Readers' eye movements were recorded to examine the role of character positional frequency on Chinese lexical acquisition during reading and its possible modulation by word spacing. In Experiment 1, three types of pseudowords were constructed based on each character's positional frequency, providing congruent, incongruent, and no positional word segmentation information. Each pseudoword was emb...

Modulatory influences on spinal mechanical transmission from the rostral medial medulla (RMM) were studied. Noxious stimulation, produced by von Frey-like monofilaments, and non-noxious stimulation, produced by a soft brush, was applied to the glabrous skin of the hind foot. At 28 sites in RMM, electrical stimulation facilitated responses to noxious mechanical stimulation at low intensities (5-...

UNLABELLED The modulation of activity of the upper airway dilator and respiratory muscles plays a key role in the regulation of ventilation, but little is known about the link between their neuromuscular activation processes in vivo. This study investigated genioglossus and diaphragm responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation applied in different facilitatory conditions. The amplitude and l...

In various studies nicotine has shown to alter cognitive functions in non-smoking subjects. The physiological basis for these effects might be nicotine-generated modulation of cortical structure, excitability, and activity, as mainly described in animal experiments. In accordance, a recently conducted study demonstrated that application of nicotine for hours via nicotine patch in non-smoking hu...

BACKGROUND Age-related loss of foot-sole cutaneous sensation is very common and is associated with impaired balance control. This study investigated the effect of a balance-enhancing insole (designed to facilitate foot-sole sensation) on lateral gait stability and evaluated its effectiveness in daily life. METHODS Forty community-dwelling older adults (age 65-75) with moderate loss of foot-so...

An auditory stimulus speeds up a digital response to a subsequent visual stimulus. This facilitatory effect has been related to the expectancy and the immediate arousal that would be caused by the accessory stimulus. The present study examined the relative contribution of these two influences. In a first and a third experiment a simple reaction time task was used. In a second and fourth experim...

The role of group III metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in modulating excitatory synaptic transmission was investigated in the rat entorhinal cortex (EC) in vitro. AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) were recorded in the whole cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique from visually identified neurons in layers V and II. In layer V, bath application of t...

In humans and in several animal species, puberty results from changes in pulsatile gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion in the hypothalamus. In particular, the frequency of pulsatile GnRH secretion increases at the onset of puberty, as can be shown by using hypothalamic explants of male rats of 15 and 25 d. Previous observations from us and others suggested that the initiation of pub...