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Biomedical subjects

B Hermelin

Publications and source records attributed to B Hermelin.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Visual memory and motor programmes: their use by idiot-savant artists and controls.

Artistically gifted children of normal intelligence and idiot-savant artists as well as two groups of IQ-matched controls were tested for their perception of and recognition memory for shapes. They were also tested for their capacity to graphically reproduce the shapes on sight (copying) or from memory. The material consisted of designs of two levels of complexity and structure. Results showed that while IQ was the determining factor in matching and recognition performance, copying and reproduction ability depended on artistic ability and was independent of level of intelligence. These results are interpreted in terms of access to an intelligence-independent system of graphic representations which can evoke appropriate motor programmes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

[Surgical results of uretero-vesical reimplantations in children. Apropos of 356 cases in 11 years (629 reimplanted ureters)].

629 ureteric reimplantations were performed in 356 children. Indications for reimplantation were 315 uni or bilateral ureteral reflux, 248 primary reflux and 67 secondary to ureteric duplication, ureterocele, vesical diverticula, neurogenic bladder, bladder neck obstruction, or ureteral obstruction, and 52 megaureters, 38 primary and 14 secondary megaureters. 61 reimplantations (14 megaureters) by Leadbetter-Politano, and 568 reimplantations (58 megaureters) by Cohen procedure were performed. 3 psoas hitching and 15 ureteroplasties, 14 Hendren and 1 Kalicinski procedures, were necessary. Primary results in reflux were 98.5% of success with Cohen operation and 100% with Leadbetter-Politano operation. Results were not so good in megaureter, 70% of success with Leadbetter-Politano operation and 75% with Cohen. Results were better with psoas hitching and ureteroplasty (86.5% of success).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Idiot savant calendrical calculators: rules and regularities.

The three experiments described aimed to establish whether the achievements of idiot savant calendrical calculators were based solely on rote memory and arithmetical procedures, or whether these subjects also used rule-based strategies. It was found that, although different structural calendar regularities were tested by using differing experimental paradigms, all subjects could at least use some of the rules under investigation. The more cognitively able subjects could make use of all the three structural regularities of the calendar tested here. It was concluded that idiot savant calendrical calculators can use rule-based strategies to aid them in the calculation of the days on which past and future dates fall.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Idiot savant calendrical calculators: maths or memory?

Eight idiot savant calendrical calculators were tested on dates in the years 1963, 1973, 1983, 1986 and 1993. The study was carried out in 1983. Speeds of correct response were minimal in 1983 and increased markedly into the past and the future. The response time increase was matched by an increase in errors. Speeds of response were uncorrelated with measured IQ, but the numbers were insufficient to justify any inference in terms of IQ-independence. Results are interpreted as showing that memory alone is inadequate to explain the calendrical calculating performance of the idiot savant subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Peripheral and central handicap and encoding.

A linear model of information processing led to many experiments on learning difficulties in the subnormal and severely subnormal. It assumes learning can result from a break in the chain of information flow at any point but overlooks compensatory mechanisms common to a developing organism. To compensate for the model's difficulties, we compared blind and deaf children with subnormal and subnormal autistic children (i.e. localized with general cognitive incapacities). Absence of a modality led to alternative encoding strategies, but in certain circumstances they also occurred in the centrally handicapped. Reasons for the similarities and differences are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Incompatible blood-group A determinants in tumoral mucins. Isolation of oligosaccharides having a 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-alpha-D-galactopyranosyl group at the non-reducing end.

Two glycopeptide fractions were obtained from pseudomyxomatous mucins secreted by an ovarian cystadenocarcinoma from a female having blood-group B, and by an appendix tumor from a male having blood-group O. The carbohydrate and amino acid content of these fractions suggests the presence of numerous carbohydrate side-chains linked through O-glycosyl bonds to a peptide core rich in threonine and proline. The two glycopeptide fractions exhibit compatible B- and H-blood-group activities. They are reactive towards Dolichos biflorus lectin and human anti-A agglutinins, and so exhibit an incompatible A activity. Alkali-borohydride degradation of Pronase-digested glycopeptides gave dialyzable oligosaccharides that were purified and shown to possess 2-acetamido-2-deoxygalactitol at the terminal reducing-end. 2-Acetamido-2-deoxyglucose, galactose, fucose, and neuraminic acid were absent, or present, in variable proportions. Four oligosaccharides containing 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactose residues were reactive towards Dolichos biflorus lectin and human anti-A agglutinins, indicating the presence, at the nonreducing end, of a 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-alpha-D-galactopyranosyl group, responsible for blood-group A activity.

ABO Blood-Group System↗
PubMed1979

Kinaesthetic movement after-effects in children with Down's syndrome.

In order to assess the liability of proprioceptive information, an experiment on kinaesthetic after-effects was carried out. Matched groups of severely subnormal and Down's syndrome subjects were compared with normal children of either the same chronological or the same mental age. No difference was found between the normal and the severely subnormal children, but the magnitude of the after-effect measures in Down's syndrome children suggests that asymmetrical pointing produced kinaesthetic after-effects which disrupted these subjects' total frame of spatial reference.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Lysosomal N-acetyl-beta-hexosaminidase and beta-glucuronidase activities from arterial wall. Variations with aging.

Properties of two hydrolases: beta-glucuronidase and N-acetyl-beta-hexosaminidase were studied in lysosomal fractions of media-intima from arterial wall. These enzymatic activities change significantly with aging. In the arterial wall, the decrease in activities of beta-glucuronidase and N-acetyl-beta-hexosaminidase between young and old rats was highly significant while there no notable change in the activities of acid phosphatase. These data are in agreement with the metabolic slow-down and the modifications of the glycosaminoglycan distribution in the media-intima of arterial wall with aging.

Acid Phosphatase↗
PubMed1977

[Study in vapor phase of the reversible action of volatile narcotics and toxic drugs by the method of inhibition of bacterial photogenesis].

A new method is proposed in order to appreciate the potency of some volatile anaesthetics and toxics in vapour phase. The method is founded upon the classical concept of thermodynamic activity and on the reversible inhibition of bacterioluminescence tested in vapour phase. Deprived of all experimental inertia the method allows very precise kinetic studies of the various types of inhibition.

Anesthesia, Inhalation↗