Reach-to-grasp movements require integrating information on both object location and grip type, but how these elements are planned and to what extent they interact remains unclear. We designed a new experimental paradigm in which monkeys sequentially received reach and grasp cues with delays, requiring them to retain and integrate both cues to grasp the goal object with appropriate hand gestures. Neural activity in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) revealed that reach and grasp were similarly represented yet not independent. Upon receiving the second cue, the PMd continued encoding the first, but over half of the neurons displayed incongruent modulations: enhanced, attenuated, or even reversed. Population-level analysis showed significant changes in encoding structure, forming distinct neural patterns. Leveraging canonical correlation analysis, we identified a shared subspace preserving the initial cue's encoding, contributed by both congruent and incongruent neurons. Together, these findings reveal a novel perspective on the interactive planning of reach and grasp within the PMd, providing insights into potential applications for brain-machine interfaces.
Animals ; Motor Cortex/physiology* ; Hand Strength/physiology* ; Macaca mulatta ; Psychomotor Performance/physiology* ; Neurons/physiology* ; Male ; Cues ; Movement/physiology* ; Gestures

This study aims to address the limitations in gesture recognition caused by the susceptibility of temporal and frequency domain feature extraction from surface electromyography signals, as well as the low recognition rates of conventional classifiers. A novel gesture recognition approach was proposed, which transformed surface electromyography signals into grayscale images and employed convolutional neural networks as classifiers. The method began by segmenting the active portions of the surface electromyography signals using an energy threshold approach. Temporal voltage values were then processed through linear scaling and power transformations to generate grayscale images for convolutional neural network input. Subsequently, a multi-view convolutional neural network model was constructed, utilizing asymmetric convolutional kernels of sizes 1 × n and 3 × n within the same layer to enhance the representation capability of surface electromyography signals. Experimental results showed that the proposed method achieved recognition accuracies of 98.11% for 13 gestures and 98.75% for 12 multi-finger movements, significantly outperforming existing machine learning approaches. The proposed gesture recognition method, based on surface electromyography grayscale images and multi-view convolutional neural networks, demonstrates simplicity and efficiency, substantially improving recognition accuracy and exhibiting strong potential for practical applications.
Electromyography/methods* ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Humans ; Gestures ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Machine Learning ; Pattern Recognition, Automated/methods* ; Algorithms ; Convolutional Neural Networks

Surface electromyography (sEMG) is a weak signal which is non-stationary and non-periodic. The sEMG classification methods based on time domain and frequency domain features have low recognition rate and poor stability. Based on the modeling and analysis of sEMG energy kernel, this paper proposes a new method to recognize human gestures utilizing convolutional neural network (CNN) and phase portrait of sEMG energy kernel. Firstly, the matrix counting method is used to process the sEMG energy kernel phase portrait into a grayscale image. Secondly, the grayscale image is preprocessed by moving average method. Finally, CNN is used to recognize sEMG of gestures. Experiments on gesture sEMG signal data set show that the effectiveness of the recognition framework and the recognition method of CNN combined with the energy kernel phase portrait have obvious advantages in recognition accuracy and computational efficiency over the area extraction methods. The algorithm in this paper provides a new feasible method for sEMG signal modeling analysis and real-time identification.
Algorithms ; Electromyography ; Gestures ; Humans ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

PURPOSE: The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the nature of precocious puberty and to explore what it means in primary schools.METHODS: The participants of this phenomenological study were nine primary school girls who were diagnosed with precocious puberty and experienced hormone therapeutics, applying a convenience sampling method. Data were collected from July 2017 to January 2018 through individual in-depth interviews of the participants, including gestures, facial expressions and nonverbal means. The data analysis followed the method of Giorgi.RESULTS: The study identified 37 concepts, 12 clusters, and five themes from experiences of precocious puberty. The essential five themes were as follows: ‘ashamed and concealing experience’, ‘there is no therapeutics option’, ‘difficulties in the process of therapeutics’, ‘difficulties in daily life’, and ‘ambivalence toward therapeutics’.CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate physical, psychological and social difficulties faced by girls with precocious puberty. Based on this results of the study, it is necessary to develop nursing intervention programs focusing on healthy growth and development for children with precocious puberty.
Child ; Facial Expression ; Female ; Gestures ; Growth and Development ; Humans ; Methods ; Nursing ; Puberty, Precocious ; Qualitative Research ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: To evaluate adherence to anticholinergic therapy (AT) and clean intermittent self-catheterization (CISC) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and to identify factors associated with poor adherence. METHODS: This single-center study prospectively included 49 patients suffering from MS who had been prescribed AT and/or CISC. Adherence was evaluated using a self-report questionnaire. The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), Patient Global Impression of Improvement, Mini-Mental State Examination, Urinary Symptom Profile, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) instruments were administered, and the number of daily anticholinergic pills and/or catheterizations was noted. Whether patients were receiving concomitant intradetrusor botulinum toxin injections was assessed, as were barriers to treatment, side effects, number of spontaneous micturitions, reasons for the prescription, satisfaction, and difficulties. RESULTS: Only 38% of patients were adherent to AT. Experiencing side effects was related to nonadherence (P=0.02). Only 29% of patients were adherent to CISC. More intense voiding dysfunction (P<0.001), a higher frequency of CISC (P=0.03), and a higher EDSS score (P=0.02) were associated with better adherence. Conversely, the HAD score (P<0.001), depression (P<0.001), the persistence of spontaneous micturition (P<0.001), a blocking sensation during catheterization (P=0.04), and the need to adapt one's posture or gesture to perform catheterization (P=0.04) were associated with poorer adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to AT and CISC was poor in patients with MS suffering from bladder dysfunction. Several factors related to nonadherence were identified in this study, and addressing these factors might help to improve treatment adherence.
Anxiety ; Botulinum Toxins ; Catheterization ; Catheters ; Cholinergic Antagonists ; Compliance ; Depression ; Gestures ; Humans ; Intermittent Urethral Catheterization ; Multiple Sclerosis* ; Posture ; Prescriptions ; Prospective Studies ; Sensation ; Urinary Bladder ; Urination

PURPOSE: Nonverbal communication (NVC) is important in the patient-physician relationship, but the effect of NVC education is not well kown. In this study, we try to identify if students' NVC abilities are improved through communication training. METHODS: First-year medical students conducted medical interviews, which were performed with standardized patients (SPs) before and after communication skill education, and recorded in video. Fifty-one students were enrolled for this study. Two researchers used the NVC checklist, which consists of 12 nonverbal behaviors, to analyze and compare the students' nonverbal expressions in the interviews recorded before and after the education. RESULTS: After the students participated in communication training, open body position and adequate facial expression were increased while unnecessary silence, un-purposive movements, and giggling were decreased. These results can be interpreted as positive effects of the education. However, hand gesture was increased as a negative effect of the education. The total NVC score of the 12 nonverbal behaviors in the NVC checklist improved significantly, rising from 8.56 to 10.03. CONCLUSION: Communication skill education using SPs can improve nonverbal behaviors of medical students, especially facial expression, un-purposive movement, body position, unnecessary silence, and giggle, but not hand gesture. Further research is needed on a variety of teaching methods to improve NVCs.
Checklist ; Education ; Education, Medical ; Facial Expression ; Gestures ; Hand ; Humans ; Nonverbal Communication ; Students, Medical* ; Teaching

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a set of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by a deficit in social behaviors and nonverbal interactions such as reduced eye contact, facial expression, and body gestures in the first 3 years of life. It is not a single disorder, and it is broadly considered to be a multi-factorial disorder resulting from genetic and non-genetic risk factors and their interaction. Genetic studies of ASD have identified mutations that interfere with typical neurodevelopment in utero through childhood. These complexes of genes have been involved in synaptogenesis and axon motility. Recent developments in neuroimaging studies have provided many important insights into the pathological changes that occur in the brain of patients with ASD in vivo. Especially, the role of amygdala, a major component of the limbic system and the affective loop of the cortico-striatothalamo-cortical circuit, in cognition and ASD has been proved in numerous neuropathological and neuroimaging studies. Besides the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens is also considered as the key structure which is related with the social reward response in ASD. Although educational and behavioral treatments have been the mainstay of the management of ASD, pharmacological and interventional treatments have also shown some benefit in subjects with ASD. Also, there have been reports about few patients who experienced improvement after deep brain stimulation, one of the interventional treatments. The key architecture of ASD development which could be a target for treatment is still an uncharted territory. Further work is needed to broaden the horizons on the understanding of ASD.
Amygdala ; Autistic Disorder* ; Axons ; Brain ; Child ; Autism Spectrum Disorder* ; Cognition ; Deep Brain Stimulation ; Facial Expression ; Gestures ; Humans ; Limbic System ; Neurobiology ; Neuroimaging ; Nucleus Accumbens ; Reward ; Risk Factors ; Social Behavior

Emotion recognition will be prosperious in multifarious applications, like distance education, healthcare, and human-computer interactions, etc. Emotions can be recognized from the behavior signals such as speech, facial expressions, gestures or the physiological signals such as electroencephalogram and electrocardiogram. Contrast to other methods, the physiological signals based emotion recognition can achieve more objective and effective results because it is almost impossible to be disguised. This paper introduces recent advancements in emotion research using physiological signals, specified to its emotion model, elicitation stimuli, feature extraction and classification methods. Finally the paper also discusses some research challenges and future developments.
Electrocardiography ; Electroencephalography ; Emotions ; physiology ; Facial Expression ; Gestures ; Humans ; Models, Theoretical

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: A better developmental environment has positive effects on brain development. The acquisition of literacy during childhood may affect brain functional organization. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of illiteracy on neuropsychological test results and cerebral morphology in later life. METHODS: We recruited 7 illiterate elderly farmers who had never attended school and had no reading or writing knowledge. These subjects were compared with 9 literate subjects in terms of neuropsychological performance and brain volume. All subjects were over 65-years-old and had the same regional and occupational background. RESULTS: Neuropsychological tests indicated that the performance of the illiterate subjects was worse than that of literate subjects in all cognitive domains except forward digit span, tool-use and tool-free gestures, verbal word recognition, and verbal generation of animals and grocery items. The illiterate group also showed significantly decreased cortical volume and surface area in both parietal lobes. However, the illiterate group showed increased cortical thickness in the left cuneus. CONCLUSIONS: Literacy acquired in childhood may increase the volume of the parietal lobe and improve neuropsychological performance through the process of brain plasticity. The effects can be lifelong.
Aged ; Animals ; Brain ; Cognition* ; Literacy* ; Gestures ; Humans ; Learning ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Parietal Lobe ; Plastics ; Writing

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to develop a workstation computer that allowed intraoperative touchless control of diagnostic and surgical images by a surgeon, and to report the preliminary experience with the use of the system in a series of cases in which dental surgery was performed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A custom workstation with a new motion sensing input device (Leap Motion) was set up in order to use a natural user interface (NUI) to manipulate the imaging software by hand gestures. The system allowed intraoperative touchless control of the surgical images. RESULTS: For the first time in the literature, an NUI system was used for a pilot study during 11 dental surgery procedures including tooth extractions, dental implant placements, and guided bone regeneration. No complications were reported. The system performed very well and was very useful. CONCLUSION: The proposed system fulfilled the objective of providing touchless access and control of the system of images and a three-dimensional surgical plan, thus allowing the maintenance of sterile conditions. The interaction between surgical staff, under sterile conditions, and computer equipment has been a key issue. The solution with an NUI with touchless control of the images seems to be closer to an ideal. The cost of the sensor system is quite low; this could facilitate its incorporation into the practice of routine dental surgery. This technology has enormous potential in dental surgery and other healthcare specialties.
Bone Regeneration ; Delivery of Health Care ; Dental Implants ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Gestures* ; Hand ; Medical Informatics Computing ; Pilot Projects ; Surgery, Oral ; Tooth Extraction ; User-Computer Interface