Treatment dynamics in sensorimotor disorders: the contribution of electrophysiology]

In the field of sensorimotor activities, progresses achieved over the last fifty years have been largely driven by the Reaction Time (RT) paradigm. Information processing models are set in the context of a global breakdown of sensorimotor activities in multiple concatenated stages, each aggregated in many fundamental operations that are functionally linked. If there is a consensus today about this breakdown, the way stages organize themselves in time however is still much debated. According to one hypothesis, there is no temporal overlap between each stages: the process occurs sequentially. According to another theory, the stages overlap over in time: the process occurs in a parallel manner. A behavioral analysis does not allow to determine between these two hypothesis because the RT represents the final product of the whole sensorimotor pathway, while the temporal organization of the processing of information depends on the nature of the transfer between individual stages. An all-or-nothing information transfer, also called discrete, leads to a sequential organization, while a progressive or continuous transfer brings about a parallel organization. Moreover, contrary to a preconceived notion, data obtained from classical neurophysiology are compatible with both a sequential organization and a parallel organization. Particularly, the great number of connections between the different elements of the nervous system has often seemed difficult to conciliate with a sequential organization. In fact, this argument is inadmissible because it stems from confusion between a temporal organization and an anatomical organization of the processing of information. More generally, our knowledge of the functional anatomy of sensorimotor activities imposes but few constraints on the temporal organization patterns of the processing of information. The lack of interest for the neurophysiological argument seems essentially due to the fact that theses arguments rest on research which is not aimed at the temporal organization of the sensorimotor information processing. Recently, approaches that integrate concepts and methods used in experimental psychology and neurosciences have contributed to putting in perspective the organization of information processing. Electromyography, EEG, reflexology and neuronal recording techniques have been used in the context of two inference logics. The first logic, that we call "factual", is based on the study of functional relations between RT and certain neuronal events. The second logic, that we call "chronometric", is based on the study of the relationships between RT and intervals resulting from the breakdown of the RT in relation to certain neuronal events. Generally speaking, most studies suggest that in tasks where the stimulus is composed of numerous attributes, information processing operates in parallel. On the other hand, when the stimulus is made up of a single attribute, information processing could be operating in a sequential manner. One weakness of this electrophysiological approach is that it has so far only examined relationships between physiological indicators and means RT. We propose here to offset these weaknesses by examining functional relationships between RT distribution variances and certain neuronal events linked to information processing.     

Request solicitation and semantic evocation of freedom: an evaluation in a computer-mediated communication context

The "But you are free of..." technique is a compliance procedure which solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling him that he is free to accept or to refuse the request. This semantic evocation leads to increased compliance with the request. A new evaluation of the generality of this technique was tested in an experiment in which subjects received an anonymous electronic mail which asked them to consult the site of a humanitarian association for children. Analysis showed that, when the semantic evocation of freedom is included in the message, a higher compliance rate was observed than in a situation in which this evocation was omitted.     

Organisation and evocation of the semantic knowledge: a non-abstractive approach

The majority of the models which attempt to explain category-specific deficits are based on the assumption that the conceptual knowledge is represented in a permanent way in memory (abstractive view). showed that a non-abstractive view would be more suitable to account for some of these cases. The present study aims to assess the hypotheses on the meaning evocation process as formulated by these authors, using a property verification task conducted on healthy subjects. The data were in agreement with these hypotheses and would be more hardly accounted in the frame of the abstractive view.     

Physiological evidence for response inhibition in choice reaction time tasks

Inhibition is a widely used notion proposed to account for data obtained in choice reaction time (RT) tasks. However, this concept is weakly supported by empirical facts. In this paper, we review a series of experiments using Hoffman reflex, transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography to study inhibition in choice RT tasks. We provide empirical support for the idea that inhibition does occur during choice RT, and the implications of those findings for various classes of choice RT models are discussed.     

When the self represents the other: a new cognitive neuroscience view on psychological identification

There is converging evidence from developmental and cognitive psychology, as well as from neuroscience, to suggest that the self is both special and social, and that self-other interaction is the driving force behind self-development. We review experimental findings which demonstrate that human infants are motivated for social interactions and suggest that the development of an awareness of other minds is rooted in the implicit notion that others are like the self. We then marshall evidence from functional neuroimaging explorations of the neurophysiological substrate of shared representations between the self and others, using various ecological paradigms such as mentally representing one's own actions versus others' actions, watching the actions executed by others, imitating the others' actions versus being imitated by others. We suggest that within this shared neural network the inferior parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex in the right hemisphere play a special role in the essential ability to distinguish the self from others, and in the way the self represents the other. Interestingly, the right hemisphere develops its functions earlier than the left.     

A foot-pointing task and spatiotemporal gait parameters during walking in sportsmen

Unlike many sports, karate imposes pointing to a target with the lower limb. The nature of each sport could influence gait variables of sportsmen. The aim of this study was to examine the pointing accuracy of limb swing and the spatial and temporal parameters of the walking cycle during walking in karate experts (Group K, n=6) compared to accuracy of nonkarate sportsmen (Group S, n = 11). The second aim of this study was to compare the influence of this skill on the spatial and temporal parameters of the walking cycle between the two groups. The analysis was performed with a device composed of a gait analysis system (locometer) coupled to a lighted walkway. This system provides a measurement of the motor skill and the spatial and temporal gait during walking. Analysis for the pointing task indicated no differences between the Karate and the Sportsmen Groups during walking. Moreover, neither the spatial nor temporal characteristics of walking differed between the two groups. Karate does not therefore seem to develop motor programs specific to enhanced performance on this pointing task during walking or alter the walking cycle as compared to some other competitive sports.     

Environmental Ethics as Applied to Outdoor Physical Practices: An Analysis Through the Lens of Hans Jonas

In times of social and moral crises, sport has often been called to boost individual moral development. By the same token, outdoor activities are viewed as good educational practices to enhance environmental responsibility. However, the present paper argues that these physical activities are currently following the same technological development trend as the mainstream society, and challenges this trend itself in terms of sustainability by critically asking this question: Do outdoor activities really enhance environmental responsibility? The research supporting this paper is based on a qualitative inquiry using interviews with outdoor activities practitioners: mountain guides and white water sports instructors. The findings of this research show that environmental responsibility development depends on the sport contexts. It is fostered in slow and none-technological activities (e.g. trekking) and lowered in fast and technological activities (e.g. canoeing, kayaking). The paper concludes with the following paradox reached by the preliminary research results: the birth of modern technology calls for greater need of environmental responsibility, but it may also prevent its development at the same time.     

Social feedback interferes with implicit rule learning: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

The human brain can learn contingencies built into stimulus sequences unconsciously. The quality of such implicit learning has been connected to stimulus social relevance, but results so far are inconsistent. We engaged participants in an implicit-intentional learning task in which they learned to discriminate between legal and illegal card triads on the sole basis of feedback provided within a staircase procedure. Half of the participants received feedback from pictures of faces with a happy or sad expression (social group) and the other half based on traffic light icons (symbolic group). We hypothesised that feedback from faces would have a greater impact on learning than that from traffic lights. Although performance during learning did not differ between groups, the feedback error-related negativity (fERN) was delayed by ~20 ms for social relative to symbolic feedback, and the P3b modulation elicited by infrequent legal card triads within a stream of illegal ones during the test phase was significantly larger in the symbolic than the social feedback group. Furthermore, the P3b mean amplitude recorded at test negatively correlated with the latency of the fERN recorded during learning. These results counterintuitively suggest that, relative to symbolic feedback, socially salient feedback interferes with implicit learning.     

François Noël’s Contribution to the Western Understanding of Chinese Thought: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Taiji sive natura</Emphasis> in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Philosophia sinica</Emphasis> (1711)

Jesuits in China adopted key Confucian terms to express Christian notions; for example, Tian 天 or Shangdi 上帝 was considered an equivalent for God, and guishen 鬼神 for angels. A Terms controversy started among the Jesuits and other missionaries and developed into the famous Rites Controversy. However, all the missionaries agreed in rejecting the Neo-Confucian concept of Taiji 太極, which was believed to be materialistic, pantheistic, or atheistic. The Flemish Jesuit François Noël (1651–1729), after a careful study of Neo-Confucian texts, interpreted Taiji with the Western concept of nature, and even claimed that it held theistic meaning. We shall analyze and evaluate here this early Western attempt in giving a positive meaning to Taiji.     

Vowel bias in Danish word‐learning: processing biases are language‐specific

The present study explored whether the phonological bias favoring consonants found in French‐learning infants and children when learning new words (Havy & Nazzi, 2009; Nazzi, 2005) is language‐general, as proposed by Nespor, Peña and Mehler (2003), or varies across languages, perhaps as a function of the phonological or lexical properties of the language in acquisition. To do so, we used the interactive word‐learning task set up by Havy and Nazzi (2009), teaching Danish‐learning 20‐month‐olds pairs of phonetically similar words that contrasted either on one of their consonants or one of their vowels, by either one or two phonological features. Danish was chosen because it has more vowels than consonants, and is characterized by extensive consonant lenition. Both phenomena could disfavor a consonant bias. Evidence of word‐learning was found only for vocalic information, irrespective of whether one or two phonological features were changed. The implication of these findings is that the phonological biases found in early lexical processing are not language‐general but develop during language acquisition, depending on the phonological or lexical properties of the native language.