Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation Research Articles

A method for assessing recovery of fine motor function of the hand in a rhesus monkey model of cortical injury: an adaptation of the Fugl–Meyer Scale and Eshkol–Wachman Movement Notation

Motor dysfunction of the upper extremity can result from stroke, cortical injury and neurological diseases and causes significant disruption of activities of daily living. While some spontaneous recovery in terms of compensatory movements does occur after injury to cortical motor areas, full recovery is rare. The distinction between complete recovery and compensatory recovery is important as the development of compensatory movements in the upper extremity may not translate into full functional use in human patients. However, current animal models of stroke do not distinguish full recovery from compensatory recovery. We have developed a Non-Human Primate Grasp Assessment Scale (GRAS) to quantify the precise recovery of composite movement, individual digit action, and finger-thumb pinch in our rhesus monkey model of cortical injury. To date, we have applied this GRAS scale to assess the recovery of fine motor function of the hand in young control and cell-therapy treated monkeys with cortical injury confined to the hand representation in the dominant primary motor cortex. We have demonstrated that with this scale we can detect and quantify significant impairments in fine motor function of the hand, the development of compensatory function during recovery and finally a return to full fine motor function of the hand in monkeys treated with a cell therapy.

A structural comparison of female–male and female–female mounting in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)

In certain populations, female Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) mount both males and females. Vasey (2007) proposed that female–female sexual mounting in Japanese macaques may be a neutral evolutionary by-product of a purported adaptation, namely, female–male mounting. In this study, we aim to further examine the proposed link between female–male and female–female mounting in Japanese macaques by comparing the structural characteristics that define both forms of mounting. We do so using Eshkol–Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN), a globographic reference system that can be used to describe the position of body segments. No significant differences were observed in the female mounters' positioning of eight different body segments (i.e., lower torso, mid-torso, upper torso, upper arm, lower arm, upper leg, lower leg, and foot) during female–male and female–female mounting. This finding lends support to the conclusion that female–female and female–male mounting are structurally, and thus, evolutionarily, related.

Texts, Bodies, Multimodality: Dance Literacy in Context

Crossing between texts, bodies, and the senses, dance literacies bring fresh perspectives on how new literacies can function, especially non-alphabetic or non-text-based literacies. Reading and writing in an expanded understanding of literacy are interpretive means of interacting with texts, of embedding and discerning meaning, of making sense of movement or choreographic information, of composing and performing, and of creating documentation and archive. Makers and viewers of dances act as readers, and writers, and authors. These roles are permeable in dance literacy, shifting with the context of the dance phenomenon or artistic practice. This paper engages with the dance practices of two dance companies to explore issues of shared-authorship, documentation, multimodality, body-text relationships, and reader-writer permeability: the Bebe Miller Company during their creation ofA Historyand RikudNetto, who composes through Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation. What literacy events and practices are present in the studio? What range of written literacies are used and how? Where and how were these literacies learned? In what ways might they cross the so-called literacy-orality divide? Drawing from questions and frameworks of the New Literacy Studies, this paper invites a critical look at dance literacy in context.

One Good Turn Deserves Another: Combat versus Other Functions of Acrobatic Maneuvers in the Play Fighting of Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops)

During play fighting, animals make a variety of movements, some of which seem unrelated to the ongoing actions of the partner. Among such movements are the jumps and rotations reported in many species of Old World monkeys. In the present study, videotaped sequences of jumps and rotations performed by juvenile vervet monkeys were analyzed. Using the Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN) the sequences were described frame-by-frame revealing that about 82% of the jumps and rotations were correlated with the movements performed by the partner, consistent with the view that these movements are used as tactics of attack and defense. The majority of the remaining 18% occurred in contexts in which the performer solicited playful attacks from the partner. A small number of the rest were performed in a manner consistent with the movements being imposed by the performer to increase the difficulty in contacting the partner. The same distribution was present in both captive and free-living monkeys. Thus the analyses show that while most jumps were combat-related, these movements can occur in a variety of functional contexts.

‘The spiral model for the development of coordination’: a learning model based on Eshkol‐Wachman movement notation (EWMN)

The objective of this study is to present ‘The Spiral Model for the Development of Coordination’ (SMDC), a learning model that reflects the complexity and possibilities embodied in the learning of movement notation Eshkol‐Wachman (EWMN), an Israeli invention. This model constituted the infrastructure for a comprehensive study that examined the impact of the learning of EWMN on the development of coordination. This research describes different aspects in the learning of EWMN, the construction of the SMDC learning model and the implementation of the model during an intervention program. It also endeavors to indicate the relationship between the learning of EWMN and accepted theories and models of processes of learning. The findings showed that SMDC accompanied the stages of learning in the program, followed the improvement, increased depth in the learning and led the subjects to improve their achievements.

NT-3 expression from engineered olfactory ensheathing glia promotes spinal sparing and regeneration

Adenoviral (AdV) vectors encoding neurotrophin-3 (AdV-NT-3) or the bacterial marker enzyme beta-galactosidase (LacZ gene) were used to transduce olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) cultures. AdV vector-transduced OEG expressed high levels of recombinant neurotrophin as shown by in situ hybridization and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. The biological activity of vector-derived NT-3 was determined in a dorsal root ganglia neurite outgrowth assay. Engineered cell suspensions were then injected into adult Fischer 344 rat spinal cord immediately after unilateral cervical (C4) corticospinal tract (CST) transection. Transplanted animals received a total of 200,000 cells; either non-transduced OEG or OEG transduced with AdV vectors encoding NT-3 or LacZ, respectively. At 3 months after injury, lesion volumes were significantly smaller in all OEG-transplanted rats when compared with control (medium-injected) rats. Anterograde tracing of the lesioned CST projection, originating from the contralateral sensorimotor cortex, showed a significantly greater number of distal CST axons only in OEG-NT-3-transplanted rats. Behavioural analysis was performed on all rats using open field locomotion scoring, and a forelimb reaching task with Eshkol-Wachman movement notation. Analysis of behavioural tests revealed no significant differences in recovery between experimental groups, although movement analysis indicated that possible compensatory mechanisms were occurring after OEG implantation. The results demonstrate that OEG transplantation per se can promote tissue sparing after injury, but, after appropriate genetic modification, these olfactory-derived cells become far more effective in promoting long-distance maintenance/regeneration of lesioned adult CST axons.

Eshkol-Wachman movement notation in diagnosis: the early detection of Asperger's syndrome.

The diagnostic criteria of Asperger's syndrome (AS), considered a part of the autistic spectrum disorder, are still unclear. A critical marker, which distinguishes AS from autism, is the presence of language. The ability of a child with AS to acquire and use language early results in the fact that AS usually is diagnosed much later than autism. Autism is not usually diagnosed until around the age of 3, whereas AS usually is not diagnosed until the child is 6 or 7 years of age. In the present article, using Eshkol-Wachman movement notation, we present evidence that abnormal movement patterns can be detected in AS in infancy. This finding suggests that AS can be diagnosed very early, independent of the presence of language. As shown earlier by us, almost all of the movement disturbances in autism can be interpreted as infantile reflexes "gone astray"; i.e., some reflexes are not inhibited at the appropriate age in development, whereas others fail to appear when they should. This phenomenon appears to apply to AS as well. Based on preliminary results, a simple test using one such reflex is proposed for the early detection of a subgroup of children with AS or autism.

Long–Evans and Sprague–Dawley rats have similar skilled reaching success and limb representations in motor cortex but different movements: some cautionary insights into the selection of rat strains for neurobiological motor research

Many rat strains are used for neurobiological studies of nervous system function and behavior. The most widely used strain for studies of the neural basis of movement is the out bred, pigmented Long–Evans strain, while the most widely used strains for the study of movement impairments in neurological disease are out bred albino rats, including Sprague–Dawley rats. Although previous research has indicated that there are strain differences in skilled movements displayed by different rat strains, there has been no explicit comparison of the Long–Evans and Sprague–Dawley strains. This was the purpose of the present study. The rats were video recorded as they learned to reach for single food pellets and the video records were subjected to frame-by-frame analysis. Component movements of reaching were scored using a system derived from Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN). The quality of movements was described using Laban Movement Analysis (LMA). Forelimb representations in motor cortex were defined electrophysiologically. Acquisition scores and success in reaching did not differ between the two strains, nor did the topographical representation of the forelimb in motor cortex. Long–Evans and Sprague–Dawley rats did differ in the movements used for reaching and on the quality of their movements. The movements of Sprague–Dawley rats resembled the movements of Long–Evans rats with motor system injury. That rat strains can show both quantitative and qualitative differences in movement is useful for the understanding of the genetic, neural, and behavioral organization of the motor system. The results are also relevant to the question of appropriateness of particular rat strains for studies of neurological diseases and the effects of albinism on motor behavior, and suggest that some of the most widely used rat strains for neurological investigations may be less than appropriate.

Impairment of pronation, supination, and body co-ordination in reach-to-grasp tasks in human Parkinson's disease (PD) reveals homology to deficits in animal models

Animal (monkey, rat, mouse) models are widely used to investigate degenerative processes and potential therapeutic treatments for human Parkinson's disease (PD). One task that has proved useful in these investigations is a reach-to-grasp task (skilled reaching) in which an animal reaches for a piece of food that it then consumes. Rats with extensive unilateral Dopamine depletions are impaired in using the contralateral limb. The qualitative features of posture, lifting and advancing the limb, pronating the paw to grasp food, and in withdrawing and supinating the paw to place the food in the mouth are impaired, as is reaching success. Humans with PD are often described as having poor manual dexterity that worsens as the disease progresses. As there have been no detailed comparisons of reaching movements in the animal models and in PD subjects, the following descriptive analysis was performed. Ten subjects with PD, eight age matched controls and 14 young normal subjects were studied as they used a natural movement of reaching for a small piece of food that they then placed in the mouth to eat. The reaching movements were described using Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN), supplemented with kinematic analyses. From this description, a 21-point rating scale was devised to describe the component movements of the reach. Movements included: orienting the head and eyes to the target, adjusting posture, lifting the hand, shaping and aiming the digits to the target, pronating the hand to grasping the food with a pincer grip, lifting and supinating the hand to transporting the food to the mouth, and further supinating the hand and opening the digits to place food in the mouth, and finally returning the hand to the starting position. Analysis indicated that most aspects of the reaching movements of the PD subjects were significantly different relative to both young control subjects and old control subjects. As compared to the control groups, postural and reaching components of the movements were fragmented, movements were achieved using more proximal segments of the body, and rotatory movements of the hand were limited. The PD subjects did use a pincer grasp to obtain the food, but the grasp was less independent of other digit movements than was observed in the control subjects. These results are discussed in terms of a homology to impairments displayed animal models of PD.

Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels

AbstractPlay fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings in free‐living litters of Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) were videotaped. Frame‐by‐frame analyses using the Eshkol‐Wachman Movement Notation were employed to record the correlated movements of attack and defense by the partners and to reveal the body areas targeted during each play bout. Whereas sexual play was organized around access to the rump, aggressive play was organized around the shoulders. Although in most cases the defender’s tactics blocked access to the respective target, when contact did occur, it involved mounting in sexual play and nosing or biting in aggressive play. Eighty‐six percent of play fights could be unambiguously categorized as either sexual or aggressive play. Of these, the majority (˜80%) involved sexual play. The sex of the participants did not affect the frequency of aggressive play, but in sexual play, males initiated more attacks than females. Once initiated, each form of play fighting remained distinct—if a bout began as sexual play, it would end as sexual play. Furthermore, a counterattack following sexual play was significantly more likely to be sexual than aggressive, and vice versa for counterattacks following aggressive play. Therefore, all the evidence suggested that the two forms of play fighting were not intermixed in Richardson’s ground squirrels. Aggr. Behav. 27:323–337, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Skilled reaching an action pattern: stability in rat ( Rattus norvegicus) grasping movements as a function of changing food pellet size

Many animals in different mammalian orders display skilled forelimb use for prehension, but there has been little study of the rules underlying skilled forelimb use that may provide insight into its neural organization. Inflexibility of movement would imply an underlying fixed neural control characteristic of innate action pattern, whereas flexibility of movement would imply more plastic neural control. In the present study, rat reaching was examined by analyzing movements used to obtain nine different sized food pellets, weighing between 20 and 1000 mg. The prediction was that if the rats’ reaching movements were flexible, then systematic modifications in reaching would occur as food pellet size changed; whereas if reaching was inflexible, disruptions should occur for extreme food pellet sizes. Reaching was filmed using normal (30 frames/s) and high-speed (60 frames/s) video-recording procedures. Behavior was scored in terms of successful reaches and, in addition, a new rating scale, derived from Eshkol–Wachman Movement Notation, was used to evaluate the qualitative aspects of movement. Reaching success was stable across smaller food pellet sizes but dropped sharply for larger food pellets sizes. Qualitative analysis of limb movements revealed that animals were unable to change their typical movement sequence to obtain the larger pellets. This result indicates that rat skilled reaching is relatively inflexible, supporting the position that it is produced by a complex, relatively fixed neural circuitry. This finding is discussed in relation to the evolution of skilled reaching, the modifications of skilled reaching that are observed after motor cortex and other nervous system injuries, and comparative differences in reaching in rats and primates.

How skilled are the skilled limb movements of the raccoon ( Procyon lotor)?

Raccoons have been widely used for neurobiological research and with respect to paw (hand) use have been `considered' to be primates because they display highly developed skilled hand use. Their exceptional manipulatory ability is puzzling from an evolutionary perspective both because they belong to a taxon that is divergent from primates and because most members of their taxon are not especially skilled. Surprisingly, there has been no systematic investigation of their manipulatory ability. This was the purpose of the present study. Captive and zoo-housed raccoons were video recorded during food handling in a wide variety of conditions and the video records were subjected to descriptive frame-by-frame analysis aided by the use of Eshkol–Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN). The results confirm that raccoons display good manual skills in food finding, grasping and handling. Like primates, they use vision to identify and reach for objects, but additionally they make extensive use of haptically controlled movements. Unlike primates, they do not have a true convergent hand as it has limited flexive properties. Objects are grasped between the digits or between the apical digit and distal palmar pads. Manipulation of objects consisted of rolling the object between the palms of both hands, with little or no digit movement. Finally, although they can make unimanual reaching movements, they make extensive use of a bimanual reaching strategy. These results suggest that raccoons are like primates in that they display visual guidance of reaching, but are similar to other carnivores in that they do not use convergent grasping and digit manipulation and frequently use bimanual grasping. The results, consistent with a growing body of information on skilled use in mammals, including marsupials and rodents, suggest that raccoons are specialised, but not special.

The practicality of using the Eshkol-Wachman movement notation in behavioral pharmacology and kinesics

The practicality of using the Eshkol-Wachman movement notation in behavioral pharmacology and kinesics

Implications of Eshkol-Wachman movement notation for behavioural pharmacology

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Connecting invertebrate behavior, neurophysiology and evolution with Eshkol-Wachman movement notation

Connecting invertebrate behavior, neurophysiology and evolution with Eshkol-Wachman movement notation

Eshkol-Wachman movement notation and the evolution of locomotor patterns in vertebrates

Eshkol-Wachman movement notation and the evolution of locomotor patterns in vertebrates

Skilled reaching in rats and humans: evidence for parallel development or homology

Forelimb reaching by the rat is used as a paradigm for the experimental study of neural control, plasticity, and recovery of function after injury, in the expectation that results are generalizable to humans. The present study was done to compare rat to human reaching movements. The movements of both species were videorecorded and subjected to frame-by-frame analysis using Cartesian (spatial and velocity) and Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN) systems. The component movements of reaching, their sequence and velocity profiles, and their topography were similar in the two species. Both species also displayed more supination and lengthened grasping times when reaching for small as opposed to large objects. Both rats and humans moved the limb medially using the upper arm to aim it when they were required to reach through an aperture but in a free reaching test only rats continued to aim the limb. Human movements were characterized by greater blending of movement components, more variability, and independent digit use. Arguments are presented that the similarities and differences in rat and human reaching are not trivially accounted for by limb and task similarities. The many similarities in the movements of the two species provide evidence for at least parallel development or perhaps even homology.

The structure of skilled forelimb reaching in the rat: A proximally driven movement with a single distal rotatory component

The movements of rats trained to reach through an aperture for food pellets, located on a shelf, were videorecorded and filmed from lateral and ventral perspectives for analysis using Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN). Reaching was subdivided into phases of locating the food and advancing the limb to grasp the food, bringing the food to the mouth, and returning to the starting position. Further analysis of the movements comprising these acts revealed a number of novel findings. (1) Most of the first phase of the movement is produced proximally, with the limb lifted, aimed, and advanced from the shoulder. (2) After the limb is lifted from the substrate to initiate reaching, it is carried to a parasagittal position so that the long axis of the forearm is aligned along the midline of the body. This aspect of the movement ‘aims’ the limb toward the target. (3) The digits are opened as the limb is advanced from the aiming position toward the food. As the paw approaches the food, pronation of the palm is accomplished by abduction of the upper arm. (4) As the limb is retracted, the digits are closed to grasp the food. As retraction ends, the paw is supinated by a rotatory movement at the wrist. This is the only distal rotatory movement. (5) The position taken by the second forelimb, as it is adducted to aid in holding the food pellet for eating, resembles the ‘aiming’ posture. The results are discussed in reference to the kinematics, neural control, and the evolutionary origins of reaching in the rat and other animals. Additionally, the results provide a framework for analysis of changes in movements produced by physiological manipulations.

Observations

A basic assumption of the behavioral sciences is that there exists a direct, self-evident relationship between the behavioral categories, or types, used to describe behavior and how the organism actually behaves. This assumption is challenged. It appears that behavioral types are typically created a priori, either with an eye to convenience of measurement or on the basis of anthropomorphic or intuitive inferences. Furthermore, it appears that human observers do not record behavioral types accurately or consistently. The elementary units, or tokens, of behavior are not recorded and, therefore, play no explicit role in the creation of the types used to describe behavior. It is suggested that behavior be described explicitly through the use of formal notation systems. This suggestion is supported by a review of studies that have used such systems to reveal striking new insights into the organization of behavior. Of these systems, Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation appears exceptionally powerful for extracting invariant features of behavior. We suggest that the adoption of such methods will lead to behavioral taxonomies that are both ecologically and neurologically valid.

Symmetry and notation: Regularity and symmetry in notated computer graphics

A comprehensive cognitive method for dealing with shapes and their formal organisation in visual art is derived from the model of movement which finds its expression in Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation. In this application, shapes are conceived as being swept out by movements which are analysed and recorded in the notation. This method is quantitative and ideally suited for computer input, while the computer is ideally suited for carrying out in detail and with precision the instructions compactly expressed in the symbol code of the notation. Using computer and notation together, regularities and symmetries can be observed in displayed shapes or sequences of shapes, and in their notation; some of these exemplify static symmetry, others dynamic symmetry, and others again, combinations of assymmetry in individual shapes together with symmetry among variants of the motif, related through the (symmetrical) structure of the process from which they arise. Families of transformations of a motif can be generated, which possess a unity that may be intuitively perceptible and will always be objectively verifiable.