AIM To evaluate the short-term efficacy of biofeedback therapy (BFT) for dyssynergic defecation (DD) and to explore the predictors of the efficacy of BFT. METHODS Clinical symptoms, psychological state, and quality of life of patients before and after BFT were investigated. All patients underwent lifestyle survey and anorectal physiology tests before BFT. Improvement in symptom scores was con...

INTRODUCTION In the literature, data on the effects of gender and age on the pressure data of anorectal manometry differ. Possible reasons are investigation of only small numbers of healthy people and comparison of only 2 groups with large age differences. In addition, data about the influence of gender or age on anorectal sensation are sparse. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to det...

We experience our own body through both touch and vision. We further see that others' bodies are similar to our own body, but we have no direct experience of touch on others' bodies. Therefore, relations between vision and touch are important for the sense of self and for mental representation of one's own body. For example, seeing the hand improves tactile acuity on the hand, compared to seein...

Baroreceptor activity has been implicated in the modulation of pain. Sensory detection thresholds and pain ratings were measured in a group of 28 men during carotid baroreceptor manipulation with the PRES (phase-related external suction) neck suction technique. Brief, cardiac phase-related electrical impulses were delivered intracutaneously to the finger. The results indicate that minimum baror...

Sir, The newly-developed 'Thermal Sensibility Tester' , 1 ,2 has been used for several studies in the diagnosis of leprosy with interesting results, We discovered that it has not been clarified whether this Thermal Sensibility Tester was also designed for testing for early peripheral nerve damage (hand and foot) in leprosy patients, Some believe that this tester could be used in the fol low-up ...

[Purpose] This study investigated two-point discrimination (TPD) and the electrical sensory threshold of the blind to define the effect of using Braille on the tactile and electrical senses. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-eight blind participants were divided equally into a text-reading and a Braille-reading group. We measured tactile sensory and electrical thresholds using the TPD method and a ...

Although visual consciousness can be manipulated easily (e.g., by visual masking), it is unresolved whether it can be assessed accurately with behavioral measures such as discrimination ability and self-report. Older theories of visual consciousness postulated a sensory threshold and distinguished between subjective and objective thresholds. In contrast, newer theories distinguish among three a...

Human auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) were recorded using stimulus rates of 78-95 Hz in normal young subjects, in elderly subjects with relatively normal hearing, and in elderly subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment. Amplitude-intensity functions calculated relative to actual sensory thresholds (sensation level or SL) showed that amplitudes increased as stimulus intensity incre...

The absolute threshold for a tone depends on its duration; longer tones have lower thresholds. This effect has traditionally been explained in terms of "temporal integration" involving the summation of energy or perceptual information over time. An alternative probabilistic explanation of the process is formulated in terms of simple equations that predict not only the time ∕ duration dependence...