Relationship Between Excitability of Spinal Motor Neurons in Remote Muscles and Voluntary Movements

In physical therapy, it is important to understand the influence of the contraction of a particular muscle on other muscles. The mechanism of the facilitation effect of muscle contraction in healthy subjects has been analyzed in previous studies. These studies indicated that muscle contraction with voluntary movement enhances the excitability of spinal motor neurons and motor areas in the cerebral cortex that are not directly associated with the contracting muscle. Furthermore, it has been reported that the facilitation effects on remote muscles not related to movement are affected by the elapsed time since the start of the movement, the strength of muscle contraction, the number of muscle spindles, and the difficulty of the movement. In addition, the facilitation effects of difficult voluntary movements of the unilateral upper limbs on spinal motor neurons in the contralateral upper limb decrease with motor learning. We expect that these findings will be useful not only for physical therapy evaluation but also for patient treatment

Influence of Auditory Pacing on the Control of Rhythmic Movement in Physical Therapy

The electromyographic reaction time data responses to various rhythm shifts are discussed in Section 2 of this chapter. The following four experimental designs were introduced: (1) subliminal rhythm shift with shortened interval, (2) subliminal rhythm shift with lengthened interval, (3) subliminal rhythm shift with random interval, and (4) differences in the rate of rhythm shift. We found that the periodic rhythmic stimulation is predicted to comprise some time duration. Furthermore, the reactive movements can be performed without delay under conditions with an interstimulus‐onset interval shift of 7% of 1500 ms. When the physical therapist facilitates rhythmical reactive periodic movement using an external event such as a handclap, it will be desirable to keep the rhythm shift within 7% of the interstimulus‐onset interval. The variabilities of the intertap interval in the continuation paradigm of sensorimotor synchronization are discussed in Section 3. The participants performed self‐paced, synchronization‐continuation, and syncopation‐continuation tapping tasks. We found that the accuracy of the periodic movement with an interstimulus‐onset interval of 1000 ms can be improved by using auditory pacing. However, the consistency of periodic movement is mainly dependent on innate skill; thus, improvement in consistency from pacing alone is unlikely

Neuropsychological assessment of visuo-perceptual processing in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Rey 複雑図形検査（Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test）は視空間構成能力や視覚性記憶，実行機能などを評価する神経心理学的検査である。本研究では板書のノートテイクや漢字の書字などの学習場面でのつまずきがみられる３名の神経発達障害をともなう子どもを対象に Rey 複雑図形検査を実施し，視覚認知処理過程に関する検討をおこなった。３名はいずれもまとまりのある要素を細分化させた方略を用いて図形を描画しており，視覚構成能力に関する指標において著しい低値を認め，視知覚能力の発達の未成熟さが推測された。本検査は子どもの抱える学習上の問題の把握に有用であり，神経発達障害における視覚認知能力の発達的経過に関するさらなる検討が必要と考えられた。独立行政法人日本学術振興会　科研費（25870931

Recent Results from LHD Experiment with Emphasis on Relation to Theory from Experimentalist’s View

he Large Helical Device (LHD) has been extending an operational regime of net-current free plasmas towardsthe fusion relevant condition with taking advantage of a net current-free heliotron concept and employing a superconducting coil system. Heating capability has exceeded 10 MW and the central ion and electron temperatureshave reached 7 and 10 keV, respectively. The maximum value of β and pulse length have been extended to 3.2% and 150 s, respectively. Many encouraging physical findings have been obtained. Topics from recent experiments, which should be emphasized from the aspect of theoretical approaches, are reviewed. Those are (1) Prominent features in the inward shifted configuration, i.e., mitigation of an ideal interchange mode in the configuration with magnetic hill, and confinement improvement due to suppression of both anomalous and neoclassical transport, (2) Demonstration ofbifurcation of radial electric field and associated formation of an internal transport barrier, and (3) Dynamics of magnetic islands and clarification of the role of separatrix

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements