A Spiderless Arachnophobia Therapy: Comparison between Placebo and Treatment Groups and Six-Month Follow-Up Study

We describe a new arachnophobia therapy that is specially suited for those individuals with severe arachnophobia who are reluctant to undergo direct or even virtual exposure treatments. In this therapy, patients attend a computer presentation of images that, while not being spiders, have a subset of the characteristics of spiders. The Atomium of Brussels is an example of such an image. The treatment group (n = 13) exhibited a significant improvement (time × group interaction: P = .0026) when compared to the placebo group (n = 12) in a repeated measures multivariate ANOVA. A k-means clustering algorithm revealed that, after 4 weeks of treatment, 42% of the patients moved from the arachnophobic to the nonarachnophobic cluster. Six months after concluding the treatment, a follow-up study showed a substantial consolidation of the recovery process where 92% of the arachnophobic patients moved to the nonarachnophobic cluster

Aplicando uma nova versão brasileira do UPSIT no Brasil

Standardized olfactory tests are now available to quantitatively assess disorders of olfaction. A Brazilian-Portuguese version of the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) is currently being developed specifically for the Brazilian population. The most recent Brazilian-Portuguese version of the UPSIT (UPSIT-Br2) was administered to 88 Brazilian subjects who had no history of neurological or otorhinolaryngological disease. UPSIT-Br2 scores decreased with age, were lower in men than in women, and were lower in subjects with lower income. The degree to which the poorer performance of subjects with lower socio-economic status reflects lack of familiarity with test items is not known. Although this version of the UPSIT provides a sensitive and useful test of smell function for the Brazilian population, a revision of some test items is needed to achieve comparable norms to those found using the North American UPSIT in the United States.Testes padronizados já estão disponíveis para testagem do olfato e uma versão em Português esta sendo desenvolvida para o University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), especificamente para a população brasileira. A versão mais recente deste teste (chamada UPSIT-Br2) foi aplicada a 88 sujeitos brasileiros que não tinham história de qualquer problema neurológico ou otorrinolaringológico. Compatível com dados prévios da literatura, a performance no UPSIT-Br2 decaiu com a idade e foi inferior no genero masculino. Os resultados foram mais baixos em participantes de menor nível sócio-econômico e a relação deste achado com a falta de familiaridade para com os itens do teste não é conhecida. Apesar desta versão do UPSIT poder ser útil para o teste da função olfativa da população brasileira, a revisão de alguns itens se faz necessária para alcançar valores comparáveis aos dados normativos norte-americanos.Reta Lila Weston Trust for Medical Researc

Análise do sistema de validação de pontos no “Taekwondo”

Modalidade Olímpica desde Sidney-2000, o “Taekwondo” é um esporte de contato determinado pela luta entre dois atletas, através de técnicas de golpes com os pés e com as mãos. Até recentemente o resultado da disputa dependia inteiramente da avaliação de três juízes, que atribuíam pontos aos atletas apertando um de quatro botões toda vez que julgavam que um atleta atingiu o outro com um golpe válido. Para valer, um ponto deveria ser atribuído ao atleta por pelo menos dois juízes, que deveriam apertar botões equivalentes dentro de um intervalo máximo de três segundos. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi analisar o sistema de arbitragem de “Taekwondo”. Para isso, quantificamos o número de marcações (soma de pontos e pontos não confirmados) e investigamos o efeito de adotar critérios plausíveis, mas diferentes das regras atuais. Para nossa surpresa o resultado das lutas muitas vezes seria invertido se fosse adotado algum critério alternativo na validação dos pontos atribuídos pelos juízes individualmente. Em três competições oficiais coletamos súmulas de 141 lutas. No total 5.418 marcações foram contabilizadas, das quais 3.725 se tornaram pontos válidos, com uma média de 12,81 marcações por juiz por luta, das quais 8,5 (70%) foram confirmadas e validadas como pontos. A média geral das inversões (resultados oficiais que seriam invertidos por critérios de validação alternativos plausíveis) foi de 17%. Concluímos que a iniciativa da WTF (World Taekwondo Federation), de modificar as regras, aumentando o número de juízes de três para quatro é oportuna, como tentativa de tornar os resultados das lutas mais robustos e portanto mais justos.Olympic Sport since Sidney-2000, Taekwondo is a contact sport determined by a fight between two athletes through techniques of blows with the feet and the hands. The result of the fight depends entirely on the evaluation of three referees that attribute points to the athletes pressing one of four buttons every time that a referee judges that an athlete hit the other with a valid technique. To be a valid point, attributed to an athlete, at least two referees must press equivalent buttons in a 3 sec time interval. The objective of this study was to analyze the refereeing system of Taekwondo to verify its robustness against plausible changes in the rules. We quantified the number of markings under reasonable criteria and calculated the percentage of occasions in which the result would be inverted. During three official competitions, we collected the raw scores of 141 fights, in which 5418 markings had been entered, and 3725 officialized as points, with an average of 12 markings per judge per fight, of which 8.5 (70%) became valid points. On average there were 17% inversions (official results that would be inverse according to point validation criterion), considering scores as general (grand total) markings, individual or in pairs. The results indicate a significant number of fights inversions. We conclude that is necessary trying to minimize the influence of a given referee, as the WTF attempted recently by modifying the rules and adding a fourth referee to judge the punctuation of the athlete

Spatial pattern of eye fixations and evidence of ultradian rhythms in aircraft pilots

Introduction: Eye fixations can be distributed in three ways: randomly, in clusters, and regularly. However, there is always a continuum among these types, because these spatial patterns are the result of a process evolving over time. The focus of the present work was to study the changes over time observed in the Nearest Neighbor Index (NNI), an index derived from the spatial distribution of eye fixations that has been reported to be sensitive to variations in mental workload. Of particular interest are periodic changes in the ultradian timescale (an ultradian rhythm is a recurrent period or cycle repeated throughout a 24-h circadian day). Methods: Data from a previously reported experiment were further analyzed using temporal spectral analysis, which is one of the most commonly used techniques for studying measurements collected at regularly spaced intervals of time. Results: An ultradian rhythm with a periodicity between 2 and 15 min was found, which is compatible with results obtained by analyzing reaction times in prolonged vigilance tasks. Discussion: The identification of a periodicity in the allocation of mental resources should be considered in the design of automation support that is dynamically matched to mental workload

O ritmo e a sua relação com som: a influência do contexto sensorial na precisão da percepção e produção de ritmo

This article presents the final results of a neuroscientific research conducted at the Graduate Program of Neuroscience and Behavior, University of São Paulo. Assuming that the sensory modality of the temporal information can directly affect the functioning of the internal clocks, a research was developed to verify whether the synchronizing accuracy of successive finger tappings to external stimuli would be altered as a function of the sensory modalities of the timing events. To do so, two psychophysical experiments were carried out. Their results confirmed the hypothesis that the perception of rhythm is more strongly linked to the auditory system than to the visual system. The data obtained in this work also suggests that the internal timing mechanism apparently is not unique and changes when working in an auditory or visual context

A Developmental study of the effect of music training on timed movements

When people clap to music, sing, play a musical instrument, or dance, they engage in temporal entrainment. We examined the effect of music training on the precision of temporal entrainment in 57 children aged 10-14 years (31 musicians, 26 non-musicians). Performance was examined for two tasks: self-paced finger tapping (discrete movements) and circle drawing (continuous movements). For each task, participants synchronized their movements with a steady pacing signal and then continued the movement at the same rate in the absence of the pacing signal. Analysis of movements during the continuation phase revealed that musicians were more accurate than non-musicians at finger tapping and, to a lesser extent, circle drawing. Performance on the finger-tapping task was positively associated with the number of years of formal music training, whereas performance on the circle-drawing task was positively associated with the age of participants. These results indicate that music training and maturation of the motor system reinforce distinct skills of timed movement.7 page(s