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Biomedical subjects

S Weintraub

Publications and source records attributed to S Weintraub.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Visual neglect during intracarotid amobarbital testing.

The unilateral suppression of hemispheric function by sodium amobarbital may result in hemispatial visual neglect, as measured by performance on a random letter cancellation task. Our study not only investigates this hypothesis but also attempts to identify more precisely the anatomic locus of control for directed attention to extrapersonal space by correlating scanning performance with EEG activity. Forty-eight consecutive patients with epilepsy underwent preoperative intracarotid amobarbital tests. The results indicated that disruption of scanning and contralateral neglect occurred only after right-hemisphere suppression and seemed specifically related to changes in right frontal lobe EEG activity. This pattern of performance held not only for right-handed subjects, but also for those who were left-handed, and even for those who had right-hemisphere language dominance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Visual hemispatial inattention: stimulus parameters and exploratory strategies.

Patients with unilateral hemispheric lesions were given visual target cancellation tasks. As expected, marked contralateral and less severe ipsilateral visual inattention were observed in patients with right-sided cerebral lesions whereas those with left-sided lesions showed only mild contralateral neglect. Stimulus material (shapes vs letters) and array (random vs structured) interacted in a complex manner to influence target detection only in patients with right-sided lesions. Furthermore, the search strategy of these patients tended to be erratic, particularly when the stimuli were in an unstructured array. A structured array prompted a more systematic and efficient search. It appears, therefore, that stimulus content and spatial array affect neglect behaviour in patients with right-sided lesions and that a lack of systematic visual exploration within the extrapersonal space is one factor that contributes to visual hemispatial inattention.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Abnormal organic aciduria in biotin deficiency: the rat is similar to the human.

We sought to determine whether the biotin-deficient rat excretes the same constellation of abnormal organic acids in urine that has been reported for biotin deficiency in humans and, if so, to determine the variation of the abnormal organic aciduria with time during progressive biotin deficiency. Biotin deficiency was induced by a 30% egg white diet. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to identify and quantitate the trimethylsilyl derivatives of the organic acids extracted from urine. We detected a progressive increase in the urinary excretion of 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid that was highly significant (p less than 0.0001). Abnormal excretion of 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid was detectable in some biotin-deficient rats as early as week 1; by week 5, all biotin-deficient rats had abnormally increased excretion of 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid. We also detected a highly significant increase (p less than 0.0001) in the urinary excretion of 3-methylcrotonylglycine. We conclude that biotin deficiency in the rat causes abnormal organic aciduria similar but not identical to that caused by biotin deficiency in humans. We speculate that this abnormal organic aciduria may serve as a useful index of biotin deficiency at the tissue level.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Right cerebral dominance in spatial attention. Further evidence based on ipsilateral neglect.

Tasks based on visuomotor scanning and tactile exploration were used to quantitate neglect behavior in patients with unilateral brain damage and in normal control subjects. The results confirm previous observations that contralateral neglect is markedly more severe following right-hemisphere injury and that it is independent of the modality of sensory input or motor output. In addition, patients with right-hemisphere injury also showed multimodal neglect for targets in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the brain lesion. The emergence of both contralateral and ipsilateral neglect in these patients strongly supports a model of right-hemispheric dominance for the distribution of attention within the extrapersonal space.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Risk factors in schizophrenia: the Stony Brook High-Risk Project.

The goals of the Stony Brook High-Risk Project are to identify precursor patterns, environmental stressors, and protective factors that are differentially predictive of psychopathology. In phase I we assessed 219 families and 544 children aged 7-15, including 31 families and 80 children with a schizophrenic parent, 70 families and 154 children with a unipolar depressed parent, 58 families and 134 children with a bipolar parent, and 60 normal control families with 176 children. A 3-year followup was conducted on 84 percent of the sample, and an additional followup is underway. Our data include measures of: (1) psychological functioning of the parents; (2) the environment, including family functioning, marital adjustment, and parenting practices; (3) child adjustment, including peer, or teacher, parent, and self-ratings; (4) early signs or precursors to the development of schizophrenia or affective disorder, including cognitive slippage, attentional deficits, hedonic capacity, depressogenic attributional styles, and subsyndromal affective patterns. Considerable deviance in family functioning, expressed in conflict, marital discord, and parenting skills, was characteristic of the families with an ill parent, and this discord was related to child adjustment. Children with a schizophrenic parent showed multiple and extensive cognitive, attentional, and social impairments, and at the 18+ followup, 22.8 percent of them compared with 9.6 percent of the normal controls were assigned a DSM-III diagnosis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Lecithin: absence of neurophysiologic effect in Alzheimer's disease by EEG topography.

Ten patients with Alzheimer's disease participated in a 26-week double-blind trial of lecithin. EEG data were recorded at baseline, after administration of the placebo, and after administration of the drug. Topographic maps of EEG spectra were compared when patients were on and off drugs. A direct comparison of drug and nondrug data was not significant. A second approach, comparing differences between drug and nondrug with differences between the two nondrug conditions, also produced no evidence of a drug treatment effect. The data confirm other reports that lecithin has no effect upon spectrally analyzed EEG activity in Alzheimer's disease.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Slowly progressive aphasia without generalized dementia: studies with positron emission tomography.

Slowly progressive aphasia without generalized dementia is a degenerative syndrome selectively affecting dominant hemisphere language areas. We report changes in regional glucose metabolism measured by positron emission tomography in two patients with this condition. Striking abnormalities of glucose utilization in the left cerebral cortex were demonstrated in both patients. The findings of other neurodiagnostic studies were relatively unremarkable. The first patient had a 3-year history of progressive anomia and impaired auditory verbal recall. An electroencephalogram was normal, and computed tomography showed mild left perisylvian atrophy. Positron emission tomography revealed profound hypometabolism in the left temporal regions. The second patient also had a 3-year history of progressive anomia. Electroencephalography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging scans were normal. Positron emission tomography showed a major reduction in left parietal glucose utilization, with a lesser decrement in left temporal metabolism. Neither patient demonstrated significant contralateral or global abnormalities such as those reported in positron emission tomographic studies of Alzheimer's disease with or without focal clinical features. These observations support the concept of adult-onset progressive aphasia without dementia as a clinical syndrome distinct from Alzheimer's disease.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1985

MMPI codetypes characteristic of DSM-III schizophrenics, depressives, and bipolars.

The association between various MMPI codetypes and DSM-III schizophrenics, depressives, and bipolars (manic or depressed) (N = 169) was examined. Most codetypes predictive of bipolar-depressed also predicted major depression, yet these codetypes were not characteristic of bipolar-manic. Furthermore, "affective" codetypes often overlapped with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Sacral destruction: foraminal lines revisited.

Although imaging techniques have improved greatly in recent years, plain radiography remains the initial imaging method for evaluation of patients with low back pain. The sacrum, in particular, is a difficult structure to evaluate. In reviewing 12 cases, the authors found an unacceptably high rate of missed sacral metastases (83%). Using a photograph and a radiograph of two bony pelvic specimens to represent normal anatomy and the normal appearance of the sacral foraminal lines, sacral destruction is illustrated in six cases. All lesions were neoplastic and most were metastatic. In each case there was destruction of one or more sacral lines. The importance of careful observation for symmetric appearance of these lines is emphasized.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Developmental learning disabilities of the right hemisphere. Emotional, interpersonal, and cognitive components.

In 14 patients, we encountered a behavioral syndrome that begins in early life and is characterized by emotional and interpersonal difficulties, shyness, visuospatial disturbances, and inadequate paralinguistic communicative abilities. All 14 patients had at least average intellectual capacity, but each had demonstrated some academic failure, particularly in arithmetic. Examination revealed neurologic and neuropsychological signs consistent with right-hemisphere dysfunction. Most of the patients avoided eye contact and lacked the gestures and prosody that normally accompany and accentuate speech. Although many of them could not convey their feelings, there was no evidence that they were unable to experience affect. Eight of them reported a family history of similar symptoms. Just as developmental involvement of the left hemisphere may produce dyslexia, damage to the right hemisphere suffered early in life, or inherited, may lead to chronic emotional difficulties, a disturbance of interpersonal skills, and poor visuospatial ability.

Achievement↗
PubMed1982

Speech competence of children vulnerable to psychopathology.

Verbal productivity and cohesion and reference patterns of children of schizophrenics (N = 23), unipolars (N = 43), bipolars (N = 38), and normals (N = 53) were assessed using the Rochester and Martin (1979) evaluation system. Children of all offspring groups could be discriminated from one another, with children of schizophrenics showing the most deviant speech performance across all dependent measures. Children of schizophrenics were less verbally productive and had poorer patterns of cohesion between ideas than children of normals. In addition, they produced more unclear and ambiguous references to previously mentioned ideas than did children of normals. The consistency of deviance and performance on specific dependent variables in these children at risk for schizophrenia was similar to the speech performance of thought-disordered schizophrenics. Possible explanations for these similarities were discussed and evaluated.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed1982

Effects of marital discord on the school behavior of children of schizophrenic, affectively disordered, and normal parents.

An association between children's school behavior and two family variables, marital discord and parental psychopathology, has been consistently reported in the literature. However, the joint effects of each of these two familial factors has not been closely examined. The present report provides a further examination of the interrelationships among these three variables with particular emphasis on the effects of marital discord on children's school behavior in families with behaviorally disturbed parents. Marital discord was found to account for much of the association between having a parent with bipolar disorder or unipolar depression and problematic school behavior, but the same variable did not explain the relationship between having a schizophrenic parent and problems in school. The implications of these findings for interventions with the children of disturbed parents and for high-risk research are discussed.

Adolescent↗