Circle Drawing Research Articles

A developmental study of the effect of music training on timed movements.

When people clap to music, sing, play a musical instrument, or dance, they engage in temporal entrainment. We examined the effect of music training on the precision of temporal entrainment in 57 children aged 10–14 years (31 musicians, 26 non-musicians). Performance was examined for two tasks: self-paced finger tapping (discrete movements) and circle drawing (continuous movements). For each task, participants synchronized their movements with a steady pacing signal and then continued the movement at the same rate in the absence of the pacing signal. Analysis of movements during the continuation phase revealed that musicians were more accurate than non-musicians at finger tapping and, to a lesser extent, circle drawing. Performance on the finger-tapping task was positively associated with the number of years of formal music training, whereas performance on the circle-drawing task was positively associated with the age of participants. These results indicate that music training and maturation of the motor system reinforce distinct skills of timed movement.

Response to period shifts in tapping and circle drawing: a window into event and emergent components of continuous movement.

Synchronization of movement to a metronome is a well-studied task for both discretely and smoothly produced rhythmic movement. In particular, behavioral responses to unexpected changes in a regular metronome can reveal both the strength and the completeness of error correction mechanisms and temporal control. Clock-like control is exhibited by discretely produced movement and movement with discrete perceptual information, whereas smoothly produced movement does not rely on internal clock mechanisms. Documented differences in error correction between discretely and smoothly produced movements have been attributed to this different underlying control. In this study, error correction mechanisms were examined by inducing changes in the pace of rhythmic movement. An overshoot response following the pace change for both tapping and circle drawing is documented, and suggests the presence of phase and period correction in both tasks. The presence of phase correction in circle drawing also suggests that clock and non-clock timing may co-exist within the same movement. Furthermore, a sub-group of participants emerged who appropriately changed pace, but were not able to correct the phasing of their movement while performing the circle drawing task, supporting that phase and period maintenance in timing are independently controlled processes.

Guidance-control-based Exoskeleton Rehabilitation Robot for Upper Limbs: Application to Circle Drawing for Physiotherapy and Training

Cerebral vascular disease is the leading cause of functional disability among adults. Approximately half of all stroke survivors continue to suffer from severe neurological deficits and hemiparesis in the upper extremities as well as many secondary complications due to immobilization. Robotics can provide highly intensive intervention in stroke rehabilitation as well as an objective means of measuring patient progress. This study designs an upper limb rehabilitation (Rehab) robot with multiple degrees of freedom. This design provides a wider range of motion in 3-dimentional space than that provided by an existing endpoint-fixation system. In addition, unlike cable suspension systems that lack biofeedback, the sensors incorporated into the proposed design can be used to detect the voluntary force produced by the stroke patient. The Rehab robot features an exoskeleton-type design with in-built redundancy, a guidance control system, and force feedback using an electromyographic trigger. Three rehabilitation modes can be selected by physical therapists according to the severity of the patient's upper-limb impairment: passive, active, and guidance. Guidance mode assists patients in motor training, with programs such as drawing circles, which involves complex movements that require coordination between the shoulder and elbow joints. Such skills are ideally suited to relearning functional tasks following a stroke. Physical experiments were conducted in this pilot study to evaluate the performance of the Rehab robot. The results indicate that the robot could be effective. Guidance mode achieves the desired guidance functions, informing the subject of the pose required to complete the task as well as enabling them to reduce unnecessary muscle use.

Non-invasive cerebellar stimulation in dystonia

Abstract Primary isolated dystonia is a hyperkinetic movement disorder whereby involuntary muscle contractions cause twisted and abnormal postures. Dystonia of the cervical spine and upper limb may present as sustained muscle contractions or task-specific activity when using the hand or upper limb. There is little understanding of the pathophysiology underlying dystonia and this presents a challenge for clinicians and researchers alike. Emerging evidence that the cerebellum is involved in the pathophysiology of dystonia using network models presents the intriguing concept that the cerebellum could provide a novel target for non-invasive brain stimulation. Non-invasive stimulation to increase cerebellar excitability improved aspects of handwriting and circle drawing in a small cohort of people with focal hand and cervical dystonia. Mechanisms underlying the improvement in function are unknown, but putative pathways may involve the red nucleus and/or the cervical propriospinal system. Furthermore, recent understanding that the cerebellum has both motor and cognitive functions suggests that non-invasive cerebellar stimulation may improve both motor and non-motor aspects of dystonia. We propose a combination of motor and non-motor tasks that challenge cerebellar function may be combined with cerebellar non-invasive brain stimulation in the treatment of focal dystonia. Better understanding of how the cerebellum contributes to dystonia may be gained by using network models such as our putative circuits involving red nucleus and/or the cervical propriospinal system. Finally, novel treatment interventions encompassing both motor and non-motor functions of the cerebellum may prove effective for neurological disorders that exhibit cerebellar dysfunction.

Bimanual coordination with three hands: Is the mirror hand of any help?

The mirror paradigm has been used extensively both as a research tool for studying kinesthesia in healthy individuals and as a therapeutic tool for improving recovery and/or alleviating symptoms in patients. The present study of healthy participants assessed the contribution of the mirror paradigm to motor control in a bimanual coordination task performed under sensorimotor disturbance conditions. In Experiment 1, the participants were required to produce symmetrical circles with both hands/arms at the same time. In Experiment 2, the task consisted of synchronous extension-flexion movements of both arms in the sagittal plane. These tasks were performed under four different visual conditions: (i) mirror vision (i.e. with the non-dominant arm reflected in a mirror – the third hand – and the dominant arm hidden), (ii) full vision (i.e. both arms visible), (iii) with only the non-dominant arm visible and (iv) with the eyes closed. In Experiments 1 and 2, sensorimotor disturbance was applied to the participant's dominant arm by co-vibrating antagonistic muscles (the biceps and the triceps). In the complex circle drawing task, bimanual performance was better in the mirror condition than when participants saw their non-dominant arm only. However, motor performance in the mirror vision condition was little better than in the eyes closed condition, regardless of whether or not sensorimotor disturbance was applied. In Experiment 2, there were no differences between the “eyes closed” and “mirror vision” conditions. Although mirror reflection of one arm has been shown to induce consistent, vivid, perceptual illusions (kinesthetic illusion), our results suggest that it is less effective in modulating motor behavior.

Manual disfluency in drawing while producing and listening to disfluent speech

This study investigated the extent to which manual fluency was associated with speech fluency in fluent speakers engaged in dual motor tasks. Thirteen right-handed adult females repeatedly drew circles with a pen on a digitizer tablet under five conditions: (1) a baseline (without reading or listening to speech), (2) reading fluently, (3) reading disfluently, (4) listening to fluent speech, and (5) listening to disfluent speech. The primary measure of disfluency was normalized mean squared jerk (NJ) in the pen strokes. Pen stroke time (ST) and pressure (PP) were also measured. NJ of the circle movements was significantly increased in both the disfluent reading and the disfluent listening conditions (p<0.05), compared to the baseline condition. In the fluent listening and reading conditions, NJ in circle drawing was unaltered compared to the baseline condition. Relative to baseline, ST increased significantly (p<0.05), but to a similar extent in all experimental conditions. Significantly (p<.05) greater pen pressure were also found in the disfluent versus fluent conditions. Positive correlations (r=0.33–0.63) were found between NJ and ST across conditions. These findings demonstrate that in dual-tasks, speech fluency can influence manual fluency. This is consistent with the corpus of data showing neural connectivity between manual and speech tasks, as well between perception and production. The mirror neuron system is implicated as a mechanism involved in forging these links.

The Influence of Robotic Guidance on Different Types of Motor Timing

ABSTRACT Robotic guidance as a means to facilitate motor learning and rehabilitation has received considerable attention during the last few years. However, mixed outcomes suggest that the benefits might be restricted to certain movement characteristics. The authors investigate the effects of robotic guidance on different kinds of motor timing. Two groups of participants performed 2 variants of a circle drawing task in a synchronization-continuation paradigm. One variant was continuous circle drawing (emergent timing), the other variant was intermittent circle drawing (event-based timing). The total duration of movement cycles (absolute timing) and the relative duration of submovements (relative timing) were measured. Half of the participants in each group were guided by a robot device during synchronization (robot-guided group), the other half of the participants received no guidance (control group). Guided participants had superior performance during the synchronization phase with both timing tasks. During continuation there were no benefits of haptic guidance anymore with the continuous circle drawing task. In contrast, with the intermittent circle drawing task guided participants were more accurate in their relative timing than control participants already in the first few trials, and this advantage did not increase in the course of practice. The benefit is thus rather immediate and not cumulative. This finding is consistent with the notion that movement characteristics such as relative timing, which are hard to demonstrate visually or verbally, profit from robotic guidance because of the more accurate demonstrations of the correct movements.

Native Reading Direction and Corresponding Preferences for Left- or Right-Lit Images

The first language an individual learns has been shown to influence performance on cognitive tasks. Individuals who first learn to read and write in a left-to-right direction (native left-to-right readers) tend to bisect lines left of centre and draw counterclockwise circles, whereas those who learn to read and write from right-to-left (native right-to-left readers) will bisect lines closer to the objective centre and draw circles in a clockwise direction. The aim of the current study was to assess group differences in image preferences and eye movements when participants are simultaneously presented with an original and mirror image with an obvious illumination difference. Twenty native left-to-right readers (4 men, 16 women) and 25 native right-to-left readers (13 men, 12 women) participated. Left-to-right readers made more fixations on the left side of images and exhibited a significantly different left-lit image bias than right-to-left readers' choices. These results draw attention to the influence that reading direction has on scanning distributions and lighting preferences, and question previous results finding no difference between groups.

Upper-limb motor control in patients after stroke: Attentional demands and the potential beneficial effects of arm support

The goal of this study was to investigate the attentional load of using the upper limb in moderately and mildly affected patients after stroke, with and without arm support. Ten patients with stroke (4 mild and 6 moderate paresis) and ten healthy, gender- and age-matched control subjects performed a dual-task experiment that consisted of a circle drawing task and an auditive Stroop task. Complexity of the motor task was manipulated by supporting the arm against gravity. Individual motor (area×speed) and cognitive (accuracy/reaction time) scores during the dual-task conditions were converted into percentage scores relative to the respective single-task scores and then combined in a single measure of net dual-task performance. Without arm support, only moderately affected patients showed significantly greater side differences in dual-task performance to the detriment of the affected upper limb. With arm support, no side differences were found for any of the three groups. Thus, the hypothesis that patients with moderate upper-limb paresis suffer from a lack of automaticity of motor control was substantiated by the dual-task condition. Furthermore, supporting the arm reduced the attentional load of using the affected side.

Statistical persistence and timing characteristics of repetitive circle drawing in children with ASD

Objective: Standardized tests to assess movement difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) evaluate motor output, but do not provide information about underlying dynamics. The objective of this research is to study the statistical persistence and temporal dynamics of a circle drawing task in children with ASD.Methods: For this study 15 children diagnosed with ASD, aged 4–8 years, were asked to draw circles under various conditions using a computerized tablet. We then assessed fractal dynamics and global temporal dynamics (mean and coefficient of variation) and compared these quantities to those of typically developing (TD) controls.Results: No difference in statistical persistence was found between children with ASD and TD children. Temporal measures showed increased variability in the ASD population in the discontinuous task.Conclusion: Results support the hypothesis that children with ASD have an intact ability to consistently produce continuous movements, but increased variability in production of discontinuous movements.

An Evaluation of Children’s Structural Drawing Strategies

Inspecting children’s structural drawing is developmentally and psychologically important. Today’s digital availability of such data from electronic tablets, inspires automatic analysis; however, converting such data to an informative feature vector for further analysis and identification of related indicators, needs appropriate algorithms. This study presents simple, fast methods for detecting X, O and 4 basic lines’ drawing strategies. The functionality of the algorithms is tested on an available database subtending the performances of 74 (6–7years) pupils. Results demonstrate typical behaviors such as counterclockwise popularity in circle drawing, and other tendencies in the population’s structural pattern drawing’s performance. Algorithms clearly reveal all different strategies used by participators. Consequently the suitability of the algorithms, in effectively detecting strategic features, is clarified. In addition, according to the data labels in database, some features are suggested to serve as attributes distinguishing handwriting ability.

An Improved Circle Drawing Algorithm on a Hexagonal Grid

In this article, a double-step circle drawing algorithm on a hexagonal grid is presented. It chooses the best approximate pixels to the circle by setting additional pixels in loop iterations with only integer arithmetic. The performance of the proposed algorithm is found to be better than those of the existing algorithms.

Comparison of Arm-Trunk Movement between Complete Paraplegic and Able- Bodied Subjects during Circle Drawing

Abstract Study design : This study was a cross sectional, controlled trial. Objectives: To examine the performance of repetitive circle drawing on dynamic sitting balance between subject with spinal cord injury (SCI) and age-matched able-bodied (AB) adults. Summary of background data : Previous studies showed that the dynamic sitting balance is impaired in SCI. However, the arm-trunk coordinated movement for different directions in seated SCI has not been examined yet. Methods: Twelve subjects with complete T7-T12 thoracic cord injury (mean age: 36.3 ± 3.0 years) and 12 age- matched AB adults were recruited. Subjects performed 10 repetitive circle drawing at seated position. The three- dimensional motion system (Vicon) was used to measure shoulder, trunk and pelvic angles at sitting position. Results : The SCI group displayed an arm-trunk movement with a significantly larger shoulder adduction/ abduction angle (p<0.001), but less trunk flexion/extension, pelvic anterior/posteriortilt and pelvic rotation angles than AB controls (p<0.05, p<0.001, and p<0.001, respectively). Conclusions: The small circle drawing is feasible to detect the compensatory movement of shoulder for the impairment of trunk and pelvic control in thoracic SCI. Furthermore, the assistance and guidance of trunk and pelvic movements is important for the arm-trunk coordinated movement in thoracic SCI.

The role of musical training in emergent and event-based timing

Introduction: Musical performance is thought to rely predominantly on event-based timing involving a clock-like neural process and an explicit internal representation of the time interval. Some aspects of musical performance may rely on emergent timing, which is established through the optimization of movement kinematics, and can be maintained without reference to any explicit representation of the time interval. We predicted that musical training would have its largest effect on event-based timing, supporting the dissociability of these timing processes and the dominance of event-based timing in musical performance.Materials and Methods: We compared 22 musicians and 17 non-musicians on the prototypical event-based timing task of finger tapping and on the typically emergently timed task of circle drawing. For each task, participants first responded in synchrony with a metronome (Paced) and then responded at the same rate without the metronome (Unpaced).Results: Analyses of the Unpaced phase revealed that non-musicians were more variable in their inter-response intervals for finger tapping compared to circle drawing. Musicians did not differ between the two tasks. Between groups, non-musicians were more variable than musicians for tapping but not for drawing. We were able to show that the differences were due to less timer variability in musicians on the tapping task. Correlational analyses of movement jerk and inter-response interval variability revealed a negative association for tapping and a positive association for drawing in non-musicians only.Discussion: These results suggest that musical training affects temporal variability in tapping but not drawing. Additionally, musicians and non-musicians may be employing different movement strategies to maintain accurate timing in the two tasks. These findings add to our understanding of how musical training affects timing and support the dissociability of event-based and emergent timing modes.

Supporting Virtual Collaboration in Spatial Design Tasks: Are Surrogate or Natural Gestures More Effective?

Hand gestures offer a rich source of information for communication of spatial concepts. However, gestures are often lost when people work together in virtual space. Gestures may be conveyed in virtual spaces through many approaches, for example by drawing circles and arrows around objects on a shared screen, or using natural, real-time videos of a distant collaborator's hands or body. The first is an example of “surrogate” gestures and the second of “natural” gestures. The first is relatively inexpensive but requires users take some effort to draw and erase temporary symbols; the second is more costly but also more expressive and natural. This work will: 1) provide a brief, high-level framework characterizing tools that support virtual gestures; and 2) present an experimental study comparing the cognitive effort required when using sketched surrogate gestures versus natural gestures in a virtual mechanical design tasks. The larger goal is to understand whether the additional cost to support natural gestures is warranted, thus informing the design of future virtual collaboration tools. We recruited 24 participants and asked them to collaborate using three different approaches: face-to-face (as a baseline), virtual-sketching (which allows users to make gestural sketches on their drawings), and virtual-sketching with natural hand videos projected on the drawing surface. We found that users' cognitive workload was significantly reduced when natural hand videos were added to a virtual-sketching environment. These results suggest that the ease and expressivity of natural gestures provide more benefits than simpler surrogate gestures for virtual mechanical design tasks.

Motor Extinction: A Deficit of Attention or Intention?

Motor extinction refers to a deficit of motor production on the side opposite a brain lesion that either only becomes apparent or disproportionately worsens during bilateral motor activity. It may arise due either to a contralesional deficit in setting the motor activation level (an intentional deficit) or a deficit in contralesional awareness of the sensory consequences of movement (an attentional deficit). In this study, we investigate the nature of motor extinction in a patient (LR) with a right fronto-temporal lesion through the kinematic analysis of unimanual and bimanual circle-drawing movements. While the ipsi- and contralesional limbs performed comparably for unimanual movements, the contralesional limb demonstrated marked bradykinesia and hypometria during bimanual movements. Furthermore, these deficits were not overcome when visual feedback of the contralesional limb was provided (Experiment 1). However, when performing bimanual movements in the presence of a visual template (Experiment 2), LR was able to overcome the contralesional hypometria but not the bradykinesia which proved intractable across both experiments. Both the bradykinesia and hypometria could result from an intentional deficit of motor production. However, in Experiment 2, LR also demonstrated an abnormal level of positional drift in the contralesional limb for bimanual movements indicative of an additional attentional deficit. We conclude that LR’s presentation of motor extinction is the result of a primary intentional deficit and a secondary attentional deficit.

Research on CNG Control Bottle Drawing Process and Model Parameters

Since the energy problem is more and more serious, the CNG cylinders are used more and more widely. Meanwhile, more and more attention has been paid to the manufacturing and research and development of CNG cylinders. Based on the CNG cylinder drawing process, finite element software is adopted to research the parameters of drawing circle during the drawing process to find the optimum die-entrance angle and optimum die radius under minimum drawing force. Meanwhile, a contrastive research is done to the drawing forces with different different drawing ratios and different friction coefficients. Design parameter values of drawing circle are determined through the finite element numerical simulation to give guidance to actual production.

The Distinction between Tapping and Circle Drawing with and without Tactile Feedback: An Examination of the Sources of Timing Variance

An internal clock-like process has been implicated in the control of rhythmic movements performed for short (250-2,000 ms) time scales. However, in the past decade, it has been claimed that a clock-like central timing mechanism is not required for smooth cyclical movements. The distinguishing characteristic delineating clock-like (event) from non-clock-like (emergent) timing is thought to be the kinematic differences between tapping (discrete-like) and circle drawing (smooth). In the archetypal event-timed task (tapping), presence of perceptual events is confounded with the discrete kinematics of movement (table contact). Recently, it has been suggested that discrete perceptual events help participants synchronize with a metronome. However, whether discrete tactile events directly elicit event timing has yet to be determined. In the present study, we examined whether a tactile event inserted into the circle drawing timing task could elicit event timing in a self-paced (continuation) timing task. For a majority of participants, inserting an event into the circle drawing task elicited timing behaviour consistent with the idea that an internal timekeeper was employed (a correlation of circle drawing with tapping). Additionally, some participants exhibited characteristics of event timing in the typically emergently timed circle drawing task. We conclude that the use of event timing can be influenced by the insertion of perceptual events, and it also exhibits persistence over time and over tasks within certain individuals.

Handwriting: Three-Dimensional Kinetic Synergies in Circle Drawing Movements

The purpose of this study was to investigate central nervous system (CNS) strategies for controlling multifinger forces during a circle-drawing task. Subjects drew 30 concentric, discontinuous clockwise and counter clockwise circles, at self and experimenter-set paces. The three-dimensional trajectory of the pen's center of mass and the three-dimensional forces and moments of force at each contact between the hand and the pen were recorded. Uncontrolled Manifold Analysis was used to quantify the synergies between pen-hand contact forces in radial, tangential and vertical directions. Results showed that synergies in the radial and tangential components were significantly stronger than in the vertical component. Synergies in the clockwise direction were significantly stronger than the counterclockwise direction in the radial and vertical components. Pace was found to be insignificant under any condition.

Popular culture, de-centering educators and critical dispositions1

In this paper, I trace three traditions and bodies of work: The Chicago School of Sociology, the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies and the New Sociology of Education. Each of these traditions evolved in distinct though overlapping ways. Taken together, they offer a productive set of resources for thinking through the complexities of popular culture and education today. These traditions are of course not meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive. Rather, I approach them as pieces of ‘context’ to evoke the work of Leslie Fiedler – ways of drawing circles around particular texts. The goal, as always, is to find the places where they cannot explain away the particularity of texts and practices in their ‘ambiguity and plentitude.’ I hope to encourage a particular kind of critical disposition towards popular texts.