Moving in an environment of induced sensorimotor incongruence does not influence pain sensitivity in healthy volunteers: A randomised within-subject experiment

Objectives: It has been proposed that in the same way that conflict between vestibular and visual inputs leads to motion sickness, conflict between motor commands and sensory information associated with these commands may contribute to some chronic pain states. Attempts to test this hypothesis by artificially inducing a state of sensorimotor incongruence and assessing self-reported pain have yielded equivocal results. To help clarify the effect sensorimotor incongruence has on pain we investigated the effect of moving in an environment of induced incongruence on pressure pain thresholds (PPT) and the pain experienced immediately on completion of PPT testing. Methods: Thirty-five healthy subjects performed synchronous and asynchronous upper-limb movements with and without mirror visual feedback in random order. We measured PPT over the elbow and the pain evoked by testing. Generalised linear mixed-models were performed for each outcome. Condition (four levels) and baseline values for each outcome were within-subject factors. Results: There was no effect of condition on PPT (p = 0.887) or pressure-evoked pain (p = 0.771). A sensitivity analysis using only the first PPT measure after each condition confirmed the result (p = 0.867). Discussion: Inducing a state of movement related sensorimotor incongruence in the upper-limb of healthy volunteers does not influence PPT, nor the pain evoked by testing. We found no evidence that sensorimotor incongruence upregulates the nociceptive system in healthy volunteer

Margaret Atwood's Hands

In her latest work in verse -- Two-Headed Poems and True Stories -- Margaret Atwood, concerning her various poetic personae, has been accepting some constraint while still pressing with all her faculties at the edges of it. We know that it is impossible to find the real Atwood by casting our eyes over the pages of her poetry, yet we still feel with conviction that the space between woman and speaker of the poems is next to snug, is compressed and saturated with energy. However, when people at their most vulgar ask what Atwood is "really like," they are unwittingly asking for a comparison, and they are requesting that one put aside her being as a poet. She is, of course, real, and perhaps different from the persona that speaks the art, but her skill in finding and fashioning the persona is her reality

Once Upon a Time in The South: Ondaatje and Genre

Critics have often noted that Michael Ondaatje likes to mix literary modes and genres, but there has not been much speculation about his reasons for doing so. Clues can be derived from his predilection for community over individuality, both in his subject material and in his method of book production. Genre fiction provides readers with the memory of their early joy in reading as well as a sense that they are part of a society involving stories. A postmodern parody of genres, especially as they are commingled, will further promote the reader’s awareness of participation in a literary community, and permit the primary author to feel that he is helping to tell lives rather than Jamesian art. In its first sentence, Corning Through Slaughter invites the reader to join writer and characters in some travel around the setting, and provides us all with the opportunity to close the distance between self and the trope of others.Les critiques ont souvent noté que Michael Ondaatje aimait mélanger genres et modes littéraires mais sans s’interroger vraiment sur les raisons de cette pratique. Le roman rappelle au lecteur ses premières joies trouvées dans la lecture. La parodie post-moderne des genres (surtout lorsque ces derniers sont mélangés) renforce la conscience que le lecteur a de participer à une communauté littéraire. Dès la première phrase, Corning Through Slaughter invite le lecteur à rejoindre l’auteur et les personnages et fournit la possibilité d’abolir la distance entre soi et les autres

Points on the grid

The thesis comprises an essay and a collection of poems written in an attempt to define my perception of the external world, and my reaction to that world. The essay seeks to explain a recent development in my poetic theory. In the essay, "Universal And Particular," I begin by describing my first awareness of the simultaneous and uncontradictory phenomena of universality and particularity as they appear in nature. From there I state that this awareness informs the poet's view of nature and his position in nature. To this end I go to the works and statements of several poets principally my three chief personal influences, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Charles Olson and assess them in terms of the awareness of universality and particularity as apprehended by each poet. My main point is that the poem emerges from a moment when both phenomena are most intensely present to the poet. I then proceed to discuss my own poems from the basis of my poetic stand. "Points On The Grid: Part One Of The Poems," is a collection of poems with which I hope both to state and demonstrate my premise as stated in the essay. "The Husband: Part Two Of The Poems," is a later collection, in which I am no longer didactic, but have, I hope, assimilated what I believe about universality and particularity, directly into the action of the poems, which then become an attempt on the larger matter of poetic form.Arts, Faculty ofEnglish, Department ofGraduat

Readings and commentary

Item consists of a digitized copy of a video recording of a Vancouver Institute lecture given by George Bowering on February 15, 1992. Original video recording available in the University Archives (UBC VT 1835).Non UBCUnreviewedFacult

The Moustache : Memories of Greg Curnoe

Bowering's book is comprised of anecdotes on the life of his good friend Curnoe