posts with label Motion. Show all posts

Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Hope for motion sickness victims: Key neurons identified that sense unexpected movement

Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 30 Jul 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Hope for motion sickness victims: Key neurons identified that sense unexpected movement
not yet rated

It happens to all of us at least once each winter in Montreal. You're walking on the sidewalk and before you know it you are slipping on a patch of ice hidden under a dusting of snow. Sometimes you fall. Surprisingly often you manage to recover your balance and walk away unscathed. McGill researchers now understand what's going on in the brain when you manage to recover your balance in these situations. And it is not just a matter of good luck.

Prof. Kathleen Cullen and her PhD student Jess Brooks of the Dept of Physiology have been able to identify a distinct and surprisingly small cluster of cells deep within the brain that react within milliseconds to readjust our movements when something unexpected happens, whether it is slipping on ice or hitting a rock when skiing. What is astounding is that each individual neuron in this tiny region that is smaller than a pin's head displays the ability to predict and selectively respond to unexpected motion.

This finding both overturns current theories about how we learn to maintain our balance as we move through the world, and also has significant implications for understanding the neural basis of motion sickness.

Scientists have theorized for some time that we fine-tune our movements and maintain our balance, thanks to a neural library of expected motions that we gain through "sensory conflicts" and errors. "Sensory conflicts" occur when there is a mismatch between what we think will happen as we move through the world and the sometimes contradictory information that our senses provide to us about our movements.

This kind of "sensory conflict" may occur when our bodies detect motion that our eyes cannot see (such as during plane, ocean or car travel), or when our eyes perceive motion that our bodies cannot detect (such as during an IMAX film, when the camera swoops at high speed over the edge of steep cliffs and deep into gorges and valleys while our bodies remain sitting still). These "sensory conflicts" are also responsible for the feelings of vertigo and nausea that are associated with motion sickness.

But while the areas of the brain involved in estimating spatial orientation have been identified for some time, until now, no one has been able to either show that distinct neurons signaling "sensory conflicts" existed, nor demonstrate exactly how they work. "We've known for some time that the cerebellum is the part of the brain that takes in sensory information and then causes us to move or react in appropriate ways," says Prof. Cullen. "But what's really exciting is that for the first time we show very clearly how the cerebellum selectively encodes unexpected motion, to then send our body messages that help us maintain our balance. That it is such a very exact neural calculation is exciting and unexpected."

By demonstrating that these "sensory conflict" neurons both exist and function by making choices "on the fly" about which sensory information to respond to, Cullen and her team have made a significant advance in our understanding of how the brain works to keep our bodies in balance as we move about.

The research was done by recording brain activity in macaque monkeys who were engaged in performing specific tasks while at the same time being unexpectedly moved around by flight-simulator style equipment.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our neurology / neuroscience section for the latest news on this subject.

To read the full paper in Current Biology click here.

The research was funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec Nature et Technologies and Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as through a National Institutes of Health grant.

McGill University

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

University, McGill. "Hope for motion sickness victims: Key neurons identified that sense unexpected movement." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 30 Jul. 2013. Web.
30 Jul. 2013. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

'Hope for motion sickness victims: Key neurons identified that sense unexpected movement'

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam). We reserve the right to amend opinions where we deem necessary.

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.

View the original article here

Saturday, 27 July 2013

'Motion sensor' may aid autism diagnosis and treatment

Featured Article
Academic Journal
Main Category: Autism
Article Date: 27 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
'Motion sensor' may aid autism diagnosis and treatment
not yet rated

Scientists have developed a new screening tool that could use an individual's movement to diagnose and treat autism, according to a series of studies published in the journal Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience.

Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine and Rutgers University have developed the method, which presents individuals with various images while a sensitive tracker monitors their movements.

The researchers say that this method, which can be used in children over the age of three, could provide an earlier, more objective and more accurate diagnosis of autism.

The method was tested on 78 children and adults with autism, including non-verbal autistic children and those with mild forms of the disorder.

The researchers say that the tool correctly diagnosed all of the participants, and even diagnosed autism subtypes, identified gender differences and tracked individual progress in treatment and development.

A movement tracker is attached to the individual, which senses "systemic signatures," measuring each person's movement as they respond to various screen images from an advanced computer program, showing 240 images a second.

The researchers say that this tool analyzes the importance of changes in movement and movement sensing, enabling the identification of stable capabilities in each individual, as well as highlighting the impairments of a person's movement system.

They add that the screening tool can measure tiny fluctuations, determining exactly how an individual's movement differs to that of a more typically developing child or adult. Dr Jorge José, vice president of research at Indiana University, says:

"We can estimate the cognitive abilities of people just from the variability of how they move. This may lead to a complementary way to develop therapies for autistic children at an early age."

The researchers say this tool can change the way autistic children learn and communicate by helping them to develop self-motivation, as opposed to being told or conditioned in what to do.

As part of the screening method, 25 autistic children were presented with a variety of media visuals, including videos of themselves, cartoons and music videos, and were given games to play. The children communicated which visuals they liked in a single motion.

Dr Elizabeth Torres, assistant professor in psychology at the School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University, explains:

"Every time the children cross a certain region in space, the media they like best goes on. They start out randomly exploring their surroundings. They seek where in space that interesting spot is which causes the media to play, and then they do so more systematically.

"Once they see a cause-and-effect connection, they move deliberately. The action becomes an intentional behavior."

She adds that through this method, the children independently learned that they could control their own bodies in order to communicate what they wanted to watch.

At present, there is no medical test to diagnose autism, and the disorder is diagnosed through specialists' opinions on an individual's behavior and communication.

The researchers say it is too early to see whether this research will lead to methods of therapy and diagnosis that are publicly available.

But Torres says she is confident that parents of autistic children would find it easy to adapt to her computer-aided technique and help their children.

Dr Jorge José adds:

"This research may open doors for the autistic community by offering the option of a dynamic diagnosis at a much earlier age and possibly enabling the start of therapy sooner in the child's development."

Written by Honor Whiteman

Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Visit our autism section for the latest news on this subject.

Autism: the micro movement perspective, published in the journal Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, July 24, 2013