Age differences in the use of implicit visual cues in a response time task

Background: Many activities require a complex interrelationship between a performer and stimuli available in the environment without explicit perception, but many aspects regarding developmental changes in the use of implicit cues remain unknown. Aim: To investigate the use of implicit visual precueing presented at different time intervals in children, adolescents, and adults. Method: Seventy-two people, male and female, constituted four age groups: 8-, 10- and 12-year-olds and adults. Participants performed 32 trials, four-choice-time task across four conditions: no precue and a 43 ms centralized dot appearing in the stimulus circle at 43, 86 or 129 ms prior the stimulus. Response times were obtained for each trial and pooled into each condition. Results: Response times for 8-year-olds were longer than for 12-year-olds and adults and for 10-year-olds were longer than for adults. Response times were longer in the no precue condition compared to when precues were presented at 86 and 129 ms before the stimulus. Response times were longer when precue was presented at 43 ms compared presented at 129 ms before the stimulus. Interpretation: Implicit precues reduce response time in children, adolescents and adults, but young children benefit less from implicit precues than adolescents and adults

Behavioral information effects on postural control intrinsic dynamics

Esse estudo teve como objetivo examinar possíveis alterações na dinâmica intrínseca de \ud crianças e adultos decorrentes de informações externas na realização de uma tarefa de manutenção da \ud postura ereta. Participaram do estudo dez crianças de 8 anos de idade e dez adultos jovens de ambos os \ud gêneros. Eles permaneceram na posição ereta dentro de uma sala móvel que foi movimentada \ud continuamente para frente e para trás. Os participantes recebiam informação sobre o movimento da sala e \ud eram solicitados a não oscilar ou a oscilar junto com o movimento da mesma. Os resultados mostraram que \ud a manipulação da informação visual induziu oscilação corporal correspondente (dinâmica intrínseca) em \ud crianças e adultos. Informação sobre o movimento da sala e solicitação de uma ação (informação \ud comportamental) alteraram o relacionamento entre informação visual e oscilação corporal. Crianças \ud apresentaram mais dificuldades em alterar a dinâmica intrínseca do que adultos, indicando que elas são \ud mais dependentes da dinâmica intrínseca do que adultos. Esses resultados trazem implicações importantes \ud para a situação de ensino-aprendizagem, pois indica que aprendizagem envolvendo crianças deve ser \ud estruturada propiciando condições mais favoráveis para alterações na dinâmica intrínseca para que os \ud objetivos da mesma sejam alcançados.The purpose of this study was to examine possible changes in the intrinsic dynamics of children and adults resulting from external information in upright stance task. Ten eight-year-old children and ten young adults, both genders, maintained upright position inside a moving room that was continuously moved frontward and backward. Participants were informed about the room movement and they were requested to sway or not sway with the moving room. The results showed that visual manipulation induces correspondent body sway (intrinsic dynamics) in children and adults. Information about the room movement and the request of an action (behavioral information) changed the relation between visual information and body sway. Although it can be changed, children showed more difficulty in changing the intrinsic dynamics than adults, showing that they are more dependent on intrinsic dynamics than adults. These findings bring important implications to learning, suggesting that children's learning opportunities must be structured properly in order to provide condition of intrinsic dynamics changes towards the goals of the task at hand

Avaliação da destreza dos dedos e da força de preensão máxima em crianças com dislexia desenvolvimental

A dislexia caracteriza-se pela dificuldade de aprendizagem da leitura, escrita e soletração, sem uma causa aparente específica. Crianças e adultos com dislexia apresentam também déficits em diferentes tarefas sensório-motoras. Porém, não existe consenso quanto o efeito da dislexia na destreza dos dedos e se há alterações puramente motoras em indivíduos acometidos por essa desordem. O objetivo do estudo foi comparar crianças com e sem dislexia quanto à destreza dos dedos e à capacidade de geração de força máxima. Trinta crianças com dislexia e 30 sem dislexia, entre 8 e 14 anos, realizaram o teste dos nove pinos nos buracos (9-PnB) para avaliação da destreza manual e o teste força de preensão palmar máxima, ambos com a mão dominante. Elas foram instruídas a realizar o teste dos 9-PnB o mais rápido possível e em seguida produzir força de preensão máxima (FPMax) no dinamômetro hidráulico Jamar®. O menor tempo e a maior FPMax registradas em três tentativas foram utilizadas para as análises estatísticas. Os resultados revelaram que as crianças com dislexia são mais lentas na execução do teste dos 9-PnB, porém apresentam similar capacidade de geração de FPMax que crianças não disléxicas. Esses resultados indicam que as diferenças no desempenho em testes motores observadas entre crianças com dislexia e sem dislexia não têm origem no sistema motor e sim no modo com que a criança com dislexia processa as informações sensoriais e as transforma em respostas motoras para produzir ações

Fundamental motor skill proficiency is necessary for children's motor activity inclusion

Motor development is influenced by many factors such as practice and appropriate instruction, provided by teachers, even in preschool and elementary school. The goal of this paper was to discuss the misconception that maturation underlies children's motor skill development and to show that physical education, even in early years of our school system, is critical to promote proficiency and enrolment of children's in later motor activities. Motor skill development, as a curricular focus, has been marginalized in many of our physical education proposal and in doing so, we have not promote motor competence in our children who lack proficiency to engage and to participate in later motor activities such as sport-related or recreational.“Proficiência nas habilidades motoras fundamentais é necessária para inclusão de crianças em atividades motoras.” Desenvolvimento motor é influenciado por muitos fatores tais como prática e instrução apropriada, fornecidas por professores, até mesmo no ensino infantil e fundamental. O objetivo deste artigo foi discutir o entendimento errôneo de que maturação é o processo básico no desenvolvimento de habilidades motoras e mostrar que educação física, mesmo em anos iniciais do sistema escolar, é crucial para promover proficiência e, consequentemente, envolvimento de crianças em atividades motoras futuras. Desenvolvimento das habilidades motoras, como um foco do currículo escolar, tem sido marginalizado em muitas das nossas propostas de educação física e assim o fazendo, nós não temos promovido competência motoras em nossas crianças que não adquirem competência motora para engajar e participar de atividades motoras tais como as recreativas e esportivas

A beleza, joder, a beleza

Crítica ao espectáculo de teatro A casa da força, de Angelica Lidell (2011).ABSTRACT - Review of the theatre performance A casa da força, by Angelica Liddell (2011)

Age-related changes in postural control sensory reweighting

The aim of this study was to investigate the adaptive process in the coupling between visual information and body sway in children postural control. Twenty-seven children from 4-, 8- and 12-year-olds and ten adults stood upright inside of a moving room. In the first 2 min, the room was moved continuously at frequency of 0.2 Hz, velocity of 0.6 cm/s and amplitude of 0.5 cm. In the minute subsequent the room was moved with velocity of 3.5 and amplitude of 3.2 and in the last 2 min with velocity of 0.6cm/s and amplitude of 0.5 cm. Gain, phase, SFSA and transient gain were used to examine the relationship between sensory information and body sway. The results showed that children and adults were capable to adapt to the changes of visual stimulus, downweighting the visual information influences when the room's amplitude/velocity increased. However, the young children did not show calibrated response to the 12-year-old children and adults level, being more influenced by the visual stimulus. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Age-related changes in postural control sensory reweighting

The aim of this study was to investigate the adaptive process in the coupling between visual information and body sway in children postural control. Twenty-seven children from 4-, 8- and 12-year-olds and ten adults stood upright inside of a moving room. In the first 2 min, the room was moved continuously at frequency of 0.2 Hz, velocity of 0.6 cm/s and amplitude of 0.5 cm. In the minute subsequent the room was moved with velocity of 3.5 and amplitude of 3.2 and in the last 2 min with velocity of 0.6cm/s and amplitude of 0.5 cm. Gain, phase, SFSA and transient gain were used to examine the relationship between sensory information and body sway. The results showed that children and adults were capable to adapt to the changes of visual stimulus, downweighting the visual information influences when the room's amplitude/velocity increased. However, the young children did not show calibrated response to the 12-year-old children and adults level, being more influenced by the visual stimulus. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Are the anticipatory trunk movements occurring during load-carrying activities protective or risky?

This study evaluated anteroposterior trunk movements and the time spent on activities of load-carrying to surfaces at different heights, among experienced and inexperienced individuals. Thirty-six healthy males (16 experienced and 20 inexperienced in load-carrying) had their trunk movements recorded by an electrogoniometer while transporting boxes (7 and 15 kg) to surfaces of variable heights (low, low intermediate, high intermediate and high). Longer time was spent on trunk flexion when carrying loads to low surfaces and on trunk extension when carrying to high surfaces (p<0.05). Differences in time spent on trunk flexion/extension were identified between loads, and between groups for the heavier load. There were no differences in flexion/extension amplitudes between groups or loads. Although unnecessary flexion/extension occurring prior to a task may increase the exposure of the trunk to risky movements, the amplitudes reported here were relatively small and seemed to have occurred to facilitate the final tasks.Relevance to industryLifting devices and technological assistance are increasingly available in industrial settings. However, distribution centers and delivery services represent new demands on workers and involve an expressive amount of manual handling and carrying activities. Thus, studies on carrying strategies are necessary as they can provide guidelines for safer activities. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Additional sensory information reduces body sway of individuals with anterior cruciate ligament injury

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the additional sensory information could improve postural control in individuals with unilateral anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Twenty-eight individuals with unilateral ACL injury (mean age 23.6, 26 males, 2 females) and 28 healthy young control subjects (mean age 22.1 years, 26 males, 2 females) participated in this study. Postural control was evaluated with subjects single-leg standing on a force platform with eyes closed under two sensory conditions: normal sensory information and light touch to a stationary bar (applied force below 1 N). Three trials of 30 5 were performed in each single-leg stance and in each sensory condition. Mean sway amplitude and predominant frequency of center of pressure were calculated for both anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions. Individuals with ACL injury showed greater mean sway amplitude than healthy control individuals even though the predominant frequency was similar for both groups. Additional sensory information improved postural control performance in individuals with ACL injury and healthy control, with a greater effect observed for the ACL group. Based on these results, we suggest that reduction in postural control performance in individuals with ACL injury would be due to the reduction of sensory information provided by the ACL, but when sensory information is enhanced, postural control performance improves. These results have implications for novel approaches to improve stability in individuals with ACL injury. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Fundacao de Apoio a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)[2003/13719-1