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Biomedical subjects

J Brozek

Publications and source records attributed to J Brozek.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Historical note: Early history of the anthropometry of body composition.

A pioneering paper outlining an anthropometric approach to the study of body composition, written by the Czech anthropologist Jindrich Matiegka, was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 1921. For a long time we have searched for information about the history of the idea and of the paper itself. In recent years, we were able to identify relevant correspondence in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington.

Anthropometry↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of generalized malnutrition on personality.

Anecdotal reports of changes in behavior under conditions of severe, protracted food deficits are of ancient lineage, whereas the psychometric investigations of the 20th century have been concerned primarily with the impairment of intellectual functioning in children who suffer or have suffered from protein-energy malnutrition. The present overview begins with the account of systematic observations of the behavioral effects of grossly inadequate food intake in World War II camps for prisoners of war and under conditions of epidemic starvation. The presentation is centered on quantitative assessments of personality-related aspects of behavior in a variety of contexts. The studies include laboratory investigations on the effects of severe food restriction in young men; examination of the differences between undernourished and well-nourished infants; assessment of the effects of the differences in the level of energy supplements during gestation, infancy, and early preschool years on social-emotional behavior in the early school years; and an investigation of long-term sequelae of clinical protein-energy malnutrition experienced in infancy.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Early Pavlovian studies on the effects of starvation. A contribution to the history of neurodietetics.

This communication is based on the pioneering studies performed by I. P. Pavlov's associates, Yu. P. Frolov (in 1918) and I. S. Rozental' (in 1918/1919) at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, in Petrograd. The changes in the "independent variable"--the dogs' diet--were not planned but were the consequences of severe shortages of food for man and beast. The principal generalization concerns the order in which different forms of "complex nervous activity" were impaired: the order is opposite to the order in which they emerge in the process of ontogenesis. First to suffer was "internal inhibition," as documented by the failure of stimulus differentiation. This was followed by the decrease in the magnitude of well-established conditional responses (CRs). As a result of a more severe impairment of the excitatory processes, it became difficult or impossible to establish new CRs. In time, previously established CRs to artificial stimuli, visual and acoustic, disappeared totally. The CRs to natural conditional stimuli (CSs) were maintained fairly well but, eventually, they too decreased markedly. In the terminal phase of starvation, the unconditional salivary reflexes continued to function, although their magnitude was depressed.

Animals↗