Biomedical subjects

H Rada

Publications and source records attributed to H Rada.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Autonomic nervous system responses as performance indicators among volleyball players.

Complex motor skills require planning and programming before execution. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is thought to transcribe these central operations at the peripheral level: a motor act is thought to be simultaneously programmed by central and autonomic nervous structures. The aim of this study was to verify that autonomic responses reflect the quality of central motor programming leading to successful or failed performance when subjects are required to perform a complex motor skill. The specificity of the ANS response has already been demonstrated through direct recording from sympathetic fibres. It has also been demonstrated through several mental tasks and closed motor skills such as shooting: ANS responses have been shown to be capable of distinguishing success from failure. The aim of this experiment was to test whether ANS responses are capable of distinguishing two levels of achievement during the performance of a skill involving uncertainty (open skill). The subjects had to intercept a ball on a volleyball court, using the forearm receive and pass technique, in order to pass it on to a moving human target. The results were displayed in terms of accuracy: accurate passes were successful and inaccurate passes missed the target. Six autonomic variables were recorded simultaneously during the task: skin resistance and potential, skin blood flow and temperature, instantaneous heart rate and respiratory frequency. Results showed that autonomic variables were capable of distinguishing success from failure in 22 subjects out of 24. This made it possible to build up autonomic patterns characterising subjects' performances, and to confirm that autonomic functioning may reveal information processing in the central nervous system. Thus, the study of autonomic responses may constitute an inferential model of central nervous system functioning. Such a method could be used as an index for the control of mental preparation.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Neuroanatomical correlates of visually evoked sexual arousal in human males.

Brain areas activated in human male sexual behavior have not been characterized precisely. For the first time, positron emission tomography (PET) was used to identify the brain areas activated in healthy males experiencing visually evoked sexual arousal. Eight male subjects underwent six measurements of regional brain activity following the administration of [15O]H2O as they viewed three categories of film clips: sexually explicit clips, emotionally neutral control clips, and humorous control clips inducing positive but nonsexual emotions. Statistical Parametric Mapping was used to identify brain regions demonstrating an increased activity associated with the sexual response to the visual stimulus. Visually evoked sexual arousal was characterized by a threefold pattern of activation: the bilateral activation of the inferior temporal cortex, a visual association area; the activation of the right insula and right inferior frontal cortex, which are two paralimbic areas relating highly processed sensory information with motivational states; and the activation of the left anterior cingulate cortex, another paralimbic area known to control autonomic and neuroendocrine functions. Activation of some of these areas was positively correlated with plasma testosterone levels. Although this study should be considered preliminary, it identified brain regions whose activation was correlated with visually evoked sexual arousal in males.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Autonomic nervous system responses correlate with mental rehearsal in volleyball training.

The aim of this study was to assess objectively the processes of mental rehearsing (imagery) by measuring variations of the autonomic nervous system (or ANS responses) during an open-ended complex motor skill in two actual experiments (volleyball) and during mental rehearsing taking place between them. Comparison between pre- and post-test (volleyball) scores related to imagining and non-imagining performances revealed significant improvement in the former (chi2 = 20.9, P < 0.00001) while in the latter chi2 = 27, P < 0.9, NS. The ANS parameters (skin potential and resistance, skin temperature and heat clearance, instantaneous heart rate and respiratory frequency) were quantified by original techniques and indices. Results from a principal component analysis showed a strong correlation between the responses in actual tasks (pre- and post-test volleyball) and during mental imagery, since the same preferential variables appeared on the main axis in 87% of cases. Thus the same autonomic channels seemed to be used during the actual activity and during the mental imagery of this activity. So far as phasic results were concerned, the main finding was a differing development of skill between imagining and non-imagining volleyball players. No clear difference was seen between pre- and post-tests in non-imaginers, except an increase in the median of the duration of the response observed in heat clearance, m1 and m2 respectively [m1 = 5.8 (SD 4.1) s, m2 = 7.6 (SD 3.9) s, P < 0.001]. Conversely, for other ANS parameters, a significant decrease was seen in the post-test responses compared to pre-test responses in the imagining group [for instance, the median of the duration of the resistance responses decreased from m1 = 12.6 (SD 4.3) s, and m2 = 7.8 (SD 4.5) s, P < 0.0001 in imaginers, while no change was observed in non-imaginers: 9.6 (SD 6.0) s vs 9.5 (SD 6.1) s, NS] except in the duration of the heat clearance response where an increase was seen [m1 = 7.3 (SD 5.0) s vs m2 = 7.6 (SD 3.1) s, NS]. Compared to the non-imagining group, the latter result may also have been associated with a response decrease in the imagining group. Thus mental rehearsing induced a specific pattern of autonomic response: decreased amplitude, shorter duration and negative skin potentials compared to the control group. As this pattern was associated with better performance in the tests it can be suggested that in the case of open-ended motor activity, mental rehearsing may help in the construction of schema which can be reproduced, without thinking, in actual practice. Thus a neural information process might develop in the central nervous system changing from a parallel into a serial treatment.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Basic emotions evoked by odorants: comparison between autonomic responses and self-evaluation.

The present study was designed to analyze the relationship between self-report and physiological expression of basic emotions (happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust and anger) in response to odorants. 44 subjects inhaled five odorants: vanillin, menthol, eugenol, methyl methacrylate, and propionic acid. Six autonomic nervous systems (ANS) parameters were simultaneously recorded in real time and without interference: Skin Potential (SP), Skin Resistance (SR), Skin Temperature (ST), Skin Blood Flow (SBF), Instantaneous Respiratory Frequency (IRF) and Instantaneous Heart Rate (IHR). At the end of the recording, subjects were instructed i) to identify the odorants roughly II) to situate them on an 11-point hedonic scale from highly pleasant (0) to highly unpleasant (10); and iii) to define what type of basic emotion was evoked by each odorant. In this study, the expected affects were aroused in the subjects. Vanillin and menthol were rated pleasant, while methyl methacrylate and propionic acid were judged unpleasant. Eugenol was median in hedonic estimation. ANS evaluation (each autonomic pattern induced by an odorant was transcripted into a basic emotion) shows that pleasantly connoted odorants evoked mainly happiness and surprise, but that unpleasant ones induced mainly disgust and anger. Eugenol was associated with positive and negative affects. Comparison between conscious (verbal) and unconscious (ANS) emotions, reveals that these two estimations 1) were not significantly different as far as the two pleasant odorants were concerned, 2) showed a tendency to be significantly different for eugenol odorant which was variably scored on the hedonic axis, and 3) exhibited a significant difference for the two unpleasant odorants, for which the corresponding "verbal emotion" was mainly "disgust", while the most frequent ANS emotion was "anger". In conclusion, these results show quite a good correlation between verbal and ANS estimated basic emotions. The main difference concerns anger: while there is a high occurrence of this emotion revealed by the analysis of ANS responses, it does not appear to be easily expressed through the verbal channel.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Bioelectric and microcirculation cutaneous sensors for the study of vigilance and emotional response during tasks and tests.

Bioelectronic phenomena related to the activity of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) activity mainly take place in the deep part of the brain where they are difficult to record. The hand skin, being richly innervated by sympathetic efferent fibres, offers an interface from which relevant ANS-related signals can be recorded. Two non-invasive bioelectronic measurements (skin resistance and potential) reflecting the activity of the ANS were performed at the skin surface. These measurements were complemented by thermovascular (skin microcirculation and skin temperature) and cardiorespiratory (instantaneous heart rate and instantaneous respiratory frequency) measurements. The bioelectric measurements were performed using noninvasive Ag/AgCl electrodes. Non-metallic NASICON (Na Super Ionic Conductor) electrodes were tested and compared with traditional electrodes for the optimization of bioelectric measurements. Signal analysis and data processing was accomplished by means of original indices on a specially designed PC-based software. The methodology was used to evaluate vigilance level, mental workload, and emotional response during tasks (sporting activity, mental calculation, olfactive stimuli) and in critical situations (car crash avoidance).

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Relationships between performance and skin resistance evolution involving various motor skills.

The aim of this article was to question the classical inverted-U curve relationship between activation and performance. It was hypothesized that changes in performance were related to both activation and the degree of skill difficulty, suggesting a more complex relation. Fifty-one subjects took part in one of three experiments requiring sensory and motor anticipation abilities. They were divided into three different groups, each performing one particular anticipation task. Skin resistance was continuously recorded during task performance. This autonomic variable is well known to be a reliable index in predicting activation variations. The first task, carried out in a seated position, was to intercept a moving spot on a computer screen by pressing the space bar on the keyboard. The second task, performed standing, required subjects to intercept a moving table tennis ball with palm of the hand, by extending the forearm and the arm. The third task, executed in movement was performed on a volley-ball ground. The aim was to hit a ball to reach a moving human target, using the forearm-blow technique. Results showed that 90.9% of subjects'performance in Experiment 1 was related to skin resistance tonic level variations, thus establishing a strong relationship between performance and arousal. Subjects' performance (43.8%) in Experiment 2 was related to skin resistance tonic level variations, whereas only 12.5% of performance was related to this variable in Experiment 3. In conclusion, tonic level variations can only account for success or failure in the first experiment. Conversely, success or failure were dependent upon information processing, decision making, and motor execution in the third experiment. The second experiment, requiring intermediate abilities, was found to show intermediate results. The role of skin resistance tonic level fluctuations and their use in the study of sporting performance are discussed, suggesting that arousal/performance relationships do not correspond to a simple inverted-U curve in complex motor skills requiring a steady level of arousal.

Adolescent↗