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PubMed1984

Effects of melatonin on human mood and performance.

The function of melatonin, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland primarily at night, has not been definitively established in humans. To determine if pharmacologic doses of melatonin had any behavioral effects it was administered acutely to 14 healthy men. Their mood, performance, memory and visual sensitivity were assessed. Plasma melatonin concentration was assayed as well. Melatonin significantly decreased self-reported alertness and increased sleepiness as measured by the Profile of Mood States and the Stanford Sleepiness Scale self-report mood questionnaires. The effects were brief. Melatonin also affected performance, slowing choice-reaction time but concurrently decreasing errors of commission. Sustained fine motor performance was not impaired after melatonin administration nor were the tests of memory and visual sensitivity that were administered. It is concluded that melatonin, administered orally in pharmacological quantities, has significant but short acting sedative-like properties.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

What is folk psychology?

Eliminativism has been a major focus of discussion in the philosophy of mind for the last two decades. According to eliminativists, beliefs and other intentional states are the posits of a folk theory of mind standardly called "folk psychology". That theory, they claim, is radically false and hence beliefs and other intentional states do not exist. We argue that the expression "folk psychology" is ambiguous in an important way. On the one hand, "folk psychology" is used by many philosophers and cognitive scientists to refer to an internally represented theory of human psychology exploited in the prediction of behavior. On the other hand, "folk psychology" is used to refer to the theory of mind implicit in our everyday talk about mental states. We then argue that sorting out the conceptual and terminological confusion surrounding "folk psychology" has major consequences for the eliminativism debate. In particular, if certain models of cognition turn out to be true, then on some readings of "folk psychology" the arguments for elimination collapse.

Cognition↗
PubMed1987

Individual knowledge of emotions in asthmatic children.

Twenty male asthmatic children (ages 9-11) and their controls were interviewed regarding their concept of emotion using the interview format developed by Harris et al. (1981). The purpose of the study was to examine the asthmatic children's views on the nature and effects of happiness, anger and fear, together with strategies of self-control. The results indicate that healthy and asthmatic children have a different individual view of emotion. The most relevant finding concerns the different way in which healthy and asthmatic children consider fear: the most frequent view of fear in healthy children is similar to a behaviouristic model of emotion, while asthmatic children express a notion very similar to a cognitive model. Regarding anger, almost all healthy children believe themselves capable of exerting self-control whether on the inner mental components or on its outer expression, where a change of direction of mental processes is the only way asthmatic children see to modify their anger. The implications of these findings both for a description of asthmatic personality and therapy are outlined.

Anger↗
PubMed1994

Reversible cognitive decline during high-dose alpha-interferon treatment.

The cognitive effects of high-dose human leukocyte alpha-interferon (IFN-alpha) treatment were evaluated among 15 patients with the newly diagnosed spinal form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To confirm the earlier findings showing reversible effects on cognitive performance and to exclude confounding effects, a randomized blinded placebo controlled study was conducted. Twelve patients with continuous intravenous IFN-alpha-infusion treatment over five days and 3 placebo control patients were neuropsychologically evaluated. The neuropsychological examination included tests of intelligence, memory, complex mental processing, visuoconstructional skills, writing, and calculation. A clear difference in the performance profiles of the placebo and the IFN-alpha-treated patient groups was detected: The IFN-alpha group showed significant deterioration during treatment in the digit span backwards task, logical verbal memory task, calculation ability, and writing time, while improvement was seen after treatment. Concomitant fever did not explain the findings. In the placebo group an improvement indicating a learning effect in the three consecutive measurements was found. The reversible cognitive deterioration indicates a clear CNS effect during the IFN-alpha treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Closed- and open-class lexical access in agrammatic and fluent aphasics.

Bradley, Garrett, and Zurif (Bradley, Computational distinctions of vocabulary type. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, MIT Press; Cambridge, MA, 1978; Biological studies of mental processes, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980) have suggested that closed-class word access is normally mediated by a different route than the open-class one, and that the loss of this closed-class route might account for agrammatism. However, in an earlier study (Gordon & Caramazza, Brain and Language, 15, 143-160, 1982) we were not able to confirm a meaningful difference between closed- and open-class word frequency responsiveness of the type Bradley (unpublished dissertation, 1978) had seemed to find in normal subjects. We have now done a direct comparison of closed-class frequency sensitivity in agrammatic and nonagrammatic aphasics, to directly test Bradley and colleagues' hypotheses and to avoid some of the experimental problems with between-class frequency comparisons. We find that closed-class words behave similarly whether or not the subject is agrammatic. Therefore, the differences between agrammatic and nonagrammatic aphasics must arise at a deeper level (or levels) of lexical processing than the one probed by the frequency sensitivity effect.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1985

On the Bradley hypothesis concerning agrammatism: the nonword-interference effect.

In 1980, D. C. Bradley, M. F. Garrett, and E. B. Zurif (in D. Caplan (Ed.), Biological studies of mental processes, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) have proposed a lexical hypothesis on agrammatism. The theoretical background of this hypothesis is described. Then two experiments are reported with normal speakers on the so-called nonword-interference effect that has been one of the two major sources of experimental evidence for this hypothesis. The first experiment replicates the original finding that the interference effect is found when the nonword starts with a content word but not when it starts with a function word. In the second experiment, it is shown that this contrast is due to an artifact of the composition of the word list. When this list contains both content and function words, rather than only content words--as in Bradley's experiments and our Experiment I--both content and function nonwords show an equally sized interference effect. The consequences for the lexical hypothesis are discussed.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1988

Closed-class words as first syllables do interfere with lexical decisions for nonwords: implications for theories of agrammatism.

It has been proposed that a principal cause of the agrammatism of some Broca's aphasics is that such patients, unlike normal subjects, are unable to make use of a special retrieval mechanism for closed-class ("function") words (D. C. Bradley, 1978, Computational distinctions of vocabulary type, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis; D. C. Bradley, M. F. Garrett, & E. B. Zurif, 1980. In D. Caplan (Ed.), Biological studies of mental processes). The main evidence for the existence of such a mechanism consisted of two observations: (1) the recognition of open-class words was observed to be frequency-sensitive, but that of closed-class words was not; and (2) lexical decisions for nonwords which began with open-class words were delayed, whereas there was no such interference for nonwords which began with closed-class words. However, the first of these observations has proved nonreplicable (e.g., B. Gordon & A. Caramazza, 1982, Brain and Language, 15, 143-160, 1983, Brain and Language, 19, 335-345; J. Segui, J. Mehler, W. Frauenfelder, & J. Morton, 1982, Neuropsychologia, 20, 615-627), and in the present paper, three lexical decision experiments are reported in which it is found that, when certain confounding variables are controlled, nonwords which begin with closed-class words are subject to interference. Moreover, contrary to a suggestion of Kolk and Blomert (1985, Brain and Language, 26, 94-105) the interference is independent of the presence of closed-class items in the lexical decision word list. It seems, then, that closed-class words are not qualitatively different from open-class words with respect either to frequency sensitivity or to nonword interference, and in consequence, the above proposed explanation of agrammatism is left without major empirical support.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Public school teachers in the U.S. evaluate the educational impact of student space experiments launched by expendable vehicles, aboard Skylab, and aboard Space Shuttle.

Space education is a discipline that has evolved at an unprecedented rate over the past 25 years. Although program proceedings, research literature, and historical documentation have captured fragmented pieces of information about student space experiments, the field lacks a valid comprehensive study that measures the educational impact of sounding rockets, Skylab, Ariane, AMSAT, and Space Shuttle. The lack of this information is a problem for space educators worldwide which led to a national study with classroom teachers. Student flown experiments continue to offer a unique experiential approach to teach students thinking and reasoning skills that are imperative in the current international competitive environment in which they live and will work. Understanding the history as well as the current status and educational spin-offs of these experimental programs strengthens the teaching capacity of educators throughout the world to develop problem solving skills and various higher mental processes in the schools. These skills and processes enable students to use their knowledge more effectively and efficiently long after they leave the classroom. This paper focuses on student space experiments as a means of motivating students to meet this educational goal successfully.

Cognition↗
PubMed1992

Deterioration on the Blessed test in Alzheimer's disease: longitudinal data and their implications for clinical trials and identification of subtypes.

One hundred eleven patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) were given the Blessed test (BT) of information, memory, and concentration (scored 0-33) at 6-month intervals over periods of 6-96 months. For each patient, the change in the total BT score between pairs of visits at 6- and 12-month intervals was measured. Mean deterioration scores over 6 and 12 months were 2.2 (SD = 3.2) and 4.1 (SD = 4.1) points, respectively. There was no significant correlation between degree of dementia on the BT and the rate of deterioration. Gender, age of onset, and family history had no significant effect on the rate of deterioration. The implications of the results for treatment trials and investigations of clinical heterogeneity are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Oxpentifylline in dementia: a controlled study.

The effect of oxpentifylline on mental state of patients suffering from primary degenerative dementia (PDD) and multi-infarct dementia (MID) was investigated in a double-blind study. After an initial 2-weeks washout period, the patients were randomly selected to receive either 400 mg oxpentifylline thrice daily or matched placebo tablets for 12 weeks. Eighteen male and 18 female patients aged 60-88 years were included but 5 patients dropped out during the first 2 weeks of the trial due to poor motivation. Two patients for non compliance and one for protocol violation were further excluded from final analysis. The age and sex distribution of the patients receiving placebo were comparable to those of treated patients. The mean pre-entry severity of dementia, as assessed by Folstein's mini mental state (FMMS) and Sandoz Clinical Assessment Geriatric Scale (SCAGS), was greater in the latter group (p less than 0.05). Although both groups showed slight improvement at the end of 12 weeks' treatment, no significant drug-related progress was observed. However, the MID patients (n = 4) who received oxpentifylline showed greater improvement (p less than 0.05) than the MID patients (n = 7) who were treated with placebo. No such benefit was observed in oxpentifylline-treated PDD patients. It is, therefore, suggested, that oxpentifylline (a haemorrheological agent), is probably beneficial only in MID patients, but further long-term studies involving a larger number of patients are required.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Brain potentials during mental distance judgments.

Visual event-related potentials were recorded from a group of 10 normal subjects while they judged the proximity of two letters of the alphabet. Subjects viewed singly the letters A, D, G, L, N, T, W and Z and indicated by button press whether the letter displayed occurred before or after the comparison letter M. Reaction times to close letters (L and N) were longer than ordinally more distant letters (A, D, G, T, W, Z). A late parietally positive potential of approximately 475 ms covaried in latency and amplitude with these judgments. Late potentials were delayed in latency and reduced in amplitude to close letter (L and N) judgments compared to the other letters. The results suggest that mental processes, such as alphabetic distance judgments, may be usefully studied by examining their associated event-related potentials.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Bilateral auditory-evoked potentials in conditions of hypnosis and focused attention.

Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by auditory stimulation were used to study cerebral hemispheric activity during hypnosis. ERPs were recorded from bilateral central (C3 and C4) and temporal (T3 and T4) scalp locations in response to tone pips in 6 medium-high and 6 low-susceptible subjects in three conditions: baseline (tones only), hypnosis (tones plus hypnotic induction), and a focused attention control (tones plus a newspaper story read by the hypnotist). Task asymmetries were individually adjusted for baseline asymmetries. Responses from central locations did not differentiate hypnosis from focused attention for either group. The same was true of temporal locations for the low-susceptible group. The predominant temporal lobe pattern for both conditions and groups was larger left than right responses. The exception was the hypnosis condition for the medium-high susceptible group where there was an increase in responses in the right temporal lobe.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1995

Human EEG, behavioral stillness and biofeedback.

This theoretical synthesis affirms that the normal human EEG is: (1) an indicator of movements of behavior; (2) an undifferentiated indicator of cortical work; but (3) not an indicator of mental processes. A majority of cortical work for an awake person is the mobilization and regulation of all the processes involved in the production, control and prediction of movements of behavior. Abundant synchronous slow waves (alpha, mu, sensory-motor rhythm) indicate a demobilization of voluntary and reflexive, phasic neuromuscular processes which predict, initiate, regulate, and terminate voluntary behavior and movement with a corresponding reduction of afferent feedback associated with sensory data capture, sensory motor integration and behavior. Cortical theta in association with drowsiness indicates that there is further demobilization of reflexive, synergistic, neuromuscular process (as for gait, defensive responses, anti-gravity support), and a reduction of tonic processes which maintain muscle tone or tension with concomitant further reduction of afferent feedback. These various states of behavioral stillness are the catalyst of beneficial psychological and behavioral processes which have been observed to follow biofeedback training to increase synchronous EEG rhythms, and may provide a therapeutic context for psychotherapeutic interventions.

Behavior↗
PubMed1994

Dopamine modulation of synaptic transmission in rat prefrontal cortex: an in vitro electrophysiological study.

The prefrontal cortex is innervated by a well-defined dopaminergic bundle originating from the brainstem and is a key structure in higher order mental processes. We have studied the effects of dopamine (DA) on layer V pyramidal cells of the prefrontal cortex using intracellular recording in rat brain slices maintained in vitro. Bath administration of DA (50-100 microM) had weak effects on membrane properties of these neurons. In contrast, DA markedly decreased all components of the synaptic responses evoked by electrical stimulation of layer I or VI, and in particular the monosynaptic excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) which arises from activation of glutamatergic receptors. The afferents from layer VI seemed less affected by DA than those from layer I. The NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) and AMPA (alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-isoxazolepropionic acid) components of monosynaptic EPSPs were equally reduced by DA. The isolated fast gabaergic potential (IPSP) resulting from GABAA receptors activation was similarly reduced by DA. The suppressive effect of DA on glutamatergic transmission was partially mimicked by the D1 receptor agonist SKF 38393 (50 microM) whereas the D2 receptor agonist quinpirole (50 microM) was ineffective. Conversely, this effect was antagonized by the D1 receptor blocker SCH 23390 (100 microM) but not by the D2 receptor antagonist sulpiride (100 microM). These findings indicate that DA decreases both glutamatergic and gabaergic synaptic transmission in neurons located in layer V of rat prefrontal cortex. These results also suggest that D1 dopamine receptor is involved in the decrement of glutamatergic transmission. These interactions between DA and glutamate are important in regard to the suspected implications of both neurotransmitters in psychiatric diseases.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Endogenous opiates: 1986.

This is the ninth installment of our annual review of research involving the endogenous opiate peptides. It is restricted to the non-analgesic and behavioral studies of the opiate peptides published in 1986. The specific topics this year include stress; tolerance and dependence; eating; drinking; gastrointestinal, renal, and hepatic processes; mental illness; learning, memory, and reward; cardiovascular responses; respiration and thermoregulation; seizures and other neurological disorders; activity; sex, pregnancy, and development; and some other behaviors.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The medical philosophy of Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

Francis Bacon's view of man is dualistic but, although he takes note of mental faculties, he makes the relation between mind and body, rather than the substance of mind, the basis for enquiry into mental processes and, more particularly, for the medically relevant study of mind. (He uses "mind" and "soul" as equivalent terms.) The healing of the body requires study of the body, and the ineffectiveness of physicians is due to their failure in this respect rather than to the body's complexity. To learn about the body requires clinical observation and recording, together with the comparison of bodies, experiments on living animals and attention to pathological changes. The aims of medicine should include not only the restoration of health but also the relief of suffering and they are not to be limited by putting aside a disease as incurable. To learn from treatment it must be fixed in its ordering with controlled and limited variation. Bacon has no separation of medicine from natural science; his philosophy of medicine is his general philosophy of the advancement of knowledge, but limited to a particular field of application. If medicine is separated from natural philosophy it is changed wholly or greatly into empiricism.

England↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study on the effect of a standardized ginseng extract on psychomotor performance in healthy volunteers.

Various tests of psychomotor performance were carried out in a group of 16 healthy male volunteers given a standardized preparation of Korean ginseng (G 115; 100 mg twice a day for 12 weeks) and in a similar group given identical placebo capsules under double-blind conditions. A favourable effect of G 115 relative to baseline performance was observed in attention (cancellation test), processing (mental arithmetic, logical deduction), integrated sensory-motor function (choice reaction time) and auditory reaction time. However, end performance of the G 115 group was superior statistically to the placebo group only in mental arithmetic. No difference between G 115 and placebo was found in tests of pure motor function (tapping test), recognition (digit symbol substitution) and visual reaction time. No adverse effects were reported. It is concluded that G 115 may be superior to placebo in improving certain psychomotor functions in healthy subjects.

Adult↗