Mothers' speech to prelingual infants: a pragmatic analysis.
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Female↗
Biomedical subjects
R Meares
Publications and source records attributed to R Meares.
Keats and the "impersonal" therapist: a note on empathy and the therapeutic screen.
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Empathy↗
Synchrony in mother-infant interaction: a possible neurophysiological base.
The extent to which mothers and their infants can synchronize their activity levels and cycles of engagement and disengagement has been seen as fundamental to healthy affective development in the infant. Ten mothers and their infants were studied to consider the possibility of a neurophysiological base to synchronization potential. The infants' neurophysiological capacities were examined within two to three days of birth using the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale. The same infants and their mothers were assessed in their interactions after three months. The mothers' physiological responses to stimulation also were examined. Significant correlations were found between neonatal responsivity to stimuli and motor maturity, maternal stimulus screening capacity and the nature of the mother-infant interaction at three months. In particular, infants who were more socially responsive and attentive to stimuli had mothers with a greater capacity for 'screening out' redundant stimuli. Moreover, these same dyads spent more time in social engagement and had fewer cycles of disengagement. These findings, together with other studies, suggest that particular neurophysiological capacities of mothers and infants may be more conducive to the synchronization of their interactions than others. This raises the possibility that the chaotic asynchrony observed in clinically diagnosed mother-infant disturbances may have a neurophysiological base.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Adolescent suicide.
In Australia, the suicide rate for adolescent males has doubled during the seventies; that for adolescent girls remains unchanged. For the remainder of the male population the rise is paralleled only by men in their twenties. Otherwise, for middle-aged men the suicide rate remains about the same and in the older age groups is falling.
Adolescent↗
Some origins of the 'difficult' child: the Brazelton scale and the mother's view of her new-born's character.
Thirty-two mothers and their new-born babies were studied in order to consider, in a limited way, the manner in which a mother comes to attribute personality traits to her infant. The child's expected 'difficulty' was rated by means of a standardized inventory. In addition, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the mother, and her baby was examined by means which have been described by Brazelton. The circumstances of birth were taken from hospital records. Mothers who did not expect the child to be difficult showed a 'general flexibility' which probably related to coping ability. Babies who were seen as unlikely to be difficult had high scores on 'state control' and 'physiological response to stress'. These measures include ratings for habituation and seem to reflect an efficient means of dealing with stimuli. These infantile factors did not correlate with the maternal one, suggesting that a genetic explanation of the findings was not likely. The effect of the circumstances of birth was not strong, but medication level seemed important. The transcripts of the mothers' interviews were consistent with the view that the mother's assessment of her infant's character was not only influenced by a fine observation of the infant's behaviour but also by something like 'projective identification'. The transcripts also suggested that mechanisms which have been seen as important in the development of identity in adolescence may be operating from the first days of life.
Adolescent↗
A sex difference in the seasonal variation of suicide rate: a single cycle for men, two cycles for women.
The marked seasonal fluctuation in suicide rates observed by Durkheim appears to be diminishing, and in some cases, to have vanished. In this study, suicide data in Britain from 1958 to 1974 were studied by auto-correlational methods. A cyclical variation was found for both men and women. Men showed a single twelve monthly cycle whereas women showed two cycles. No explanation for this difference is immediately apparent.
Female↗
Tobacco smoking and cortical evoked potentials: an opposite effect on auditory and visual systems.
1. Auditory and visual evoked potentials produced by five intensities of tones and light flashes were recorded in twelve young men who were habitual smokers. 2. The subjects attended the laboratory on four occasions. Two recordings were made on each of the last three of these visits. They were made (i) before and after smoking, (ii) without smoking, (iii) before and after smoking after 12 h abstinence from smoking. 3. Smoking was associated with increases in the amplitudes of the components V-VI, VI-VII in the visual system and a decrease in the amplitude of N2P2 in the auditory system. Abstinence from smoking produced effects in the opposite direction. 4. These findings are consistent with the possibility that smoking has different and perhaps opposite effects on the visual and auditory system. 5. The findings may be helpful in re-evaluating some of the apparently conflicting reports on the effects of smoking on perceptual processes.
Adolescent↗
Attention in hysteria: a study of Janet's hypothesis by means of habituation and arousal measures.
Toward the end of the 19th century, Janet suggested that the fundamental disorder in hysteria was one of attention. The authors examined this idea in a study of habituation. Patients with a history of prolonged conversion symptons (N = 11) showed a severe impairment in habituation when compared with patients with anxiety neuroses (N = 10). This finding cannot be explained in terms of arousal and suggests that selective inattention is deficient in hysterical individuals.
Adult↗
Stimulus intensity control in depression: a study of the comparative effect of doxepin and amitriptyline on cortical evoked potentials.
The perceived intensity of a stimulus may be magnified during depression. Stimulus intensity control can be studied by means of cortical evoked potentials. In a study of 33 depressives, cortical evoked potentials were greater during depression than on recovery. The effect of doxepin on the amplitudes of evoked potentials of depressives was compared with that of amitriptyline. Doxepin reduced amplitudes. Amitriptyline had a similar, but non-significant effect.
Adolescent↗
Body feeling in human relations: the possible examples of Brancusi and Giacometti.
"The body's cross-roads," in Rilke's words, "are the celestial streets that form what we are" (p. 227). "The evidential sensation of the whole body, not only of its weight, but also of its size, extension and sense of fullness" (Federn, p. 41), is with us all the time. Yet to much of this body feeling we pay no attention at all. The experience of the body is not independent of the environment, but is influenced by the interchange between an individual and the sensations which his environment gives to him. Of these sensations, the most important are clearly those produced by the complex stimuli of the social world. It is my thesis that body feeling is influenced by one's form of personal relationship, and that aspects of this bodily experience may be expressed in some modern sculpture. In addition, these changes in bodily experience may be determined by the working of a "sensory filter" and so have a neurophysiological basis.
Art↗
The effect of placebo and tricyclic antidepressants on cortical evoked potentials in depressed patients.
Cortical evoked potentials in depressives were recorded in order to study stimulus intensity control in this group, and also to study the effect of treatment. In a sample of 33 psychiatric patients, the amplitudes of visual and auditory evoked potentials were found to be significantly greater during depression, than at recovery. The changes which appeared to be due to recovery were found not only in patients treated with tricyclic antidepressants (n = 22), but in those who had recovered following treatment with placebo (n = 11). The changes were most evident in the auditory system. In addition, no diagnostic predictors differentiated depressed patients who subsequently recovered on placebo from those who did not. It is concluded that: (i) cortical evoked potentials may change in amplitude with emotional state; (ii) placebo may have physiological consequences usually attributed to drugs alone.
Adolescent↗
Cortical evoked potentials and extraversion.
Stimulus intensity modulation was studied in extraverts and introverts. Auditory evoked potentials were recorded in 29 subjects and visual evoked potentials in 55. In both sensory modalities, extraverts showed considerably larger amplitudes of the late components of the evoked potentials, suggesting that they were more "open" to stimuli than introverts. In this way, extraverts' responses to simple stimuli could be seen as similar to their interchange with the complex stimuli of the social world.
Auditory Perception↗
Cortical evoked potentials and severity of depression.
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Acoustic Stimulation↗
The sensory filter in schizophrenia: a study of habituation, arousal, and the dopamine hypothesis.
The possible failure of a notional sensory filter in schizophrenia was studied by means of habituation of the orienting response. Non-paranoid schizophrenics failed to habituate, but paranoids habituated normally. Paranoids, however, showed a different impairment: they responded to a dishabituating tone as if the novel stimulus were somewhat familiar. The failure of habituation in non-paranoids could not be explained in terms of arousal when the index was the rate of skin conductance fluctuation. Neurotic controls showed considerably higher levels than either group of schizophrenics. Non-paranoid schizophrenics had lost the normal inverse relationship between habituation and level of arousal as manifested in the rate of spontaneous skin conductance fluctuation.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
On depersonalization in adolescence: a consideration from the viewpoints on habituation and 'identity'.
Depersonalization occurs in many psychiatric states but its origins are unknown. It is suggested that feelings of unreality may be unusually common in adolescents. Certain speculations are offered concerning the genesis of a sense of unreality. The neurophysiological mechanisms governing the perception of 'familiar' or 'strange' are seen to be the key to this experience. They involve the matching of events in the outer world against inner organizations of previous experience. These mechanisms are likely to be disturbed through epilepsy or other disorders of the temporal lobe, in which abnormal perceptions of strangeness and familiarity are frequently found. It is suggested that the matching process extends to include social situations, and that where an individual's identity is undeveloped or fragmented a sense of strangeness may result. The concept of identity is briefly discussed in order to distinguish it from 'self' and 'ego', and to intimate its possible fragmentation in adolescence. Finally, some reference is made to management and, in particular, to the use of the peer group.
Adolescent↗
A possible relationship between anxiety in pregnancy and puerperal depression.
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Anxiety↗
The secret.
The revelation of secrets lies at the core of much psychotherapeutic method and was the seed from which early psychoanalytic theory grew. The notion of "the secret" can therefore be regarded as critical to an understanding of the psychotherapeutic process. This paper puts forward a view which contrasts, in important aspects, with traditional concepts and which emphasizes the positive or creative value of certain hidden ideas and the importance of the social arena on which they are displayed.
Abreaction↗
A controlled trial of maprotiline (Ludiomil) in depressed outpatients.
A double blind comparison is reported of a new tetracyclic antidepressant, maprotiline, with amitriptyline and placebo in psychiatric outpatients. Amitriptyline was significantly more effective than placebo in its global effect on depression. Maprotiline emerged as neither inferior to amitriptyline nor superior to placebo. Methodological difficulties prevented an adequate assessment of the anxiolytic activity of maprotiline.
Adult↗