PurposeThis study aimed to investigate whether oxygenated hemoglobin generated during a motor imagery task is associated with the motor learning level of the task.MethodsWe included 16 right-handed healthy participants who were trained to perform a ball rotation task. Hemodynamic brain activity was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy to monitor changes in oxy-Hb concentration during the BR MI task. The experimental protocol used a block design, and measurements were performed three times before and after the initial training of the BR task as (...) well as after the final training. The BR count during training was also measured. Furthermore, subjective vividness of MI was evaluated three times after NIRS measurement using the Visual Analog Scale.ResultsThe results showed that the number of BRs increased significantly with training. VAS scores also improved with training. Furthermore, oxy-Hb concentration and the region of interest showed a main effect. An interaction was confirmed, and it was ascertained that the change in oxy-Hb concentrations due to training was different for each ROI. The most significant predictor of subjective MI vividness was supplementary motor area oxy-Hb concentration.DiscussionHemodynamic brain activity during MI tasks may be correlated with task motor learning levels, since significant changes in oxy-Hb concentrations were observed following initial and final training in the SMA. In particular, hemodynamic brain activity in the SMA was suggested to reflect the MI vividness of participants. (shrink)

The vestibulo-ocular reflex plays an important role in controlling the gaze at a visual target. Although patients with vestibular hypofunction aim to improve their VOR function, some retain dysfunction for a long time. Previous studies have explored the effects of direct current stimulation on vestibular function; however, the effects of random noise stimulation on eye–head coordination have not previously been tested. Therefore, we aimed to clarify the effects of high frequency noisy vestibular stimulation on eye–head coordination related to VOR function. (...) Thirteen healthy young adult participants with no serious disease took part in our study. The current amplitude and density used were 0.4 mA and 0.2 mA/cm2, respectively, with a random noise frequency of 100–640 Hz. The electrodes were located on both mastoid processes. The stimulus duration and fade in/out duration were 600 and 10 s, respectively. Subjects oscillated their head horizontally, gazing at the fixation point, at 1 Hz for 30 repetitions. The coordination of eye–head movements was measured by eye-tracking and a motion capture system. Peak-to-peak angles for eye and head movement and deviation of the visual line from the fixation target revealed no significant differences between HF-nVS and sham. The lag time between the eye and head movement with HF-nVS post-stimulation was significantly shorter than that of the sham. We found that HF-nVS can reduce the lag time between eye and head movement and improve coordination, contributing to a clear retinal image. This technique could be applied as a form of VOR training for patients with vestibular hypofunction. (shrink)

This special 10th anniversary edition of the David Suzuki classic, re-examines our place in the natural world in light of sweeping environmental changes and recent advances in scientific knowledge.

Anticipatory acts or predictive behavior are prerequisites for living organisms to sustain their survival when escaping from a predator, catching prey, or schooling. For example, catching prey requires that the predator perform some procedures that are equivalent to estimating the directional movement of the prey, its speed and its distance relative to the predator. Underlying these procedures is time experience, which does not adhere to man-made mechanical clocks. Living organisms keep time based on the local activities of each participant and (...) form ecological clocks together. The timekeeping of ecological clocks has been called E-series time, which is interactive in character and consists of mutual alignment of timing that is co-adjusted to each other’s movements and rhythms. A main objective of our current work is to illustrate how E-series time is used for flows of anticipatory acts. To explain such predictive moves and their efforts based on how the perspective of the immediate future affects the present, we resort to the organismic activity of revising the preceding acts in retrospect and semiotic scaffolding that extends beyond simple linear causality. Special attention is paid to the construction of the notion of retrocausal scaffolding, which is a series of dialogical punctuations or mutual coordination of rhythms for the joint production of the present moment of now. Retrocausal scaffolding is synonymous with negotiated anticipation, which is a semiotic/communicative account of revising the preceding acts in the present moment. (shrink)

We develop a semiotic scheme of time, in which time precipitates from the repeated succession of punctuating the progressive tense by the perfect tense. The underlying principle is communication among local participants. Time can thus be seen as a meaning-making, semiotic system in which different time codes are delineated, each having its own grammar and timekeeping. The four time codes discussed are the following: the subjective time having tense, the objective time without tense, the static time without timekeeping, and the (...) inter-subjective time of the E-series. Living organisms adopt a time code called the E-series, which emerges through the local synchronization among organisms or parts of organisms. The inter-subjective time is a new theoretical dimension resulting from the time-aligning activities of interacting agents. Such synchronization in natural settings consists of incessant mutual corrections and adjustments to one’s own punctuation, which is then constantly updated. Unlike the third-person observer keeping the objective time while sitting outside a clock, the second-person negotiators participate in forming the E-series time by punctuating and updating the interface through which different tenses meet at the moment of “now.” Although physics allows physicists to be the only interpreters, the semiotic perspective upends the physical perspective by letting local participants be involved in the interpretation of their mutual negotiations to precipitate that which is called time. (shrink)

Space and time, which should properly be taken conjointly, are both communicatively produced and created with certain contextual perspectives—they are not independent physical entities. The standpoint of production makes the relationship between space and time comprehensible. They can either be mental-subjective, physical-objective, or social-intersubjective. Social and intersubjective (or E-series) spacetime might shed new light on biological thinking. For general readers, this paper provides a clue regarding an alternative conceptualization of spacetime based on biology.

Timing adjustment is an important ability for living organisms. Wild animals need to act at the right moment to catch prey or escape a predator. Land plants, although limited in their movement, need to decide the right time to grow and bloom. Humans also need to decide the right moment for social actions. Although scientists can pinpoint the timing of such behaviors by observation, we know extremely little about how living organisms as actors or players decide when to act – (...) such as the exact moment to dash or pounce. The time measurements of an outsider-observer and the insider-participants are utterly different. We explain how such essential operations of timing adjustment and temporal spanning, both of which constitute a single regulated set, can be carried out among organisms. For this purpose, we have to reexamine the ordinary conception of time. Our specific explanatory tools include the natural movement known as the upbeat (anacrusis) in music, a rhythmic push for the downbeat that follows, which predicts future moves as an anticipatory lead-in. The scheme is situated in and is the extension of our formulation of E-series time, i.e., timing co-adjusted through interaction, which is derived from the semiotic/communicative perspectives. We thereby demonstrate that a prediction-based timing system is not mechanical but communicative and entails meanings for future anticipation. (shrink)

世界的ベストセラーの問いかけに私たちはどう答えるのか。分子生物学の黎明期に、初めて人間と生命の神秘にせまったジャック・モノー。その思想を原典から読み解き、40年後のいま、モノーに答える。.

Since sending explicit messages can be costly, people often utilize “what is not said,” i.e., informative silence, to economize communication. This paper studies the efficient communication rule, which is fully informative while minimizing the use of explicit messages, in cooperative environments. It is shown that when the notion of context is defined as the finest mutually self-evident event that contains the current state, the efficient use of informative silence exhibits the defining property of indexicals in natural languages. While the efficient (...) use of silence could be complex, it is also found that the efficient use of silence can be as “simple” as the use of indexicals in natural languages if and only if the information structure satisfies some centrality and dominance properties. (shrink)

In Of Quadrature by Ordinates (1695), Isaac Newton tried two methods for obtaining the Newton–Cotes formulae. The first method is extrapolation and the second one is the method of undetermined coefficients using the quadrature of monomials. The first method provides \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n$$\end{document}-ordinate Newton–Cotes formulae only for cases in which \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n=3,4$$\end{document} and 5. However this method provides another important formulae if the ratios of errors (...) are corrected. It is proved that the second method is correct and provides the Newton–Cotes formulae. Present significance of each of the methods is given. (shrink)

あらゆるものごとを平準化する「デジタル化」の中で、人間の身体・脳・心や社会のしくみがいま大きく変容しつつある。「国民の欲望」の自己統治、新たな共同関係の創出、リスクをめぐる正義の対立の調整、人間観・存 在観の再構築。これらの課題群に対して、健康とエンハンスメント、脳と人格の改造、動物とロボットの境界、リスク言説と研究規制の根拠等を論じながら、システム倫理学の視点から大胆な解法を提示する。.

Space and time have been explained not in terms of physical entities but in terms of practice, that is, based on communication, which includes spacetime code in the A-series, B-series, and E-series. Each code has a unique grammar, and it progresses through boundary operation, i.e., setting the limit and transgressing it, but in each distinct way. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of event matching to elucidate the mechanism of meaning-making through boundary operations. Biological spacetime production (...) is an incessant effort after meaning in the adaptive process, where the dia-metric scale in the E-series necessitates anticipatory (retrocausal) actions in the steps of interaction. This paper suggests that the three terms — event matching, meaning making, and spacetime production — are synonymous with each other in biological worlds. Evidence-based examples are provided to support the arguments. (shrink)

:This paper explores the foundations of the theory of exploitation as the unequal exchange of labour. The key intuitions behind all of the main approaches to UEL exploitation are explicitly analysed as a series of formal axioms in a general economic environment. Then, a single domain condition calledLabour Exploitationis formulated, which summarizes the foundations of UEL exploitation theory, defines the basic domain of all UEL exploitation forms, and identifies the formal and theoretical framework for the analysis of the appropriate definition (...) of exploitation. (shrink)

Previous studies have shown that viewing cute pictures leads to performance improvement in a subsequent fine motor task. We examined the beneficial effects of viewing cute pictures in a more complex sporting skill by comparing three conditions and two tests. The participants, all of whom were college basketball players, performed 16 free throws in each condition. In the no-pressure test, male participants improved performance after viewing pictures of baby animals but not after adult animals and no pictures. In the pressure (...) test, no significant improvement was observed. For female participants, the cuteness-viewing effect was not observed in both tests. The results suggest that viewing cute pictures may improve performance during basketball free throws in a low-pressure situation by narrowing the breadth of attentional focus and inducing approach motivation and caregiving behaviors. (shrink)

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is often effective in the treatment of school refusal (SR). Its usefulness is limited, however, if youth displaying SR also refuse to attend treatment sessions. In these cases parents and school staff may consider using school-based interventions that do not rely on face-to-face assessment and treatment with the young person. The current study examined the effectiveness of a school-based intervention applied in Japan to achieve rapid return to school among adolescents displaying SR. Between 2009 and 2015, (...) the parents of 62 adolescents displaying SR were invited to implement a school-based rapid return approach. Thirty-nine parents agreed to implement the approach and 23 decided to wait until their child spontaneously attended school. Of the 39 cases in which the approach was implemented, 28 adolescents (72%) resumed attendance at their original school, 2 (5%) transferred to another school, and 9 (23%) did not resume attendance. In contrast, all 23 non-intervention cases continued to refuse to attend school for three months or longer, and none of these adolescents returned to regular school attendance within nine months. This study tentatively suggests that the rapid return approach may be an effective form of intervention for adolescents displaying SR and simultaneously refusing to attend individual therapy. Because this approach is ethically complex, involving forced school attendance in adolescence, it should only be employed under specific circumstances. These circumstances are discussed. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In this study, the learning experiences of four elementary school teachers who were basketball coaches were explored. Specifically, the learning experiences gained through observing professional basketball coaches’ sessions were examined by employing van Manen’s hermeneutic-phenomenological approach, which focuses on the thematic analysis of lived experiences. Previous coaching studies that have focused on the professional development of coaches have revealed that observing elite coaching sessions could be a major source of practical coaching knowledge because coaches could learn from experienced coaches. (...) Quantitative studies of this learning effect have revealed that observers learn new coaching methods from a general perspective. However, this study revealed that teachers give specific meaning and value to observed phenomena from the perspective of personal interest based on their coaching or teaching beliefs. This learning was interpreted from a multifaceted perspective, which was evident from their coaching interests and questions. This study disclosed that teachers reflect on their coaching philosophy, methods and attitude. Furthermore, even if teachers generally tend to highlight their coaching methods, this has a qualitatively complex nature because the meaning and value given to coaching methods varied in each teacher’s reflection. The perspective of problem-solving highlighted how to answer their personal questions based on practical coaching problems by observing a coaching session. Discovering the methodological differences between the observation session and the daily coaching session were highlighted. (shrink)

Translation is an act of articulation that takes place in the social topos of difference or incommensurability. The topos of difference, to which translation is a response, is anterior to the conceptual difference of species or particularities. Yet, translation is often represented as a process of establishing equivalence according to the model of communication. This misapprehension of translation derives from the confusion of the act of translation with its representation. By representing translation that is unrepresentable in itself through the schema (...) of co-figuration, the representation of translation inscribes and re-inscribes the twin figures of languages between which a transfer of information is supposed to have taken place. This whole regime organized around the schema of co-figuration is a historical construct of modernity that has worked powerfully to project national/ethnic languages and the international world, only within which national languages are possible. Our task is to historicize this regime of translation. (shrink)

Reflections on Science, technology and nature - the pain of animals - genetics and society - our fragile democracy - dancing on racism's grave; The lesson of Japan - the prostitution of Academia - how educators have failed - the ecosystem as capital - the rape of the Amazon; The future; borrowing from the children - showdown in Brazil - Aboriginal people and the land; Acid rain - rain forests - deforestation - population.

Este texto procura traçar algumas linhas gerais da articulação entre música e ironia (ou audição musical e hermenêutica) no romantismo. Procura-se explorar a apropriação original que Søren Kierkegaard fez das “técnicas” hermenêuticas desenvolvidas por Friedrich Schlegel e Friedrich Schleiermacher.