Successive Movements Research Articles

Computer Content Analysis of Melodic Structure: Classical Composers and Their Compositions

The computerised content analysis of musical structure can reveal a great deal about the psychology of musical aesthetics and creativity. This is shown in a series of studies on 15,618 themes by 479 classical composers. Computer assessments of a composition's originality are associated with: (a) temporal changes across time, whether in the successive movements of a large composition, different stages of a composer's career, or alterations of the prevalent stylistic zeitgeist in Western music; (b) dramatic events and situations in the composer's life; and (c) the aesthetic importance, listener accessibility, and ultimate popularity of the compositions produced. Notwithstanding the apparent simplicity of the measure, the computer can still infer many important factors that affect the creation and evaluation of musical compositions.

Studies in the commedia dell'arte

The original dell'arte in late sixteenth-century Italy was performed by traveling players who improvised their plays around a basic plot or scenario. The best known characters were the comic servants like Harlequin Pierrot who have become almost household names. The dell'arte players soon moved to other European countries, the genre was transformed in the process, particularly in France. Over the centuries the has been adapted to suit the needs of successive cultural movements, has become a symbolic theme not only in drama, but also in other branches of literature, as well as in art music. This book examines manifestations of the commedia dell'arte Shakespeare to Dario Fo. The emphasis is on the variety richness of the commedia, and includes discussion of music poetry as well as drama, popular culture the avant garde. Another feature of the book is its comprehensive integrated coverage of the cross-cultural nature of the commedia: it draws together a collection of experts in major European Languages literatures (including Latin American literature) provides a new angle for discussion of a phenomenon until now covered mainly from the viewpoint of the drama historian.

Asking the Right Question

Marianne Constable's essay, “Genealogy and Jurisprudence,” brings the intellectual history of the law and society field within the framework of Nietzsche's six-stage history of metaphysics. Reorganized within that framework, the work of particular law and society scholars is seen to represent stages of thought about the relationship between the world of appearances described in empirical research and the possibilities for human action. Successive movements among law and society scholars pass, like Nietzsche's history of metaphysics, through stages of “error” (positivism, empiricism, critical legal studies, interpretive studies, constitutive theory), moving closer to complete acceptance of the view that action need not follow either legal rules or empirically described patterns and, thus, can be free.

Asking the Right Question: [Commentary

Marianne Constable's essay, Genealogy and Jurisprudence,' brings the intellectual history of the law and society field within the framework of Nietzsche's six-stage history of metaphysics. Reorganized within that framework, the work of particular law and society scholars is seen to represent stages of thought about the relationship between the of appearances described in empirical research and the possibilities for human action. Successive movements among law and society scholars pass, like Nietzsche's history of metaphysics, through stages of error (positivism, empiricism, critical legal studies, interpretive studies, constitutive theory), moving closer to complete acceptance of the view that action need not follow either legal rules or empirically described patterns and, thus, can be free. Constable's essay advances what is now a long line of commentary questioning the role of empirical research in the law and society field. Her essay, more clearly than many recent contributions to this literature, surely asks whether empirical research now has any place in studies of law and society.2 She argues: The first five stages of Nietzsche's history can be taken to sketch the way in which jurisprudence, like metaphysics, has, through reason, long sought its foundations in the truths residing in a 'real world' . . . outside of, beyond ..., and even in opposition to, 'life' in this world (p. 555). She describes what she perceives as the progressive dethroning of reason in law and society studies. First, reasoned ideals were

Dipole tracing of monkey somatosensory evoked potentials

Current source generators (dipoles) of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in response to electrical stimulation of the median nerve in anesthetized monkeys were localized by the dipole tracing method (DT) which can approximate surface potential distributions to an equivalent dipole. The locations and latencies of dipoles estimated by DT were confirmed by recording multiple unit activities from the parietal cortices of the same monkeys investigated by DT. Loci of generators for each SEP component were: P10 and N10, area 3b; P12, areas 1 and 2; P18, area 5. The results indicate that DT could trace the successive movement of generators of SEPs from the primary somatosensory area to area 5, which has been suggested in neuroanatomical studies to be part of the hierarchical sequence of somatosensory processes.

Identité et migration : l’exemple d’une communauté grecque en France

As regards a specific area, the article raises the question of the criterias, the strategies and what is at stake for the ethnieal auto-determination of an emigrated population. This population, about whieh the article clearly demonstrates that it constitutes a community, established itself since the First World War in the French Isere region through two important successive movements – (1916 - 1926) and (1950 - 1970) –on the occasion of a man’s urbanisation project, A. Grammont, influenced by the 19th century utopian building ideology. The text, which presents the results of a long field research carried out in the beginning of the 80s, concerns the reasons for this population’s quite unpredictable ethnie choice. its « founding myths » of positive positioning, and the contrasted manipulation of an institution that the group established : the church. The author concludes this analysis by underlining the importance of the rural/ urban cleavage in the origins of emigrants. and mostly by privileging the principle signification of the notion of « diaspora » as being the creative force of a political ethnie group with no ambition of state control

Confined lateral diffusion of membrane receptors as studied by single particle tracking (nanovid microscopy). Effects of calcium-induced differentiation in cultured epithelial cells

The movements of E-cadherin, epidermal growth factor receptor, and transferrin receptor in the plasma membrane of a cultured mouse keratinocyte cell line were studied using both single particle tracking (SPT; nanovid microscopy) and fluorescence photobleaching recovery (FPR). In the SPT technique, the receptor molecules are labeled with 40 nm-phi colloidal gold particles, and their movements are followed by video-enhanced differential interference contrast microscopy at a temporal resolution of 33 ms and at a nanometer-level spatial precision. The trajectories of the receptor molecules obtained by SPT were analyzed by developing a method that is based on the plot of the mean-square displacement against time. Four characteristic types of motion were observed: (a) stationary mode, in which the microscopic diffusion coefficient is less than 4.6 x 10(-12) cm2/s; (b) simple Brownian diffusion mode; (c) directed diffusion mode, in which unidirectional movements are superimposed on random motion; and (d) confined diffusion mode, in which particles undergoing Brownian diffusion (microscopic diffusion coefficient between 4.6 x 10(-12) and 1 x 10(-9) cm2/s) are confined within a limited area, probably by the membrane-associated cytoskeleton network. Comparison of these data obtained by SPT with those obtained by FPR suggests that the plasma membrane is compartmentalized into many small domains 300-600 nm in diameter (0.04-0.24 microns2 in area), in which receptor molecules are confined in the time scale of 3-30 s, and that the long-range diffusion observed by FPR can occur by successive movements of the receptors to adjacent compartments. Calcium-induced differentiation decreases the sum of the percentages of molecules in the directed diffusion and the stationary modes outside of the cell-cell contact regions on the cell surface (which is proposed to be the percentage of E-cadherin bound to the cytoskeleton/membrane-skeleton), from approximately 60% to 8% (low- and high-calcium mediums, respectively).

Rate of imagery processing in two versus three dimensions

A series of five experiments was conducted to test the optimal speed for performing two- and three-dimensional imagery tasks. Subjects were required to keep track of the location of a pathway in an imagined matrix, as the directions of its successive movements were described verbally. Matrices varied in size and in number of spatial dimensions, with two-dimensional matrices drawn on cardboard and three-dimensional ones built from wooden blocks. When subjects were able to dictate the rate of presentation of the terms describing the pathway, they preferred slower rates for three-dimensional than for two-dimensional stimuli. In subsequent experiments, very fast presentation rates had a larger detrimental effect on performance with three-dimensional matrices than with two-dimensional matrices. A comparison of the patterns of performance for subjects who generally scored high with the patterns for those who scored low showed a stronger effect of dimensionality for poor performers, suggesting that individual differences mediate performance on the task.

Feeding Performance And Muscular Constraints In Fish

ABSTRACT Analysis of the feeding kinematics of Astatotilapia (a small cichlid fish) suggests the presence of peripheral feedback modulation of the motor pattern, allowing the act of suction to be abbreviated. In this way, the effort spent in suction is minimized. The biological significance of the development of such a modulating feedback system is not immediately obvious from a ‘classical ecological’ point of view. It is postulated that the muscular metabolism itself might constrain the short, transient and strenuous motor output typical of suction feeding. Thus, reducing the suction effort makes sense when successive strenuous head-part movements are immediately required for additional suction, buccal transport or spitting. This hypothesis was tested by in vivo electrical stimulation of muscles important in feeding: the epaxials, which lift the skull and expand the buccal cavity. Reliable stimulation variables for the epaxial muscles were determined from preliminary stimulation experiments and from electromyographic recordings of these muscles in a specimen feeding on crickets. Stimulation trains of variable duration (<150ms) were applied in series of five trains. The intervals between trains were variable as well (<1s). The mechanical output was measured by means of an accelerometer, a force transducer or a magnetoresistive displacement transducer. In the latter case, the time course of the mechanical output could be recorded and analysed. The hypothesis predicts a decrease in the muscular output with increasing effort (long trains) and fast repetition (short intervals). The experimental results show the expected decline in mechanical output from one stimulation train to the next when longer stimulation bursts are imposed in quick succession. Statistical analyses (multiple regression) showed that train length, train rate and train number contribute significantly to the observed variation in mechanical output, supporting the hypothesis. Explanations for the phenomena are discussed.

Intermittency in human manual tracking tasks.

We confirm Craik's (1947) observation that the human manual1y tracking a visual target behaves like an intermittent servo-control1er. Such tracking responses are indicative of "sampled" negative-feedback control but could be the result of other, continuous, mechanisms. Tracking performance therefore was recorded in a task in which visual feedback of the position of the hand-held joystick could be eliminated. Depriving the subjects of visual feedback led to smoother tracking and greatly reduced the signal power of their responses between 0.5-1.8 Hz. Their responses remained intermittent when they used feedback of their own position but not of the target to track a remembered (virtual) target. Hence, intermittency in tracking behavior is not exclusively a signature of visual feedback control but also may be a sign of feedback to memorized waveforms. Craik's (1947) suggestion that the intermittency is due to a refractory period following each movement was also tested. The errors measured at the start of each intermittent response, during tracking of slow waveforms, showed evidence of a small error deadzone (measuring 0.7 cm on the VDU screen or 0.80 degrees at the eye). At higher target speeds, however, the mean size of starting errors increased, and the upper boundary of the distribution of starting error was close to that expected of a refractory delay of approximately 170 ms between responses. We consider a model of the control system that can fit these results by incorporating an error deadzone within a feedback control loop. We therefore propose that the initiation of intermittent tracking responses may be limited by a positional error deadzone and that evidence for a refractory period between successive corrective movements can be satisfied without evoking an explicit timing or sampling mechanism.

Ideal observer for discrimination of the global direction of dynamic random-dot stimuli.

Random-dot cinematograms in which each dot's successive movements are randomly drawn from a Gaussian distribution of directions can produce a percept of global coherent motion in a single direction. Discrimination of global direction was measured for various exposure durations, stimulus areas, and dot densities and bandwidths of the distribution of directions. Increasing the duration produced a greater improvement in performance than did increasing either the area or the density. Performance decreased as the distribution bandwidth increased. An ideal-observer model was developed, and the absolute efficiency for human direction discrimination was evaluated. Efficiencies were highest at large distribution bandwidths, with average efficiencies reaching 35%. A local-global noise model of direction discrimination, based on the ideal-observer model, containing a spatial and temporal integration limit as well as internal noise, was found to fit the human data well. The utility of ideal-observer analyses for psychophysical tasks and the interpretation of efficiencies is discussed.

A model of human sleep homeostasis based on EEG slow-wave activity: Quantitative comparison of data and simulations

EEG slow-wave activity (SWA; spectral power in the 0.75–4.5 Hz band) is a function of the duration of prior waking and, thereby, an indicator of sleep homeostasis. We present a model that accounts for both the declining trend of SWA during sleep and for its variation within the successive nonrapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep episodes. The values of the model parameters were estimated by an optimization procedure in which empirical SWA of baseline nights (16 subjects, 26 nights) served as a reference. A sensitivity analysis revealed the model to be quite robust to small changes (±5%) of the parameter values. The estimated parameter values were used to simulate data sets from three different experimental protocols (sleep in the evening or sleep in the morning after prolonged waking, or extended sleep initiated at the habitual bedtime; n = 8 or 9). The timing of the REM trigger parameter was derived from the empirical data. A close fit was obtained between the simulated and empirical SWA data, and even the occasional late SWA peaks during extended sleep could be reproduced. Minor discrepancies suggest indirect or direct circadian influences on SWA. The simulations demonstrate that the concept of sleep homeostasis as proposed in the two-process model of sleep regulation can be refined to account in quantitative terms for empirical data and to predict the changes induced by the prolongation of waking or sleep.

Systematic bias in successive movement repetitions.

In three separate studies, independent groups of subjects made either 10 subjectively defined steps of the same length, 10 subjectively defined linear arm movements of the same extent, or 10 successive movements of a single experimenter defined linear arm movement. In each case, the repetitions of these movements became increasingly longer. This is an initial report of what may be a ubiquitous phenomenon.

“Compensatory shortening” in monosyllables of spoken English

Many durational patterns for segments look like compensations to maintain a more constant interval duration at a higher level of prosodic organization. For example, vowel duration is shorter when the number of consonants in the syllable coda is increased. The origins of this pattern and of a similar pattern of coda shortening after longer vowels are examined. Vowel height and coda composition (singleton vs. cluster) were varied. The acoustic durations of the vowels and consonants and the kinematics of the accompanying jaw movements were measured. All three subjects showed a decrease in the acoustic duration of the vowel in the presence of a following cluster; two of the three subjects showed a decrease in the duration of the syllable coda when following a longer vowel. Kinematic evidence suggested the possibility that, in part, these patterns were produced by gestural overlap between the consonants and vowels; that is, successive movements overlap in time and are blended to produce a single output.

Sequential arm movements in patients with Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and dystonia.

We studied the performance of sequential arm movements in 14 patients with Parkinson's disease, nine patients with Huntington's disease and seven patients with arm dystonia. The results were compared with those from normal subjects. Subjects had to perform each movement of the sequence as fast as possible, stopping as briefly as possible between two successive movements. In one set of experiments, patients with Parkinson's disease drew four different geometrical patterns in a counter-clockwise direction. The patterns consisted of two, three, four and five segments of identical length. In a second set, the subjects drew a pentagon in a counter-clockwise and a clockwise direction and each side of the pentagon singly in a counter-clockwise direction. All three groups of patients were slow in executing movements and in switching from one movement to the next. Only patients with Parkinson's disease took longer to perform the segments at the end of a sequence. In other words, their movement times lengthened progressively as the sequence progressed. This phenomenon could still be recognized when the direction and position of the segments were changed (pentagon drawn in the counter-clockwise and the clockwise direction) and when the extra-time needed, mainly due to the sequential nature of the task, was considered by computing the differences between movement times obtained during drawing of the pentagon and those obtained when each segment was traced singly. This study demonstrates that sequential movements are abnormal in Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and dystonia and that in the performance of long motor sequences, the deficit in sequencing movements is exacerbated only in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Performance of repetitive wrist movements in Parkinson's disease.

The timing of repetitive alternating 80 degrees flexion-extension movements of the right wrist was studied in 42 patients with Parkinson's disease, tested while not receiving dompaminergic medication and 20 age- and sex-matched controls. Five rates of movement (0.5 Hz, 1 Hz, 1.5 Hz, 2 Hz, 2.5 Hz) were examined. The interval between two successive flexion movements, as measured from the electromyography (EMG) records was taken as the unit of analysis or inter-response interval (IRI). At 0.5 Hz, 1 Hz and 1.5 Hz there were no differences between groups in mean IRIs. At higher rates of movement (2 Hz and 2.5 Hz), however, the controls were significantly more accurate in timing of repetitive movements than the patients. At all five frequencies, the patients with moderate or severe Parkinson's disease were less accurate in timing of repetitive movements than those with mild disease, although the differences were not significant. In nine patients tested in the 'on' and 'off' medication states, administration of 250 mg of levodopa/carbidopa resulted in significantly more accurate timing of repetitive movements. Wing and Kristofferson's (1973b) two-process model of repetitive movements was applied to the IRI data. At various rates of movement, the primary prediction of the model that lag 1 autocorrelations should be in the 0 to -0.5 range was violated in 40-70% of the patient and controls. For those subjects who had lag 1 autocorrelations in the expected range, IRI variability was to break down into a timekeeper and a motor delay variance. At all frequencies, the patients had significantly higher variance for IRI, timekeeper and motor delay than the controls. Although not significant, more severe Parkinson's disease was associated with greater IRI, timekeeper and motor delay variance, while administration of levodopa resulted in reduction of the three types of variance. The validity of the Wing and Kristofferson model for the analysis of this type of movement is discussed.

A method for quantification of jaw movements suitable for use on free-ranging cattle

A data-logging system for the simultaneous measurement of the J-J interval (the interval between two successive jaw movements), the number of jaw movements and the number of pauses between jaw movements longer than 3 s was developed and tested in free-ranging cattle. The system, which consists of a transducer, a pulse generator and three heart rate memory units, is light-weight, compact, and carried on the halter of the animal. The transducer (a silicone tube filled with carbon granules) was fixed at the side of the lower jaw. The pulse generator converted changes in the electrical resistance of the transducer to two kinds of pulse signals: (1) jaw movements and (2) pauses between jaw movements longer than 3 s. The pulse signals were fed into three heart rate memory units, thus allowing J-J intervals, jaw movements and pauses between jaw movements longer than 3 s to be measured simultaneously. Grazing and rumination could be distinguished by a combination of the number of jaw movements and pauses between jaw movements longer than 3 s. The J-J intervals during grazing represent biting and chewing rhythms. The J-J intervals during rumination represent chewing rhythms and the pauses in jaw movement between swallowing of a bolus and regurgitation of the next bolus. The J-J intervals were more regular during rumination than during grazing. The present data-logging system should provide a further useful means for analyzing grazing and rumination in free-ranging cattle.

Speech-related body movement in aphasia: Period analysis of upper arms and head movement

The effects of aphasia on coverbal body movement have important implications for the understanding of both normal and pathological speech processes. The related findings were often inconsistent, partly due to inherent methodological difficulties which could be reduced by the use of advanced techniques of movement monitoring ( Hadar, 1991). The present study employed a new computerized system, CODA-3, which locates small prismatic markers and computes by triangulation their three-dimensional position at 100 Hz. Movement of the head and the upper arms was monitored in 15 aphasic and normal subjects engaged in speech during a naturalistic interview. Movement analysis was based on automatized identification of successive movement extrema (“period analysis”) and the computation of amplitude, duration, and velocity of each period. The results showed higher incidence and amplitude of all body movement in the aphasic population. Fluent aphasics showed this particularly with “symbolic,” content-bearing movements, while nonfluent aphasics were higher than controls in both symbolic and “motor” (simple and small) movements. No deficit in the internal organization of movement was seen in the aphasic population. These results indicate that aphasics increase their coverbal movement in compensation for their speech impairment: fluent aphasics compensate primarily for a symbolic impairment, while nonfluent aphasics compensate more for a motor impairment.

Body movement during speech: Period analysis of upper arms and head movement

The study of speech-related (‘coverbal’) body movement may potentially facilitate the understanding of language processing and speech control, but has suffered from difficult methodological problems, primarily of a technical nature. To resolve these, the present study employed a new computerised system, CODA-3, which locates small prismatic markers and computes by triangulation their 3-D position at 100 Hz. It was used to monitor movement of the head and the upper arms of 10 subjects engaged in speech during a naturalistic interview. Movement analysis was based on automatised identification of successive movement extrema (‘period analysis’) and the computation of amplitude, duration and velocity of each period. The results showed systematic velocity differences between postural sway and voluntary movement. Head movement was substantially more frequent than upper arm movement, and the dominant arm moved more than the non-dominant arm. Head, but not arm, movement correlated significantly, with speech rate. Duration of movement was stable across subjects and classified into 4 kinematic classes, as in Hader et al. (1983a). Implications are discussed for speech productive functions of body movement, their dissociation between the head and the arms, and their locus of control.

Acute Deprivation of the Terminal 3.5 Hours of Sleep Does Not Increase Delta (0–3-Hz) Electroencephalograms in Recovery Sleep

Sleep electroencephalograms (EEG) and electrooculograms were recorded in nine young adult males on a baseline night, a night in which they were deprived of an average of 3 hr 27 min of sleep by early awakening, and on a recovery night. Records were analyzed by visual sleep stage scoring and period-amplitude analysis; the results of both were tabulated by successive nonrapid eye movement periods (NREMPs) and rapid eye movement (REM) periods. Neither visually scored delta nor REM measures were affected by this substitution of waking for sleep. Although there was a significant increase in the 0-3-Hz time/epoch on the recovery night, this finding was not confirmed in the accompanying report. These results, taken in association with data from previous studies, are consistent with the hypothesis that, in an acute experiment, visually scored delta and computer-measured 0-3-Hz EEGs increase above the baseline levels only if there has been loss of stage 3/4 EEG (or of sleep) from the first two NREMPs. The findings here are inconsistent with older reports and indicate that further parametric data are required to construct a quantitative model of the relation of sleep EEG waveforms to the duration of prior waking.