Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J W Mink

Publications and source records attributed to J W Mink.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Masturbation mimicking paroxysmal dystonia or dyskinesia in a young girl.

We present the case of a young girl with periodic posturing during masturbation. The child had been evaluated by several physicians and underwent numerous diagnostic tests before the spells were seen by a physician and determined to be self-stimulatory and not paroxysmal dystonia. Masturbation is a normal and common behavior in young children and should be recognized as such. Failure to recognize this behavior can lead to unnecessary and invasive testing.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1993

Basal ganglia intrinsic circuits and their role in behavior.

There have been significant recent advances in the understanding of basal ganglia circuitry and its role in behavior. Important areas of work in the past year include, firstly, the role of striatal neurons in early phases of movement and, secondly, further characterization of the intrinsic circuitry with emphasis on the importance of the subthalamic nucleus and its connections. A conceptual model of basal ganglia inhibition of competing motor programs is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Basal ganglia motor control. I. Nonexclusive relation of pallidal discharge to five movement modes.

1. To evaluate the various hypotheses that the basal ganglia preferentially control one mode of movement to the exclusion of others, we recorded the discharge of single neurons in the globus pallidus (GP) in rhesus monkeys during their performance of five trained wrist-movement tasks. The tasks were designed to dissociate several modes and parameters of movement to see whether pallidal neurons would discharge in relation to one and not the others. All tasks were performed by flexing and extending the wrist with opposing or assisting torque loads (0.2 Nm). The five tasks included 1) VisStep, a visually cued step tracking task; 2) VisRamp, a visually guided hold-ramp-hold tracking task; 3) VisSine, a visually guided rapid sinusoidal tracking task; 4) SelfRamp, a self-paced hold-ramp-hold task with delayed alternation, trained velocity, and no visual feedback of wrist position; and 5) SelfSine, a self-paced rapid sinusoidal movement without visual feedback of wrist position. Wrist position and velocity were monitored during all recordings; and wrist, arm, shoulder, and back electromyographs (EMGs) were monitored periodically. Unit discharge was recorded extracellularly from both segments of the GP. The results were similar in the present analysis and are considered together. As a control, units were also recorded in the dentate nucleus of the lateral cerebellum, and the EMGs of many muscles were recorded in limbs, neck and trunk. 2. For 100 GP neurons [41 in the internal segment (GPi) and 59 in the external segment (GPe)], the activity of which changed with task performance, the discharge patterns varied greatly across tasks. The discharge of 96/97 neurons (99%) changed during VisStep, 66/91 neurons (73%) changed during VisRamp, 41/81 neurons (51%) changed during VisSine, 7/34 neurons (21%) changed during SelfRamp, and 25/80 neurons (31%) changed during SelfSine. Of 74 neurons that were fully tested in four or more tasks, 16 (21%) were related only to one task; only 17 cells (23%) were related to all tasks; and, for the remaining 41 (55%) neurons, the relation of the discharge of a given neuron to one task did not predict its relation to other tasks. These task-dependent differences in the discharge of pallidal neurons were not correlated with differences in wrist position, velocity, load, or muscle activity (see also the following paper--Mink and Thach, 1991a). 3. From these data, we conclude that no one task engaged all pallidal neurons to the exclusion of other tasks.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Basal ganglia motor control. II. Late pallidal timing relative to movement onset and inconsistent pallidal coding of movement parameters.

1. We have tested the hypothesis that the basal ganglia initiate some one or several modes of movement by recording the change in discharge frequency of pallidal neurons during visually triggered step and visually paced ramp moves in relation to the visual stimulus onset, the change in the electromyograph (EMG), and the movement onset of trained rhesus monkeys. 2. The modal times of change for globus pallidus pars interna (GPi) were significantly later than those for forearm agonist muscle EMG. By contrast, the modal time of change for the cerebellar dentate nucleus preceded that for wrist agonist EMG. 3. The direction of change in discharge frequency of the GPi cells was for 71% an increase and for 29% a decrease. 4. Because of the relatively late change of activity of GPi neurons, we propose that GPi neurons cannot initiate these movements, as others have also suggested. The commands for the initiation of these movements may instead be generated by structures that include the lateral cerebellum and the anterior cerebral cortex. 5. We have also tested the hypothesis that the pallidum of the basal ganglia or the dentate of the lateral cerebellum may control the direction and other parameters of the trajectory by recording from both structures to see whether cell discharge correlated with the parameter and whether the correlation was consistent across tasks. Two rhesus monkeys were trained to perform hold-ramp-hold and hold-step-hold visually guided movements in opposite directions by flexing and extending the wrist with and against uniform oppositely directed torque loads (0.2 Nm). Wrist position, velocity, force, and EMG were recorded simultaneously. Movement amplitudes and directional intent were computed and inferred, respectively. 6. Task related neurons were classified as follows: 1) directional, if the discharge rate was reciprocal for opposite movements or if it increased or decreased during movement in one direction only; 2) bidirectional, if the discharge rate increased or decreased during movement in both directions; and 3) "other," if it was directional under one load and bidirectional under the other. During step tracking, 34 GPi, 47 globus pallidus pars externa (GPe), and 44 cerebellar dentate nuclear neurons were related to the task. Of the GPi cells, 14 (41%) were directional, 6 (18%) bidirectional, and 14 (41%) other. Of the GPe neurons, 13 (28%) were directional, 19 (40%) bidirectional, and 15 (32%) other. Of the dentate cerebellar nuclear cells, 5 (11%) were bidirectional, 31 (70%) bidirectional, and 8 (18%) other.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1991

Basal ganglia motor control. III. Pallidal ablation: normal reaction time, muscle cocontraction, and slow movement.

1. Inactivation of the portions of globus pallidus pars interna (GPi) containing the greatest concentration of wrist-related neurons was achieved in two rhesus monkeys with microinjections of muscimol (temporary) and kainic acid (permanent). 2. After muscimol injection, there was onset within 30 s of 1) tonic and phasic coactivation of wrist flexors and extensors; 2) slightly greater activation of the flexors, giving a flexor bias in postural holds and the endpoint of movements; and 3) slowness of all movements with a prolonged movement time. Nevertheless, 4) movements made by lessening prior loaded muscle activity (to move in the direction of the load) were slower than movement made by increasing muscle activity (to move against the direction of the load). Despite marked slowing of all movements, there was 5) a normal reaction time for movement onset. Finally, there was 6) a reduced amplitude of most movements. Open room behavior included 7) spiraling contralateral to the lesion while walking. Effects were reproducible (12 injections), were apparent for 7-8 h and were usually completely gone by the next day's testing. 3. After kainic acid injection, there was a period of mixed effects, followed by a period of permanent defects (observed for up to 24 days) that duplicated the temporary effects of muscimol. 4. By contrast, muscimol inactivation of the cerebellar dentate nucleus resulted in 1) a prolonged reaction time and 2) an increased variability of movement trajectory, but 3) without change in movement time or peak velocity. Open room behavior included overshoot in reaching for fruit with the forelimb ipsilateral to the injection. 5. From the facts that normal pallidal neurons fire constantly, that pallidal neurons inhibit their target neurons, and that the muscimol effect was immediate, we conclude that the release of the target neurons from the tonic inhibition allowed them to fire in patterns that promoted a maintained state of cocontraction of agonist and antagonist muscles. From the fact that movement time was prolonged, we conclude that the maintained state of neural activity that caused the muscle cocontraction interfered with the commands for voluntary movement, which were generated by other mechanisms. From the fact that reaction time for movement onset was normal, we conclude that the pallidal neurons may play little or no role in the voluntary initiation of these movements, which are instead generated by other structures that include the anterior cerebral cortex and the lateral cerebellum.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Preferential relation of pallidal neurons to ballistic movements.

The activity of single globus pallidus neurons was recorded in monkeys trained to perform 5 different wrist movement tasks that were designed to dissociate several modes of movement. Most neurons had activity changes related to visually guided movements and not to self-paced movements. The greatest activity changes were seen during prompt, ballistic, step-tracking movements and several neurons were related only to ballistic movements.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Activity of basal forebrain neurons in the rat during motivated behaviors.

The activity of single neurons in the basal forebrain was recorded in the freely-moving rat with moveable fine-wire electrodes. Neural activity was observed while the water-deprived male rat was exposed to three different types of motivating stimuli that elicit locomotion in a running wheel: an estrous female rat; a drinking tube containing water; and grasping and lifting by the experimenter. The neural activity was also observed when the subject was presented with standardized sensory tests and during single pulse stimulation of other brain structures. A majority of the 76 neurons recorded in the forebrain changed their firing rate during orienting and/or locomotion in general (23 neurons) or during behavior related to only one of the specific motivational contexts: the conspecific female (4 neurons); water (7 neurons); or grasp by the experimenter (8 neurons). Whereas the neurons related to orienting and/or locomotion in general were scattered through various brain structures, those neurons related to specific motivational contexts were concentrated in specific areas: the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the medial preoptic area (conspecific female); lateral septum (water); and lateral preoptic area (water and grasp). The present results, although based on relatively few neurons, are consonant with results of research using other techniques. This indicates that analyses at the level of the single neuron promise to be useful for understanding the role of the basal forebrain in motivational systems.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Ratio of central nervous system to body metabolism in vertebrates: its constancy and functional basis.

We present and document an hypothesis that healthy adults of most vertebrate species use 2-8% of their basal metabolism for the central nervous system (CNS). This relationship is constant across all classes of vertebrates, as we found by examining data from 42 species, including 3 fish, 3 amphibia, 2 reptiles, 6 birds, and 28 mammals. To explain its constancy, we hypothesize that an optimal functional relationship between the energy requirements of an animal's executor system (muscle metabolism) and its control system (CNS metabolism) was established early in vertebrate evolution. Three types of exceptional cases are discussed in terms of the hypothesis: very large animals, domesticated animals, and primates.

Amphibians↗