Neural processes of proactive and reactive controls modulated by motor-skill experiences

This study investigated the experience of open and closed motor skills on modulating proactive and reactive control processes in task switching. Fifty-four participants who were open-skilled

Cognitive function of older adults engaging in physical activity

Background: Physical activity can be classified as open-skilled or closed-skilled. Open-skilled physical activity, such as tennis, require participants to perform within a dynamic setting and respond to unpredictable and frequent environmental changes throughout the activity. Closed-skilled types of physical activity, such as swimming, are predictable and self-directed. However, the benefits of cognitive function in these two types of physical activities to older adults are unknown. This study examined the effects of participation in open- and closed-skilled physical activity on the cognitive function of older adults. Methods: The study recruited a total of 61 participants aged 65 years and over. Participant recruitment was achieved by distributing flyers asking for volunteers in various sports venues. Participants self-reported to be without medical conditions affecting their physical and cognitive function. All participants underwent a two-hour assessment session involving the completion of seven standardised cognitive function assessments, which were used to assess a range of cognitive function. Results: Overall mean scores across all of the assessments showed superior performance for the open- or closed-skilled participants when compared with the no-physical-activity group. The results of 61 adults who participated in this study showed that closed-skilled physical activity was associated with better selective attention and visuospatial function while open-skilled physical activity was associated with better inhibition and cognitive flexibility function. No significant difference in self-regulation ability was found between the open- or closed-skilled groups. Conclusions: Open-skilled physical activity was associated with better inhibition, visual tracking, and cognitive flexibility while closed-skilled physical activity was associated with better selective attention and visuospatial perception. The findings have important practical implications for the health and quality of life of ageing populations, knowing which particular types of physical activity might affect the cognitive function

Effects of Maternal Voluntary Wheel Running During Pregnancy on Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis, Temporal Order Memory, and Depression-Like Behavior in Adult Female and Male Offspring

Research suggests that maternal exercise in pregnancy may have beneficial effects on the brain function of offspring. This study sought to determine if voluntary wheel running during pregnancy improves depression-like behavior, temporal order memory, and hippocampal neurogenesis in both female and male offspring mice. Pregnant mice were allowed to run voluntarily by introducing running wheels into the housing cages throughout the gestational period. Male and female mice offspring at the age of 8- to 9-week-old were then tested on the temporal order task and forced swim test, then euthanized for immunostaining for examining adult hippocampal cell proliferation and neuronal differentiation. Results showed that both male and female pups had reduced depression-like behavior, while only male offspring demonstrated improvement in temporal order memory. Immunostaining revealed that male offspring showed an increase in the number of immature neurons in the ventral hippocampus, whereas female offspring showed enhanced cell proliferation in the dorsal hippocampus. These findings indicate that maternal voluntary wheel running benefits both female and male offspring on reducing depression-like behavior, but with gender effect on promoting hippocampal cell proliferation, neuronal differentiation, and temporal order memory

Fronto-cerebellar connectivity mediating cognitive processing speed

Processing speed is an important construct in understanding cognition. This study was aimed to control task specificity for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processing speed. Forty young adult subjects performed attention tasks of two modalities (auditory and visual) and two levels of task rules (compatible and incompatible). Block-design fMRI captured BOLD signals during the tasks. Thirteen regions of interest were defined with reference to publicly available activation maps for processing speed tasks. Cognitive speed was derived from task reaction times, which yielded six sets of connectivity measures. Mixed-effect LASSO regression revealed six significant paths suggestive of a cerebello-frontal network predicting the cognitive speed. Among them, three are long range (two fronto-cerebellar, one cerebello-frontal), and three are short range (fronto-frontal, cerebello-cerebellar, and cerebello-thalamic). The long-range connections are likely to relate to cognitive control, and the short-range connections relate to rule-based stimulus-response processes. The revealed neural network suggests that automaticity, acting on the task rules and interplaying with effortful top-down attentional control, accounts for cognitive speed

Multisensory integration augmenting motor processes among older adults

ObjectiveMultisensory integration enhances sensory processing in older adults. This study aimed to investigate how the sensory enhancement would modulate the motor related process in healthy older adults.MethodThirty-one older adults (12 males, mean age 67.7 years) and 29 younger adults as controls (16 males, mean age 24.9 years) participated in this study. Participants were asked to discriminate spatial information embedded in the unisensory (visual or audial) and multisensory (audiovisual) conditions. The responses made by the movements of the left and right wrists corresponding to the spatial information were registered with specially designed pads. The electroencephalogram (EEG) marker was the event-related super-additive P2 in the frontal-central region, the stimulus-locked lateralized readiness potentials (s-LRP) and response-locked lateralized readiness potentials (r-LRP).ResultsOlder participants showed significantly faster and more accurate responses than controls in the multisensory condition than in the unisensory conditions. Both groups had significantly less negative-going s-LRP amplitudes elicited at the central sites in the between-condition contrasts. However, only the older group showed significantly less negative-going, centrally distributed r-LRP amplitudes. More importantly, only the r-LRP amplitude in the audiovisual condition significantly predicted behavioral performance.ConclusionAudiovisual integration enhances reaction time, which associates with modulated motor related processes among the older participants. The super-additive effects modulate both the motor preparation and generation processes. Interestingly, only the modulated motor generation process contributes to faster reaction time. As such effects were observed in older but not younger participants, multisensory integration likely augments motor functions in those with age-related neurodegeneration

A mobile health app for the collection of functional outcomes after inpatient stroke rehabilitation: Pilot randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Monitoring the functional status of poststroke patients after they transition home is significant for rehabilitation. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies may provide an opportunity to reach and follow patients post discharge. However, the feasibility and validity of functional assessments administered by mHealth technologies are unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, validity, and reliability of functional assessments administered through the videoconference function of a mobile phone-based app compared with administration through the telephone function in poststroke patients after rehabilitation hospitalization. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in a rehabilitation hospital in Southeast China. Participants were randomly assigned to either a videoconference follow-up (n=60) or a telephone follow-up (n=60) group. We measured the functional status of participants in each group at 2-week and 3-month follow-up periods. Half the participants in each group were followed by face-to-face home visit assessments as the gold standard. Validity was assessed by comparing any score differences between videoconference follow-up and home visit assessments, as well as telephone follow-up and home visit assessments. Reliability was assessed by computing agreements between videoconference follow-up and home visit assessments, as well as telephone follow-up and home visit assessments. Feasibility was evaluated by the levels of completion, satisfaction, comfort, and confidence in the 2 groups. RESULTS: Scores obtained from the videoconference follow-up were similar to those of the home visit assessment. However, most scores collected from telephone administration were higher than those of the home visit assessment. The agreement between videoconference follow-up and home visit assessments was higher than that between telephone follow-up and home visit assessments at all follow-up periods. In the telephone follow-up group, completion rates were 95% and 82% at 2-week and 3-month follow-up points, respectively. In the videoconference follow-up group, completion rates were 95% and 80% at 2-week and 3-month follow-up points, respectively. There were no differences in the completion rates between the 2 groups at all follow-up periods (X CONCLUSIONS: The videoconference follow-up assessment of functional status demonstrates higher validity and reliability, as well as higher confidence and satisfaction perceived by patients, than the telephone assessment. The videoconference assessment provides an efficient means of assessing functional outcomes of patients after hospital discharge. This method provides a novel solution for clinical trials requiring longitudinal assessments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: chictr.org.cn: ChiCTR1900027626; http://www.chictr.org.cn/edit.aspx?pid=44831&htm=4

Episodic memory encoding and retrieval in face-name paired paradigm: An FNIRS study

Background: Episodic memory (EM) is particularly sensitive to pathological conditions and aging. In a neurocognitive context, the paired-associate learning (PAL) paradigm, which requires participants to learn and recall associations between stimuli, has been used to measure EM. The present study aimed to explore whether functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be employed to determine cortical activity underlying encoding and retrieval. Moreover, we examined whether and how different aspects of task (i.e., novelty, difficulty) affects those cortical activities. Methods: Twenty-two male college students (age: M = 20.55, SD = 1.62) underwent a face-name PAL paradigm under 40-channel fNIRS covering fronto-parietal and middle occipital regions. Results: A decreased activity during encoding in a broad network encompassing the bilateral frontal cortex (Brodmann areas 9, 11, 45, and 46) was observed during the encoding, while an increased activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (Brodmann area 11) was observed during the retrieval. Increased HbO concentration in the superior parietal cortices and decreased HbO concentration in the inferior parietal cortices were observed during encoding while dominant activation of left PFC was found during retrieval only. Higher task difficulty was associated with greater neural activity in the bilateral prefrontal cortex and higher task novelty was associated with greater activation in occipital regions. Conclusion: Combining the PAL paradigm with fNIRS provided the means to differentiate neural activity characterising encoding and retrieval. Therefore, the fNIRS may have the potential to complete EM assessments in clinical settings

Cognitive and Emotional Appraisal of Motivational Interviewing Statements: An Event-Related Potential Study

The counseling process involves attention, emotional perception, cognitive appraisal, and decision-making. This study aimed to investigate cognitive appraisal and the associated emotional processes when reading short therapists' statements of motivational interviewing (MI). Thirty participants with work injuries were classified into the pre-contemplation (PC, n = 15) or readiness stage of the change group (RD, n = 15). The participants viewed MI congruent (MI-C), MI incongruent (MI-INC), or control phrases during which their electroencephalograms were captured. The results indicated significant Group × Condition effects in the frontally oriented late positive complex (P600/LPC). The P600/LPC's amplitudes were more positive-going in the PC than in the RD group for the MI congruent statements. Within the PC group, the amplitudes of the N400 were significantly correlated (r = 0.607–0.649) with the participants' level of negative affect. Our findings suggest that the brief contents of MI statements alone can elicit late cognitive and emotional appraisal processes beyond semantic processing

Identification of the human cerebral cortical hemodynamic response to passive whole-body movements using near-infrared spectroscopy

The human vestibular system is crucial for motion perception, balance control, and various higher cognitive functions. Exploring how the cerebral cortex responds to vestibular signals is not only valuable for a better understanding of how the vestibular system participates in cognitive and motor functions but also clinically significant in diagnosing central vestibular disorders. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) provides a portable and non-invasive brain imaging technology to monitor cortical hemodynamics under physical motion.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the cerebral cortical response to naturalistic vestibular stimulation induced by real physical motion and to validate the vestibular cerebral cortex previously identified using alternative vestibular stimulation.ApproachFunctional NIRS data were collected from 12 right-handed subjects when they were sitting in a motion platform that generated three types of whole-body passive translational motion (circular, lateral, and fore-and-aft).Main resultsThe study found that different cortical regions were activated by the three types of motion. The cortical response was more widespread under circular motion in two dimensions compared to lateral and fore-and-aft motions in one dimensions. Overall, the identified regions were consistent with the cortical areas found to be activated in previous brain imaging studies.SignificanceThe results provide new evidence of brain selectivity to different types of motion and validate previous findings on the vestibular cerebral cortex