Coordination In Swimming Research Articles

The Effect of Small Game Exercise on Freestyle Swimming Speed: A Case Study of Halu Oleo University Sport Science Student

Mastering freestyle swimming focuses on increasing the swimming speed in order to complete the swimming distance in the shortest time. Because training for freestyle swimming must be carefully programmed and is progressive-based, this study is set to investigate the effect of small game exercises on freestyle swimming speed among the sport science student of Halu Oleo University. This study uses an experimental method with the one group pretest-posttest design. The population of this study consists of 10 students of Halu Oleo University Sport Science Student taken by simple random sampling. The instruments used were equipment for small games and exercises in the techniques of feet, hands, breath and freestyle swimming coordination. Samples of swimming exercises were speed records with a frequency of 3 times a week and carried out for 6 weeks. The results of the normality and homogeneity test data analysis showed a significance value of p > 0.05, which means that the data were normally distributed and homogeneous. T-test results showed a significance value of p > 0.05 with a calculated F value of 63.119 and an F table of 5.296, it can be concluded that there was a significant effect of small game training on the freestyle swimming speed for Sport Science Student of Halu Oleo University.

Increasing Viscosity Helps Explain Locomotor Control in Swimming Polypterus senegalus

SynopsisLocomotion relies on the successful integration of sensory information to adjust brain commands and basic motor rhythms created by central pattern generators. It is not clearly understood how altering the sensory environment impacts control of locomotion. In an aquatic environment, mechanical sensory feedback to the animal can be readily altered by adjusting water viscosity. Computer modeling of fish swimming systems shows that, without sensory feedback, high viscosity systems dampen kinematic output despite similar motor control input. We recorded muscle activity and kinematics of six Polypterus senegalus in four different viscosities of water from 1 cP (normal water) to 40 cP. In high viscosity, P. senegalus exhibit increased body curvature, body wave speed, and body and pectoral fin frequency during swimming. These changes are the result of increased muscle activation intensity and maintain voluntary swimming speed. Unlike the sensory-deprived model, intact sensory feedback allows fish to adjust swimming motor control and kinematic output in high viscous water but maintain typical swimming coordination.

The Tentacular Strike Behavior in Squid: Functional Interdependency of Morphology and Predatory Behaviors During Ontogeny

This study examines the relationship between morphology and predatory behaviors to evaluate the ontogeny of the specialized tentacular strike (TS) in Doryteuthis opalescens squid reared under laboratory conditions [hatching to 80 day-old; 2–16 mm mantle length (ML)]. Ontogenetic morphological changes in the arm-crown and the role played by the arms and tentacles during predatory behavior was correlated with prey types captured and revealed interconnected morphological and behavior traits that enabled paralarvae to perform the TS. Hatchlings have a poorly developed arm-crown and tentacles that resemble and function as arms, in which tentacular clubs (suckerfull non-contractile portion) and stalks (suckerless contractile portion) have not yet formed. Only a basic attack (BA) behavior was observed, involving arms and tentacles, which were not ejected during prey capture. A more elaborated behavior, the arm-net (AN) was first employed by 30 day-old (>4.7 mm ML) paralarvae, in which the tentacles were eject down, but not toward the prey. The TS was first observed in 40–50 day-old (6.7–7.8 mm ML) squid, which stay stationary by sustainable swimming prior to ejecting the tentacles toward the prey. Thus, the ability to perform sustainable swimming and acquisition of swimming coordination (schooling behavior) are prerequisites for the expression of the TS. The arms played the same roles after prey was captured: hold, subdue and manipulate the prey, while the actions performed by the tentacles truly defined each behavior. Prey size captured increased with increasing squid size. Morphometric data showed that hatchlings have little ability of elongating their tentacles, but this ability increases significantly with size. Squid older than 40 days could elongate their tentacles up to 61% of their ML, whereas early paralarvae 13% on average. Paralarvae were frequently observed elongating and contracting their tentacles, while not attempting to capture prey, which could perhaps serve to adjust muscle activity and development, while specializations for the strike – stalks, clubs, muscle fibers, arm-crown and swimming coordination – are still being developed. The expression of the TS is constrained by development in early paralarvae as it involves interdependency of morphology and behavior and as such, represents a major developmental milestone in the early life history of squid.

Juxtaposed membranes underpin cellular adhesion and display unilateral cell division of multicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes.

Multicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes (MMPs) exhibit peculiar coordination of swimming along geomagnetic field lines. Approximately 40-80 cells assemble, with a helical geometry or axisymmetry, into spherical or ellipsoidal MMPs respectively. To contribute to a comprehensive understanding of bacterial multicellularity here we took multiple microscopic approaches to study the diversity, assembly, reproduction and motility of ellipsoidal MMPs. Using correlative fluorescence in situ hybridization and scanning electron microscopy analysis, we found an unexpected diversity in populations of ellipsoidal MMPs in the Mediterranean Sea. The high-pressure freezing/freeze substitution fixation technique allowed us to show, for the first time, that cells adhere via juxtaposed membranes and are held together by a rimming lattice. Fluorescence confocal microscopy and ultrathin section images revealed not only the one-layer hollow three-dimensional architecture, but also periphery-core unilateral constriction of constituent cells and unidirectional binary fission of the ellipsoidal MMPs. This finding suggests the evolution toward MMPs multicellularity via the mechanism of incomplete separation of offspring. Remarkably, thousands of flagellar at the periphery surface of cells underpin the coordinated swimming of MMPs in response to mechanical, chemical, magnetic and optical stimuli, including a magnetotactic photokinesis behaviour. Together these results unveil the unique structure and function property of ellipsoidal MMPs.

Disentangling and modeling interactions in fish with burst-and-coast swimming reveal distinct alignment and attraction behaviors.

The development of tracking methods for automatically quantifying individual behavior and social interactions in animal groups has open up new perspectives for building quantitative and predictive models of collective behavior. In this work, we combine extensive data analyses with a modeling approach to measure, disentangle, and reconstruct the actual functional form of interactions involved in the coordination of swimming in Rummy-nose tetra (Hemigrammus rhodostomus). This species of fish performs burst-and-coast swimming behavior that consists of sudden heading changes combined with brief accelerations followed by quasi-passive, straight decelerations. We quantify the spontaneous stochastic behavior of a fish and the interactions that govern wall avoidance and the reaction to a neighboring fish, the latter by exploiting general symmetry constraints for the interactions. In contrast with previous experimental works, we find that both attraction and alignment behaviors control the reaction of fish to a neighbor. We then exploit these results to build a model of spontaneous burst-and-coast swimming and interactions of fish, with all parameters being estimated or directly measured from experiments. This model quantitatively reproduces the key features of the motion and spatial distributions observed in experiments with a single fish and with two fish. This demonstrates the power of our method that exploits large amounts of data for disentangling and fully characterizing the interactions that govern collective behaviors in animals groups.

A Wearable Sensor Suit for Measuring Inter-limb Coordination in Swimming

A Wearable Sensor Suit for Measuring Inter-limb Coordination in Swimming

The role of the entry-and-stretch phase at the different paces of race in front crawl swimming

The aim of this study was to determine the role played by the entry-and-stretch phase in the coordination of swimming, at the different paces of race. Three national level swimmers (two men and one woman) were recorded, in lateral and bottom views, in three swimming paces: sprint (50 m and 100 m), middle-distance (200 m and 400 m) and long-distance (800 m and 1500 m). Anatomical landmark positions were obtained by manual digitalisation of the videos. Computational fluid dynamics and experimental studies (with a strain gauge balance and particle image velocimetry method) were used to measure and to calculate the external forces applied to the hand and to the forearm and to visualise the flow around the profile. Entry-and-stretch is the phase which varies the most according to the swimming pace. This phase can be decomposed into two sub-phases: one, the extension forward coordinated with the insweep of the opposite arm, and another one, the rotation downward coordinated with the upsweep. Results show that, at the three paces, this phase is not propulsive and could contribute essentially to maintain the horizontal balance of the body.

Coordination pattern variability provides functional adaptations to constraints in swimming performance.

In a biophysical approach to the study of swimming performance (blending biomechanics and bioenergetics), inter-limb coordination is typically considered and analysed to improve propulsion and propelling efficiency. In this approach, 'opposition' or 'continuous' patterns of inter-limb coordination, where continuity between propulsive actions occurs, are promoted in the acquisition of expertise. Indeed a 'continuous' pattern theoretically minimizes intra-cyclic speed variations of the centre of mass. Consequently, it may also minimize the energy cost of locomotion. However, in skilled swimming performance there is a need to strike a delicate balance between inter-limb coordination pattern stability and variability, suggesting the absence of an 'ideal' pattern of coordination toward which all swimmers must converge or seek to imitate. Instead, an ecological dynamics framework advocates that there is an intertwined relationship between the specific intentions, perceptions and actions of individual swimmers, which constrains this relationship between coordination pattern stability and variability. This perspective explains how behaviours emerge from a set of interacting constraints, which each swimmer has to satisfy in order to achieve specific task performance goals and produce particular task outcomes. This overview updates understanding on inter-limb coordination in swimming to analyse the relationship between coordination variability and stability in relation to interacting constraints (related to task, environment and organism) that swimmers may encounter during training and performance.

Effect of Analogy Instructions with an Internal Focus on Learning a Complex Motor Skill

This study examined the effects of an analogy in learning breaststroke swimming. Two groups of participants had 20 lessons on how to increase their stroke length. The participants in the experimental condition received an analogy with an internal focus of attention. Inter-limb coordination showed qualitative changes in this group: a greater increase in swimming efficiency (i.e., a coordination closer to anti-phase [−50° before learning and −125° after] and a 10% decrease in the time spent in-phase). The findings showed that an internal focus of attention induced by analogy could be beneficial in improving the quality of inter-limb swimming coordination.

Acute Toxicity of Agricultural Pesticides to Embryo-Larval and Juvenile African Catfish Clarias gariepinus

Acute toxicities of Tihan 175 O-TEQ, as well as its active ingredients flubendiamide and spirotetramat, and of Thionex 350 EC (active compound endosulfan) were measured for embryo-larval and juvenile stages of the African catfish Clarias gariepinus to assess risks of pesticide use in the cotton basin in Benin (West Africa). For embryo-larval stages, Tihan was more toxic (LC5048h 20 ppm) than Thionex (LC5048h 56 ppm), and flubendiamide was more toxic (LC5048h 2.0 ppm) than spirotetramat (LC5048h 8.44 ppm). All decreased hatching rates. Tihan and spirotetramat disturbed larval swimming coordination; flubendiamide induced tail cleavage. For juvenile fish, Thionex was more toxic (LC5096h 0.22 ppm) than Tihan (LC5096h 8.8 ppm), and flubendiamide (LC5096h 4.7 ppm) was more toxic than spirotetramat (LC5096h 6.0 ppm). Eggs were more resistant than juvenile fish to all tested pesticides except flubendiamide. Although Thionex was more toxic to juvenile fish, replacing Thionex with Tihan may be undesirable for survival of eggs and larvae.

Pelvis-Upper Trunk Coordination at Butterfly Stroke and Underwater Dolphin Kick: Application on an Elite Female Butterfly Swimmer

Pelvis-Upper Trunk Coordination at Butterfly Stroke and Underwater Dolphin Kick: Application on an Elite Female Butterfly Swimmer Swimming strokes kinematics are traditionally monitored, analyzed and extracted for a small part of a race. This practice may facilitate methodological limitations due to restricting issues arising from video analysis, though it is not scientifically solid, despite the cyclic nature of swimming movements, which may justify it. Skill level, swimming speed and fatigue are just some of the factors or constraints that may interfere with the cyclic nature of swimming and therefore affect inter-segmental coordination from stroke to stroke. There are studies that describe inter-segmental coordination in swimming using up to four consecutive stroke cycles. Nevertheless, studyinG coordination especially under the perspective of dynamic systems theory demands a large number of strokes to be analyzed in order to bring out the underlying coordination pattern, accounting also for its stability over time.

Inter-limb coordination in swimming: Effect of speed and skill level

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of swimming speed and skill level on inter-limb coordination and its intra-cyclic variability. The elbow–knee continuous relative phase (CRP) was used as the order parameter to analyze upper–lower limbs coupling during a complete breaststroke cycle. Twelve recreational and 12 competitive female swimmers swam 25 m at a slow speed and 25 m at maximal speed. Underwater and aerial side views were mixed and genlocked with an underwater frontal view. The angle, angular velocity, and phase were calculated for the knee and elbow by digitizing body marks on the side view. Three cycles were analyzed, filtered, averaged, and normalized in percentage of the total cycle duration. The competitive swimmers showed greater intra-cyclic CRP variability, indicating a combination of intermediate phase and in-phase knee–elbow coupling within a cycle. This characteristic was more marked at slow speed because more time was spent in the glide period of the stroke cycle, with the body completely extended. Conversely, because they spent less time in the glide, the recreational swimmers showed lower intra-cyclic CRP variability (which is mostly in the in-phase coordination mode), resulting in superposition of contradictory actions (propulsion of one limb during the recovery of the other limb).

Apnea Training Effects on Swimming Coordination

Triathletes and elite breath-hold divers show an adaptive response to hypoxia induced by repeated epochs of breath holding. We hypothesized that hypoxic training could also improve swimming coordination. Before and after a 3-month breath-hold training program, 4 male swimmers performed a maximal incremental test on bicycle and a 50-m front crawl race at maximal speed without breathing so that interarm coordination could be assessed. Swim velocity, stroke rate (SR), stroke length (SL), and the arm stroke phases were calculated from video analysis. Arm coordination was quantified in terms of an index of coordination (IdC) based on the time gap between the propulsive phases of each arm. After apnea training, the forced expiratory volume in 1 second was higher (4.85 +/- 0.78 vs. 4.94 +/- 0.81 L, p < 0.05), with concomitant increases in VO2peak, minimal arterial oxygen saturation, and respiratory compensation point values (W and W x kg(-1)) during the incremental test. Swimming performance was not improved (clean velocity and time on 50 m); however, SR was decreased and SL and IdC were increased. These results indicate that apnea training improves effectiveness at both peak exercise and submaximal exercise and can also improve swimming technique by promoting greater propulsive continuity.

Swimming in the Diving Wasp Prestwichia aquatica (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Diving wasps, Prestwichia aquatica Lubbock 1864, were videorecorded in a flat micro-aquarium under a dissecting microscope. Records were analyzed frame by frame. P aquatica of 0.9 mm body size swims with the aid of legs with 5-7 mm/s, striking about 7 cycles per second. Walking on the dry ground or underwater, it advances 2.8-3.5 mm/s, stepping about 2.6 cycles per second. Leg co-ordination in swimming as well as in walking is of the alternating tripod type. Trajectories of the swimming power stroke in the middle and hind legs are spaced.

Battery of exercises aiming at improving co-ordination in swimming

Battery of exercises aiming at improving co-ordination in swimming

The Neurons that Control Axial Movements in a Frog Embryo

SYNOPSIS. This paper reviews nineteen different classes of neuron present in the nervous system of late embryos of the amphibian Xenopus laevis to see how far the behaviour of these animals can be explained in terms of the properties of these neurons. Movements can be initiated by light sensitive neurons in the pineal vesicle and touch sensitive neurons innervating head and trunk skin. Swimming can be stopped by activity in neurons innervating head skin and the cement gland. A trigeminal pathway allows the skin impulse access to the nervous system to initiate movement. Central pathways exist in the hindbrain and spinal cord to carry excitation and inhibition to the opposite side following sensory stimulation. Two classes of spinal neuron appear sufficient to coordinate motor neuron activity in simple reflexes and the basic alternation in swimming. However, the longitudinal coordination in swimming and struggling movements is not understood. For some of the cell classes described there is no evidence on function. I conclude that the Xenopus embryo nervous system and its relation to behaviour is better understood than any other but still leaves us with many questions to answer!

A possible stress‐warning marker in Ambystomatid salamanders

AbstractWhen placed under thermal and mechanical stress, individuals of Ambystoma tigrinum may produce a chemical substance which elicits aversive movements, increases negative phototaxis, and inhibits swimming coordination in conspecifics in an aquatic environment. Introduction of water in which three individuals were kept under stress elicited these responses in conspecifics kept in another container. Under natural conditions, the proposed substance may serve as a stress‐warning marker during the spring migrations of this species.

Developmental neurobehavioural toxicity of butylated hydroxytoluene in rats

Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was fed to rats throughout development (from before conception through to day 90 of postnatal life) at levels of 0, 0·125, 0·25 or 0·5% (w/w) in the diet. A similarly treated positive control group was injected on day 12 of gestation with 550 mg/kg of the antimitotic/embryotoxic drug hydroxyurea for reference. Offspring from all groups were reared by their natural dams and were evaluated in a battery of behavioural tests from day 3 to day 90 after birth. BHT at 0·5% in the diet reduced the body weights of dams and of offspring during early development and increased offspring mortality (to 39%) up to 30 days of age. This dose delayed eyelid opening, surface-righting development and limb co-ordination in swimming in males, and reduced female open-field ambulation; however, no significant effects were found after weaning. The lower doses of BHT produced some irregularities in maternal weight (0·25% an increase and 0·125% a decrease) but had no effect on the body weights of offspring. BHT at 0·25% of the diet increased pre- and periweaning mortality (23%), but neither this dose nor the 0·125% dose had any effect on physical or behavioural development or on post-weaning behavioural performance. The positive control group treated with hydroxyurea showed reduced growth prior to weaning, reduced adult brain weight and a slight but nonsignificant increase in pre- and periweaning mortality (10%). This group also exhibited delayed eyelid opening, delayed forward locomotor development and limb co-ordination during swimming, but showed no effects on postweaning behavioural performance. The BHT findings are consistent with the existing toxicological literature that BHT is toxic to growing rodents at doses of 0·25 or 0·5% of the diet with marginal effects at 0·125% of the diet. The behavioural data expand the picture of BHT's toxicity, but do not suggest any disproportionate or special toxicity of BHT for the central nervous system.

Genetic Dissection of Cerebellar Development: Mutations Affecting Cell Position

SYNOPSIS. The spastic mutation induces swimming coordination and equilibrium deficiencies in the Mexican axolotl ( Ambystoma mexicanum ). Behavioral ontogeny studies determined that spaslks fail to develop behavior trains of sinusoidal flexures necessary to mediate escape swimming at the time of onset of cerebellar function. Behavior analysis, after lesioning different cranial nerve roots and CNS areas in wild-type animals, confirmed the “behavioral focus” of the mutation to lie in the auricle or vestibulo-cerebellum. Single unit recordings in the cerebellar auricle and adjacent brainstem vestibular zone (area acoustico-lateralis) of mutants revealed a full complement of vestibular unit types found in wild-type. However, the gene appears to alter the physical location of vestibular units in both areas, including a ventral “translocation” of cerebellar units responding to sustained ipsilateral tilt. Correlated with this unit translocation, mutant Purkinje cells and allied afferent tracts are malpositioned ventrally, i.e. , “crowded” into an ectopic zone in the ventro-posterior cerebellum. Studies on cerebellar structure at the time of onset of spasticity (early feeding stage) confirmed the ventral malpositioning of cerebellar cells and fiber tracts seen in adults. In conjunction with these larval studies, mutant larvae injected with tritiated thymidine during early cerebellogenesis and assayed at the early feeding stage revealed a medio-ventral malpositioning of labelled cells; in wild-type, labelled cells were positioned laterally. Interestingly, the neuropathology of the reeler mutation (rev., Mariani et al. , 1977) found in the mouse is remarkably similar to that of the spastic axolotl. Both cerebella are reduced in size, misshapen, and lack fissures. Purkinje cells appear ectopically in the granular layer, white matter and deep cerebellar nuclei. Although both cerebella lack structural integrity, no individual cell type shows marked or progressive degeneration, and cellular untrastructure appears intact; thus, both genes appear to act independently of the genesis of cerebellar elements. Instead, they appear to influence morphogenetic movements by which presumptive cerebellar cells attain their proper positions during the neurogenetic sequence.

Mechanisms of functional recovery and regeneration after spinal cord transection in larval sea lamprey.

1. Large sea lamprey larvae, close to metamorphosis, regained swimming coordination after several weeks following complete spinal cord transection. Recovery was much faster when animals were kept at 23 than at 12 degrees C. 2. The behavioural recovery involved a regenerative mechanism in the spinal cord, since stimulation of the head resulted in tail curling, even when all tissue other than spinal cord and notocord was stripped away for several cm above and below the transection. 3. Following complete behavioural recovery, stimulation of the rostral cord evoked electrical signals recorded from the cord dorsum for only 10 mm below the transection. 4. Dorsal cells and giant interneurones, which normally project to the brain, could not be antidromically activated across the transection zone. However, giant interneurones could be activated polysynaptically by descending volleys. 5. Twelve of eighteen large reticulospinal axons followed in serial sections regenerated across the glial-ependymal scar, but branched abnormally and migrated away from their customary locations. They became smaller, and were finally lost within 4 mm of the centre of the transection zone. 6. These data suggest that behavioural recovery does not involve long axon tract regeneration. An alternate hypothesis, that short distance sprouting of axons across the transection zone may result in synapse formation with propriospinal interneurones which relay the necessary information, is discussed.