1The advent of open access to genomic data offers new opportunities to revisit old clinical debat... more 1The advent of open access to genomic data offers new opportunities to revisit old clinical debates while approaching them from a different angle. We examine anew the question of whether psychiatric and neurological disorders are different from each other by assessing the pool of genes associated with disorders that are understood as psychiatric or as neurological. We do so in the context of transcriptome data tracked as human embryonic stem cells differentiate and become neurons. Building upon probabilistic layers of increasing complexity, we describe the dynamics and stochastic trajectories of the full transcriptome and the embedded genes associated with psychiatric and/or neurological disorders. From marginal distributions of a gene’s expression across hundreds of cells, to joint interactions taken globally to determine degree of pairwise dependency, to networks derived from probabilistic graphs along maximal spanning trees, we have discovered two fundamentally different classes ...
This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics... more This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
The 'social dance' is an implicit, yet vital, characteristic of dyadic interactions. Atte... more The 'social dance' is an implicit, yet vital, characteristic of dyadic interactions. Attempts to characterize this complex behavior have illustrated unconscious levels of content and temporal entrainment within artificial social contexts. Yet, when viewed in a naturalistic setting, this complex systems problem faces a number of methodological and theoretical challenges. Utilizing precise kinematic recordings while adopting the 'micro-movement' approach, cross coherence analysis and tenets of graph theory, this paper presents an analytical framework to characterize unfolding, nonlinear temporal exchange and entrainment across a social dyad. This framework is empirically demonstrated within a clinical domain of individuals with known social difficulties: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Results illustrate the ability for this objective methodology to quantify variability in social dynamics, and profile dyadic entrainment during naturalistic exchange -- with no a priori constraints or limitations. Viewed within the context of a clinical assessment tool for ASD, results facilitate consideration of clinician impact on dyadic exchange, and point to a potential refinement of core tasks associated with such clinical batteries.
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Movement and Computing, 2020
In this work, we introduce a co-adaptive closed-loop interface driven by audio augmented with a p... more In this work, we introduce a co-adaptive closed-loop interface driven by audio augmented with a parameterization of the dancer's heart-rate in near real-time. In our set-up, two salsa dancers perform their routine dance (previously choreographed and well-trained) and a spontaneously improvised piece lead by the male dancer. They firstly dance their pieces while listening to the original version of the song (baseline condition). Then, we ask them to dance while listening to the music, as altered by the heart rate extracted from the female dancer in near real-time. Salsa dancing is always led by the male. As such, their challenge is to adapt, their movements, as a dyad, to the real-time change induced by the female's heart activity. Our work offers a new co-adaptive set up for dancers, new data types and analytical methods to study two forms of dance: well-rehearsed choreography and improvisation. We show that the small variations in heart activity, despite its robustness for autonomic function, can distinguish well between these two modes of dance.
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Movement and Computing, 2019
As a user listens to music, his bodily biorhythms can entrain with the music's rhythms. This ... more As a user listens to music, his bodily biorhythms can entrain with the music's rhythms. This work describes a human computer interface used to characterize the evolution of the stochastic signatures of physiological rhythms across the central and the peripheral nervous systems in the presence (or absence) of music. We track the heart, EEG and kinematics' variability under different music-driven conditions to identify the parameter manifold and context with maximal signal to noise ratio as well as to identify regions of maximal and minimal statistical co-dependencies of present events from past events.
1The advent of open access to genomic data offers new opportunities to revisit old clinical debat... more 1The advent of open access to genomic data offers new opportunities to revisit old clinical debates while approaching them from a different angle. We examine anew the question of whether psychiatric and neurological disorders are different from each other by assessing the pool of genes associated with disorders that are understood as psychiatric or as neurological. We do so in the context of transcriptome data tracked as human embryonic stem cells differentiate and become neurons. Building upon probabilistic layers of increasing complexity, we describe the dynamics and stochastic trajectories of the full transcriptome and the embedded genes associated with psychiatric and/or neurological disorders. From marginal distributions of a gene’s expression across hundreds of cells, to joint interactions taken globally to determine degree of pairwise dependency, to networks derived from probabilistic graphs along maximal spanning trees, we have discovered two fundamentally different classes ...
This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics... more This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
The 'social dance' is an implicit, yet vital, characteristic of dyadic interactions. Atte... more The 'social dance' is an implicit, yet vital, characteristic of dyadic interactions. Attempts to characterize this complex behavior have illustrated unconscious levels of content and temporal entrainment within artificial social contexts. Yet, when viewed in a naturalistic setting, this complex systems problem faces a number of methodological and theoretical challenges. Utilizing precise kinematic recordings while adopting the 'micro-movement' approach, cross coherence analysis and tenets of graph theory, this paper presents an analytical framework to characterize unfolding, nonlinear temporal exchange and entrainment across a social dyad. This framework is empirically demonstrated within a clinical domain of individuals with known social difficulties: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Results illustrate the ability for this objective methodology to quantify variability in social dynamics, and profile dyadic entrainment during naturalistic exchange -- with no a priori constraints or limitations. Viewed within the context of a clinical assessment tool for ASD, results facilitate consideration of clinician impact on dyadic exchange, and point to a potential refinement of core tasks associated with such clinical batteries.
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Movement and Computing, 2020
In this work, we introduce a co-adaptive closed-loop interface driven by audio augmented with a p... more In this work, we introduce a co-adaptive closed-loop interface driven by audio augmented with a parameterization of the dancer's heart-rate in near real-time. In our set-up, two salsa dancers perform their routine dance (previously choreographed and well-trained) and a spontaneously improvised piece lead by the male dancer. They firstly dance their pieces while listening to the original version of the song (baseline condition). Then, we ask them to dance while listening to the music, as altered by the heart rate extracted from the female dancer in near real-time. Salsa dancing is always led by the male. As such, their challenge is to adapt, their movements, as a dyad, to the real-time change induced by the female's heart activity. Our work offers a new co-adaptive set up for dancers, new data types and analytical methods to study two forms of dance: well-rehearsed choreography and improvisation. We show that the small variations in heart activity, despite its robustness for autonomic function, can distinguish well between these two modes of dance.
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Movement and Computing, 2019
As a user listens to music, his bodily biorhythms can entrain with the music's rhythms. This ... more As a user listens to music, his bodily biorhythms can entrain with the music's rhythms. This work describes a human computer interface used to characterize the evolution of the stochastic signatures of physiological rhythms across the central and the peripheral nervous systems in the presence (or absence) of music. We track the heart, EEG and kinematics' variability under different music-driven conditions to identify the parameter manifold and context with maximal signal to noise ratio as well as to identify regions of maximal and minimal statistical co-dependencies of present events from past events.
The autistic condition, as currently defined by observation and dependent on a-priori defined not... more The autistic condition, as currently defined by observation and dependent on a-priori defined notions of social appropriateness, has gained prevalence of epidemic proportions worldwide. In the US, the systems that diagnose and treat the condition follow a clinical model primarily based on a psychological / psychiatric construct. Such approach leaves out bodily physiology and its sensory consequences in favor of descriptions and interpretations of observational data gathered by hand without proper scientific rigor. The clinical model thus constructed serves a fast pace system to provide recommendations for treatment that directly impact the lives of the affected individuals and their core caregiver family unit, but fails to embrace them as active members of the society at large. While limiting the potential contributions of the autistic person to our society, the current clinical model is also interfering with the scientific model and its progress, which has considerably stalled. This Chapter exposes some of the contemporary issues surrounding the complex relationships between society at large and the autistic population in the context of a psychological/psychiatric model that is not working.
Movement variability has emerged as a critical research component in the field of neural motor co... more Movement variability has emerged as a critical research component in the field of neural motor control. This chapter explains why movement variability can be seen as such a rich resource for studying neural development and ASD. This cannot be done without a framework for understanding the relationship between neural control, movement and movement sensing. Thus in the process of explaining why we should study movements several analytical and empirical aspects of motor-sensed variability from self-generated actions are recast, as are their putative role in the development of motor-sensory-sensed maps of external stimuli present in social settings. Overall, the Chapter offers a new lens for the research and treatments of neurodevelopmental disorders on a spectrum. In particular, disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) giving rise to different social manifestations are discussed within the renovated unifying framework of kinesthetic reafference using the new micro-movements data type paired with new accompanying analytics. 2
The autistic condition, as currently defined by observation and dependent on a-priori defined not... more The autistic condition, as currently defined by observation and dependent on a-priori defined notions of social appropriateness, has gained prevalence of epidemic proportions worldwide. In the US, the systems that diagnose and treat the condition follow a clinical model primarily based on a psychological / psychiatric construct. Such approach leaves out bodily physiology and its sensory consequences in favor of descriptions and interpretations of observational data gathered by hand without proper scientific rigor. The clinical model thus constructed serves a fast pace system to provide recommendations for treatment that directly impact the lives of the affected individuals and their core caregiver family unit, but fails to embrace them as active members of the society at large. While limiting the potential contributions of the autistic person to our society, the current clinical model is also interfering with the scientific model and its progress, which has considerably stalled. This Chapter exposes some of the contemporary issues surrounding the complex relationships between society at large and the autistic population in the context of a psychological/psychiatric model that is not working.
Volition, the acquired voluntary control of our actions (at will), requires from birth throughout... more Volition, the acquired voluntary control of our actions (at will), requires from birth throughout development and beyond a proper balance across multiple layers of the nervous systems. These levels range from the autonomic, to the automatic, to the voluntary control level, providing as well taxonomy with phylogenetic order of appearance in evolution. In the last few decades of movement research at the behavioral and systems levels there has been a paucity of studies focusing on the possible contributions of spontaneous and involuntary movements to volitional control. Moreover, the work focusing on voluntary behavior has given us a valuable body of knowledge about constrained and highly over practiced activities while work involving unrestrained, naturalistic behaviors remains scarce. Perhaps in making theoretical assumptions about our data acquisition and analyses without properly empirically verifying these assumptions has left us with a somewhat skewed notion of how we think the brain may be realizing the neural control of bodily motions; a notion that does not exactly correspond to the outcome of the extant empirical work assessing unrestrained movements as the nervous system acquires them and modifies skillful behaviors on demand. This chapter takes advantage of new technological advances and new analytics to invite rethinking some of the problems that we study in movement science by enforcing somewhat oversimplified assumptions on the data that we model, acquire and analyze. I show that by relaxing our a priori assumptions of normality, linearity and stationarity in data from biophysical rhythms of the nervous systems, we would gain better insights into the motor phenomena. Further, we would shy away from a " self-fulfilling prophesy " paradigm with a tendency to a priori handcraft the outcome of our inquiry. The new lens to study natural movements and their control includes as well spontaneous and involuntary motions that take place largely beneath deliberate awareness. I present examples of solutions amenable to the habilitation and rehabilitation of volition in patient populations and discuss a new vision for movement science in light of making a seamless transition from volitional to intentional control of actions and thoughts. 2
The previous chapter highlighted the contributions of cognitive theories to autism research. Thes... more The previous chapter highlighted the contributions of cognitive theories to autism research. These cognitivist ideas reviewed in the chapter provide a top-down approach to the possible relations between cognition and movements. Despite their relevance to help us formulate questions regarding motor control differences in ASD, the top-down approach tends to obstruct our ability to bridge cognition and action in neurodevelopment. This is, in part, due to a reliance on descriptions of a system that, although still young and growing, has already reached a steady-state rate of development. The system of a five year old child or that of a young adolescent is physically growing at a steadier pace than that of a newborn baby. Indeed, the steady state growth of a child stands in stark contrast to the rapid rate of growth of the nascent nervous systems of a newborn baby. The latter is changing on a daily basis at highly accelerated rates (Figure 1). To better appreciate this difference, consider for example, the rate of physical growth of a newborn baby. In 30 days the body gains weight at a non-linear rate of change that varies between .02Kg per day to nearly no change, to actual weight loss in the first week (see Figure 1). If we were to apply such rates to the body of a five year old child the changes would be, even overnight, so appreciable to the child's brain that a total 'recalibration' of all bodily and sensory maps would be required for that brain to be able to control that body from one day to the next. Indeed, Figure 1C shows that the typical five year old child (1,825 days) changes weight at a rather slower rate per day in relation to the newborn baby.
"Autism: The Movement Sensing Perspective" by Torres & Whyatt (eds.), 2017
Autism has been defined as a disorder of social cognition, interaction and communication where ri... more Autism has been defined as a disorder of social cognition, interaction and communication where ritualistic, repetitive behaviors are commonly observed. But how should we understand the behavioral and cognitive differences that have been the main focus of so much autism research? Can high-level cognitive processes and behaviors be identified as the core issues people with autism face, or do these characteristics perhaps often rather reflect individual attempts to cope with underlying physiological issues? Much research presented in this volume will point to the latter possibility, i.e. that people on the autism spectrum cope with issues at much lower physiological levels pertaining not only to Central Nervous Systems (CNS) function, but also to peripheral and autonomic systems (PNS, ANS) (Torres, Brincker, et al. 2013). The question that we pursue in this chapter is what might be fruitful ways of gaining objective measures of the large-scale systemic and heterogeneous effects of early atypical neurodevelopment; how to track their evolution over time and how to identify critical changes along the continuum of human development and aging.
We suggest that the study of movement variability—very broadly conceived as including all minute fluctuations in bodily rhythms and their rates of change over time (coined micro-movements (Figure 1A-B) (Torres, Brincker, et al. 2013))—offers a uniquely valuable and entirely objectively quantifiable lens to better assess, understand and track not only autism but cognitive development and degeneration in general. This chapter presents the rationale firstly behind this focus on micro-movements and secondly behind the choice of specific kinds of data collection and statistical metrics as tools of analysis (Figure 1C). In brief the proposal is that the micro-movements (defined in Part I – Chapter 1), obtained using various time scales applied to different physiological data-types (some examples in Figure 1), contain information about layered influences and temporal adaptations, transformations and integrations across anatomically semi-independent subsystems that crosstalk and interact. Further, the notion of sensorimotor re-afference is used to highlight the fact that these layered micro-motions are sensed and that this sensory feedback plays a crucial role in the generation and control of movements in the first place. In other words, the measurements of various motoric and rhythmic variations provide an access point not only to the “motor systems”, but also access to much broader central and peripheral sensorimotor and regulatory systems. Lastly, we posit that this new lens can also be used to capture influences from systems of multiple entry points or collaborative control and regulation, such as those that emerge during dyadic social interactions.
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We suggest that the study of movement variability—very broadly conceived as including all minute fluctuations in bodily rhythms and their rates of change over time (coined micro-movements (Figure 1A-B) (Torres, Brincker, et al. 2013))—offers a uniquely valuable and entirely objectively quantifiable lens to better assess, understand and track not only autism but cognitive development and degeneration in general. This chapter presents the rationale firstly behind this focus on micro-movements and secondly behind the choice of specific kinds of data collection and statistical metrics as tools of analysis (Figure 1C).
In brief the proposal is that the micro-movements (defined in Part I – Chapter 1), obtained using various time scales applied to different physiological data-types (some examples in Figure 1), contain information about layered influences and temporal adaptations, transformations and integrations across anatomically semi-independent subsystems that crosstalk and interact. Further, the notion of sensorimotor re-afference is used to highlight the fact that these layered micro-motions are sensed and that this sensory feedback plays a crucial role in the generation and control of movements in the first place. In other words, the measurements of various motoric and rhythmic variations provide an access point not only to the “motor systems”, but also access to much broader central and peripheral sensorimotor and regulatory systems. Lastly, we posit that this new lens can also be used to capture influences from systems of multiple entry points or collaborative control and regulation, such as those that emerge during dyadic social interactions.