Factor analysis of thermal and vibration thresholds in young patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus.

AIMS: To identify factors that represent relationships among sets of interrelated thermal and vibration threshold variables and to find clinical correlates that are significantly associated with these factors. METHODS: Thermal and vibration perception thresholds were tested in the hands and feet of Type 1 diabetic patients treated in an outpatient clinic for juvenile-onset diabetes. Factor analysis was used to identify factors that represent relationships among sets of thermal and vibration threshold variables. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-eight patients (47.3% males, median current age 22.3 years and median duration of diabetes 11.4 years) were evaluated. Three factors explained 77% of the total variance: 'hand sensation' factor, underlying cold, warmth and vibration perception thresholds in the hand; 'foot sensation' factor, underlying the same sensory thresholds in the foot; and 'heat-related pain' factor, underlying heat pain perception threshold in both limbs. The 'foot sensation' factor was the only factor that significantly correlated with diabetes-related variables (e.g. duration and cumulative glycaemic control of the disease) and concurrent diabetic microangiopathy. Male sex was associated with higher values of the 'heat-related' factor, while the 'hand sensation' factor did not correlate with any of the study variables. CONCLUSIONS: The distribution of the various thermal and vibration threshold variables according to the three factors may point at length-dependent mechanism of axonal degeneration. Cold, warmth and vibration perception thresholds in the foot may be the only valuable psychophysical parameters in the evaluation of early sensory impairment associated with diabetes.     

多功能汉语盲文机的研制

多功能盲文机是一种帮助盲人获取并处理汉语布莱尔盲字的电子辅助装置。本机由主控单元、键盘单元、触觉显示单元、磁盘驱动单元、录音机接口及打印机接口单元组成，可用于现代汉盲文的学习、阅读、记录及打印输出。     

Auditory arousal thresholds after selective slow-wave sleep deprivation.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to assess Auditory Arousal Thresholds (AATs) three times during an undisturbed baseline night and to compare them to AATs during the recovery night that follows two consecutive nights of selective SWS deprivation. The presence of a time-of-night effect on AATs will also be assessed. METHODS: Ten male Ss slept in the laboratory for 6 consecutive nights. The first two nights were undisturbed. The 3rd night was considered as baseline. During the 4th and 5th nights, selective SWS deprivation was obtained by means of acoustic stimulation. The 6th night was a recovery. In the last 4 nights Ss were awakened three times, after 2, 5 and 7.5 h of sleep, respectively. All the awakenings were carried out from stage 2 (after at least 5 consecutive min of stage 2), by means of 1000 Hz ascending tone series. The AAT determination was based on EEG-EMG criteria: at least 10-s of clear alpha rhythm and/or a 10 s movement arousal. RESULTS: During both deprivation nights, SWS amount was close to zero. In the ensuing recovery night a significant SWS rebound was found, accompanied by a significant increase of AATs with respect to the baseline. Furthermore, there was a significant linear decrease of AATs during the night. Finally, the individual correlations between AATs and SWS amount were significant in 4 out of 10 Ss. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that AATs are a reliable index of sleep depth by showing that the SWS rebound following selective SWS deprivation is paralleled by a significant AAT enhancement. The experimental paradigm also allows us to claim that AATs show a decreasing linear trend during the night, having excluded any procedural bias. Finally, AATs can be directly related to SWS amount that preceded the awakening, although the individual correlations between AATs and SWS have to be considered with caution, given the high inter-subject variability and the small number of observations.     

Use of tactile afferent information in sequential finger movements

We have investigated how tactile afferent information contributes to the generation of sequences of skilled finger movements by anesthetizing the right index fingers of experienced typists. Subjects were asked to type phrases in which the right index finger was used only once every seven to 12 keypresses. The time at which each key was depressed was recorded with a digital timer, and the translational and rotational motion of the fingers and wrist of the right hand were recorded optoelectronically from the location of reflective markers placed on the fingers. Midway through the experiment, a local anesthetic was injected at the base of the distal phalange of the right index finger. Following digital anesthesia, error rates increased considerably, mainly due to the diminished accuracy of movements of the anesthetized finger. The typing intervals following keypresses with the anesthetized fingertip were unaffected by the removal of tactile information. When errors occurred during control trials, the intervals immediately following the errors were greatly prolonged. However, errors produced with the anesthetized right index finger did not influence the timing of subsequent keypresses, implying that lack of tactile cues affected error recognition. The movement patterns during keypresses were similar before and after digital anesthesia for some subjects, while a less pronounced flexion-extension movement was seen in other subjects. The results suggest that tactile afferent information is not essential for initiating movement segments in a sequence. Rather, they emphasize the importance of this information for ensuring movement accuracy and for detecting errors.     

Learning and memory in workers reared by nutritionally stressed honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies

Chronic nutritional stress can have a negative impact on an individual's learning ability and memory. However, in social animals that share food among group members, such as the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.), it is unknown whether group-level nutritional stress is manifested in the learning performance of individuals. Accordingly, we examined learning and memory in honey bee workers reared by colonies exposed to varying degrees of long-term pollen stress. Pollen provides honey bee workers with almost all of the proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals that they require as larvae and adults. Colonies were created that were either chronically pollen poor or pollen rich, or were intermediate in pollen supply; treatments altered colonies' pollen stores and brood-rearing capacity. Workers from these colonies were put through a series of olfactory-conditioning assays using proboscis-extension response (PER). PER thresholds were determined, then workers learned in olfactory-conditioning trials to associate two floral odors (one novel and the other presented previously without reward) with stimulation with sucrose and a sucrose reward. The strength of the memory that was formed for the odor/sucrose association was tested after olfactory-conditioning assays ended. Colony-level nutritional status had no effect on worker learning or memory (response threshold of workers to sucrose, acquisition of the odor/sucrose association, occurrence of latent inhibition, or memory retention over 72 h). We conclude that potential effects of chronic, colony-wide nutrient deprivation on learning and memory are not found in workers, probably because colonies use brood-rearing capacity to buffer nutrient stress at the level of the individual.     

The effect of force and conformance on tactile intensive and spatial sensitivity

The effect of force on intensive and spatial processing was examined with three measures of tactile sensitivity. One of the measures based on intensive cues is the smooth-grooved (SM/GV) task, and the two other measures based on spatial cues are the grating orientation and gap detection tasks. Measures were made at two locations that vary in sensitivity and in the density of innervation of the primary afferent fibers, the right index fingerpad and the palmar surface of the proximal phalanx (fingerbase). At each location, psychometric functions were generated for each of the three measures for two forces (50 and 200 g). The results indicated that increasing force led to marked improvement on the task that relied on intensive cues; however, on the tasks that relied on spatial cues, force had no effect on performance. Biomechanical measures were made of the depth to which the skin invades the grooves of the contactors (conformance) at the two test sites, with the two forces, and with different groove widths. Conformance was found to be a joint function of force and groove width. Further, performance on the SM/GV task could be predicted by the amount of conformance. The psychophysical results are consistent with the view that increasing conformance increases neural activity in the primary afferent fibers, and that this increase in neural activity improves SM/GV performance, but has little effect on the quality of the spatial image.     

Digit cooling influences grasp efficiency during manipulative tasks

A commonly experienced effect of cold is a sensation of numbness and loss of sensibility in the fingers. Intact tactile sensibility of the grasping digits is essential for the efficient scaling of grip force level during the manipulation of hand-held objects. We investigated whether or not cooling of the grasping digits affects scaling of the grip force magnitude in relation to the loads resulting from continuous vertical arm movements performed with a grasped instrumented object. Maxima and minima of load force occurred at the lower and upper turning point of the movement cycle, respectively, and were accompanied by maximum and minimum peaks in grip force occurring close in time prior to and following digit cooling, respectively. Thus, digit cooling did not influence the ability to adjust the grip force profile in anticipation of movement-induced fluctuations in load force. However, subjects established significantly higher grip forces against the hand-held object following digit cooling and generated a 10–70% higher ratio between grip and load forces at the upper and lower turning points of the movement cycle. It is thought that the impaired economical scaling of grip force level is the result of reduced sensory feedback from the grasping fingers during digit cooling. The results provide further evidence to support the suggestion that cutaneous afferent input plays a subordinate role in the predictive temporal regulation of the grip force profile, but is used to adapt economically the force level to the actual loading requirements during dynamic object manipulation. Electronic Publication     

Olfactory sensitivity for aliphatic ketones in squirrel monkeys and pigtail macaques

Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of three squirrel monkeys and three pigtail macaques for homologous series of aliphatic 2-ketones (2-butanone to 2-nonanone), symmetrical ketones (3-pentanone to 6-undecanone), and C7-ketones (2-heptanone to 4-heptanone) was assessed. In the majority of cases, the animals of both species significantly discriminated concentrations below 1 ppm from the odorless solvent, and with 2-nonanone and 5-nonanone the monkeys even demonstrated thresholds below 1 ppb. The results showed both primate species have a well-developed olfactory sensitivity for aliphatic ketones, and pigtail macaques generally perform better than squirrel monkeys in detecting members of this class of odorants. Further, in both species tested, we found a significant negative correlation between perceptibility in terms of olfactory detection thresholds and carbon-chain length of both the 2-ketones and the symmetrical ketones, but not between detection thresholds and position of the functional group with the C7-ketones. These findings lend further support to the growing body of evidence suggesting that between-species comparisons of the number of functional olfactory receptor genes or of neuroanatomical features are poor predictors of olfactory performance.     

Somatosensory control of precision grip during unpredictable pulling loads

During manipulation involving restraint of 'active' (mechanically unpredictable) objects, it is presumed that the control of the grip and other reaction forces more regularly relies on somatosensory input than during manipulation of 'passive' (mechanically predictable) objects. In companion studies we have shown that grip forces are automatically adjusted to the amplitude and the rate of distal pulling loads imposed through an 'active' object held in a precision grip. In this study anesthesia of either one or both digits holding the manipulandum was used to examine whether the grip force regulation was dependent on afferent signals from the digits. Five types of trapezoidal load force profiles of various rate and amplitude combinations were given in an unpredictable sequence while the subject was prevented from seeing the hand. Grip forces, load forces and position of the manipulandum in the pulling direction were recorded. With both digits anesthetized the load amplitude changes yielded considerably less grip force modulation and in many trials obvious grip force responses were absent. Moreover, the latencies between the onset of the load changes and the observed grip force responses were much prolonged. However, there was pronounced inter-individual variation. Subjects exhibiting a lower stiffness in the pulling direction, probably due to more flexed fingers when holding the manipulandum, showed a higher force modulation, higher responsiveness to the load ramps and shorter latencies. Hence, under certain conditions afferent input from receptors proximal to the digits could be utilized to provide some grip regulation. The evoked grip force responses showed an initial response similar to the normally occurring 'catch-up' response, but it was not graded by the load force rate. Also, there was no 'tracking' response, suggesting that the latter was contingent upon a moment-to-moment control using afferent input from the digits. With only one digit anesthetized (thumb) the handicap was less severe. Thus, the grip force regulation was impaired under any condition of digital anesthesia, i.e., afferent input from both index finger and thumb was required for the adequate operation of the grip force regulation.     

Energy cost and energy sources of a ballet dance exercise in female adolescents with different technical ability

This study evaluated energy cost and energy sources of a ballet exercise (grand adage) in young female dancers with different technical ability, and then related the energy sources to the subject’s and anaerobic threshold (IAT). Twenty-five dancers (13–16 years) were divided into two different technical ability groups: low-level (n = 13) and high-level (n = 12). The overall energy requirement of dance exercise (VO_2eq) was obtained by adding the amount of VO₂ during exercise above resting (aerobic source or VO_2ex) to the VO₂ up to the fast component of recovery (anaerobic alactic source or VO_2al) and to the energy equivalent of peak blood lactate accumulation (anaerobic lactic source or ) of recovery. VO_2eq of exercise amounted to 81 ± 10 and 94 ± 9 ml kg⁻¹ in low-level and high-level groups, respectively. VO_2ex represented the higher fraction (65 ± 4% and 77 ± 5%) in low-level and high-level groups, respectively, of VO_2eq in both the groups. In the low-level group the remaining fractions were: 23 ± 2 % for VO_2al and 12 ± 1% for . In high-level group the remaining fractions were: 18 ± 2 % for VO_2al and 4 ± 1% for . Between two groups, significant differences were found in VO_2ex (P < 0.01), (P < 0.01), and VO_2al (P < 0.05). IAT was 55 and 60% of for low-level and high-level dancers, respectively. Low-level dancers performed more exercise above IAT than high-level. For these reasons, it should be better to define exercise intensity according to the IAT parameter and not only to