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Biomedical subjects

S J Hutt

Publications and source records attributed to S J Hutt.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Parental perceptions of pre-adolescent children who have experienced a febrile convulsion: effects of social class and gender.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether, in terms of parental reports, the behaviour of pre-adolescent children who have been hospitalized following a febrile convulsion in infancy--without intracranial infection--differ from a group hospitalized with a non-febrile illness. DESIGN: A between-groups comparison of febrile and non-febrile children and a within-group comparison by gender and social class design were used. METHOD: The study compared 57 children, aged 9-12 years, who had experienced febrile convulsions before the age of 4 with a group of 66 children of similar age who had been hospitalized for non-convulsive conditions. Behaviour was measured using the Rutter A Parent Scale, the Berg Self-Administered Dependency Questionnaire (SDAQ) and the Werry-Weiss-Peters Activity Rating Scale. RESULTS: The scores of the children who had experienced a febrile convulsion in early life did not differ significantly from those of unaffected controls on any of the three measuring instruments. There were, however, marked social class differences on all three, with working-class children tending to lean towards poorer social adjustment than their middle-class peers. There was also one significant gender difference: boys received higher Assistance scores than girls on the SDAQ. CONCLUSIONS: In terms of social behavioural sequelae, febrile convulsions do not appear to have long-term effects. Hence, reassurance of a favourable outcome at the time of the seizure may ameliorate parents' worries at this frightening event in their child's life.

Child↗
PubMed1980

Effects of evoked spike-wave discharges upon short term memory in patients with epilepsy.

Memory for digits was examined during EEG examination in five female children suffering from light sensitive epilepsy. Sequences of random digits equal to the patients' digit span, span-less-one and span-less-two were presented, followed by a 2 sec. interval, after which recall of the digits was required. The 2 sec. interval could be filled in any of four possible ways by: a burst of photic stimulation which evoked a paroxysm of generalised spike-wave in the EEG; a burst of slow (3 Hz) photic stimulation having no discernible effect upon the EEG; a burst of fast (30 Hz) stimulation, again having no observable effect; or a period of silence with no photic stimulation. It was found that recall of digits series of all three lengths was impaired if a paroxysm of spike-wave had been generated between the end of presentation and the beginning of recall. There were no significant differences in correctness of recall when the slow, fast and no-stimulation photic conditions were compared. It was found that the last two digits in the digit span were more vulnerable to recall failure than were the first two. On the basis of recent work in human experimental psychology, the initial and final digit pairs appear to be retrieved from functionally different storage systems. It is tentatively suggested therefore, that since different parts of the digit span are dislocated to different extents by spike-wave activity, they may depend upon different neural substrates.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Sensorimotor rhythm feedback training and epilepsy: some methodological and conceptual issues.

This study examined the hypothesis that the enhancement of a 12-16 Hz sensorimotor rhythm in the EEG is inhibitory to epileptic seizure activity. The effects of training to enhance 12-16 Hz central EEG, to enhance 8-10 Hz central EEG, to suppress high voltage EEG activity, and of random feedback were compared over a period of 12 months in three adult patients suffering from chronic, drug-refractory epilepsy. All three patients experienced a significant reduction in seizure rate by the end of the study, but this was not related to any one particular training condition. It is suggested that the therapeutic mechanism might involve placebo effects, relaxation training, or a facilitation of EEG desynchronization, the effect being idiosyncratic to the individual patient.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Prenatal progesterone. I. Its effect on development and on intellectual and academic achievement.

The development of two groups of children whose mothers had been given progesterone supplements during pregnancy to relieve symptoms of toxaemia was assessed, one group at 2 yr of age and the other at 16 yr of age. There was no evidence that progesterone supplements accelerated development in the 2-yr-old age group or enhanced intellectual and academic attainment in the 16-yr-old age group. In addition, the evidence regarding the reported beneficial effects on intellectual attainment of in utero exposure to excess sex steroids is discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1975

Information processing during two types of EEG activity.

A 15-year-old girl whose EEG contained frequent bursts of generalized sub-clinical spikewave activity was examined on a paced serial-choice response task with simultaneous EEG control. The task was carried out at three different speeds and three different information loads. Performance was compared during paroxysms of spike-wave activity and during normal EEG background activity. Four parameters of performance were compared, each parameter being somewhat differently affected by spike-wave activity. "Response ambiguity" was significantly increased in the presence of spike-wave activity, with a corresponding decrease in the amount of "information transmitted". The "absolute rate" at which information could be transmitted in relation to presentation rate was consequently reduced during spike-wave activity, the effect being most marked at the intermediate speed of presentation (1 signal/2 sec). However, when signals were presented very slowly (1/4 sec) the child's "relative information transmitted" during spike-wave activity approached that achieved under normal background conditions. Thus, accuracy of performance per se is not critically affected by spike-wave; rather it is the rate at which signals can be handled. Spike-wave may therefore be conceptualized as a form of "neural noise" whose effect is to reduce a subject's channel capacity.

Adolescent↗