Touch Duration Research Articles

Complications and Revisions for Adduction Arytenopexy, Medialization Laryngoplasty, and Cricothyroid Subluxation over 19 Years

ObjectiveTo report the long-term data of the Triple procedure (medialization laryngoplasty, adduction arytenopexy, and cricothyroid subluxation) regarding complications and revisions in a large cohort of patients. Study DesignRetrospective case series MethodsThis study included patients who underwent ≥1 components of the Triple procedure between January 2000 and July 2019. Demographic data, etiology of paralysis, duration of follow-up, complications, revision surgeries and touch up injections were noted from retrospective chart review. ResultsOf the 222 patients who underwent ≥1 of the Triple procedure components, 86 underwent medialization laryngoplasty alone and were excluded from the study. The remaining 136 underwent ≥1 components of the Triple procedure other than medialization laryngoplasty alone. The overall surgical complication rate was 7.3% (10/136) and no intraoperative complications were noted. Of the 10 complications, 4 were implant extrusions, 4 were hematoma, and 2 were rupture of the arytenoid fixation suture. In all, 20 of the 136 cases subsequently required revision surgery (14.7%) at a mean of 57.3 months after the initial surgery. ConclusionThe present findings show that the Triple procedure, or its subcomponents, can be performed with few complications and acceptable revision rates.

Gender differences in duration and location of erotic touch in mainstream heterosexual pornography

Watching mainstream porn today is a main source for men and women to learn how to behave sexually, including how to erotically stimulate one another. To date, research into the content analysis of pornography has been limited to the measurement of the frequency or prevalence of sexual behaviours or themes. In contrast, little is known regarding porn presentation of the specific location and duration of touch, vital for orgasm, pleasure, and sexual satisfaction for both women and men. Eighty “most-viewed” video clips were selected from two popular porn sites and coded for the gender of toucher/receiver, location, and duration in seconds of erotic touch. Results showed that women received significantly less genital stimulation than men overall, with this difference drastically increasing with non-penetrative erotic touch. The men in these videos received stimulation to their main sexual organ (penis) 10 times more than women received on their most sensitive sexual organ (clitoris), and the women were found to do the majority of non-reciprocal genital touch. While accurate information is widely available regarding competent erotic touch necessary for pleasure and orgasm, unbalanced and inadequate touching is still strongly represented in popular heterosexual pornography. This study elucidates how popular, freely accessible pornography is normalizing beliefs that men’s sexual touch and pleasure are primary and that clitoral stimulation is not a priority for women’s pleasure. Implications for how these normative aspects of sexual stimulation that may be leading to difficulties in sexual pleasure, orgasm, and satisfaction are discussed.

An engineered glove to follow finger function in rheumatoid arthritis: an observational prospective study

The engineered Hand Test System (HTS) glove has shown high reliability in assessing the baseline functional status of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) hand. Starting from this achievement, the aim of the present observational prospective study was to assess the functionality of the single fingers of rheumatoid hand at follow-up. Eighty RA patients performed HTS glove tests at baseline and among these fifty-six patients were re-tested after 7 months. The HTS glove parameters [Touch Duration (TD), Movement Rate (MR), Inter Tapping Interval (ITI)] were correlated with disease activity and disability clinimetric indexes [Disease Activity Score 28 joint count—C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP), Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI), Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI), Health Assessment Questionnaire—Disability Index (HAQ-DI), grip strength, visual analogue scale of pain (VAS), patient global assessment (PGA)], and with laboratory values. HTS glove parameters (TD, ITI, and MR) showed statistically significant correlations with clinimetric and clinical indexes at both time points (p < 0.05). During follow-up, a statistically significant variation of all HTS glove parameters for the fingers that have performed both the worst or best HTS test at baseline was detected (p < 0.05), while the mean HTS glove parameter values by considering all fingers did not show a statistically significant variation over time, as well as the traditional clinimetric indexes. Besides the objective role in assessing the RA hand function by integrating the traditional clinimetric indexes, the HTS glove seems a useful tool for evaluating worst or best finger function during time by measuring the movement speed.

Older Adults Disproportionately Hindered by Touch Screen Interfaces in Driving Tasks

Touch screens have become increasingly used for many personal technologies. However, older adults have trouble using touch screen interfaces. The general assumption is that older adults struggle with touch screen devices because they are unfamiliar with the technology and that with practice, they will become proficient. This study provides evidential support of a probable physiological barrier contributing to some older adults’ touch screen difficulties. In our study, participants (7 older adults, 10 younger adults) had to press a touch screen button to get information while driving. Older adults disproportionately failed attempts to hit this button. Video analysis showed that even when older adults hit the target button correctly while driving with an appropriate amount of force and duration of touch, the screen sometimes failed to register their command. This suggests that a minimally documented but present age-related physiological reason likely contributes to older adults’ reduced ability to successfully interact with touch screens.

Task performance with touchscreen interfaces under conditions of head-down tilt bed rest

The application of touchscreen-based interfaces in space travel has become increasingly common. As space travel greatly depends on efficient human performance, understanding how conditions during space missions affect performance is crucial. Prior research has demonstrated the adverse effects of microgravity in various performance tasks. While these effects have been studied in tasks involving non-interactive objects or “conventional” input modalities, few studies have examined how these findings transfer to touchscreen-based interfaces. The present study investigated changes in performance with a touchscreen-based interface under head-down tilt bed rest conditions (HDT). 24 participants performed multidirectional tapping tasks in a 60-day HDT study (− 6° head-down tilt position) at six subsequent points in time: 12 days prior to HDT, at 5, 21, and 56 days in HDT, and 4 and 90 days following HDT. Results show that the relationship between Movement Time and task difficulty expressed by Fitts’ law remains stable in HDT conditions. Moreover, analyses revealed elevated Error Rate and Touch Duration during HDT compared to baseline. Improvements in Throughput and Movement Time can be most likely attributed to practice effects. Future research directions motivated by the study results are discussed.

Stroking trajectory shapes velocity effects on pleasantness and other touch percepts.

Research has identified an inverted u-shaped relationship between the pleasantness of arm stroking and stroking velocity. However, the generalizability of this relationship is questionable as much of the work relied on the rotary tactile stimulator (RTS), which strokes skin with force varying along an arc and confounds stimulus velocity with duration. We explored how these parameters shape the subjective evaluation of touch. In Study 1, one group of participants was stroked by the RTS, while two other groups were stroked by a new robot capable of different stroking trajectories. Participants were stroked at five velocities and rated pleasantness, humanness, intensity, and roughness. In Study 2, participants were stroked by the new robot imitating the trajectory of the RTS exactly, imitating it while controlling stimulus duration, or moving linearly or ovally with both constant force and duration. Participants rated pleasantness and humanness. Although stroke velocity was related to both pleasantness and humanness in an inverted u-shaped manner, stimulus trajectory modulated this relationship and the association between velocity and the other ratings. Together, our results clearly link stroking velocity to the perception of touch but highlight that this relationship is shaped by other physical parameters including touch duration and spatial pattern. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Active tactile discrimination is coupled with and modulated by the cardiac cycle.

Perception and cognition are modulated by the phase of the cardiac signal in which the stimuli are presented. This has been shown by locking the presentation of stimuli to distinct cardiac phases. However, in everyday life sensory information is not presented in this passive and phase-locked manner, instead we actively move and control our sensors to perceive the world. Whether active sensing is coupled and modulated with the cardiac cycle remains largely unknown. Here, we recorded the electrocardiograms of human participants while they actively performed a tactile grating orientation task. We show that the duration of subjects' touch varied as a function of the cardiac phase in which they initiated it. Touches initiated in the systole phase were held for longer periods of time than touches initiated in the diastole phase. This effect was most pronounced when elongating the duration of the touches to sense the most difficult gratings. Conversely, while touches in the control condition were coupled to the cardiac cycle, their length did not vary as a function of the phase in which these were initiated. Our results reveal that we actively spend more time sensing during systole periods, the cardiac phase associated with lower perceptual sensitivity (vs. diastole). In line with interoceptive inference accounts, these results indicate that we actively adjust the acquisition of sense data to our internal bodily cycles.

Does wearing a surgical mask influence face touching by healthcare workers? A retrospective cohort study.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCW) in our ED were advised against and actively discouraged from wearing masks when not seeing respiratory patients, as mask wearing was thought to increase the risk of droplet transmission by face touching. The primary objective of the present study was to determine whether HCW using face masks were more or less likely to touch their faces than those not wearing masks. We analysed six randomly selected hours of closed circuit television footage from our staff base. Face touches were recorded electronically by trained researchers. Generalised linear mixed models were used to compare the frequency and duration of face touches with and without face masks, controlling for individual clusters, adjusting for time of footage, duration on screen and staff role. Data were collected from 187 HCW. Masks were worn in 231 (36%) of 642 screen sessions. Wearing a mask did not significantly change the odds of face touching (odds ratio 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.30-1.01, P=0.055) or duration of face touch (mean difference -1.45 s, 95% CI -8.84, 5.99, P=0.71). For mucosal areas, a significant reduction in the odds of face touching was observed for mask wearers (odds ratio 0.21, 95% CI 0.11-0.43, P < 0.001) and on the frequency of mucosal touches (rate ratio 0.45, 95% CI 0.29-0.69, P < 0.001). Mask wearing did not change face touching or the duration of face touches. However, significantly fewer mucosal touches were observed when wearing a mask, which may help to reduce nosocomial droplet transmission of viruses.

Engineered glove to evaluate hand disability in rheumatoid arthritis: A pilot-study.

The Hand Test System (HTS) is an engineered-sensorized glove that has been originally developed in the neuroscientific field for the evaluation of hand fingers' speed movement. This pilot-study aimed to evaluate the reproducibility of HTS analysis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), correlating glove-derived parameters with clinical disease activity indexes, self-reported disability-related questionnaires and hand strength. Fifty-five RA patients and fifty age and sex matched healthy controls (HCs) performed HTS analysis. The glove recognized the touch speed between the finger tips during standard sequences of movements, providing three quantitative parameters: touch duration (TD), inter-tapping interval (ITI) and movement rate (MR). These variables were correlated with Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disease Index (HAQ-DI), Hand Disability Index (HDI), Hand Grip Strength (HGS), DAS28-CRP, CDAI and SDAI. Intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.93 (CI: 0.92, 0.95). RA patients showed significantly slower TD, ITI and MR than HCs, for all classes of disease activity (P<0.001). All HTS parameters correlated significantly with HAQ, HAQ-DI, HDI, HGS, DAS28-CRP, SDAI, CDAI (between P<0.05 and P<0.001). Of note, also RA patients in clinical remission showed a significantly higher TD compared with HCs (P<0.001). HTS seems a new safe and fast tool to evaluate rheumatoid hand's functionality, measuring the speed of finger movements. Furthermore, the HTS parameters significantly correlate with quality of life, disease activity, hand strength and perceived hand disability, evaluating also potential hand motor impairment in RA clinical remission.

Age and Sex Variation in the Duration of Action and Corneal Touch Threshold (CTT) following Instillation of 0.5% Topical Ophthalmic Proparacaine and Tetracaine Hydrochlorides.

Purpose We investigated the effect of age and sex on corneal touch threshold (CTT) and duration of action following administration of 0.5% topical ophthalmic proparacaine and tetracaine hydrochlorides. Methods A prospective, randomized, subject-masked, crossover study design was used. Two hundred and forty human volunteers were enrolled in the study. Corneal touch threshold (CTT) was determined using a Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometer. CTT was measured every 15 seconds for the first 1-minute and at 5-minute intervals subsequently for a period of 40 minutes after the application of each anesthetic. CTT and duration of action of the ophthalmic solutions were tested for statistical significance using repeated measures ANOVA. Results The total duration of effect was 20 minutes for females and 25 minutes for males for both anesthetics. The total duration of the effect of both solutions decreased with increasing age; however, elderly participants had the longest duration (5 minutes) of the maximal effect (minimum CTT) of the two ophthalmic preparations. There was a significant influence of sex, F (2.39, 569.65) = 2.86, p=0.04; F (3.48, 828.19) = 4.41, p=0.003, and age, F (4.78, 566.18) = 8.97, p < 0.001; F (7.19, 852.56) = 20.55, p < 0.001 on CTT following application of proparacaine hydrochloride and tetracaine hydrochloride, respectively. Conclusion CTT and duration of anesthetic effect after instillation of 1 drop of 0.5% proparacaine hydrochloride and 0.5% tetracaine hydrochloride vary based on sex and age.

Performance Evaluation and Parameter Optimization of Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) along with Electrocoagulation for Removal of Azithromycin

Antibiotics from hospital discharge wastewater are known to be one of the most significant water contaminants. Environmental researchers suggest the attainment of effective and biological approaches for the elimination of these contaminants. This work aims to study the efficiency of an azithromycin (AZX) removal using moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) combined with electrocoagulation and parameters optimization using a response surface methodology for hospital wastewater (RSM), i.e., MLSS (A), pH (B), HRT (C) and Electrode distance (D). The present research was conducted using PVC gel on a pilot scale for removing a detergent from the wastewater of hospital reactors with continuous hydraulic flux. The impact on the device concentration of independent variables, including duration of touch, percentage of the media, and the concentrations of 1200-3200 mg/l of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS). Closed laboratory procedure for measuring AZX concentration, azithromycin (AZX), and chemical oxygen requirement (COD) 1500-2400 mg/l is used. The findings showed that AZX and COD with PVC gel retention times are 92.3 and 95.8 percent, respectively, of 24 hours, with an MLSS concentration of approximately 3,200 mg/l. It was shown that the MBBR device has great productivity in detergent deletion from hospital waste wastewater as a bio-friendly compatible process and can produce regular performance effluents at an appropriate period. The experiment was performed using an electrochemical process, electrolysis with independently variable electrical electrodes, i.e., voltage, duration of touch, and electrolyte concentration. The complete process was optimized for the said reaction using Design-Expert software. The response surface method was used to optimize the operational parameters and show that a contact period of 35 minutes, voltage 12 V, electrolyte concentration of 0.35 M with electrode distance 1.25 cms gives 89% removal efficiency. The model for the three variables recommended by the response surface is a quadratic response.

Evaluation of Explicit Motor Timing Ability in Young Tennis Players

A crucial ability for athletes playing sports that involve coincidence timing actions is the motor timing ability. The efficiency of perceptual and motor processes underlying the motor timing ability has been related to the motor experience gained in interceptive sports, such as tennis. In the present study, the motor timing ability in young tennis players (TP) and age-matched control participants (CTRL) was compared by means of a synchronization paradigm. Participants were asked to perform finger-opposition movements in synch to a metronome beating 0.5 and 2 Hz in (1) a bimanual coordination test, which compared the performance of the dominant hand with that of the contralateral hand, and (2) a movement lateralization test, which compared the motor performance of the dominant hand during single-hand and bimanual tasks (BTs). The motor performance was evaluated through movement strategy [defined by touch duration (TD), inter-tapping interval (ITI), and movement frequency] and movement accuracy (temporal accuracy defined by the synchronization error and spatial accuracy defined by the percentage of correct touches—%CORR_SEQ). Results showed that motor expertise significantly influences movement strategy in the bimanual coordination test; TD of TP was significantly higher than those of CTRL, specifically at 0.5 Hz. Furthermore, overall ITI values of TP were lower than those of CTRL. Lastly, in the movement lateralization test, the %CORR_SEQ executed with the right dominant hand by TP in the BT was significantly higher than those of CTRL. A discussion about the role of motor expertise in the timing ability and the related neurophysiological adaptations is provided.

POS0583 ENGINEERED GLOVE TO EVALUATE THE SPEED OF THE HANDS’ MOVEMENTS IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Background:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term, progressive, and disabling autoimmune disease1. The disease activity can be quantified by the Disease Activity Score 28-joint count – C reactive protein (DAS28crp)2; the evaluation of disability function (DF) is actually mainly performed only by subjective Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) like Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)3; to investigate the functional aspects of RA hands it is usually used the grip strength (GS)4. However, in the scientific literature no tool, which objectively evaluates movement speed, has been reported. The Hand Test System (HTS, ETT) is an engineered glove (RAGLOVE), nowadays applied for neuroscience studies to evaluate hand motility5Objectives:To objectively evaluate the RA hand’s speed of the fine movements, through the HTS and to compared with a group of age and sex matched healthy controls. To verify the correspondence with the HAQ, DAS28, GS.Methods:55 consecutives RA patients (pts) (6 males, age 61 ± 16 years, mean duration of disease 12 ± 8 years), classified according to 2010 ACR/EULAR criteria6, and 50 matched healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. After consent, all participants undergone HTS test that recognizes the touches between the finger tips during the opposition movements of the hands in standard sequences of movements, after dressed the glove. A multiple finger evaluation (MFE) and a single finger evaluation (SFE) were performed using a dedicated software that provided the physician the following quantitative parameters: Touch Duration (TD), Inter Tapping Interval (ITI) and Movement Rate (MR). Average time for hand 2 minutes. RA pts compiled the HAQ, performed the GS and a DAS28cpr was performed.The student’s t-test was used to compare the glove’s parameters between the groups whereas the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to verify potential differences between the populations. In order to evaluate the single correlations, the r and p values of Pearson were employed.Results:For MFE, glove parameters TD and ITI were significantly higher in RA pts than HCs, whereas; MR was significantly lower in RA pts compared to HCs (all p &lt;0.001).For SFE non-affected fingers (not swollen and not tender) of RA pts performed better than a clinically affected fingers, but in any case significantly worse than average HCs fingers (p &lt; 0.001).There is a statistically significant correlation between the GS and MR (r= 0.39 p=0.003) and TD (r=-0.33 p=0.015).TD, ITI e MR of RA pts showed a significant correlation with the total score of the HAQ (r = 0.56, r = 0.39, r = -0.56, all p &lt; 0.001;). DAS28, considered as a continuous variable, proved to be significantly correlated with the TD (r = 0.36, p = 0.009). When the RA patients were grouped according to the disease activity by DAS28cpr7, there was an increase of one third of the TD’s logarithm for each increase in the activity class (linear regression with ordinal predictors, beta = 0.33; 95%CI 0.03, 0.63,p &lt; 0.0297). Finally, even RA pts in remission showed a TD significantly higher compared with HCs (p= 0.034).Conclusion:The RAGLOVE is shown as a new safe and fast tool to evaluate a new objective parameter in the hand’s functionality: the speed of finger movements. In RA pts, an inversely proportional correlation emerges between the speed of movement and disease activity.The significant correlation found with HAQ, highlights the loss of motility of the hands as one of the main determinant of disability. The RAGLOVE is now tested in RA patients undergoing treatment.

Haptic Responses to Angry and Happy Faces

ABSTRACT The present aim was to investigate if angry, neutral, and happy facial expressions have different effects on haptic responses. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 24) were to respond as fast as they could to images of angry, neutral, and happy faces using a haptic device that measured the amount of applied force in newton units and the duration of touch in milliseconds. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, except that ratings of emotion-related experiences evoked by the stimuli were also collected in terms of valence and arousal. The results from both studies showed that the force of touch in response to angry expressions was significantly stronger than in response to happy expressions. The ratings of valence showed that angry, neutral, and happy faces were experienced statistically significantly different from each other along the dimension of valence. Ratings of arousal showed that angry faces were experienced as significantly more arousing than neutral and happy faces. The results suggest a relationship between the processing of emotion-related facial expressions and haptic response systems. The force of touch could be used as one of the measures conveying information about the user’s state of mind when interacting with haptic user interfaces.

Touching digital objects directly on multi-touch devices fosters learning about visual contents

Multi-touch devices are widely used in our daily lives and the field of education. Users touch the digital objects depicted on these devices directly with their hands and fingers. Prior research indicated that information processing is influenced by the proximity of the hand(s) to the displayed information: particularly visuospatial processing is fostered near the hands. Two experiments investigated this effect of hand proximity for learning about visuospatial information on multi-touch devices. Participants either touched digital objects (pictures of paintings with text labels) on a multi-touch table directly (near hand) or manipulated the objects indirectly by touching placeholders of the objects (far hand; hand proximity). In Experiment 2, additionally, the interaction time with the displayed learning materials (time of contact between hands and objects/placeholders) was analyzed as continuous factor (duration of touch). In both experiments, learning outcomes were measured by recognition performance on the visuospatial and verbal aspects of the presented materials. Results of Experiment 1 showed – as expected – that visuospatial learning was fostered near the hands. Experiment 2 replicated this effect for visuospatial learning, when touch durations were sufficiently long. Hand proximity had no influence on verbal learning in both experiments. The results and implications for designing interactive multi-touch interfaces are discussed.

Deep neural network model of haptic saliency

Haptic exploration usually involves stereotypical systematic movements that are adapted to the task. Here we tested whether exploration movements are also driven by physical stimulus features. We designed haptic stimuli, whose surface relief varied locally in spatial frequency, height, orientation, and anisotropy. In Experiment 1, participants subsequently explored two stimuli in order to decide whether they were same or different. We trained a variational autoencoder to predict the spatial distribution of touch duration from the surface relief of the haptic stimuli. The model successfully predicted where participants touched the stimuli. It could also predict participants’ touch distribution from the stimulus’ surface relief when tested with two new groups of participants, who performed a different task (Exp. 2) or explored different stimuli (Exp. 3). We further generated a large number of virtual surface reliefs (uniformly expressing a certain combination of features) and correlated the model’s responses with stimulus properties to understand the model’s preferences in order to infer which stimulus features were preferentially touched by participants. Our results indicate that haptic exploratory behavior is to some extent driven by the physical features of the stimuli, with e.g. edge-like structures, vertical and horizontal patterns, and rough regions being explored in more detail.

Estimates of intra- and interclass correlation coefficients for rump touches and the number of steps during estrus in postpartum cows

Estrus traits have economic value in dairy production systems and could be incorporated into genetic selection indices. In an effort to further understand selection responses, 2 studies were performed to estimate the intra- and interclass correlation coefficients for estrus traits. Holstein-Friesian cows (n = 1,197; study 1) across 5 pasture-based grazing dairy herds were fitted with a capacitive touch sensing (CTS) device on the rump (FlashMate, Farmshed Labs Limited, Hamilton, New Zealand). The daily number of rump touches were subjected to a peak detection program to objectively identify periods of increased rump touches above baseline (indicative of estrus). The number of times touched and the sum of the touch duration were used to compare farms and estimate the intraclass correlation (repeatability). For study 2, postpartum Holstein (n = 85) and Guernsey (n = 5) cows in a confinement-style dairy were used. Cows were fitted with an IceQube accelerometer (IceRobotics Ltd., Edinburgh, United Kingdom) to measure steps taken per hour and a CTS device was applied to both rumps. The interclass correlation for the number of rump touches and number of steps taken during estrus was calculated. Data collected from 5 herds (study 1) demonstrated a 2- to 3-fold difference between herds in the number of rump touches and total touch time during estrus. The intraclass correlation (repeatability; estimates of maximum heritability) for rump touches during estrus was 0.22. For study 2, the number of steps and the number of rump touches during estrus increased in a synchronous manner. The intraclass correlation (repeatability) for number of steps during estrus was 0.26. The interclass correlation (r) for the number of rump touches and the number of steps was 0.46 (R2 = 0.21). Based on the R2, at least 20% of the variation in the number of steps during estrus was explained by the number of touches to the rump of the cow. Selecting cows for the number of steps taken during estrus could increase the number of rump touches (mounts, chin rests, and so on, received from other cows) if a genetic correlation exists for the phenotypic correlation that we observed.

Modeling the Timing and Duration of Grip Behavior to Express Emotions for a Social Robot

This letter addresses the effects of grip timing to express a robot's emotions to people while they are watching a video stimulus together. Past studies on human-robot touch interaction focused on the types of touch behaviors for expressing a robot's emotion, but timing factors have received less attention. In this letter, we conducted data collection to investigate the appropriate grip timing to express heartwarming and horror emotions. Participants identified touch (grip) timing and durations by using a robot while they are watching video stimuli. Typically, they preferred a grip timing before a climax for horror videos but after a climax for heartwarming videos. We modeled the timing and durations by a fitting approach to probabilistic distribution to reproduce human-like touch behaviors, and also we implemented the models to an android robot.

Consolidation and retention of motor skill after motor imagery training

Complex motor tasks are learned through training which results in lasting improvement in sensorimotor performance and accuracy. Learning a motor skill is commonly attained via physical execution. However, research has shown that cognitive training, such as motor imagery (MI), effectively facilitates skill learning. Neurophysiological findings suggest that learning-induced plasticity in the human motor cortex, subserving consolidation and retention of motor skills, is stronger after movement execution (ME) than after MI training. Here, we designed an experimental task able to test for the fast and slow learning phases and for retention of motor skills for both MI and ME. We hypothesize that differences between MI and ME training would emerge in terms of reduced consolidation and retention of motor skills. Twenty-four young healthy subjects were divided into two groups, performing MI or ME training. Participants wore sensor-engineered gloves and their sensorimotor performance was assessed over a period of 15 days with 4-days training. We analysed the touch duration (TD), the inter-tapping interval (ITI), movement rate and accuracy. Results showed that (i) during the first phase of acquisition of motor skills, sensorimotor performance improved similarly in MI and ME groups; (ii) during the second learning phase movement rate increased more in ME than MI group and this difference was mainly driven by differences in the duration of TD; (iii) consolidation deficits with MI training reflected in impaired retention of the acquired skills, as TD and ITI were larger and movement rate was lower in the MI group with respect to the ME, till to 10 days after the last training session. Explicit component of motor learning, accuracy, was maintained in retention phase in both groups. Following our hypothesis, our findings show that MI training is as effective as ME within the first learning phase, but consolidation and retention of motor skills are less effective following MI training. This study highlights MI limitations and suggests option to enhance MI, as by providing an external sensory feedback.

Construction and investigation of a method for measuring the non-stationary pressure using a wavelet transform

Automated control systems badly need measurements of fast-changing non-stationary physical quantities in real time, or close to that. In this area, there is a separate group of tasks on measuring the non-stationary pressure in liquids and gases. This paper demonstrates that measuring the non-stationary pressure in real time, or close to that, represents a problem on restoring an input signal, which, in terms of mathematics, belongs to the class of ill-posed problems (according to J. Hadamard). We have derived a solution to the inverse problem of measurement that is based on a mathematical model for measuring transformation enabled by a pressure sensor. Based on this solution, we have constructed a measuring method, which implies the wavelet processing of the sensor's output signal. In this case, we suggest that such basic functions of wavelet transformation should be selected that are the modification of the pulse transition function of the sensor. This paper reports an experimental study into the feasibility of the developed method, based on the measurement of the simulated pressure pulse. A pressure pulse is simulated by dropping a ball of the calibrated mass onto the sensor's membrane. We have proposed a measurement scheme for determining the duration of touch between the ball and the membrane. Testing the accuracy of the method implies comparing the actual mass of the ball with that derived from the sensor's output signal. The proposed method has demonstrated high accuracy because the maximum relative error in determining the mass of the falling ball was only 0.65 %. The proposed method for measuring the non-stationary pressure could be used in control systems that require the high-speed dynamic correction of a measurement error. Specifically, these include control system in aerospace engineering, testing complexes, military technology, scientific research