EFFECT OF USING WRIST ORTHOSES ON FOREARM FLEXOR AND EXTENSOR MUSCLE ACTIVATION

ABSTRACTObjective: To investigate the effect of using wrist immobilization orthoses made from different materials, on activation of the flexor and extensor musculature of the forearm while performing specific tasks. Methods: Twenty-six adults, with an average age of 26.2 years, underwent the Jebsen-Taylor functional hand test and the grip strength test (Jamar® dynamometer) under three conditions: free hand, wearing a composite orthosis and wearing a thermoplastic orthosis. The tests were carried out using the dominant hand only. During the tests, surface electrodes were attached to the flexor and extensor muscles of the forearm to record the muscle electrical activity. The results obtained under the three conditions were compared and analyzed using the Wilcoxon statistical test. Results: Significant differences in muscle activation were found between using the free hand and using any of the orthoses. There was no significant difference in muscle activation between the two types of orthosis. A decrease in activity of the extensor muscles of the forearm was observed during all the tasks, as well as an increase in activation of the flexor muscles with the use of the orthoses. Conclusion: These results are important for defining whether an orthosis should be prescribed during the rehabilitation process for a wide range of disorders, such as tendinitis of the flexors and extensors of the wrist and fingers, as well as for predicting the length of time for which these devices should be used

The effect of certain central nervous system stimulants and related compounds on the energy metabolism in the rat brain

Abstract Not Provided

The time course of lexical access in morphologically complex words

Compounding, the concatenation of words (e.g. dishwasher), is an important mechanism across many languages. This study investigated whether access of initial compound constituents occurs immediately or, alternatively, whether it is delayed until the last constituent (i.e. the head). Electroencephalogram was measured as participants listened to German two-constituent compounds. Both the initial as well as the following head constituent could consist of either a word or nonword, resulting in four experimental conditions. Results showed a larger N400 for initial nonword constituents, suggesting that lexical access was attempted before the head. Thus, this study provides direct evidence that lexical access of transparent compound constituents in German occurs immediately, and is not delayed until the compound head is encountered

Foreign-accented speech modulates linguistic anticipatory processes

Available online 25 March 2016Listeners are able to anticipate upcoming words during sentence comprehension, and, as a result, they also pre-activate semantically related words. In the present study, we aim at exploring whether these anticipatory processes are modulated by indexical properties of the speakers, such as a speaker's accent. Event-related brain potentials were obtained while native speakers of Spanish listened to native (Experiment 1) or foreign-accented speakers (Experiment 2) of Spanish producing highly constrained sentences. The sentences ended in: (1) the highest cloze probability completion, (2) a word semantically related to the expected ending, or (3) a word with no semantic overlap with the expected ending. In Experiment 1, we observed smaller N400 mean amplitudes for the semantically related words as compared to the words with no semantic overlap, replicating previous findings. In Experiment 2, we observed no difference in integrating semantically related and unrelated words when listening to accented speech. These results suggest that linguistic anticipatory processes are affected by indexical properties of the speakers, such as the speaker's accent.This research was funded by an FPI Grant(BES-2012- 056668)and three project Grants(PSI2014-54500,PSI2011-23033 and Consolider INGENIO CSD2007-00012)awarded by the Spanish Government;by one grant from the Catalan Government(SGR 2014-1210); by one grant from the Basque Government (PI_2015_1_25); and by one grant from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME). C.D.M. is supported by the IKERBASQUE Institution,the Basque Center on Cognition,Brain and Language,and by the Severo Ochoa Program Grant SEV-2015-049. A.Caecostenetroides is supported by the ICREA Institution and the Center for Brain and Cognition

Processing changes when listening to foreign-accented speech

This study investigates the mechanisms responsible for fast changes in processing foreign-accented speech. Event Related brain Potentials (ERPs) were obtained while native speakers of Spanish listened to native and foreign-accented speakers of Spanish. We observed a less positive P200 component for foreign-accented speech relative to native speech comprehension. This suggests that the extraction of spectral information and other important acoustic features was hampered during foreign-accented speech comprehension. However, the amplitude of the N400 component for foreign-accented speech comprehension decreased across the experiment, suggesting the use of a higher level, lexical mechanism. Furthermore, during native speech comprehension, semantic violations in the critical words elicited an N400 effect followed by a late positivity. During foreign-accented speech comprehension, semantic violations only elicited an N400 effect. Overall, our results suggest that, despite a lack of improvement in phonetic discrimination, native listeners experience changes at lexical-semantic levels of processing after brief exposure to foreign-accented speech. Moreover, these results suggest that lexical access, semantic integration and linguistic re-analysis processes are permeable to external factors, such as the accent of the speaker

The effect of short orthosis for rhizarthrosis on grip and pinch force: a single-case study

Os objetivos deste trabalho consistiram em documentar o impacto da órtese curta para a rizartrose, ventral e dorsal, na força de preensão e força de pinça. Quanto à metodologia, foi realizado um estudo experimental de caso-único do tipo AB. A fase A, com duração de quatro semanas, consistiu em intervenção tradicional de terapia ocupacional. A fase B, com duração de seis semanas, incluiu o uso de órtese curta ventral ou dorsal para rizartrose. Duas mulheres com rizartrose participaram do estudo e foram avaliadas semanalmente quanto à força de preensão e pinça (lateral, trípode e polpa-a-polpa). Empregou-se na análise dos dados os métodos estatísticos Celeration Line e Banda de Dois Desvios-Padrão, assim como da Análise Visual.Os resultados foram: o uso de órtese curta ventral em mão dominante levou a um aumento na força de preensão, pinça trípode e pinça polpa-a-polpa, bem como redução da força de pinça lateral. Já o uso da órtese curta dorsal em mão não dominante levou à diminuição da força de pinça lateral, trípode e polpa-a-polpa, não havendo alteração na força de preensão manual. Com os resultados do estudo, conclui-se que o uso de órtese curta ventral e dorsal na rizartrose interferem na força de preensão e força de pinça. Essa informação pode ser útil aos terapeutas ocupacionais e demais profissionais de reabilitação da mão que trabalham com essa clientela na definição do tipo e tempo de uso da órtese, minimizando seu impacto na força de preensão.Objectives: to document the impact of ventral and dorsal short orthosis for rhizarthrosis on grip strength and pinch strength. Methodology: an AB design, single-case, experimental study was performed. Phase A, lasting 4 weeks, consisted of traditional occupational therapy intervention. Phase B, lasting 6 weeks, included the use of ventral or dorsal short orthosis for rhizarthrosis. Two women with rhizarthrosis participated in the study and grip and pinch strength (lateral, tripod and pulp-to-pulp) were evaluated weekly. The Celeration Line and the Two-Standard Deviation Band statistical methods, as well as Visual Analysis, were used for data analysis. Results: the use of ventral short orthosis on dominant hand led to an increase in grip, tripod pinch and pulp-to-pulp pinch strength, as well as strength reduction in lateral pinch. Now, the use of dorsal short orthosis on non dominant hand led to a decrease in lateral, tripod, and pulp-to-pulp pinch strength, with no change in handgrip strength. Conclusion: the results of the study suggest that the use of ventral and dorsal short orthosis on rhizarthrosis interfere with the grip strength and pinch strength. This information can be useful to occupational therapists and other hand rehabilitation professionals that work with these patients to define the type and time of use of the orthosis, minimizing its impact on grip strength