Multimodal analysis of synchronization data from patients with dementia

Little is known about the abilities of people with dementia to synchronize bodily movements to music. The lack of non-intrusive tools that do not hinder patients, and the absence of appropriate analysis methods may explain why such investigations remain challenging. This paper discusses the development of an analysis framework for processing sensorimotor synchronization data obtained from multiple measuring devices. The data was collected during an explorative study, carried out at the University Hospital of Reims (F), involving 16 individuals with dementia. The study aimed at testing new methods and measurement tools developed to investigate sensorimotor synchronization capacities in people with dementia. An analysis framework was established for the extraction of quantity of motion and synchronization parameters from the multimodal dataset composed of sensor, audio, and video data. A user-friendly monitoring tool and analysis framework has been established and tested that holds potential to respond to the needs of complex movement data handling. The study enabled improving of the hardware and software robustness. It provides a strong framework for future experiments involving people with dementia interacting with music

Hippocampal sclerosis affects fMR-adaptation of lyrics and melodies in songs

Songs constitute a natural combination of lyrics and melodies, but it is unclear whether and how these two song components are integrated during the emergence of a memory trace. Network theories of memory suggest a prominent role of the hippocampus, together with unimodal sensory areas, in the build-up of conjunctive representations. The present study tested the modulatory influence of the hippocampus on neural adaptation to songs in lateral temporal areas. Patients with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis and healthy matched controls were presented with blocks of short songs in which lyrics and/or melodies were varied or repeated in a crossed factorial design. Neural adaptation effects were taken as correlates of incidental emergent memory traces. We hypothesized that hippocampal lesions, particularly in the left hemisphere, would weaken adaptation effects, especially the integration of lyrics and melodies. Results revealed that lateral temporal lobe regions showed weaker adaptation to repeated lyrics as well as a reduced interaction of the adaptation effects for lyrics and melodies in patients with left hippocampal sclerosis. This suggests a deficient build-up of a sensory memory trace for lyrics and a reduced integration of lyrics with melodies, compared to healthy controls. Patients with right hippocampal sclerosis showed a similar profile of results although the effects did not reach significance in this population. We highlight the finding that the integrated representation of lyrics and melodies typically shown in healthy participants is likely tied to the integrity of the left medial temporal lobe. This novel finding provides the first neuroimaging evidence for the role of the hippocampus during repetitive exposure to lyrics and melodies and their integration into a song

Exploration of plant genomes in the FLAGdb++ environment

Background : In the contexts of genomics, post-genomics and systems biology approaches, data integration presents a major concern. Databases provide crucial solutions: they store, organize and allow information to be queried, they enhance the visibility of newly produced data by comparing them with previously published results, and facilitate the exploration and development of both existing hypotheses and new ideas. Results : The FLAGdb++ information system was developed with the aim of using whole plant genomes as physical references in order to gather and merge available genomic data from in silico or experimental approaches. Available through a JAVA application, original interfaces and tools assist the functional study of plant genes by considering them in their specific context: chromosome, gene family, orthology group, co-expression cluster and functional network. FLAGdb++ is mainly dedicated to the exploration of large gene groups in order to decipher functional connections, to highlight shared or specific structural or functional features, and to facilitate translational tasks between plant species (Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa, Populus trichocarpa and Vitis vinifera). Conclusion : Combining original data with the output of experts and graphical displays that differ from classical plant genome browsers, FLAGdb++ presents a powerful complementary tool for exploring plant genomes and exploiting structural and functional resources, without the need for computer programming knowledge. First launched in 2002, a 15th version of FLAGdb++ is now available and comprises four model plant genomes and over eight million genomic features

Synchronisation sensorimotrice et comportements non verbaux dans la maladie d’Alzheimer : l’influence du contexte social et musical = Sensorimotor synchronization and non-verbal behaviors in Alzheimer's disease : the influence of social and musical context

Cette étude vise à examiner les facteurs qui influencent l’engagement socio-émotionnel et moteur et la synchronisation sensorimotrice (SSM) pendant une activité musicale chez des patients présentant une maladie d’Alzheimer. La tâche consistait à taper avec un rythme métronomique ou musical devant une musicienne réalisant la même tâche, qui était présente physiquement ou virtuellement sur un écran. Selon nos résultats, les patients produisaient plus de mouvements rythmiques en réponse à la musique qu’au métronome. Cependant, la SSM était meilleure avec le métronome qu’avec la musique et en présence virtuelle plutôt que réelle de la musicienne. Ces données confirment l’importance du contexte musical et des interactions sociales sur l’engagement moteur et la synchronisation. En revanche, aucun effet sur l’engagement socio-émotionnel n’a été observé. En évaluant en parallèle la SSM, les comportements moteurs spontanés et socio-émotionnels à partir de mesures quantitatives, cette étude permet de valider une approche multimodale d’évaluation de l’engagement des patients dans une tâche musicale. Les perspectives d’applications prometteuses de ce travail mettent à la disposition des cliniciens et des chercheurs une méthodologie rigoureuse pour comprendre les facteurs qui sont à l’origine des bénéfices thérapeutiques des activités musicales sur le comportement et le bien-être des patients et de leurs aidants.Considering the limited efficacy of pharmacological treatments, the use of musical interventions as non-drug treatment for patients with Alzheimer's disease are strongly recommended. Musical interventions seem to improve the socio-emotional and cognitive functioning of these patients, with benefits increasing when patients are engaged at the motor level. Objective. Our study evaluates the factors that may influence patients' socio-emotional and motor engagement during musical activities, and measures their sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) abilities. Methods. Each participant was asked to tap with a metronomic or a musical rhythm, in the presence of a musician who performed the task with them. The presence of the musician was real (live condition) or virtual (video condition). Two tempi were tested: a slow tempo (inter-onset interval of 800 ms) and a fast tempo (inter-onset interval of 667 ms). Results. Patients spontaneously produced more rhythmic movements in response to the music than to the metronome. However, the consistency and accuracy of sensorimotor synchronization were better with the metronome than with the music, and also better in video than in live condition. These effects were modulated by the tempo of the auditory sequences. Conclusion. These results confirm the importance of the musical context and social interactions on these different performances. By evaluating in parallel the hand sensorimotor synchronization, spontaneous motor and socio-emotional behaviors with quantitative and controlled measurements, this study validates a multimodal approach to evaluate the patients' engagement in a musical task. These initial results open up promising application prospects while providing clinicians and researchers a rigorous methodology for understanding the factors that are at the origin of the therapeutic benefits of musical activities on the behavior and well-being of patients and their caregivers

Contribution of the left and the right temporal lobes to melodic memory and perception

This thesis investigated melodic memory and perception in patients with unilateral left (LT) or right (RT) temporal-lobe lesions and in normal control (NC) subjects. Experiment I examined learning and 24-hour retention of unfamiliar tunes and nonsense words. Both temporal-lobe groups were impaired in learning the tunes and the words. Long-term retention of these stimuli showed that subjects with a RT lobectomy were more impaired in recognizing the tunes than the words, while subjects with a LT lobectomy were more impaired in recognizing the words than the tunes. This study demonstrated the differenting roles of the right and the left temporal lobes in long-term retention of musical and verbal information, respectively. Experiment IIa and IIb investigated memory for songs (words sung to a tune). Recognition of the melodic component resulted in a deficit for both RT and LT groups, but the nature of the impairment seems to be related to the side of the lesion. Patients with LT lobectomy showed deficits in tune recognition mediated by words, but not for tunes sung without words. Patients with RT lobectomy were impaired in tune recognition, whether or not words were sung to the tunes. On the other hand, the well-known verbal memory deficit was shown after a LT lobectomy when the words actually form part of the stimulus as well as when the words are spoken. In experiment III two melodic discrimination tasks were created to test the hypothesis that the RT and the LT lobes are specialized for global and local information processing, respectively. The results showed that impairments under both experimental conditions regardless of the side of the temporal lobectomy suggest that the two temporal lobes are involved in the processing of contour and interval information

Mémoire, catégorisation perceptive et l'hystérèse (une tentative d'application de la dynamique non linéaire)

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Normes pour un corpus musical

Summary : Norms for a musical corpus. In this article, we present norms for a standardized set of 144 melodie excerpts. The melodies have been standardized on four variables corresponding to familiarity, verbal evocations, musical categories (vocal or instrumental) and age of acquisition. For this purpose, estimations were obtained in 120 French university students. The results show that musical excerpts can be submitted to psychometric measures similar to normative measures obtained for other stimuli. Except for the age of acquisition which was only determined for a limited number of excepts, the other variables such as familiarity, musical category as well as verbal responses associated to each musical except were identified. The present results extend data obtained in a previous investigation with the same set of melodies infrench speaking subjectsfrom Quebec by Peretz et her colleagues (1995). This study provides a standardized set of melodies available for research in the psychology of music. Key words : norms, music, familiarity, verbal associations.Résumé Dans cet article sont présentés les résultats d'une étude de norme pour un corpus de 144 extraits musicaux. Des estimations relatives à la familiarité, à l'évocation verbale, à la catégorisation musicale et à l'âge d'acquisition ont été recueillies auprès de 120 sujets universitaires français. Les résultats ont montré que les extraits musicaux pouvaient être soumis à des mesures psychométriques comparables aux mesures normatives effectuées sur d'autres stimuli. Mis à part l'âge d'acquisition qui n'a pu être déterminé que pour un nombre limité d'extraits, les autres variables telles que la familiarité, la catégorisation vocale ou instrumentale ainsi que la nature des évocations verbales associées à chaque extrait musical ont pu être identifiées. Ce travail, qui vient compléter les données recueillies à partir du même corpus de mélodies sur la population francophone québécoise par Peretz et al. (1995), met à la disposition des chercheurs un matériel musical standardisé permettant d'harmoniser les recherches en psychologie de la musique menées auprès de francophones. Mots-clés : normes, musique, familiarité, associations verbales.Ehrlé Nathalie, Samson Séverine, Peretz Isabelle. Normes pour un corpus musical. In: L'année psychologique. 2001 vol. 101, n°4. pp. 593-616

Emotional memory for musical excerpts in young and older adults

International audienceThe emotions evoked by music can enhance recognition of excerpts. It has been suggested that memory is better for high than for low arousing music (Eschrich et al., 2005; Samson et al., 2009), but it remains unclear whether positively (Eschrich et al., 2008) or negatively valenced music (Aubé et al., 2013; Vieillard and Gilet, 2013) may be better recognized. Moreover, we still know very little about the influence of age on emotional memory for music. To address these issues, we tested emotional memory for music in young and older adults using musical excerpts varying in terms of arousal and valence. Participants completed immediate and 24 h delayed recognition tests. We predicted highly arousing excerpts to be better recognized by both groups in immediate recognition. We hypothesized that arousal may compensate consolidation deficits in aging, thus showing more prominent benefit of high over low arousing stimuli in older than younger adults on delayed recognition. We also hypothesized worst retention of negative excerpts for the older group, resulting in a recognition benefit for positive over negative excerpts specific to older adults. Our results suggest that although older adults had worse recognition than young adults overall, effects of emotion on memory do not seem to be modified by aging. Results on immediate recognition suggest that recognition of low arousing excerpts can be affected by valence, with better memory for positive relative to negative low arousing music. However, 24 h delayed recognition results demonstrate effects of emotion on memory consolidation regardless of age, with a recognition benefit for high arousal and for negatively valenced music. The present study highlights the role of emotion on memory consolidation. Findings are examined in light of the literature on emotional memory for music and for other stimuli. We finally discuss the implication of the present results for potential music interventions in aging and dementia

Evaluation neuropsychologique des processus de reconnaissance et d'identification des objets dans le vieillissement normal et la maladie d'Alzheimer

Dans cette thèse, nous avons utilisé des méthodes issues de la neuropsychologie expérimentale pour évaluer la reconnaissance et l'identification. Nous avons testé l'évolution de ces processus dans le vieillissement normal (étude 1). Pour cela, nous avons administré à des participants sains jeunes et âgés, des épreuves évaluant le reconnaissance (visuelle et auditive) d'objets, ainsi que des épreuves évaluant certaines connaissances relatives à ces objets. Dans la continuité de cette 1ère étude, nous avons examiné plus spécifiquement les connaissances perceptives et sémantiques relatives aux objets à l'aide d'un paradigme expérimental différent (étude 2). Ces études ont suggéré l'existence d'une modification de la disponibilité et/ou de l'accessibilité des représentations structurales des objets dans le vieillissement normal. La troisième étude avait pour objectif d'identifier le substrat cérébral associé au traitement des connaissances perceptives et sémantiques à partir de l'IRMf. Nous sommes également intéressées aux troubles du traitement des objets dans la maladie d'Alzheimer. Nous avons testé l'existence de troubles gnosiques et/ou sémantiques chez des patients à des stades débutants de la maladie (étude 4). Nos résultats ont suggéré l'existence d'une atteinte sémantique précoce dans cette pathologie, alors que des cas d'agnosie n'ont pas été illustrés. Finalement, nous avons effectué une prise en charge des troubles sémantiques dans la maladie d'Alzheimer à un stade modéré dans le cadre d'un protocole où nous avons comparé les effets de la prise en charge par réapprentissage de connaissances sémantiques à ceux d'une prise en charge psychologiqueThe purpose of this thesis was to investigate object recognition and identification. In the first part of the thesis, we first examined the evolution of the abilities in normal aging (study 1 and 2). In study 1, young, middle and old normal participants performed tasks assessing object recognition, judgement of semantic knowledge and perceptual properties of objects. In study 2, we further explored semantic and perceptual knowledge of objects with a different methodology. Both studies suggest a modification of access and/or availability of object's perceptual properties in normal aging. The aim of study 3 was to specify the neural basis of semantic as compared to perceptual processing with neuroimaging method (fMRI). In the second part of the thesis, we examined agnosia and semantic impairments in Alzheimer disease. Our results suggested a very early semantic disorder in Alzheimer disease, whereas agnosia wan not observed. Finally, we carried out a stimulation of semantic knowmledge with mild Alzheimer's patients and compared effects of such stimulation with a psychological supportLILLE3-BU (590092101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Emotional power of music in patients with memory disorders: clinical implications of cognitive neuroscience.

International audienceBy adapting methods of cognitive psychology to neuropsychology, we examined memory and familiarity abilities in music in relation to emotion. First we present data illustrating how the emotional content of stimuli influences memory for music. Second, we discuss recent findings obtained in patients with two different brain disorders (medically intractable epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease) that show relatively spared memory performance for music, despite severe verbal memory disorders. Studies on musical memory and its relation to emotion open up paths for new strategies in cognitive rehabilitation and reinstate the importance of examining interactions between cognitive and clinical neurosciences