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Biomedical subjects

A W Epstein

Publications and source records attributed to A W Epstein.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Categorization: a fundamental of unconscious mental activity.

Association formation and categorization, phenomena below volition and awareness, are in the unconscious domain. They reflect automatic processes of brain circuitry. The formation and maintenance of associations and categories require as well as yield neural energy, energy arising from cerebral metabolic processes. Automatic categorization is a fundamental element in perceptual, motoric, and cognitive functions as emphasized by Edelman (1987) who, further, relates categorization to dynamic cerebral cortical fields and to limbic fields for the necessary affective component.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1992

Common human phobias.

The kernel of realistic fear present in the common phobias arises from phylogenetic as well as ontogenetic roots. A phobia's full development depends upon life experience, the role of the symbolization process in expressing personal conflict, and individual temperamental and familial factors.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

What the reflex epilepsies reveal about the physiology of ideation.

A review of the phenomena involved in reflex epilepsy illustrates that ideas have a neural substrate. The ideational substratum and, at times, associative links to other stimuli have physiological (epileptogenic) power. These phenomena can be applied to events in some psychopathological disorders.

Arousal↗
PubMed1988

Decoy.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1988

Obligatory associations: a function of dreaming.

Some dream images are unequivocally linked to events experienced in the waking state but are not identical. The author refers to such alterations as "obligatory associations"; these serve varied psychical requirements, including cognitive transformation.

Association↗
PubMed1985

The waking event-dream interval.

Through self-observation, the author estimated the interval between waking events and their incorporation into a dream. Most of the events had occurred the day of the dream, but some had occurred 3-4 days earlier.

Dreams↗
PubMed1979

Effect of certain cerebral hemispheric diseases on dreaming.

Dreaming may be altered by cerebral hemispheric disease. A woman who sustained a probable left posterior cerebral artery thrombosis, with right homonymous hemianopsia and alexia, had virtual cessation of dreaming for at least 9 months. Four individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy experienced recurrent painful (frightening) dreams, which in two patients showed features identical to seizures. Sleep recordings showed abnormalities in all four, including rhythmic temporal epileptiform activity during REM sleep. Lesions in parieto-occipital loci may interfere with production of the visual imagery required for dreaming (negative symptom in the Jacksonian sense) while epileptic activity in temporal loci may produce painful repetitive dream imagery (positive symptom).

Adult↗
PubMed1975

The fetish object: phylogenetic considerations.

Direct observations of behavior evoked by a fetish object (wet shoe) in one patient are reported. The intrinsic qualities of an object endowing it with fetish power are reported. The intrinsic qualities of an object endowing it with fetish power are examined. Such qualities may be related to human perceptual preferences, a product of phylogeny, stemming from such factors as the primate interest in body parts and extracorporeal objects. The capicity to relate to an inanimate object including the assimilation of the object by variedmotor acts reflects the crucial role of objects (tools) in hominid evolution. Also phylogenetically based is the human capacity to assign mutiple meanings to an object.

Adolescent↗