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Biomedical subjects

H Weingartner

Publications and source records attributed to H Weingartner.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Effects of amitriptyline, desipramine and zimeldine, alone and in combination with ethanol, on information processing and memory in healthy volunteers.

Interactions of three antidepressants--amitriptyline, desipramine and zimeldine--with a single 0.8 g/kg body weight dose of alcohol were studied in healthy male volunteers. The dependent variables were performance measurements in the Continuous Performance Task and a cognitive memory task. Alcohol and desipramine showed different and specific deleterious effects on cognitive and memory functions, whereas amitriptyline produced a more generalized impairment. Zimeldine slightly improved performance in the Continuous Performance Task and antagonized effects of alcohol in both tasks.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Altered lateralization of cognitive processes in depressed women.

Eighteen normal men and women had a left hemisphere advantage for processing a verbal task, but depressed women showed a trend toward right hemisphere superiority. In depression the right hemisphere may share functions performed exclusively by the left hemisphere in normal subjects. Altered laterality may be a trait of depression-prone people or a change related to depressive episodes themselves. In the latter case, the right hemisphere may be compensating for relative deactivation of the dominant left hemisphere.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Effort and cognition in depression.

Motor performance and cognitive function were examined in depressed patients and controls. Increasing severity of depression was strongly associated with decrements in performance in both motor and memory tasks. Greatest depression-related impairment was found on those cognitive and motor tasks that required sustained effort. We discuss these results in terms of a generalized deficit in the central motivational state of depressed individuals.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Acquisition and retrieval of information in amphetamine-treated hyperactive children.

State-dependent learning and memory (retrieval) processes were examined in 15 amphetamine-treated hyperactive boys. While stimulant treatment enhanced the acquisition of information and its retrieval 24 hours later, there was no evidence of poorer retrieval of information learned in a state different from the retrieval state. Amphetamine appeared particularly to facilitate effortful cognitive processes. Subgroups of hyperactive children respond to amphetamine treatment in different ways, some showing changes in motor restlessness and others changes in cognition. The lack of dissociative effects when information is learned and recalled under different drug conditions suggests that what the stimulant-treated child learns can be effectively recovered after completion of treatment.

Attention↗
PubMed1982

Disturbances of sleep and cognitive functioning in patients with dementia.

The relationship of sleep, circadian rhythms, and cognitive impairment in dementia patients is briefly reviewed. All-night sleep EEG data were collected in relatively young and relatively unimpaired patients with presumptive Alzheimer's disease and eight age-matched controls. Delta sleep time and Delta sleep % (Stages 3 and 4)--but not REM sleep measures--were significantly reduced in the patients. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1982

A clinical study of flurazepam.

Eleven patients suffering from chronic insomnia were given 30 mg flurazepam for 28 nights. While EEG measures of total sleep time and sleep efficiency were improved, changes in sleep latency and intermittent waking time were small and nonsignificant. Subjective benefits in sleep were confined to the first 2 nights. There was neither increased nor decreased daytime sleepiness. Cognitive functioning was significantly decreased during the first 2 days, and patients were unaware of these changes. Simple motor tasks were relatively unaffected. Desalkylflurazepam concentrations showed significant accumulation over time, but were not predictive of sleep measures or daytime performance in individual subjects. The withdrawal period was characterized by subjectively disturbed sleep and daytime dysphoria.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1981

Effects of vasopressin on human memory functions.

Arginine vasopressin and a number of its synthetic analogs augment memory functions in experimental animals. One of these analogs, 1-desamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP), influences human learning and memory. Cognitively unimpaired, as well as cognitively impaired adults, treated with DDAVP for a period of several days, learn information more effectively, as measured by the completeness, organization, and consistency (reliability) of recall. DDAVP also appears to reverse partially the retrograde amnesia that follows electroconvulsive treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Cognitive processes in depression.

During depressive episodes, patients show both qualitative and quantitative changes in how information is processed. Depressed patients appear to use weak or incomplete encoding strategies to organize and transform events to be remembered. This makes these events less memorable. If the depressed patient is provided organization and structure, then learning-memory deficits are not apparent. Disruptions in arousal-activation in depression can account for these cognitive impairments.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Qualitative analysis of scopolamine-induced amnesia.

The neurochemistry of memory remains to be determined. Acetylcholine may be one of the neuotransmitters which mediates memory function, since the anticholinergic drug scopolamine produces amnesia in man. This study of scopolamine-induced memory deficits further defines those cognitive processes which are disrupted. The drug does not diminish attention, as assessed with an auditory vigilance task, or initial signal detection. More complex auditory decoding is affected, however. Scopolamine impairs aspects of initial memory acquisition (e. g., encoding and consolidation) and spontaneous memory retrieval. Retention is unaffected. Precise delineation of the neurochemistry of human memory will require comparative studies of amnesia-producing compounds, systematically examining the neuropsychological processes impaired by each.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

The alcohol facilitation effect on memory: a dose-response study.

Sixteen normal male subjects participated in four sessions where they studied a set of pictures followed by either placebo, 0.025, 0.50, or 1.0 ml/kg alcohol. Later, when sober, recognition memory was tested. These doses resulted in peak blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0.00, 0.018, 0.034, and 0.067 g/100 ml, respectively. The 1.0 and 0.50 ml/kg doses significantly improved memory for pictures studied before drinking. Alcohol appears to enhance memory directly rather than indirectly via a reduction in interference. It is suggested that a particular phase of the rising blood alcohol curve (0.02-0.03 g/100 ml) facilitates trace consolidation. The facilitating and possibly excitatory effects of alcohol may be important for understanding the rewarding aspects of drinking.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Behavioral and cognitive effects of caffeine in boys and adult males.

The behavioral and cognitive effects of single doses of caffeine (3 and 10 mg/kg) were studied using a double blind placebo-controlled crossover design. Subjects were 19 prepubertal boys and 20 college age men. In general, children tended to show more objective effects of caffeine than did adults, with increased motor activity, increased speech rate, and decreased reaction time. Adults generally reported side effects following caffeine while children did not, and side effects were more prominent for adults with low habitual caffeine intake. Autonomic measures of arousal were similarly affected for both age groups. Caffeine had some effects that differed from those of amphetamine, indicating distinctive actions of the two stimulants.

Adult↗