Abstracts Psychology

The Case for Mass Customization : Analyzing Opportunity for Modular Prefabricated Building Typology in Specific Urban Contexts

by Bryan G Grubbs

Greater force variability impairs our ability to use every day tools, learn new motor tasks, and perform accurate movements. Recent evidence suggests that force variability is strongly associated with low-frequency oscillations in force, specifically from 0-0.5 Hz. The origin of the oscillations in this band has been attributed to numerous factors, including muscle sympathetic nervous system activity. It is well established that stress increases the muscle sympathetic nervous system activity. Our purpose, therefore, was to determine whether the increase in force variability with stress is related to an increase in low-frequency oscillations. Thirty five healthy adults (ranging in age from 19-81 years) participated in this study. Participants were instructed to sustain a pinch grip force with the right hand at 2% of maximum voluntary contraction force. We increased stress with a series of electrical stimuli that was applied to the dorsal surface of the left hand. The electrical stimuli were delivered during the stressor period (15 min) of the protocol, which was preceded by an anticipatory period (30 minutes) and followed by a recovery period (25 minutes). The increase in force variability from the anticipatory period to the stressor period was strongly correlated with an increase in force oscillations from 0-0.5 Hz (R2=0.75; P<0.001). Furthermore, we found that the decrease in force variability from the stressor to the recovery period was strongly related to a decrease in force oscillations from 0-0.5 Hz (R2=0.76; P<0.001). These findings provide novel evidence that the power in 0-0.5 Hz band in the force output can be manipulated with stress and thus could be related to sympathetic nervous system activity.