Spontaneous Motor Tempo is the Easiest Pace to Act Upon for Both the Emergent and the Predictive Timing Modes

AbstractSpontaneous Motor Tempo (SMT) is a self-paced regular series of movements that correspond to the preferred and natural pace to act upon. SMT is naturally observed within daily activities such as in hand clapping and walking. In experimental settings, SMT is evaluated using synchronization finger-tapping paradigms and has been estimated to correspond to time intervals of 600ms (Fraisse, 1982). More recently, subjects have been instructed to tap at the most comfortable rate, and the SMT was found to be a little faster, with a mean SMT comprised between 450 and 500ms of time intervals (Collyer et al., 1994; Moelants, 2002). Studies using whole body movements have also determined SMT between 100-130 bpm (500-600ms) both during daily activities (MacDougall & Moore, 2005) and when walking in synchrony to music (Styns, van Noorden, Moelants, & Leman, 2007). Nevertheless, the most striking aspect of these findings is the variability reported, with ranges going from 190 to 950ms of time intervals within a given group of healthy individuals.In the present work, the objective was not to determine a global mean SMT for a group but to work at the individual level. More specifically, we questioned what the functional role of SMT might be in the production of sequences of motor actions. After developing an application on Android telephone, we measured SMT in a group of healthy young adults throughout a period of a three of weeks and tested the hypotheses that (1) the SMT is different but characteristic of a given individual and that (2) SMT corresponds to the time window in which movements are performed the best.Thirty young adults aged from 20 to 28 years participated in the experiment. They all downloaded on their telephone the SPONT application and were required to measure their SMT at 10 am for 3 consecutive days, during a two-week period. During the third week, they were invited to come to the laboratory and they were randomly assigned to either a cycling session or a finger tapping session that lasted 30minutes each. At the start of the session, all individuals sat silently for 5minutes in silence before performing a 2-minute trial of cycling or of tapping at their “preferred and most comfortable pace”. This pace was used to set the metronome frequency that was used during the remaining of the experimental session.Both groups performed a sensori-motor synchronization and continuation task with the explicit instruction to perform movements in synchrony with a regular tone sequence and to continue even when the metronome stopped. The metronome was generated by a program written in Matlab and was played through speakers. All tones had the same pitch (640Hz) and the same duration (100ms). For the cycling group, participants were seated on a stationary bike of which the saddle was adjusted to the height of the participant. The bike was set so that the strength applied on the pedal was minimal. A passive reflective marker was located on the right pedal of the bike and its position was recorded through a Qualisys 3D motion capture system at a sampling frequency of 200Hz. For the finger-tapping group, the task was to tap six visual targets one after the other, which were presented on a touch screen (EloTouch). In both tasks, the regular pacing of the metronome was manipulated for each individual to be ±500, ±400, ±300, ±200, ±100ms or equal to each individual's SMT.Resultsshowed that the group SMT was 520ms with differences ranging from 235 and 832ms of SMT. These SMTs remained consistent for all individuals throughout the 6 measured sessions. The lab-based task confirmed the preferred tempo for all subjects especially in the finger-tapping task. During the synchronization-continuation task, participants were able to perform the task correctly without apparent difficulty. Subjects however reported that the “easiest” tempi to follow were those close to their own SMT. When measuring the inter-response intervals and the asynchrony during the synchronization task, results revealed an inverted U-shape with a minimal error and variance close to each individual's SMT. The fact that timing was both performed with the highest accuracy and the greatest stability within the SMT interval was observed both in the cycling and in the finger- tapping tasks. Finally, the analysis of the continuation data showed that especially for the extreme tempi (i.e., very slow and very fast) participants drifted towards their natural SMT.Overall, the reported results confirm previous findings of best performances close to SMT (Styns et al., 2007) but go further by showing that this finding is true both in cyclic movements (that are thought to use emergent timing processes) and in sequential rhythmic movements (that are thought to use predictive timing processes). An interpretation of how spontaneous tempo and the two modes of timing can be considered within a unique theoretical framework may be considered in reference to the cognitive model of executive functions by Miake et al. (2000)

Combined visual and motor disorganization in patients with schizophrenia

Cognitive impairments are difficult to relate to clinical symptoms in schizophrenia, partly due to insufficient knowledge on how cognitive impairments interact with one another. Here, we devised a new sequential pointing task requiring both visual organization and motor sequencing. Six circles were presented simultaneously on a touch screen around a fixation point. Participants pointed with the finger each circle one after the other, in synchrony with auditory tones. We used an alternating rhythmic 300/600 ms pattern so that participants performed pairs of taps separated by short intervals of 300 ms. Visual organization was manipulated by using line-segments that grouped the circles two by two, yielding three pairs of connected circles, and three pairs of unconnected circles that belonged to different pairs. This led to three experimental conditions. In the “congruent condition,” the pairs of taps had to be executed on circles grouped by connecters. In the “non congruent condition,” they were to be executed on the unconnected circles that belonged to different pairs. In a neutral condition, there were no connecters. Twenty two patients with schizophrenia with mild symptoms and 22 control participants performed a series of 30 taps in each condition. Tap pairs were counted as errors when the produced rhythm was inverted (expected rhythm 600/300 = 2; inversed rhythm <1). Error rates in patients with a high level of clinical disorganization were significantly higher in the non-congruent condition than in the two other conditions, contrary to controls and the remaining patients. The tap-tone asynchrony increased in the presence of connecters in both patient groups, but not in the controls. Patients appeared not to integrate the visual organization during the planning phase of action, leading to a large difficulty during motor execution, especially in those patients revealing difficulties in visual organization. Visual motor tapping tasks may help detect those subgroups of patients

Music and Metronomes Differentially Impact Motor Timing in People with and without Parkinson's Disease: Effects of Slow, Medium, and Fast Tempi on Entrainment and Synchronization Performances in Finger Tapping, Toe Tapping, and Stepping on the Spot Tasks

© 2019 Dawn Rose et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Introduction: Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) has successfully helped regulate gait for people with Parkinson’s disease. However, the way in which different auditory cues and types of movements affect entrainment, synchronization and pacing stability has not been directly compared in different aged people with and without Parkinson's. Therefore, this study compared music and metronomes (cue types) in finger tapping, toe tapping and stepping on the spot tasks to explore the potential of RAS training for general use.Methods: Participants (aged 18-78 years) included people with Parkinson’s (n=30, Hoehn & Yahr Mean=1.78), Older (n=26), and Younger adult controls (n=36), as age may effect motor timing. Timed motor production was assessed using an extended synchronization-continuation task in cue type and movement conditions for slow, medium and fast tempi (81, 116 and 140 mean beats-per-minute respectively).Results: Analyses revealed main effects of cue and movement type but no between group interactions, suggesting no differences in motor timing between people with Parkinson's and controls. Music supported entrainment better than metronome in medium and fast tempi, and stepping on the spot enabled better entrainment and less asynchrony, as well as more stable pacing compared to tapping in medium and fast tempi. Age was not confirmed as a factor and no differences were observed in slow tempo.Conclusion: This is the first study to directly compare how different external auditory cues and movement types affect motor timing. The music and the stepping enabled participants to maintain entrainment once the external pacing cue ceased, suggesting endogenous mechanisms continued to regulate the movements. The superior performance of stepping on the spot suggests embodied entrainment can occur during continuous movement, and this may be related to emergent timing in tempi above 600 ms. These findings can be applied therapeutically to manage and improve adaptive behaviours for people with Parkinson’s.Peer reviewe

A general procedure to measure the pacing of body movements timed to music and metronome in younger and older adults

© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Finger-tapping tasks are classically used to investigate sensorimotor synchronization in relation to neutral auditory cues, such as metronomes. However, music is more commonly associated with an entrained bodily response, such as toe tapping, or dancing. Here we report an experimental procedure that was designed to bridge the gap between timing and intervention studies by directly comparing the effects of metronome and musical cue types on motor timing abilities across the three naturalistic voluntary actions of finger tapping, toe tapping, and stepping on the spot as a simplified case of whole body movement. Both pacing cues were presented at slow, medium, and fast tempi. The findings suggested that the task of stepping on the spot enabled better timing performances than tapping both in younger and older adults (75+). Timing performances followed an inverse U shape with best performances observed in the medium tempi that were set close to the spontaneous motor tempo in each movement type. Finally, music provided an entrainment effect in addition to pace setting that enabled better motor timing and greater stability than classically reported using a metronome. By applying time-stamp analyses to kinetic data, we demonstrate that tapping and stepping engage different timing modes. This work details the importance of translational research for a better understanding of motor timing. It offers a simple procedure that strengthens the validity of applying academic work and contributes in knowledge towards a wide range of therapeutic interventions.Peer reviewe

Bases expert statement on the use of music for movement among people with Parkinson's

First published in The Sport and Exercise Scientist, February 2020, Issue 63. Published by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences – www.bases.org.uk.Music is an artistic auditory stimulus that unfolds over time. It can prime specific actions and prompt engagement in physical activity as well as heighten motivation during motor tasks (Karageorghis, 2020). Contrastingly, it can be used to downregulate arousal to facilitate the transition from an active to a sedentary state or to ameliorate anxiety. In therapeutic applications, musical features such as rhythm, melody and harmony have been shown to elicit psychological and physiological changes (Thaut & Hoemberg, 2014). Parkinson’s is a degenerative neurological condition in which the loss of dopamine neurons results in impaired initiation and control of movement, with common symptoms including tremor, postural instability and gait disturbance. There are also non-motor effects that include apathy, anxiety and depression. Medication does not alleviate all manifestations of the condition and there is presently no known cure (Obeso et al., 2017). It is notable that people with Parkinson’s are estimated to be 30% less active than agematched peers (Ramaswamy et al., 2018). Nonetheless, evidence is emerging that a range of exercise-based and social activities that involve musical engagement can serve to address the common symptoms and enhance quality of life (Thaut & Hoemberg, 2014). This statement brings together an international interdisciplinary team to outline what is known about music-related applications for people with Parkinson’s, and to provide recommendations for exercise and health practitioners.Peer reviewe

Episodic memory encoding and retrieval in face-name paired paradigm: An FNIRS study

Background: Episodic memory (EM) is particularly sensitive to pathological conditions and aging. In a neurocognitive context, the paired-associate learning (PAL) paradigm, which requires participants to learn and recall associations between stimuli, has been used to measure EM. The present study aimed to explore whether functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be employed to determine cortical activity underlying encoding and retrieval. Moreover, we examined whether and how different aspects of task (i.e., novelty, difficulty) affects those cortical activities. Methods: Twenty-two male college students (age: M = 20.55, SD = 1.62) underwent a face-name PAL paradigm under 40-channel fNIRS covering fronto-parietal and middle occipital regions. Results: A decreased activity during encoding in a broad network encompassing the bilateral frontal cortex (Brodmann areas 9, 11, 45, and 46) was observed during the encoding, while an increased activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex (Brodmann area 11) was observed during the retrieval. Increased HbO concentration in the superior parietal cortices and decreased HbO concentration in the inferior parietal cortices were observed during encoding while dominant activation of left PFC was found during retrieval only. Higher task difficulty was associated with greater neural activity in the bilateral prefrontal cortex and higher task novelty was associated with greater activation in occipital regions. Conclusion: Combining the PAL paradigm with fNIRS provided the means to differentiate neural activity characterising encoding and retrieval. Therefore, the fNIRS may have the potential to complete EM assessments in clinical settings

Motor Agency: A New and Highly Sensitive Measure to Reveal Agency Disturbances in Early Psychosis

Background: Early diagnosis of young adults at risk of schizophrenia is essential for preventive approaches of the illness. Nevertheless, classic screening instruments are difficult to use because of the non-specific nature of the signs at this preonset phase of illness. The objective of the present contribution was to propose an innovating test that can probe the more specific symptom of psychosis, i.e., the sense of agency, which is defined as being the immediate experience of oneself as the cause of an action. More specifically, we tested whether motor agency is abnormal in early psychosis. Methods: Thirty-two young symptomatic patients and their age-matched controls participated in the study. 15 of these patients were at ultra high-risk for developing psychosis (UHR), and 17 patients were suffering from first-episode psychosis (FEP). Patients ’ neurocognitive capacities were assessed through the use of seven neuropsychological tests. A motor agency task was also introduced to obtain an objective indicator of the degree of sense of agency, by contrasting force levels applied during other and self-produced collisions between a hand-held objet and a pendulum. Results: As reported in the literature for adult controls, healthy adolescents used more efficient force levels in self than in other-imposed collisions. For both UHR and FEP patients, abnormally high levels of grip force were used for self-produced collisions, leading to an absence of difference between self and other. The normalized results revealed that motor agency differentiated patients from controls with a higher level of sensitivity than the more classic neuropsychological test battery

Grip Force Reveals the Context Sensitivity of Language-Induced Motor Activity during “Action Words

Studies demonstrating the involvement of motor brain structures in language processing typically focus on \ud time windows beyond the latencies of lexical-semantic access. Consequently, such studies remain inconclusive regarding whether motor brain structures are recruited directly in language processing or through post-linguistic conceptual imagery. In the present study, we introduce a grip-force sensor that allows online measurements of language-induced motor activity during sentence listening. We use this tool to investigate whether language-induced motor activity remains constant or is modulated in negative, as opposed to affirmative, linguistic contexts. Our findings demonstrate that this simple experimental paradigm can be used to study the online crosstalk between language and the motor systems in an ecological and economical manner. Our data further confirm that the motor brain structures that can be called upon during action word processing are not mandatorily involved; the crosstalk is asymmetrically\ud governed by the linguistic context and not vice versa

Temporal Information Processing in Short- and Long-Term Memory of Patients with Schizophrenia

Cognitive deficits of patients with schizophrenia have been largely recognized as core symptoms of the disorder. One neglected factor that contributes to these deficits is the comprehension of time. In the present study, we assessed temporal information processing and manipulation from short- and long-term memory in 34 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 34 matched healthy controls. On the short-term memory temporal-order reconstruction task, an incidental or intentional learning strategy was deployed. Patients showed worse overall performance than healthy controls. The intentional learning strategy led to dissociable performance improvement in both groups. Whereas healthy controls improved on a performance measure (serial organization), patients improved on an error measure (inappropriate semantic clustering) when using the intentional instead of the incidental learning strategy. On the long-term memory script-generation task, routine and non-routine events of everyday activities (e.g., buying groceries) had to be generated in either chronological or inverted temporal order. Patients were slower than controls at generating events in the chronological routine condition only. They also committed more sequencing and boundary errors in the inverted conditions. The number of irrelevant events was higher in patients in the chronological, non-routine condition. These results suggest that patients with schizophrenia imprecisely access temporal information from short- and long-term memory. In short-term memory, processing of temporal information led to a reduction in errors rather than, as was the case in healthy controls, to an improvement in temporal-order recall. When accessing temporal information from long-term memory, patients were slower and committed more sequencing, boundary, and intrusion errors. Together, these results suggest that time information can be accessed and processed only imprecisely by patients who provide evidence for impaired time comprehension. This could contribute to symptomatic cognitive deficits and strategic inefficiency in schizophrenia

Repérage des psychoses débutantes (approche expérience et études expérimentales du sens d'agentivité et de l'horloge interne lors de la production de mouvements volontaires)

L'émergence de troubles psychotiques est le plus souvent précédée par une phase dite "prodomique". Cette phase est marquée par l'apparition des premiers signes de la pathologie. Or, ces derniers revêtent un caractère aspécifique, rendant le dépistage précoce des psychoses difficile. La première partie du présent travail apporte une réflexion, et un retour d'expérience clinique, quant à cette notion de repérage précoce des psychoses chez les adolescents. Ces observations cliniques nous ont amenées à tester l'hypothèse selon laquelle des déficits, on observables directement par le clinicien, mais rapportés subjectivement par les patients pourraient être objectivées par la réalisation de tâches expérimentales. C'est ainsi qu'est abordée, en seconde partie du document, la question de la présence de distorsions temporelles dans la patholgie de la schizophrénie. Plus précisément, nous tentons de préciser la nature de ces distorsions, et testons l'hypothèse de leur apparition précoce dans l'évolution de la pathologie. La réalisation de trois études expérimentales, utilisant des tâches de synchronisation sensori-motrice, nous a permis de tester ces hypothèses. La première vise à confirmer l'existence de distorsions temporelles dans la pathologie de la schizophrénie au travers de l'utilisation d'une tâche de production de séquences de rythmes. Les deux études suivantes testent les hypothèses d'un dysfonctionnement de l'horloge interne et de déficits d'intégration temporelle chez les patients. Enfin, notre quatrième étude teste l'hypothèses d'un déficit d'agentivité d'origine précoce dans l'apparition de la pathologie psychotique, en lien avec des altérations de l'intégration temporelleThe emergence of frank psychosis is often preceded by a "prodromal" phase. This period of time is characterized by non specific and subtle signs and suggests the early manifestations of the disorder. This phase typically occurs in adolescents, and the none specificity of the clinical signs renders its detection difficult. The first section of the thesis is a return of clinical experience around the problem of the early detection of psychosis. The psychopathological observations that are reported led to the hypothesis that patients reveal a constellation of deficits ; none that are directly observable by the clinician. Nevertheless, these abnormalities are subjectively reported by the patients and may be revealed objectively through the sue of behavioral tasks. The second section of the thesis concentrates on a set of experimental tasks that aim at a better understanding of the origin and nature of the temporal distortions that characterize schizophrenia. More specifically, using spatio-temporal tapping tasks, our aim was to test the hypothesis that time disorders arise early on, right at the emergence of the illness. A first experiment was to run to confirm the presence of timing deficits in schizophrenia in a sensorimotor synchronization task. The two following studies were aimed at showing that these timing deficits were not associated to a dysfunctional internal clock but rather to a fundamental impairment in the integration mechanisms required for action planning. Finally, the last study assess whether early deficit in sense of agency could occur early, at the prodromal period, these perturbations being potentially associated with temporal integration deficitsLILLE3-BU (590092101) / SudocSudocFranceF