In: Neuroscience, 2015, vol. 303, p. 535–543
Non-physical balance training has demonstrated to be efficient to improve postural control in young people. However, little is known about the potential to increase corticospinal excitability by mental simulation in lower leg muscles. Mental simulation of isolated, voluntary contractions of limb muscles increase corticospinal excitability but more automated tasks like walking seem to have no or...
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In: The Spine Journal, 2015, vol. 15, no. 3, p. 514–521
Background: context People with neck pain display a diminished joint position sense and disturbed postural control, which is thought to be a result of impaired somatosensory afferent activity and/or integration. Afferent processing can be artificially manipulated by vibration and was shown to reduce motor performance in healthy subjects. However, the effect of vibration on sensorimotor function...
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In: Acta Physiologica, 2014, vol. 212, no. 3, p. 214–225
Aim: It is accepted that leg stiffness (Kleg) increases when surface stiffness decreases, and vice versa. However, little is known how the central nervous system fulfils this task. To understand the effect of surface stiffness on the neural control of stretch-shortening cycle movements, this study aimed to compare modulation of spinal and corticospinal excitability at distinct phases after ground...
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In: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 2014, vol. 6, p. 126
Background: Although recent studies point to the involvement of the primary motor cortex in postural control, it is unknown if age-related deterioration of postural control is associated with changes in motor cortical circuits. We examined the interaction between age and sensory condition in the excitability of intracortical motor pathways as indexed by short-interval intracortical inhibition...
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In: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 2014, vol. 6, p. 28
Classical studies in animal preparations suggest a strong role for spinal control of posture. In humans it is now established that the cerebral cortex contributes to postural control of unperturbed and perturbed standing. The age-related degeneration and accompanying functional changes in the brain, reported so far mainly in conjunction with simple manual motor tasks, may also affect the...
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In: Experimental Brain Research, 2013, p. -
It is well established that the presence of external feedback, also termed augmented feedback, can be used to improve performance of a motor task. The present study aimed to elucidate whether differential interpretation of the external feedback signal influences the time to task failure of a sustained submaximal contraction and modulates motor cortical activity. In Experiment 1, subjects had to...
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In: PLoS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, no. 9, p. e44496
Part of the sensory information is processed by our central nervous system without conscious perception. Subconscious processing has been shown to be capable of triggering motor reactions. In the present study, we asked the question whether visual information, which is not consciously perceived, could influence decision-making in a choice reaction task. Ten healthy subjects (28±5 years) executed...
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In: Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 2012, vol. 40, no. 2, p. 106–115
How can the human central nervous system (CNS) control complex jumping movements task- and context-specifically? This review highlights the complex interaction of multiple hierarchical levels of the CNS, which work together to enable stretch-shortening cycle contractions composed of activity resulting from feedforward (preprogrammed) and feedback (reflex) loops.
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In: PLoS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, no. 3, p. e32433
The present study aimed to elucidate whether the type of feedback influences the performance and the motor cortical activity when executing identical visuomotor tasks. For this purpose, time to task failure was measured during position- and force-controlled muscular contractions. Subjects received either visual feedback about the force produced by pressing a force transducer or about the actual...
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In: Journal of Applied Physiology, 2009///doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00301.2009
During experiments involving ischemic nerve block we noticed that the short latency response (SLR) of evoked stretches in m. soleus decreased immediately following inflation of a pneumatic cuff surrounding the lower leg. The present study aimed to investigate this short-term effect of pressure application in more detail. 58 healthy subjects were divided into 7 protocols. Unilateral stretches were...
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