Attentional disengagement biases in social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a mental disorder characterized by significant fear and anxiety about social situations that may attract attention from others. Selective attention in social anxiety is characterized by a preferential attention to external threatening stimuli. The aim of this study is to test the influence of social anxiety on attentional disengagement bias. Attentional biases are phenomena where attention preferentially targets threatening stimuli. Attention is hypothesized to consist of three processes: engagement, shifting, and disengagement. Previous studies have suggested that people with SAD have impaired attentional engagement with the threatening stimuli. However, recent studies have used the dot-probe task to measure the attentional biases to show that people with SAD have impaired attentional disengagement. However, the dot-probe task is not suitable for separately assessing attentional disengagement or engagement biases. Therefore, we used a gap/overlap task, which can measure attentional disengagement bias, in 16 university students from high and low SAD groups. Faces were used as stimuli for the gap/overlap task (i.e., angry/happy/neutral). The results showed no significant difference between the high and low SAD groups in their attentional disengagement bias. We discussed the possible causes of this discrepancy between the previous studies and the current study in the relationship between social anxiety and attentional disengagement bias

SEIFERT SURGERY ON KNOTS VIA REIDEMEISTER TORSION AND CASSON–WALKER–LESCOP INVARIANT II

Dedicated to Professor Makoto Sakuma for his 60th birthda

KINETIC ANALYSIS OF START MOTION ON STARTING BLOCK IN COMPETITIVE SWIMMING

The aim of this study was to investigate kinetic features of start motion with use of an instrumented starting block. This is the first study that quantified joint torques of the whole body during start motion. Six male swimmers dived from the instrumented starting block, which contains force plates and sensors. Four high-speed cameras were used to obtain kinematics data of the swimmers. Inverse dynamics calculation was carried out with use of the kinetics and kinematics data. The results showed that 1) the large pulling up forces exerted by both hands were generated by extension toques of the shoulder joints, 2) the rear side lower limb joints exerted large extension torque to obtain horizontal reaction force, and 3) the knee joint of the front side lower limb exerted large flexion torque to maintain the large vertical reaction force until 60% normalized start motion time

Effects of rehabilitation program for an anatomical abnormality

Introduction : Spina bifida occulta (SBO) is a common malformation of lamina of the spine, most commonly occurring in the sacrum or lower lumbar spine. Athletes with anatomical abnormalities such as SBO may be vulnerable to discoordination of muscles and/or skeletal structures. Case Report : We present a case of a 15-year-old male adolescent who presented with persistent low back pain (LBP) associated with SBO at T11-L1 that had been overlooked for several years. He participated in karate as a top-level competitor at the nationallevel, but the LBP interfered with his play. Dynamic X-ray films showed limited range of motion (ROM) in his lower lumbar spine (L3-S1). Instead, the thoracolumbar junction compensated for the lack of ROM in the lumbar spine, enabling trunk flexion and extension. To restore normal coordination, he was treated with a 2-week rehabilitation program including flexibility and core conditioning for the trunk to improve coordination of spinal movement. Two weeks later, his LBP resolved. Conclusion : These results suggest that evaluation of the coordination of the muscles and skeletal structures has an important role in the treatment of cases with an anatomical abnormality such as SBO