José A. Barela

São Paulo State University | Unesp · Departamento de Educação Física

This study aimed to examine the effect of visual pre‐cueing presented at different time intervals in the response time of dyslexic and non‐dyslexic children. Fifteen dyslexic and 15 non‐dyslexic children performed a computerised four‐choice reaction time task across four conditions: no pre‐cue and a 43‐ms time interval (or duration) of a centralise...

Abstract. Developmental dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in learning to read, affecting cognition and causing failure at school. Interventions for children with developmental dyslexia have focused on improving linguistic capabilities (phonics, orthographic and morphological instructions), but developmental dyslexia is accompanied by a wide...

Considering that people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience challenges in the control of both balance and eye movements, this study investigated the effects of saccadic eye movements on body sway in people with PD in two bases of support positions (side-by-side and tandem stances). Ten people with PD and 11 healthy individuals performed (a) fi...

Background: Though stiff-knee gait is a common movement disorder in individuals with stroke, the criteria for identifying it in this population are not yet well established. This study investigated suitable criteria to identify stroke survivors with stiff-knee gait. Twenty-four stroke survivors (45.2±13.7 years old) and 24 individuals matched by ag...

Diabetic older people tend to present deteriorated performance in balance and locomotion activities, even those without peripheral neuropathy. There is evidence that saccadic eye movements are used to reduce body sway in young and older healthy adults, but it has not been shown that diabetic older people preserve this visuomotor adaptation capacity...

Objective To analyze the effect of combined training (CT) in postural control and gait parameters in postmenopausal women. Methods A parallel-group, randomized, control study was conducted with 16 weeks of combined training ( n = 16) versus a non-training control group ( n = 12) in postmenopausal women (aged 59.3 ± 8.0). Pre and postintervention as...

This study aimed to verify and compare the physical activity practices of children enrolled and non-enrolled on different days of week in a specific program offered at school. Seventy-eight children comprised two groups: children with extra physical activity (EPA; n=39; 15 females and 24 males; age: 9.2±0.8 years) and those with no involvement in e...

The nervous system predicts and executes complex motion of body segments actuated by the coordinated action of muscles. When a stroke or other traumatic injury disrupts neural processing, the impeded behavior has not only kinematic but also kinetic attributes that require interpretation. Biomechanical models could allow medical specialists to obser...

Background: The eyes are the main gateway of visual information input. Moving the eyes is essential to extract visual information from scenes while performing motor actions. This has helped to explain motor behavior, especially in relation to visual attention mechanisms, gaze training and learning, and the relevance of visual information in control...

Objectives To verify the relationships between sleep duration (Total Sleep Time – TST) and postural control of female night workers before and after shift. As well as, to verify if there is an influence of the body mass index (BMI) on the postural control of these female workers before and after shift. Methods A total of 14 female night workers (me...

The nervous system predicts and executes complex motion of body segments actuated by the coordinated action of muscles. When a stroke or other traumatic injury disrupts neural processing, the impeded behavior has not only kinematic but also kinetic attributes that require interpretation. Biomechanical models could allow medical specialists to obser...

This study aimed to examine the effects of colored blue electronic and overlay filters on reading performance and eye movements of children with and without dyslexia. Children with and without dyslexia (15 in each group) were recruited as participants and seated on a chair, with their heads stabilized by a forehead and chin support. They read diffe...

The literature on postural control highlights that task performance should be worse in challenging dual tasks than in a single task, because the brain has limited attentional resources. Instead, in the context of visual tasks, we assumed that (i) performance in a visual search task should be better when standing than when sitting and (ii) when stan...

Background: Postural impairment is one of the most debilitating symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease (PD), which show faster and more variable oscillation during quiet stance than neurologically healthy individuals. Despite the center of pressure parameters can characterize PD’s body sway, they are limited to uncover underlying mechanisms of...

It is well-established that pre-cues, including those observed in an implicit manner, can affect motor skills and reaction times. However, little research currently exists on how pre-cues influence complex motor skills such as driving a car at high speed. This pilot study investigates the effect of implicit pre-cues on collision avoidance under a r...

It is well-established that pre-cues, including those observed in an implicit manner, can affect motor skills and reaction times. However , little research currently exists on how pre-cues influence complex motor skills such as driving a car at high speed. This pilot study investigated the effect of implicit pre-cues on collision avoidance under a...

This study examined changes in postural control and gaze performance of faller and non-faller older adults under conditions of visual tasks and optical flow manipulations. Fifteen older non-fallers (69.8 years, ± 3.2) and fifteen older fallers (71.1 years, ± 6.4) stood on a force platform inside a moving room wearing an eye tracker. Four tasks were...

Vision is crucial for humans to interact with their surrounding environment, and postural sway is reduced to allow short eye movements. However, the extent of subtle changes in postural control for horizontal and vertical eye movements remains unclear. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of vertical and horizontal eye movements on...

During precise gaze shifts, eye, head, and body movements exhibit synergic relations. In the present study, we tested the existence of behavioural synergic relations between eye and postural movements in a goal-directed, precise, visual search task (locate target objects in large images). More precisely, we tested if postural control could be adjus...

Young adults reduce their sway in both light touch (LT) and anchor systems (AS), however, the cognitive involvement in these tasks is unknown. This study investigated postural control in young adults standing upright using either LT or AS, concomitantly with a cognitive task (counting). Nine adults (26 ± 7.4 years) stood in the upright tandem stanc...

The Brazilian Journal of Motor Behavior (BJMB) is a quadriannual, peer-reviewed, free of charge/fee and open-access journal published by the Brazilian Society of Motor Behavior (SOCIBRACOM). The BJMB has published original contributions within the multidisciplinary study of human motor behavior, in the broad scope of motor control, development and...

The aim of this study was to present a dynamical view of motor development and a few factors affecting the developmental course and rate of motor changes. The acquisition of motor skills involves one’s exploration of many body segmental configurations, followed by the selection of those that are most useful to achieve the task demands. Exploration...

This study aimed to investigate intra-limb coordination in non-disabled individuals walking with and without a constrained knee and in individuals with stroke. We hypothesized that a constrained knee would modify the intra-limb coordination of non-disabled individuals and that non-disabled individuals walking with a constrained knee would present c...

Research question: The present study aimed to compare the postural control of children and adolescents with and without Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Methods: A total of 32 children and adolescents (18 with HIV and 14 without) of both sexes, aged 6–18 years, were included in the present study. Participants in the HIV + group were infected thr...

Young adults are known to reduce their postural sway to perform precise visual search and laser pointing tasks. We tested if young adults could reduce even more postural and/or center of pressure sway to succeed in both tasks simultaneously. The methodology is novel because published pointing tasks usually require continuously looking at the pointe...

Research question The present study aimed to compare the postural control of children and adolescents with and without Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Methods A total of 32 children and adolescents (18 with HIV and 14 without) of both sexes, aged 6–18 years, were included in the present study. Participants in the HIV + group were infected thro...

This study investigated the modulation of the center of pressure (CoP) displacements of young adults as they performed predictable and unpredictable saccadic eye movements on stationary and moving visual scenarios. It was also examined if the relationship between CoP displacements and visual stimulus, provided by the moving scenario, and gaze contr...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest better visual-spatial processing when participants are tested in postures in which dynamic stability is challenged. The question arises if this is also true for the performance in mental body-rotation tasks (MBRT). AIM: Taking the embodied cognition approach into account, the first aim of the present study was t...

Constraining knee flexion of non-disabled individuals could further our understanding regarding the importance of knee joint during gait, which is a common disturbance in individuals with gait impairment. In this study we investigated whether a mechanical constraint of knee flexion in non-disabled adults would lead to compensatory strategies. Eleve...

Sedentariness has progressed in recent years. Here, we summarize the high prevalence of objectively measured sedentariness and the list of health problems associated with sedentariness. According to the literature, a minimum sedentary time of 8 h/d may avoid the harmful effects of sedentariness. Our review of the literature shows that many countrie...

This study examined the effects of the support surface (i.e., treadmill or ground) and the quantity of body weight unloading provided by a partial body weight support (PBWS) system on the spatiotemporal gait characteristics of individuals with stroke. Fifteen individuals, aged 57.2 ± 9.8 years, with chronic stroke walked on a treadmill and on the g...

Objective: Sensory information is crucial when performing daily activities, and Parkinson’s disease may diminish sensitivity to sensory cues. This study aimed to examine the detection threshold of passive motion of knee and ankle joints in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Methods: Eighteen individuals in the early stages of idiopathic Parki...

BACKGROUND: The disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has produced one of the most dramatic health crises, impacting humans’ daily lives worldwide. Social distancing and lockdown measures have limited everyone’s daily activities and have likely also affected children’s physical activity. AIM: To investigate physical activity and electr...

The present study aimed to compare the postural control of children and adolescents with and without HIV. A total of 32 children and adolescents (18 with HIV and 14 without) of both sexes, aged 6–18 years, were included in the present study. Participants in the HIV+ group were infected through vertical transmission and received antiretroviral thera...

Background Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are known to have poor physical fitness and psychosocial problems. The autonomous nervous system (ANS) plays an essential role in the regulation of human neurophysiological processes. Inadequate ANS modulation has been associated with harmful health conditions such as poor aerobic p...

This study examined the influence of visual information of different complexities and predictability on the body sway of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) during upright stance. Twenty-one individuals at initial stages of PD (62.1 ± 7.2 years), under dopaminergic medication, and 21 controls (62.3 ± 7.1 years) stood inside a moving room, per...

This study investigated whether a mechanical constraint of knee flexion in non-disabled individuals could help with reproducing the gait pattern of individuals with stroke. Eleven non-disabled adults (26.6±6.5 years old) and 12 individuals with stroke (52.0±12.8 years old) walked at a self-selected comfortable speed as kinematic and electromyograph...

Introduction: Breast cancer and its treatments lead to several physical and psychological repercussions in the short and long term. Furthermore, breast cancer survivors (BCS) tend to present sedentary behavior, which worsens the aforementioned breast cancer treatment side effects. Physical exercise has been demonstrated to be effective for improvin...

Sleep deprivation affects the performance of postural control and several other aspects related to attentional mechanisms that may alter sensory cue acquisition strategies. This study aimed to examine the possible effects of horizontal saccades and ocular fixation on a target in the performance of postural control in young adults with sleep depriva...

BACKGROUND: Different amounts of force are needed to produce an effective turn for the pirouette, especially vertical force. AIM: To examine the vertical force produced by the supporting leg during the execution of a pirouette en dehors of ballet dancer and non-dancer participants. METHOD: The participants included five ballet dancers who composed...

BACKGROUND: A detail of previous studies on mental rotation, which has not received any attention so far, relates to the testing situation of the participants. In nearly every study, participants were tested in a sitting posture (and not standing). However, when considering embodied cognition approaches on mental processes, participants may not be...

This study aimed at determining the effect of kinesio-taping (KT) on muscle performance and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after exercise induced muscle damaged. Sixty-six healthy men volunteered to participate (age:18–25 y/o), who performed 200 isokinetic lengthening contractions of the dominant quadriceps. Then subjects were randomized to e...

Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) leads to several changes in motor control, many of them related to informational or cognitive overload. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of knowledge and intention on the postural control performance and on the coupling between visual information and body sway in people with and without PD s...

Introduction: Considered the second leading cause of death worldwide, stroke leads to several consequences resulting from the injury in regions responsible for the processing of sensorimotor information, leading to deficits in the maintenance and performance of postural control. Objective: To relate the performance of postural control during uprig...

Individuals with stroke often present functional impairment and gait alteration. Among different aspects, intralimb coordination of these individuals is one of the key points that should be considered before implementing any gait intervention protocol. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of stroke on intralimb gait coordination...

The study involved investigating dyslexic children's postural control responses when visual and somatosensory cues were separately manipulated. Twenty dyslexic and 19 nondyslexic children performed a trial by standing upright inside a moving room and another by lightly touching a moving bar. Both trials lasted 240 s with the following three differe...

Background: Many activities require a complex interrelationship between a performer and stimuli available in the environment without explicit perception, but many aspects regarding developmental changes in the use of implicit cues remain unknown. Aim: To investigate the use of implicit visual precueing presented at different time intervals in child...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have confirmed that there is a developmental delay in the fundamental motor skills (FMS) of Brazilian children based on various samples. However, none of these previous studies included a comprehensive and direct diagnosis of motor competence levels of children in the urban areas of Brazil, which tend to encompass a wid...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Parkinson's disease (PD) leads to several changes in sensory and motor functioning, compromising daily activities. There is evidence that people with PD have a greater reliance on vision to control actions, however, the basis for such evidence still has to be uncovered. The aim of this study was to examine the performance of pos...

Understanding the changes induced by body weight support (BWS) systems when non-disabled adults walk can help develop appropriate rehabilitation protocols. The purpose of this study was to investigate spatial-temporal gait alterations during walking with BWS on a treadmill and over the ground. Fourteen non-disabled young adults (including seven wom...

A dislexia caracteriza-se pela dificuldade de aprendizagem da leitura, escrita e soletração, sem uma causa aparente específica. Crianças e adultos com dislexia apresentam também déficits em diferentes tarefas sensório-motoras. Porém, não existe consenso quanto o efeito da dislexia na destreza dos dedos e se há alterações puramente motoras em indiví...

Best Oral Presentation Award, granted by the Brazilian Society of Biomechanics and PeerJ - the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences.

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in reading, writing, and spelling, with no apparent cause. Children and adults with dyslexia also have deficits in different sensory-motor tasks. However, there is no consensus about the effect of dyslexia on digits dexterity and if there are purely motor changes in individuals affected by this disorder. Th...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common psychiatric disorder without validated objective markers. Oculomotor behavior and executive motor control could potentially be used to investigate attention disorders. The aim of this study was to explore an oculomotor and postural dual task in children with ADHD. Forty-two children were i...

Study design: This work is a case series. Objectives: We assessed the influence of the aquatic environment on quasi-static posture by measuring center of pressure (COP) sway and trunk acceleration parameters after incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) in water and on land. Setting: Tertiary Rehabilitation Hospital, Ontario, Canada. Methods: S...

This study examined the effects of age and walking experience on infants' ability to step over an obstacle. We videotaped 30 infants with one (mean [M] age = 12.6 months), three (M age = 14.7 months), and six months (M age = 17.7 months) of walking experience walking on a pathway with and without an obstacle. We found a shorter stride and slower ve...

This study examined the coupling between visual information and body sway in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) compared with healthy controls. Postural control performance was compared between 14 patients with PD (age: 69.6 ± 8.8 years - stages 1 to 3 of the Hoehn and Yahr scale) and 14 healthy control participants (age: 68.6 ± 3.0 years). Par...

In this study, we investigated the eye movement and postural control performance in dyslexic children while reading text and performing Landolt reading when sitting and standing. Fifteen dyslexic and 15 non-dyslexic children were asked to sit in a chair while the eye movements were recorded, and were then asked to stand on an unstable platform whil...

The present study aimed to investigate the sensitivity of detecting lower limb passive motion and use of additional sensory information from fingertip light touch for the postural control of older adults in comparison with young adults. A total of 11 older and 11 young adults (aged 68.1 ± 5.2 and 24.2 ± 2.2 years, respectively) underwent two tasks....

The aim of this study was to examine eye movements and postural control performance among dyslexic children while reading a text and performing the Landolt reading task. Fifteen dyslexic and 15 non-dyslexic children were asked to stand upright while performing two experimental visual tasks: text reading and Landolt reading. In the text reading task...

Este trabalho teve como objetivo discutir alguns aspectos do funcionamento do sistema postural, enfatizando o relacionamento entre informação sensorial e ação motora. Verificando a utilização da informação visual e somatosensória na manutenção da posição em pé, por adultos e crianças, foi observado que o sistema de controle postural busca manter um...

BACKGROUND: Sleep deprivation is common nowadays and considering that attention is important to our daily activities, it is important to compare the effects of sleep deprivation on sustained attention.AIM: This study investigated the effects of sleep deprivation on sustained attention in young adults.METHOD: Sixteen adults were evaluated both afte...

The application of subsensory noise stimulation over the lower limbs has been shown to improve proprioception and postural control under certain conditions. Whereas the effect specificity seems to depend on several factors, studies are still needed to determine the appropriate method for training and rehabilitation purposes. In the current study, w...

Postural control involves the use of sensory cues that must be properly integrated to provide specific information to accommodate continuous changes in the environment. Studies have shown several features of adaptive sensorimotor behavior, but many of the mechanisms are still unknown, such as perdurable effects. The purpose of the present study was...

Studies have suggested a compromised postural control in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (OA) evidenced by larger and faster displacement of center of pressure (COP). However, quantification of postural control in the mini-squat posture performed by patients with early knee OA and its relation to muscle strength and self-reported symptoms have...

Introducción: En la enfermedad cerebro vascular uno de los principales problemas es la espasticidad, que compromete el control postural, la funcionalidad y la calidad de vida. Para lograr la mayor recuperación funcional, se han utilizado los enfoques neuromusculares del ejercicio terapéutico (Ej: Rood, Bobath, Brunnstrom y la Facilitación Neuromusc...

In this study, we investigated the use of somatosensory information by older adults, with and without visual information. Ten older (67.3 ± 4.8 years) and 10 younger adults (24.1 ± 2.5 years) remained in the semi-tandem quiet stance on a force plate in the following experimental conditions, each 30 s long: no vision and no touch (NV-NT), no vision...

Postural control functioning is characterized by adaptive adjustments, which involves several central nervous system centers. This study investigated the sensory-motor coupling in older and younger adults during concurrent different cognitive tasks while maintaining upright stance with visual manipulation. Fifteen older and 15 younger adults perfor...

Objective: To investigate the effects of gait training with body weight support on a treadmill vs. overground in individuals with chronic stroke. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: University research laboratory PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-eight individuals with chronic stroke (> 6 months). Interventions: Participants were randomly assig...

Although postural control requires the integration of different sensory cues, little is known about the role of attentional artifacts on the individual’s ability to properly respond to postural challenges. This study investigated the effects of concomitant tasks (cognitive and postural) on the relationship between visual information and body sway....