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PubMed1997

Vagal regulation of heart rate in the prediction of developmental outcome for very low birth weight preterm infants.

To investigate heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as markers of developmental outcome, infant ECG and 3 year outcome were assessed in 41 very low birth weight (< 1,500 g) infants. Measures of mean heart rate and RSA, and the maturational shifts in their values from 33 to 35 weeks gestational age, were recorded. RSA measures predicted 3 year outcome beyond the effects of birth weight, medical risk, and socioeconomic status. Higher RSA was associated with better social skills, whereas greater RSA maturation was associated with better mental processing and gross motor skills. Lower heart rate was associated with better behavior regulation and social skills, whereas greater maturational decreases were associated with better gross motor skills. Dividing the sample into groups of infants with birth weights less than 1,000 g and those with birth weights over 1,000 g, RSA maturation emerged a strong predictor of mental processing, knowledge base, and gross motor skills in the former. A measure of joint maturation of RSA and heart rate was associated with better behavior regulation at 3 years, as measured by Child Behavior Checklist and Parenting Stress Index scores, for this group. The findings directly respond to the need for physiological variables in the prediction of outcome in high-risk infants.

Arousal↗
PubMed1994

The "new" democratic woman of modernity: Georgia O'Keeffe and Melanie Klein.

O'Keeffe put into visual language the psychic splitting that had occurred between the sexes in the United States, attempting to integrate what had formerly been separated as feminine and masculine into the female psyche. In her most important contribution, she explored presence rather than absence and opened up possibilities for thinking about openings. The concept of the female opening in particular had heretofore been assigned a negative meaning, signifying more often than not a gaping wound rather than a space and place of possibilities. Klein's complex and evocative understanding of some of the earliest mental processes of life enabled researchers to delve into the meanings made of the presence of the mother and father and baby, in the context of the baby's body-mind. Klein's female or male baby desires to know from the beginning. She discovered splitting and projective identification, the development of anxiety and guilt under the aegis of these mental processes, the multiple meanings of aggression, and, significantly, she permitted the female baby's body to have its own language. The answers provided by O'Keeffe and Klein bequeathed new possibilities for women's self-invention and remain pivot points for female identity throughout the century, to be confronted again by the second wave of feminism beginning in the late 1960s, by "postfeminist" debates, and by a challenged psychoanalysis. A more careful probing of these issues may help us to better understand our past so as to have greater resources for a more comprehensive reading of our present.

Art↗
PubMed1975

[Lateralization of mental functions at the subcortical level (according to material from stereotaxic surgery)].

In 26 patients with expressed signs of parkinsonism the authors studied the state of higher cortical functions prior to and following stereotaxic operations. The results of such studies point to a distinct connection between the changes of certain mental processes and the side of the operation. It was demonstrated that the subcortical structures of the left and right hemisphere participate in the mnestic function in different ways. The specificity and different directions of postoperative changes in the higher cortical functions may in the opinion of the authors speak in favour of a certain specificity in the contributed organization of mental processes on behalf of the subcortical structures.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Hypothermia-induced platelet aggregation and cognitive decline in coronary artery bypass surgery: a pilot study.

Hypothermia-induced platelet aggregation (HIPA) was previously reported in whole blood exposed to synthetic surfaces at 24 degrees-32 degrees C in one-third of normal subjects tested. Cardiopulmonary bypass, conducted with hypothermia, may lead to such aggregation, resulting in microvascular occlusion contributing to cognitive impairment. This pilot study was conducted to explore the relationship between HIPA and cognitive outcome at hospital discharge in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery as a first step toward a longer-term study. Patients (n = 45) undergoing mild to moderate hypothermia (32 degrees-28 degrees C) during CABG surgery underwent cognitive testing preoperatively and prior to hospital discharge. Tests included: visual and verbal memory, mental processing speed, executive function, language, and intellectual function. HIPA was identified using an in vitro assay in which blood flowing in polyvinychloride tubing was subjected to hypothermia, and platelet aggregates were detected using microscopy and passing the exiting blood through a 20-microm pore filter. Forty-four percent of patients exhibited HIPA. The entire cohort exhibited significant postoperative cognitive decline in verbal memory, mental processing speed and executive function. There was greater cognitive decline in the group with HIPA compared with the group not exhibiting this phenomenon. The patients with HIPA showed significant decline in four of five cognitive measures whereas patients not exhibiting this phenomenon declined in only two of five cognitive measures. HIPA appears to be associated with an added risk of cognitive decline immediately following CABG surgery employing mild to moderate hypothermia. The findings of our study suggest the long-term cognitive effects of hypothermia-induced platelet aggregation need to be explored.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Understanding and remembering: children's knowledge about the differential effects of strategy and task variables on comprehension and memorization.

Developmental changes in knowledge about the differences between the mental processes of comprehension and memory were investigated in 3 studies using first graders, third graders, and undergraduates as subjects. 2 types of knowledge were assessed: (a) knowledge about the types of strategies appropriate to achieving the goals of comprehension, memorization, or a combination of the 2; (b) knowledge about how different task variables differentially affect comprehension and memorization tasks. With respect to the former, only the 2 older groups showed some understanding of the differential effectiveness of rehearsal and word familiarity for memory versus comprehension and thus showed some understanding of the comprehension-memory distinction with respect to strategy knowledge. As for the latter, only undergraduates correctly differentiated between the 2 mental processes with respect to the task variables of list length, item familiarity, and the categorical organization of the items.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

N-3 fatty acids and pregnancy outcomes.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To discuss new data from the literature on the relationship between the supply of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids during pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, evaluated as the fatty acid composition of blood and breast milk, fetal and infantile development and maternal health. RECENT FINDINGS: Supplementation of alpha-linolenic acid in high doses or docosahexaenoic acid in low doses did not result in a significant enhancement of the blood docosahexaenoic acid status of the offspring. In contrast, supplementation of docosahexaenoic acid in relatively high doses led to significant increases in infantile docosahexaenoic acid values and to a significant enhancement of breast milk docosahexaenoic acid content. Electroretinogram data obtained during the first week of life and pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials investigated at 50 and 66 weeks postconception were significantly associated with the docosahexaenoic acid status of the infant at birth. Children whose mothers received docosahexaenoic acid supplementation during pregnancy and lactation scored better in mental processing tests carried out at 4 years than children whose mothers received placebo. SUMMARY: Beneficial health outcomes are more likely to result from supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid itself, rather than its precursor alpha-linolenic acid. Trials have shown that a higher maternal docosahexaenoic acid intake during pregnancy may be favourable for the visual and cognitive development of the offspring. The significant positive association between maternal docosahexaenoic acid intake during pregnancy and the children's mental processing scores at 4 years suggest that optimization of the docosahexaenoic acid status of expectant women may offer long-term developmental benefits to their children.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

System flexibility in the rehabilitation process of mentally disabled persons in a hostel that bridges between the hospital and the community.

BACKGROUND: Deinstitutionalization and community mental health services have become the focus of mental health care in the United States, Italy and England, and now in Israel. METHODS: Tirat Carmel MHC developed an intervention model of organizational change implemented in a rehabilitation hostel. It is an interim service based on graduated transition from maintenance care to a transitional Half-way House, followed by a Transitional Living Skills Center oriented for independent community living. RESULTS: Of 205 rehabilitees who resided in the hostel since the beginning of the project, 138 were discharged to community residential settings: 67 patients were discharged to reinforced community hostels; 27 to sheltered housing and 23 to independent residential quarters; 7 patients were discharged to comprehensive hostels, 3 to old-age homes and 11 returned home to their families. In terms of employment, 79 were placed in sheltered employment facilities, 24 work in the open market and 3 returned to school; 22 work in therapeutic occupational settings and 10 patients discharged to comprehensive hostels and old-age homes are engaged in sheltered employment programs in those settings. CONCLUSION: The system flexibility model and the rehabilitation processes anchored in normalization supported the relocation of hospitalized psychiatric patients to community-based settings and enabled the rehabilitees to cope with readjustment to community life.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed1996

[Correspondence of depth sensitivity and visually evoked potential amplitude in retinal eccentricity].

It is believed that an enhancement of visual evoked potential (VEP) amplitude in response to stereograms is due to the activity of disparity-sensitive neurons in the visual center. However, it is unclear whether the enhancement works only on retinal disparity cues or on other depth cues as well, which are derived from the mental process of recognizing a depth. The aim of this study is to analyze this relationship by comparing the degree of amplitude increase in the VEP with that of the magnitude in depth perception by viewing a stereopair with a stereoscope. The reduction of the retinal disparity sensitivity in increasing retinal eccentricity was confirmed by psychophysical measurement tests and visual evoked potential measurement. However, the reduction rate of the sensitivity curve was greater in the VEP than in the psychophysiological curve. This means that changes in the VEP, when responding to a sterogram, are mainly due to factors in the disparity sensitive neurons rather than in the mental process of recognizing a depth.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Temporal tuning in the acquisition of cognitive skill.

The temporal tuning hypothesis suggests that individuals adjust the timing of cognitive performances to achieve temporal coordination of mental processes and the data on which they operate, and that this adjustment becomes more precise with practice. Participants in two experiments performed self-paced multiple-step arithmetic tasks in which the information needed for each step was briefly displayed at the participants' request. Timing constraints were manipulated by varying between subjects the delay between requests and displays of information. In Experiment 1, both operators and operands appeared step by step, and participants achieved a modest degree of temporal adjustment that did not change with practice. In Experiment 2, participants could preview operators while operands appeared step by step. In that experiment, participants achieved more precise temporal adjustment, and the amount of adjustment increased with practice. These results demonstrate the phenomenon of temporal tuning in symbolic cognitive skills and suggest some constraints on the ability to anticipate the time course of one's mental processes.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

[Executive function disorders].

AIM: To review the development, anatomy and physiology of executive functions (EF) in normal and pathological conditions. DEVELOPMENT: EF consist of several internal mental process design to solve mental and environmental complex problems in an efficient and acceptable way to the person and the society. EF include inhibition of behavior and irrelevant information, nonverbal working memory, verbal working memory, self-regulation of affect, motivation and arousal, planning, decision making, self monitoring of the entire solving problem process and self evaluation of the results of the action taken. The anatomical substrate is at the prefrontal lobe cortex and its afferent and efferent structures. Neurotransmitters involved in activation of neurons at the prefrontal cortex are dopamine and norepinephrine and in less degree acetylcholine and serotonine. CONCLUSIONS: Disorders of one or more of the EF in children and adolescents are found in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, bipolar disease, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, autism and traumatic brain injury.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

[Differential effects of aging on processes involved in mental imagery generation].

The purpose of this study was to measure the degree to which the deterioration of mental image generation processes observed in elderly subjects by Dror and Kosslyn (1994) depends on the nature of the processing (referential vs. representational) involved in performing the task at hand. In keeping with the results of research showing that processing resources diminish as normal aging occurs (Craik & Bird, 1982; Rabinowitz, Craik & Ackerman, 1982), we suggest that generation ability based on referential processing is affected to a greater extent in older adults than is the generation ability involving representational processing. Fifteen young adults and 15 elderly persons performed a generation task modeled on that used by Dror and Kosslyn (1994). Observations were based on two contrasting conditions. In the first instance, subjects were required to generate an image representation of numbers when instructed to do so by a graphic stimulus, e.g., "31" (representational generation). In the second case, generation was produced on the basis of a verbal stimulus, e.g., "thirteen" (referential generation). Results (response time and number of accurate answers) show that, compared to young adults, elderly adults have a diminished ability to generate images based on words rather than numbers and do so at a slower pace. Our results suggest, therefore, that the performance of the first type of generation is cognitively more demanding for elderly subjects than that which is founded on figurative stimuli. The deterioration of mental image generation processes observed in elderly subjects by Dror and Kosslyn (1994) is therefore dependent on the nature of processing (referential vs. In conclusion we suggest two complementary assumptions to explain the observed dissociation. The differential effect of age may be the result of a deficienness cy linked to the nature of processing (control vs. automatic). Our second assumption is that, more specifically, referential generation involves more processing resources than does representational generation because it requires an additional transcoding operation. In this instance, the differential effect of aging that we observed would be closely linked to the number of cognitive operations involved in mental image generation.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Functional neuroanatomy of grief: an FMRI study.

OBJECTIVE: In this study the authors examined the functional neuroanatomy of grief, which to their knowledge has not been studied previously in functional neuroimaging research. METHOD: Grief was elicited in eight bereaved women through photographs of the deceased versus a stranger, combined with words specific to the death event versus neutral words. Use of both pictures and words resulted in a 2x2 factorial design. RESULTS: Three brain regions were independently activated by the picture and word factors: posterior cingulate cortex, medial/superior frontal gyrus, and cerebellum. The two factors also activated distinct regions: for the picture factor, they were the cuneus, superior lingual gyrus, insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, inferior temporal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus; and for the word factor, they were the precuneus, precentral gyrus, midbrain, and vermis. The interaction of the two factors showed significant activation in the cerebellar vermis. CONCLUSIONS: Grief is mediated by a distributed neural network that subserves affect processing, mentalizing, episodic memory retrieval, processing of familiar faces, visual imagery, autonomic regulation, and modulation/coordination of these functions. This neural network may account for the unique, subjective quality of grief and provide new leads in understanding the health consequences of grief and the neurobiology of attachment.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Observations on some aspects of current psychoanalytic theories.

The competing theories in the psychoanalytic marketplace today should be judged on their merits, not on the basis of the authority of whoever first proposed them. What is valid in each theory should be included in any formulation of a psychoanalytic theory of mental development and functioning. Since psychoanalysis, as part of psychology, is a branch of natural science, pluralism in theory is to be avoided in psychoanalysis as in every branch of science. The psychoanalytic method is a valid one of studying a particular aspect of brain functioning. The method and the theories based upon it are as "organic" as is the case with any of the other neurosciences. Any valid psychoanalytic theory of mental functioning and development should include the following conclusions: (1) Unconscious mental processes are omnipresent and of great importance in mental functioning; (2) Thoughts are as causally related to one another as are other events in the universe; (3) Mental functioning is a developmental phenomenon with describable, sequential features; and (4) A major role in mental functioning and development is played by conflicts over the sexual and aggressive wishes that characterize mental life during the period from three to six years of age, and by the compromise formations that result from those conflicts. The last of these conclusions, though disputed by many, is abundantly supported by evidence that is not dependent on the use of the psychoanalytic method, as well as by evidence furnished by the use of the psychoanalytic method. There is also much evidence to support the assertion that any psychoanalytic theory that attributes language-dependent thoughts to a child whose brain is not yet mature enough to be capable of language is to be considered invalid, as are any observations made by the psychoanalytic method (= clinical observations) that are influenced by such an invalid theory. In psychoanalysis, as in every other branch of science, an observer--no matter how astute and how experienced--who subscribes to an invalid theory will be led astray by that theory, sooner or later, in one way or another.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Extracting parity and magnitude from Arabic numerals: developmental changes in number processing and mental representation.

Children from Grades 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 (7.8, 9.2, 9.8, 11.7, and 13. 6 years old, respectively) made speeded, bimanual parity (odd/even) judgments of the Arabic numerals 0-9. Analysis of response times indicated that from fourth grade on, parity information is retrieved directly from memory rather than being extracted by means of a mental calculation strategy. As early as Grade 3, children exhibited the SNARC (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes) effect, where small numbers were responded to faster with the left hand than with the right hand, while the converse held true for large numbers. This finding, previously demonstrated only in adults, confirms that (a) children represent magnitude information in the form of a left-to-right oriented mental number line, and (b) this information is accessed obligatorily even when irrelevant. Finally, although the SNARC effect remained strong at Grade 4, it was attenuated at Grades 6 and 8 by a linguistic effect based on associations between the unmarked adjectives "even" and "right" and between the marked adjectives "odd" and "left."

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Activation processes during mental practice in stroke patients.

In healthy subjects, mental practice is known to improve motor performance. It is also known to be accompanied by a higher central nervous activity. Since such effects seem to be desirable for rehabilitation, we investigated the possibility of detecting changes in central nervous activity by means of EEG in stroke patients, and whether these changes were similar to those observed in healthy subjects. 12 left-sided hemiplegic patients who underwent a specific post-stroke rehabilitation treatment were requested to perform a simple arm movement sequence. In the following mental practice period the patients were requested to image the same sequence without any real movement. EEG background activity was recorded during rest and imagination periods. After the calculation of z-transformed power values within the theta, alpha, and beta-1 band, differences between rest and imagination periods were evaluated for their significance. Stroke patients show significant decreases of theta, alpha, as well as beta-1 power during mental practice in comparison to the rest period. These changes are similar to those obtained in healthy subjects. Theta power decreases in central and parietal leads. Central alpha power diminishes only during imagination of the contralateral arm. This phenomenon as well as the decrease of beta-1 power in central derivation were also obtained during real motor performance and might indicate an activation of the sensorimotor cortex. In accordance with the hypothesis of internal feedback mechanisms, this activation is a necessary prerequisite for motor learning during mental practice.

Aged↗