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Biomedical subjects

J M Pearce

Publications and source records attributed to J M Pearce.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Sudden death due to disseminated cryptococcosis in a child with leukemia in remission.

Cryptococcus neoformans typically causes an insidious illness with symptoms related to meningitis or to lung involvement. This is the first reported sudden death due to cryptococcosis, which occurred in a child with leukemia that was in remission. The child had suddenly looked seriously ill and cried with abdominal pain and then died within 25 minutes. Disseminated cryptococcal infection of the lungs, heart, and pancreas was an unexpected finding at autopsy. This clinical experience raises the question whether fungal infections should now be considered in immunosuppressed patients who have an apparent septic collapse.

Abdominal Pain↗

Sigmund Freud.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

History, 19th Century↗

Acquisition of conditioned inhibition in rats is impaired by ablation of serotoninergic pathways.

The effects of chronically ablating the serotoninergic inputs to various regions of the rat brain on the ability to solve a feature-negative discrimination was measured. After intracerebroventricular administration of the specific neurotoxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine, the rats exhibited an impaired capacity to solve such a discrimination, irrespective of whether auditory or visual stimuli were used. Further behavioural analysis revealed that this effect was not due to a reduced capacity to form excitatory associations, since both groups responded equally to reinforced stimuli. By contrast, the lesion more likely resulted in a failure to endow the non-reinforced stimuli with inhibitory properties. This suggestion was supported by the observation that, in a retardation test, the conditioned inhibitor aroused less inhibition in the lesioned group than in vehicle-injected controls. Furthermore, the conditioned inhibitor failed to pass a summation test in lesioned animals, again indicating that their hampered ability to master the discrimination was the result of an impairment in the formation of inhibitory associations. It is concluded that destruction of central 5-hydroxytryptamine-containing pathways impairs the functioning of brain areas underlying inhibitory associative learning.

5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine↗