Moderators of Perceived Effort in Adolescent Rowers During a Graded Exercise Test

Physical activity promotes mental health. A key factor is self-regulation. In the field of sports, self-regulation is related to the psychophysiological competence of rating of perceived effort (RPE). It was reported that adolescents have lower RPE competencies than adults, and it was hypothesized that this effect depends on physiological and cognitive development. The present study investigated in a sample of adolescents whether the RPE is related to basic cognitive competencies. Twelve rowers performed cognitive tests and a graded exercise test on a rowing ergometer, in which they continuously rated their perceived effort. Objective load measures and subjective perceptions were highly correlated (rho = 0.95–0.99). Furthermore, these correlations were inter-individually moderated by measures of mental speed and spontaneous flexibility. The results confirm the significance of basal cognitive competencies for conscious load perception. It is discussed whether regular sport has beneficial effects on the development of RPE competencies by enhancing cognitive regulation

Enhanced cognitive performance after multiple adaptations to visuomotor transformations

Several studies reported that adaptation to a visuomotor transformation correlates with the performance in cognitive performance tests. However, it is unclear whether there is a causal relationship between sensorimotor adaptation and cognitive performance. The present study examined whether repeated adaptations to double steps and rotated feedback increase cognitive performance assessed by neuropsychological tests in a pre-post design. The participants of the intervention group adapted in 24 sessions their hand movements to visuomotor transformations with increasing size. Pre-post changes were significantly larger in the intervention group than in a control group without training. This result suggests a causal relationship between sensorimotor adaptation training and cognitive performance

FolkRank: A Ranking Algorithm for Folksonomies

In social bookmark tools users are setting up lightweight conceptual structures called folksonomies. Currently, the information retrieval support is limited. We present a formal model and a new search algorithm for folksonomies, called FolkRank, that exploits the structure of the folksonomy. The proposed algorithm is also applied to find communities within the folksonomy and is used to structure search results. All findings are demonstrated on a large scale dataset. A long version of this paper has been published at the European Semantic Web Conference 2006

Transfer of Visuomotor Adaptation to Unpractised Hands and Sensory Modalities

A recent model (Bock, 2013) predicts that sensorimotor adaptation, achieved while pointing at visual targets, will transfer fully to acoustic targets. The model further predicts that visual-to-acoustic transfer is not diminished even if the left and right arms have adapted to a different distortion. To scrutinize these predictions, we asked subjects to point at visual targets with their right hands under a +30 deg rotation of visual feedback (group “single”), or alternately, with their right hands under a +30 deg and with their left hands under a -30 deg rotation of visual feedback. Aftereffects were registered for each hand and for visual as well as acoustic targets, in counterbalanced order. We found that acoustic aftereffects were only about 66% of visual ones, which violates the first prediction and calls for an amendment of the model. We further found that acoustic aftereffects were of similar magnitude in both groups, which supports the second prediction. Finally, we observed an intermanual transfer of only about 29%. These findings suggest that unpractised acoustic inputs are weighted somewhat lower than practised visual ones, and that outputs to the unpractised left hand are weighted substantially lower than those to the practised right hand.DFG/Bo 649/8German Federal Ministry for Re search and Technology/50WB994

Semantic Network Analysis of Ontologies

A key argument for modeling knowledge in ontologies is the easy re-use and re-engineering of the knowledge. However, current ontology engineering tools provide only basic functionalities for analyzing ontologies. Since ontologies can be considered as graphs, graph analysis techniques are a suitable answer for this need. Graph analysis has been performed by sociologists for over 60 years, and resulted in the vivid research area of Social Network Analysis (SNA). While social network structures currently receive high attention in the Semantic Web community, there are only very few SNA applications, and virtually none for analyzing the structure of ontologies. We illustrate the benefits of applying SNA to ontologies and the Semantic Web, and discuss which research topics arise on the edge between the two areas. In particular, we discuss how different notions of centrality describe the core content and structure of an ontology. From the rather simple notion of degree centrality over betweenness centrality to the more complex eigenvector centrality, we illustrate the insights these measures provide on two ontologies, which are different in purpose, scope, and size

Children can rate perceived effort but do not follow intensity instructions during soccer training

The perception of effort is elementary for the self-regulation of exercise intensity in sports. The competence for rating perceived effort (RPE) seems to be related to physical and cognitive development. Children accurately rate perceived effort during incremental exercise tests when loads progressively increase, but it remains unclear how children perform when they participate in sports games, which are characterized by complex tasks with varying intensity profiles. The present study investigates children's competencies for rating perceived effort and producing predetermined intensities during soccer training. Twenty-five children aged 11–13 years performed two similar training sessions. In the first session, the children trained without intensity instructions and continuously rated their effort. In the second session, the children were instructed to produce predefined intensities. Before the first training session, executive functions were assessed by cognitive performance tests and a self-report measure. RPE correlated significantly with heart rate measures (R2 = 0.27, p < 0.001). As confirmed by factor analysis, individual differences in these correlations were related to the outcomes of the cognitive tests and the self-report measure. RPE in training session 2 differed from RPE in training session 1 (d = 1.22, p < 0.001), although the heart rate data did not differ significantly between training sessions (d = −0.19, p = 0.780). Thirteen-year-old children performed significantly better than eleven-year-old children (d = 1.69, p = 0.027). The results suggest that children are able to rate perceived effort during soccer training and that this ability is related to executive functions. Conversely, children may not be able to alter their intensities in response to instructions, although their ratings suggest that they have largely succeeded in doing so

Interpersonal sensorimotor contingencies: Information-theoretic relevance of subjective experience

Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Influence of water-filtered infrared-A (wIRA) on reduction of local fat and body weight by physical exercise

Aim of the study: Investigation, whether water-filtered infrared-A (wIRA) irradiation during moderate bicycle ergometer endurance exercise has effects especially on local fat reduction and on weight reduction beyond the effects of ergometer exercise alone

Lipidomic strategies to study structural and functional defects of ABC-transporters in cellular lipid trafficking

AbstractThe majority of the human ATP-binding cassette (ABC)-transporters function in cellular lipid trafficking and in the regulation of membrane lipid composition associating their dysfunction with human disease phenotypes related to sterol, phospholipid and fatty acid homeostasis. Based on findings from monogenetic disorders, animal models, and in vitro systems, major clues on the expression, function and cellular localization of human ABC-transporters have been gained. Here we review novel lipidomic technologies including quantitative mRNA expression monitoring by realtime RT-PCR and DNA-microarrays, lipid mass spectrometry, cellular fluorescence imaging and flow cytometry as promising tools to further define regulatory networks, lipid species patterns and subcellular domains important for ABC-transporter-mediated lipid trafficking

Mechanismen von visuomotorischer und audiomotorischer Adaptation. Transfer zwischen Sinnesmodalitäten und Effektoren

Eine genaue Kenntnis der Adaptationsmechanismen im sensomotorischen System bildet die Voraussetzung für gezielte Interventionen in der Sportmotorik oder Rehabilitation. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden visuomotorische und audiomotorische Adaptation, sowie deren Transfer auf nicht-adaptierte Sinnesmodalitäten und Effektoren untersucht. In mehreren Experimenten konnte jeweils beidseitiger, aber unvollständiger Transfer zwischen dem visuomotorischen und audiomotorischen System, zwischen linker und rechter Hand, sowie zwischen Hand und Augen belegt werden. Die Transferraten stehen im Widerspruch zu einem seriellen Aufbau des adaptiven Systems und im Einklang mit einer zentralen Lokalisation adaptiver Mechanismen, zu denen Modalitäten und Effektoren Zugriff erhalten können. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wurde geprüft, inwieweit sensomotorische Adaptation kognitiven Einflüssen unterliegt. Dazu wurde Adaptation bei Alzheimer-Patienten, unter normobarer Hypoxie (12,6 Vol.% O2) und in mehreren Aufgabenvariationen (Faktoren: Diskordanzgröße, Arbeitsfläche, Zielpunktanzahl) untersucht. Es konnte kein direkter Einfluss der Alzheimer-Erkrankung, aber der Hypoxie und allen drei Faktoren der Aufgabenvariation auf unterschiedliche Adaptationskomponenten nachgewiesen werden. Es konnten zudem gleichzeitig Korrelationen zwischen einigen kognitiven Leistungen und dem Adaptationsvorgang, nicht aber den Nacheffekten, belegt werden. Dies kann mit einem Einfluss kognitiver Fähigkeiten auf strategische Adaptationskomponenten interpretiert werden. Andere kognitive Leistungen korrelierten mit unterschiedlichen Nacheffekten, was auf einen Zusammenhang zwischen spezifischen kognitiven Fähigkeiten und dem Zugang zu adaptiven Mechanismen hindeutet. Detailed knowledge about adaptive mechanisms in the sensorimotor system is one of the conditions for specific interventions in sport and rehabilitation. The present work investigated visuomotor and audiomotor adaptation, as well as their transfer to not-adapted sensory modalities and effectors. In several experiments bilateral but incomplete transfer between the visuomotor and audiomotor system, left and right hand as well as between hand and eyes was found. The transfer rates are inconsistent with a serial structure of the adaptive system and compatible with a central localization of adaptive mechanisms that can be accessed by sensory modalities and effectors. The second part of this work investigated how sensorimotor adaptation is influenced by cognitive factors. Therefore adaptation was studied in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, during exposure to normobaric hypoxia (12.6 Vol.% O2), and at different task-arrangements (factors were size of discordance, workspace, number of targets). Alzheimer’s disease had no direct effect, whereas hypoxia and all task-factors had differential effects on adaptive components. Furthermore, cognitive performance indices correlated with adaptive improvement, but not with aftereffects. This can be interpreted as an influence of cognitive factors on strategy. Other cognitive performance indices correlated with several aftereffects. This finding suggests a relation between specific cognitive functions and access to adaptive mechanisms