Efficiency in Kinesiology: Innovative Approaches in Enhancing Motor Skills for Athletic Performance

The inaugural edition of the Special Issue titled “Efficiency in Kinesiology: Innovative approaches in enhancing motor skills for Athletic Performance” has been effectively concluded [...

The effect of fidget spinners on fine motor control

Abstract Fidgeting, defined as the generation of small movements through nervousness or impatience, is one of cardinal characteristic of ADHD. While fidgeting is, by definition, a motor experience still nothing is known about the effects of fidgeting on motor control. Some forms of fidgeting involve also the manipulation of external objects which, through repetition, may become automatic and second nature. Both repetition and practice are important for the acquisition of motor skills and, therefore, it is plausible that the repetitive manipulation of objects may influence motor control and performance. As such, fidget spinners, by being diffuse and prone to repetitive usage, may represent interesting tool for improving motor control. In this study we examine the effect of fidget spinners on fine motor control, evaluated by a spiral-tracing task. We show that the use of fidget spinner indeed seems to have a favorable effect on fine motor control, at least in the short term, although this effect does not seem to be in any way inherent to fidget spinners themselves as much as to object manipulation in general. However, due to their widespread usage, fidget spinner may have the advantage of being an enjoyable means for improving fine motor control

Deletion of the BDNF receptor TrkB.T1 rescues hippocampal parvalbumin positive interneurons in a mouse model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

In addition to motoneurons degeneration, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients have defects in brain regions primarily associated with cognitive functions, such as the hippocampus. These defects have also been confirmed in animal models of ALS. The report that transgenic mice expressing a mutant form of the human superoxide dismutase-1 (hSOD1) with a Gly93 → Ala substitution (G93A-hSOD1), causing familial ALS, have degeneration of a subsets of spinal interneurons (Mol Neurobiol. 2012, 45: 30-42) prompted us to investigate whether this phenotype extends to other CNS interneuron populations. The calcium-binding protein parvalbumin positive interneurons (PVi), constitute the largest class of hippocampal interneurons and play essential roles in hippocampus development and plasticity. Interestingly, we found that PVi are reduced in the hippocampus of presymptomatic G93A-hSOD1 mice compared to controls. Therefore, we decided to use the hippocampal PVi as a model system to identify pathways that may affect the survival of this neuronal population in neurodegenerative conditions. Recently we have shown that deletion of the BDNF receptor TrkB.T1 lacking the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain delays the onset of motoneuron degeneration in the G93A-hSOD1 mice (PLoS One. 2012, 7:e39946). Thus, we investigated hippocampal PVi in G93A-hSOD1/TrkB.T1 deficient mice, G93A-hSOD1 animals at the presymptomatic state and wild type mice as controls. Eight-week-old brains were processed to visualize PVi. After image acquisition, hippocampal slices stained for PV were analyzed with ImageJ. Surprisingly, we found that the number of hippocampal PVi was comparable between wild type and G93A-hSOD1/TrkB.T1-/-. Statistical analysis by ANOVA performed on raw data revealed highly significant differences among the three genotypes [F(2,137)=9.077, p=0.0002]. Post-hoc tests showed that G93A-hSOD1 mice had significantly less PVi (79.05±0.56) compared to wild type (93.84±0.93) and to G93A-hSOD1/TrkB.T1-/- mice (93.10±0.54). These data suggest that BDNF/TrkB.T1 signaling affects not only motoneurons but also hippocampal PVi survival. Moreover, they unveil a new function for TrkB.T1 in a cell population essential for normal hippocampal function and suggest the relevance of targeting this pathway in neurodegenerative conditions

Does gravity influence the timing of motion? A project study on isochronous repetitive movements in human healthy subjects

The ability to perform isochronous repetitive movements while listening to a paced auditory stimulus requires a flexible process that integrates timing information with movement. Our group has developed and studied an audio-motor and recall-motor integration paradigm in which sets of repeated isochronous wrist"s flexion-extensions (IWFEs) are performed under different sensory conditions while minimizing visual and tactile information. Data indicate that the listening alone to paced auditory stimuli does not improve the precision of an isochronous performance (Modulation of isochronous movements in a flexible environment: links between motion and auditory experience. Bravi et al., 2014, Exp Brain Res, DOI 10.1007/s00221-014-3845-9). Recently, using the same paradigm, we tried to get further insights into the domain of repetitive timed movements by introduction of an external perturbation of the motor peripheral (kinesiotaping), thus showing how the precision of isochronous performance is subject to peripheral contribution. In line with our previous studies we are investigating, by means of a synchronization-continuation paradigm under different audio conditions, whether and how the gravity vector influences the production of IWFEs. First, sets of IWFEs are performed with the forearm, supported on armrest, in pronated position. Second, sets of IWFEs are performed with the forearm internally rotated by 90 degrees. Kinematic parameters were evaluated during each session and temporal parameters of movements were analyzed. Preliminary results suggest that the gravity vector influences isochronous movements by altering their durations. Results provide further evidence for an adaptable control of timing in the audio-motor coupling for isochronous movements