Ann L Smiley-Oyen

Iowa State University | ISU · Department of Kinesiology

Introduction Increasing literature has emerged investigating the importance of considering the qualitative characteristics of physical activity (PA) interventions and sports as well as considering the role of motor competence in the exercise–cognition interplay. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of a r...

Background The Figure-of-8 Walk Test (F8W) is a valid measure of walking skill in older adults with a mobility disability. Use of the F8W in assessing walking skill in persons with Parkinson’s disease (PWP) is unknown. Purpose We examined the validity of the F8W by associations with mobility, and cognitive and physical function, and determined the...

During walking older adults' gait is slower, they take shorter steps, and rely less on ankle and more on knee and hip joint moments and powers compared to young adults. Previous studies have suggested that walking speed and step length are confounds that affect joint moments and powers. Our purpose was to examine the effects of walking speed and st...

Visuomotor adaptation involves multiple processes such as explicit learning, implicit learning from sensory prediction errors, and model-free mechanisms like use-dependent plasticity. Recent findings show that reward and punishment differently affect visuomotor adaptation. This study examined whether punishment and reward had distinct effects on ex...

We used near-infrared spectroscopy to examine dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation over time in 10 children with or at-risk-for developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and 11 typically developing children (ages 8–12) during tasks involving executive processing. The groups performed with similar accuracy on the Stroop and Wisconsin ca...

Recent human motor learning studies revealed that punishment seemingly accelerated motor learning but reward enhanced consolidation of motor memory. It is not evident how intrinsic properties of reward and punishment modulate the potentially dissociable effects of reward and punishment on motor learning and motor memory. It is also not clear what c...

Simultaneous control of lower limb stepping movements and trunk motion is important for skilled walking; adapting gait to environmental constraints requires frequent alternations in stepping and trunk motion. These alterations provide a window into the locomotor strategies adopted by the walker. The authors examined gait strategies in young and hea...

A growing body of research indicates that physical activity (PA) positively impacts cognitive function in youth. However, not all forms of PA benefit cognition equally. The purpose of this review was to determine the effect of different types of chronic PA interventions on cognition in children and adolescents. A systematic search of electronic dat...

This paper will describe a synopsis of the development and application of a survey instrument to assess team skills and professional development outcomes of Team-Based Learning (TBL) in a human factors course. TBL is an advancing teaching pedagogy that shifts instruction from a traditional lecture-based teaching paradigm to a structured learning se...

Classroom-based physical activity is a new approach aiming to improve both physical activity levels and academic achievement. This study investigated the acute effect of a 10-min bout of aerobic physical activity integrated with math practice, compared with a seated math practice, on executive function and enjoyment among normal-weight (n = 24) and...

Purpose: To determine whether chicken noodle soup before exercise increases ad libitum water intake, fluid balance, and physical and cognitive performance compared with water. Methods: Nine trained men (age 25 ± 3 yr, VO2peak 54.2 ± 5.1 ml · kg-1 · min-1; M ± SD) performed cycle exercise in the heat (wet bulb globe temperature = 25.9 ± 0.4 °C) f...

A 6-wk group balance-training program was conducted with physically active older adults (based on American College of Sports Medicine requirements) to investigate the effect of dose-related static and dynamic balance-specific training. All participants, age 60-87 yr, continued their regular exercise program while adding balance training in 1 of 3 d...

Harmonic ratios (HRs), derived from trunk accelerations, measure smoothness of trunk motion during gait; higher ratios indicate greater smoothness. Previous research indicates that young adults optimize HRs at preferred pace, exhibiting reduced HRs at speeds faster and slower than preferred. Recent studies examining HRs and other trunk acceleration...

We investigated the effects of extensive practice of rapid aiming on bradykinesia and, more specifically, generation of peak velocity, in discrete rapid aiming and in transfer to reach-to-grasp. Twenty-one participants (seven young adults, seven older adults, and seven adults with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) while on medication) engag...

Background: Previous research indicates that children with DCD present difficulties in forward modeling and online control. Most of these studies emphasize speeded discrete movements, but controlling movements online is imperative for movement sequences of longer duration such as control necessary in handwriting and other daily activities. Aim: Exa...

To determine if gait stability, as measured by harmonic ratios (HRs) derived from trunk accelerations, is improved during 3 amplitude-based cueing strategies (visual cues, lines on the floor 20% longer than preferred step length; verbal cues, experimenter saying "big step" every third; cognitive cues, participants think "big step") in people with P...

Kinematic changes in Parkinson's disease (PD) gait are well documented; however, upper body dynamics are less understood. Harmonic ratios (HRs) measure the rhythm of trunk accelerations and can be examined in the vertical, anterior-posterior, and mediolateral planes, providing an indication of global walking stability (lower HR indicates poorer sta...

Although basic research has uncovered biological mechanisms by which exercise could maintain and enhance adult brain health, experimental human studies with older adults have produced equivocal results. This randomized clinical trial aimed to investigate the hypotheses that (a) the effects of exercise training on the performance of neurocognitive t...

Eight people with Parkinson's disease (PD), 8 age-matched older adults, and 8 young adults executed 3-dimensional rapid aiming movements to 1, 3, 5, and 7 targets. Reaction time, flight time, and time after peak velocity to the 1st target indicated that both neurologically healthy groups implemented a plan on the basis of anticipation of upcoming t...

The purpose of this study was to examine motor learning and retention given extensive practice in two fundamentally different movement sequences. One sequence was a memory-driven task (performing a series of whole body positions from memory) and the other a context-driven task (buttoning). Practice took place over 3 weeks, with performance measured...

This study examined whether the pattern of coordination between arm-reaching toward an object (hand transport) and the initiation of aperture closure for grasping is different between PD patients and healthy individuals, and whether that pattern is affected by the necessity to quickly adjust the reach-to-grasp movement in response to an unexpected...

Many transplant recipients report difficulty completing fine motor activities such as eating, writing and manipulating buttons. These impairments are thought to stem from the immunosuppressive medications being taken by these patients. The purpose of this study was to examine central and peripheral processes and the force regulation involved in pro...

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) constitute approximately six percent of the population, or about two children out of a class of 35. Often referred to as "clumsy" or physically awkward, children with DCD are generally academically able, but have movement difficulties that affect their progress in academics and in activities o...

In dynamical motor theory, skill acquisition occurs as a modification of preexisting coordination patterns or attractor states. The purpose of this study was to assess how different levels of voice onset, voice quality, and fundamental frequency (F(0)) combine to form the attractor states common to voice motor control. Three levels of voice onset (...

Nine Parkinson's disease (PD), seven olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA) patients and two age-matched control groups learned a linear arm movement-scaling task over 2 days, requiring movements proportional in length to visually presented target-bars. Scaling was acquired through knowledge of results (KR concerning the direction and magnitude of err...

One hypothesized role of the basal ganglia, based largely on findings in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, is the control of movement sequences. We examined changes in performance with practice of a movement sequence in PD patients and age-matched controls (n = 8 per group). Subjects practiced a complex three-dimensional sequential aiming task ove...

Postural control requires accurate integration of visual, vestibular, cutaneous, and proprioceptive sensory information. Previous research suggests that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) may have difficulty with this integration process, particularly involving incongruent visual information. The purpose of this study was to determine whether P...

The purpose of this investigation was to examine how the programming and control of a rapid aiming sequence shifts with increased complexity. One objective was to determine if a preprogramming/peripheral constraint explanation is adequate to characterize control of an increasingly complex rapid aiming sequence, and if not, at what point on-line pro...

Studies indicate that rapid sequential movements are preprogrammed and that preprogramming increases with complexity, but more complex sequences that require on-line programming have been seldom been studied. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether on-line programming occurs in a 7-target sequence in which there is a unique targe...

Distribution of motor programming before and during execution of a rapid aimed sequence was studied to develop a model that best describes such movements. Using a simple reaction time paradigm, a series of targets were contacted as rapidly as possible, maintaining a 90% rate of accuracy. Complexity of the movement was manipulated by increasing the...

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors contributing to hand differences in rapid single finger tapping. To this end, task-defined temporal variables and motor outflow, as reflected by the magnitude and duration of force, were simultaneously measured. Thirty-one right-handed college age subjects performed a rapid finger-tapping task wi...

The basis of manual asymmetries in motor performance is examined. On selected tasks it is possible to identify the task demands that maximize observed hand differences. Identifying the aspect of the movement most responsible for hand differences provides a frame of reference from which to contrast experiments that use similar but not identical task...