BACKGROUND Based on Chicago Classification version 3.0, the disorders of esophagogastric junction outflow obstruction (EGJOO) include achalasia (types I, II and III) and EGJOO. Although no curative treatments are currently available for the treatment of the disorders of EGJOO, medical treatments, endoscopic pneumatic dilation (PD), laparoscopic Heller myotomy (LHM), and per-oral endoscopic myot...

esophageal spasm Diffuse esophageal spasm (DES) is a rare esophageal dysmotility condition characterized by simultaneous contractions of the distal esophagus and manifested by dysphagia and chest pain. Pharmacological therapy, endoscopic interventions, and surgical myotomy have been linked to various outcomes [1,2]. Recently, peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) has been introduced as an effective...

The study sheds new light on the nature of imitative learning in 14-month-olds. It is demonstrated that while infants of this age can indeed imitate a novel means modelled to them, they do so only if the action is seen by them as the most rational alternative to the goal available within the constraints of the situation. The findings support the ‘rational imitation’ account over current ‘imitat...

Imitation is a powerful form of learning commonly used by children, adults and infants. A child's enthusiasm for imitative behavior prompts parental attention and interaction, and provides a mechanism for transmitting appropriate cultural and social behavior. Although simple imitative behavior is evident in the postnatal period, by around 14 months infants remember and repeat actions they obser...

Recent evidence suggests that automatic imitation is mediated by an observation-execution matching system that cannot be reduced to the same processes responsible for other stimulusresponse (S-R) compatibilities. A computational model is developed with different patterns of connectivity for imitative and spatial compatibilities, and it is successful in simulating the results from three differen...

The study of imitative learning in animals has suffered from the presence of a number of confounding motivational and attentional factors (e.g., social facilitation and stimulus enhancement). The two-action method avoids these problems by exposing observers to demonstrators performing a response (e.g., operating a treadle) using 1 of 2 distinctive topographies (e.g., by pecking or by stepping)....

We argue that infants perform an abstraction over their auditory representations of the vowels of individual speakers, by mapping them to a mediating space of speaker-independent representations, guided by vocal imitative interaction with their caretakers, as a first step in the phonological acquisition process. Furthermore, we proffer a methodology for modeling this abstraction which involves ...

Children seem to have a natural tendency to imitate and their interest for particular kinds of imitative behaviour varies greatly with the infant’s age. We argue that different forms of children’s early imitation may be the result of an intrinsic motivation system driving the infant into situations of maximal learning progress. We present a computational model showing how an agent can learn to ...

Imitation and innovation work in tandem to support cultural learning in children and facilitate our capacity for cumulative culture. Here we propose an integrated theoretical account of how the unique demands of acquiring instrumental skills and cultural conventions provide insight into when children imitate, when they innovate, and to what degree. For instrumental learning, with an increase in...

BACKGROUND Despite over a decade of research and technological advances, sublingual microcirculatory monitoring has not yet reached clinical utility. Offline analysis is time consuming and occurs away from the patient. A system to assess the microcirculation at the point of care is desirable. We present a novel 5-point grading system (the point of care microcirculation (POEM) scoring system) th...