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Biomedical subjects

P T Ackerman

Publications and source records attributed to P T Ackerman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Effortful processing deficits in children with reading and/or attention disorders.

Three groups of educationally troublesome boys were contrasted with adequate students on several tasks tapping effortful processing. The nonhyperactive reading disabled (RD) group differed both from controls and two attention deficit disorder (ADD) groups, one with and one without hyperactivity (H), on aspects of a memory task involving acoustic and semantic associations. All three clinical groups differed from controls in memory for low-imagery as opposed to high-imagery words and in computational efficiency. A stepwise regression analysis to predict reading grade level showed age and WISC-R IQ to account for 38% of the variance with an additional 28% explained by the effortful task variables (multiple R = .83). It is theorized here that attentional disorder impedes automatization of number facts; and, inasmuch as RD children receive adverse attention ratings, even if not considered hyperactive, they, as well as ADD and H/ADD boys, exhibit this deficiency.

Attention↗
PubMed1986

Presumably innate and acquired automatic processes in children with attention and/or reading disorders.

Innate and acquired automatic information processing was compared in non-problem students and three groups of educationally troublesome children: two normal reading groups with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), one without and one with hyperactivity, and a non-hyperactive Reading Disabled (RD) group. All groups displayed reliable, presumably innate, automatic processing on measures of temporal and frequency sensitivity, but the two ADD groups made less precise judgements than controls. Contrasted with controls, all clinical groups exhibited delayed automatization in arithmetic computation, but the handicapped groups did not differ from controls on other measures of acquired automatization (speed of writing and naming).

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed1984

Effects of reward and methylphenidate on heart rate response morphology of augmenting and reducing children.

In a group of attention and/or learning disordered children referred for a trial on methylphenidate, beat-to-beat analysis of heart rate (HR) to auditory stimuli showed the response to be affected by stimulus intensity, reward level, and drug condition (placebo or active). When the children were classified as augmenters or reducers on the basis of their event-related potentials to the 4 intensity levels, the reducers had significantly higher pretreatment HR response levels as well as quicker latencies to reach deceleration trough (anticipatory component) and acceleratory peak (rebound rise to the tones). The clinically titrated methylphenidate dosage levels for the subjects were related both to the augmenter-reducer classification and to pretreatment HR levels; that is, subjects who were ERP reducers and/or had higher HR levels, especially under reward conditions, were blindly titrated at higher levels than those who were augmenters and/or had lower HR levels.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed1983

Auditory ERP augmentation-reduction and methylphenidate dosage needs in attention and reading disordered children.

From their event related potentials (ERPs) to tones of four intensity levels, a sample of attention disordered and/or reading disabled children, recommended for a trial on methylphenidate, were classified as auditory augmenters or reducers. The augmenters were blindly titrated at significantly lower dosage levels than the reducers. Moreover, the ameliorative effects of the drug, as assessed by teacher ratings, were more evident in hyperactive augmenters. The children diagnosed either as hyperactive or hyperactive and reading disabled had steeper (or more augmenting) gradients than the nonhyperactive reading disabled and attention disordered subjects. The ERP (N1-P2) gradients were not consistently related to reaction time (RT) gradients to the tones or to an RT measure of nervous system sensitivity. It is suggested that ERPs index registration but not response strength, the first being largely automatic and the second purposive.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed1982

Methylphenidate effects on cognitive style and reaction time in four groups of children.

Four groups of children referred for attention disorders, learning disorders, or both were blindly titrated at statistically equivalent dosage levels of methylphenidate and improved more or less equivalently on several measures of attentiveness (cognitive style tests and reaction time). Methylphenidate dosage needs, which vary considerably, appear more strongly related to indices of nervous system sensitivity than clinical diagnosis. Interactions of stimulus intensity, reward level, and drug condition on reaction time (RT) lend credence to the theoretical constructs of augmentation-reduction and nervous system sensitivity. Order of treatment (placebo before drug or drug before placebo) had an unexpected effect on RT, suggesting that on a boring, frustrating task, methylphenidate may enhance performance less as a function of number of exposures to the experience.

Attention↗
PubMed1982

Electrocortical frequencies in hyperactive, learning-disabled, mixed, and normal children.

Ten boys in each of four groups (hyperactive, learning-disabled, hyperactive/learning-disabled or mixed, and normal) were exposed to a complex visual search task. EEGs were recorded at central and parietal sites, 1-sec prestimulus and 1-sec poststimulus onset, on three types of trials. The resulting wave forms, averaged over trials, were converted to the frequency domain via a fast Fourier transform and factored by principal components. Four components accounting for 87% of the variance were varimax-rotated. Analyses of variance of the component scores revealed that Component 1 differentiated the four groups of boys. This component had highest loadings in frequencies from 16 to 20 Hz and secondary loading in frequencies from 7 to 10 Hz. It was concluded that this multifrequency component is sensitive to parameters deficient in hyperactive and learning-disabled children.

Attention↗
PubMed1980

Effects of methylphenidate on selective and sustained attention in hyperactive, reading-disabled, and presumably attention-disordered boys.

Performance on a visual search task was contrasted for hyperactive boys and nonhyperactive reading-disabled and presumably attention-disordered boys participating in a double blind, crossover study (methylphenidate vs. placebo). Mean dosage levels, individually titrated by the team psychiatrist, were highest for the reading-disabled group, lowest for those with suspected attention disorders. All three groups were seen by teachers and parents as significantly improved while on medication, and all groups dramatically reduced extraneous responses and attention lapses on the laboratory task. On a composite measure of performance and behavior, the nonhyperactive subjects improved significantly more than the hyperactive subjects. Although given rather high average dosage levels (about 37.5 mg/day or 1.25 mg/kg.day), the subjects did not deteriorate in search behavior, which entails short term memory. It is argued that the cerebral stimulants may be as beneficial for nonhyperactive reading-disabled and attention-disordered children as for hyperactive patients, for the former have just as great difficulty sustaining attention as the latter.

Attention↗
PubMed1979

A psychosocial study of hyperactive and learning-disabled boys.

Adequately reading hyperactive boys, normally behaved learning-disabled (LD) boys, and normal controls were contrasted on tests measuring personality traits, cognitive role taking, and moral resoning. Additionally, parents and teachers rated all children on a number of behaviors, and parents were interviewed in a process-oriented fashion to assess home stimulation potential. Hyperactive boys were rated more aggressive and anxious than LD boys and controls and had not been encouraged as much by parents to achieve. Hyperactives had been born to younger parents, on the average, and 25% lived with their mothers and stepfathers. None of the LD or control boys had stepfathers. The groups did not differ significantly in moral reasoning ability, cognitive role taking, or locus of control; on the Junior Personality Inventory hyperactives tended to have elevated scores on the neuroticism scale while LD boys had higher scores on the lie scale.

Aggression↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Posttraumatic stress disorder: a sensitization reaction.

This article discusses past research bearing on the question of the etiology of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It argues that PTSD can be adequately accounted for by a process of emotional sensitization and that this is a more parsimonious explanation than the two-factor learning theory of Mowrer, now postulated by several writers. In brief, the etiology and subsequent development of PTSD is viewed as the result of the sensitization of fear/anxiety which is linked to a variety of to be conditional stimuli by both backward and forward association: these become conditional stimuli (CSi) once paired with the instigating circumstances. It is furthermore assumed that PTSD will not occur in the absence of a genetic susceptibility that may vary from zero to absolute certainty. Thus far, our evidence is limited to a sensitivity to loud sounds, but it is highly probable that touch and other sensory systems are involved (not necessarily in parallel). The fact that abuse often leads to behavioral disorders, including sexually seductive behaviors in children sexually abused, requires a recognition that emotional reactions other than fear may be sensitized. Fear in combination with pleasure or pleasure alone coupled with a loss of self-esteem may explain these acting-out behaviors.

Adult↗