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PubMedDate not supplied

Unconscious odour conditioning in human subjects.

In the first session, two groups of male and female subjects were given a stressful task involving the completion of eleven WAIS block patterns under time limitations. A low intensity of a neutral odour (TUA) was present for half of the subjects. During a second session several days later, subjects completed a mood rating scale and then entered a room, where the odour of TUA was present, to judge a series of photographs of people and complete a second mood rating scale. During the first session female subjects completed significantly fewer block patterns, and completed fewer correct designs. In the second session, female subjects who had experienced TUA odour in the stress condition showed an increase in anxiety ratings. They also had higher ratings scores when judging the photographs. In contrast, subjects who did not experience odour during the stress session became calmer during the second session. None of the female subjects reported perceiving the odour irn either session. As both pairing and elicitation occurred at low levels of awareness, the study demonstrates how odours might acquire values through pairing with emotionally significant events.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Euthanasia by decapitation: evidence that this technique produces prompt, painless unconsciousness in laboratory rodents.

Rapid euthanasia of laboratory rodents without the use of anesthesia is a necessary research technique whenever there is the likelihood of anesthesia or stress interfering with the chemistry of the tissues under investigation. Decapitation has long been the procedure of choice under such circumstances. Recently, however, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) panel on euthanasia recommended that decapitation be avoided on the grounds that the decapitated head may be conscious and suffering for as much as 15 seconds. The panel further recommended that if decapitation was scientifically necessary, the decapitated head be immediately immersed in liquid nitrogen. These AVMA guidelines now enjoy regulatory status; the recommendation that decapitation be avoided has thus caused considerable difficulty for all research requiring rapid, anesthesia-free collection of tissues. The scientific validity of these recommendations is consequently a matter of great practical as well as theoretical importance. The decision to discourage decapitation appears to have been based on a single literature report claiming that the EEG of the decapitated head revealed conscious suffering for more than 10 seconds (Mikeska and Klemm 1976). This review carefully examines the scientific literature on this subject. It is concluded that the report by Mikeska and Klemm of EEG activation in the decapitated head is correct, but that this phenomenon is also seen when the decapitated head is under deep anesthesia, and in normal brains under ether anesthesia or during REM sleep. Hence these findings do not demonstrate either consciousness or the perception of pain.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animal Welfare↗
PubMed2004

Unconscious perception: assumptions and interpretive difficulties.

Reingold and Merikle's (1988, 1990) critique of the classic dissociation paradigm identified several issues as inherent problems that severely undermine the utility of this paradigm. Erdelyi (2004) extending his prior analysis points out several additional factors that may complicate the interpretation of empirically obtained dissociations. The goal of the present manuscript is to further discuss some of these commonly neglected interpretive difficulties.

Cognition↗
PubMed2005

Is priming during anesthesia unconscious?

General anesthesia provides an alternative to typical laboratory paradigms for investigating implicit learning. We assess the evidence that a simple type of learning--priming--can occur without consciousness. Although priming has been shown to be a small but persistent phenomenon in surgical patients (Merikle & Daneman, 1996) there is reason to question whether it occurs implicitly due to problems in detecting awareness using typical clinical signs. This paper reviews the published studies on priming during anesthesia that have included a measure of awareness or of anesthetic depth. We conclude that perceptual priming, but not conceptual priming, takes place in the absence of conscious awareness.

Anesthesia, General↗
PubMed2004

Hemispheric differences between left and right number representations: effects of conscious and unconscious priming.

The contribution of each hemisphere to the generation of number representations was investigated by two lateralized priming experiments in which participants had to compare Arabic digits to a fixed standard of four. In Experiment 1, unmasked primes (Arabic digits or word numerals) were used. In Experiment 2, masked primes were presented consciously or subconsciously. In both experiments similar priming effects were found in the left (LH) and the right hemisphere (RH) when the prime was presented consciously. However, asymmetries emerged when the primes were presented subconsciously: while the priming effects of digits and word numbers were equally large in the right visual half field (RVF-LH), the influence of the word prime on the semantic and the response stage of the left visual half field (LVF-RH) was absent, indicating that a word prime was no longer processed when it was presented subconsciously in LVF-RH. We believe that the origin of the latter effect can be attributed to a failure to transfer word number primes from the RH to the LH when attentional resources are restricted.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

The use of bispectral index to monitor unconscious children.

The use of the Glasgow Coma Scale may be limited by the experience of physicians, errors resulting from subjectivity, the inability of patients to respond, and discontinuity. This study demonstrates that the Bispectral Index scores correlate well with scores from the Glasgow Coma Scale and that Bispectral Index scores can provide real-time, objective, and continuous monitoring of the consciousness level of critically ill children. Sixteen patients with consciousness disturbance, who were admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary university-affiliated children's hospital, were enrolled in this study. The patients received 34 Glasgow Coma Scale assessments and Bispectral Index scores. The age of patients ranged from 10 to 192 months (mean +/- S.E. = 68.4 +/- 12.3 months). Glasgow Coma Scale ranged from 3 to 11 (mean +/- S.E. = 6.3 +/- 0.4), and Bispectral Index score ranged from 0 to 100 (mean +/- S.E. = 55.4 +/- 5.6). A positive correlation was found to exist between Glasgow Coma Scale and Bispectral Index score (r = 0.76, P < 0.001). In conclusion, the Bispectral Index score correlates well with the Glasgow Coma Scale in critically ill children who score between 3 and 11 on the Glasgow Coma Scale.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Prevalence of genuine epilepsy among adult emergency patients with an episode of unconsciousness.

OBJECTIVE: Loss of consciousness (LOC) is caused by a variety of conditions including epileptic, cardiac, psychiatric, and autonomic disorders. We investigated the prevalence of presenting attacks of genuine epilepsy among patients of Emergency Department and Department of Cardiology evaluated for an episode of LOC with or without a convulsion. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively studied 371 adults presenting to the Emergency Department and Department of Cardiology of our hospital from 1991 to 1999 with a chief complaint of an episode of LOC with or without a convulsion. Ages ranged from 15 to 78 years. Patients were free of severe chronic illnesses, drug abuse, and alcoholism. LOC was considered to represent genuine epilepsy either when the interictal electroencephalogram (EEG) showed epileptiform discharges in the absence of imaging abnormalities, or when both the EEG and imaging studies were unrevealing but one or more previous attacks had occurred and administration of an anticonvulsant prevented subsequent attacks. RESULTS: Patients included 302 patients without a convulsion, and 69 patients with a convulsion. Of the former, 14 subjects had epileptiform discharges on EEG, and three subjects had no epileptiform discharges but had three or four attacks of LOC that were abolished by anticonvulsant therapy. Of the 69 patients with a convulsion, seven had epileptiform discharges, and 12 had two to five attacks, no epileptiform discharges, and a response to anticonvulsant therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of presenting attacks of genuine epilepsy in 371 adult patients with an episode of LOC was remarkably high (9.7%: 36 subjects).

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Conscious dynamic versus unconscious static cystourethrography.

Prior to treatment 30 urologically symptomatic subjects were studied with dynamic voiding cystourethrography while conscious and with single shot high pressure static cystourethrography while anesthetized. The former technique did not surpass the latter in demonstrating reflux, lower urinary tract disease or urethral anatomical detail. It is concluded that (problem cases aside) when management requires anesthetizing the patient only the high pressure, single shot static method should be used and that omission of premedication and manipulation of anesthetic planes to produce voiding are neither necessary nor desirable.

Adolescent↗