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PubMed1998

Scientific meaning of meanings: quests for discoveries concerning our cultural ills.

This paper outlines pioneering concepts of fundamental physical and emotional features of the human brain which served as primary operators. These have developed during the past 10,000 years, giving rise to our present global megacultures and their various ancestral culture progenitors. Essential points are these: (1) Biological evolution endowed the human brain (quite inadvertently and unintentionally) with enormous latent powers for complex and sophisticated abstract ratiocinations. (2) Magnitudes of these latent powers grew exponentially with linear enlargements of brain size during the evolution of the genetic ancestors of Homo sapiens sapiens (Hss) during the past 3 million years, but these latent powers never materialized in utilized forms within the environmental contexts in which they evolved. (3) These sophisticated, abstract ratiocinations, both latent powers and operative forms in today's Hss brain, are divided between two major categories: utilitarian thinking and nonutilitarian thinking. (4) These two different types of thinking processes are carried out within separate, different regional combinations of neuronal biochemical entities within the same individual brain. (5) Sensitivities of abstract, sophisticated ratiocination processes within the human brain to influences from communication interactions with other human brains are exponentially greater in comparison with any other species of central nervous system in the earth's biosphere. This makes the brain population density the utmost critical factor, and determines the character of human thought within interacting populations of brains at a given time and place within a particular culture. (6) Abrupt increases of sedentary brain population densities, unnaturally greater by orders of magnitude than those that existed previously in biological evolutionary contexts, were engendered by the inauguration of agricultural practices 10,000 years ago. This enabled latent powers of the human brain used for complex and sophisticated abstract ratiocinations to become manifest in materialized forms of usage within relatively large groups of humans living i certain regions of the earth. (7) Thinking processes of the utilitarian category within brains living in such regions guided and dominated the development of sophisticated and complex social hierarchies and institutions, forms of communication, technologies, and cultures since that time. This dominating factor relegated thinking processes within the nonutilitarian categories of those brains to subservient roles during those developments. (8) Nonutilitarian abstracts ratiocinations possess a potential for proper adjudication and guidance of utilitarian abstract ratiocinations in the latter's development of culture. However, lack of the former's proper role in cultural developments since the beginning of the Holocene interglacial era has resulted in the imprisonment of Hss as aliens in an intellectual hell on a foreign planet.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Performance more than working memory disrupted by acute systemic inflammation in rats in appetitive tasks.

Evidence from molecular biology, epidemiology, behavioral pharmacology, and clinical science support the conclusion that brain inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis of cognitive symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neuropsychological disorders. Three different tests were conducted to determine whether the acute inflammatory response induced by systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment is accompanied by a selective disruption of working memory functioning in rats. Doses of LPS sufficient to induce a thermoregulatory response were administered intraperitoneally and their effects on behavioral measures of symbolic working memory, spatial learning, and spatial memory consolidation, were assessed. LPS-induced immune activation was found not to significantly affect memory processes in any of the behavioral tests used. However, LPS-induced immune activation caused performance deficits consistent with a disruptive effect of LPS on motivation and arousal. These results suggest that sickness behavior induced by immune stimulation is not necessarily accompanied by selective impairment in memory processes. The importance of distinguishing cognitive disruption from performance impairment in interpreting the behavioral effects of inflammatory mediators is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

New treatments in neurorehabilitation founded on basic research.

Recent discoveries about how the central nervous system responds to injury and how patients reacquire lost behaviours by training have yielded promising new therapies for neurorehabilitation. Until recently, this field had been largely static, but the current melding of basic behavioural science with neuroscience promises entirely new approaches to improving behavioural, perceptual and cognitive capabilities after neurological damage. Studies of phenomena such as cortical reorganization after a lesion, central nervous system repair, and the substantial enhancement of extremity use and linguistic function by behavioural therapy, support this emerging view. The ongoing changes in rehabilitation strategies might well amount to an impending paradigm shift in this field.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Sometimes a cigar [magazine] is more than just a cigar [magazine]: pro-smoking arguments in Cigar Aficionado, 1992-2000.

Since its first issue in 1992, few periodicals have enjoyed the rapid growth and international popularity of Cigar Aficionado. Although the magazine professes to simply celebrate "the good life and the joys of cigar smoking," we argue that it serves a more insidious function; specifically, the periodical supplies readers with 7 persuasive strategies aimed at rebuking dominant anti-smoking health assertions: (a) the cigars-are-not-cigarettes argument, (b) the life-is-dangerous argument, (c) the health-benefits argument, (d) the moderation argument, (e) the old-smokers argument, (f) the bad-science argument, and (g) the good-science argument. These pro-smoking arguments ultimately serve to relieve the cognitive dissonance associated with the consumption of a potentially deadly product and to maintain a loyal readership, free from guilt or anxiety.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2002

The Harvard Pigeon Lab under Herrnstein.

The history of the Harvard Pigeon Lab is a history of two periods of remarkable productivity, the first under Skinner's leadership and the second under Herrnstein's. In each period, graduate students flocked to the leader and then began stimulating one another. Chance favored Herrnstein's leadership, too, because an unusually large number of graduate students were admitted in the fall of 1962. In each period, productivity declined as the leader lost interest in the laboratory and withdrew. Directly and indirectly, the laboratory finally died as a result of the cognitive "revolution." Skinner and his students saw the possibility of a natural science of behavior and set about establishing that science based on concepts such as response rate, stimulus control, and schedules of reinforcement. Herrnstein and his students saw that the science could be quantitative and set about making it so, with relative response rate, the matching law, and the psychophysics of choice (analogous to S. S. Stevens' psychophysics). The history might provide a golden research opportunity for someone interested in the impact of such self-organizing research groups on the progress of science.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Through the lens of the artist-scientist: reflections for the pediatric oncology nurse.

Science and art need not be in conflict because both require use of imagination, cognitive insight, discipline, and creative application. Conceptual shifts in neuroscience have offered new validity to intuitive beliefs regarding the mind-body unit. One example is the articulation of a neuroimmunomodulatory mechanism of tumor growth. Another critical scientific advancement is the delineation of human physiologic circadian rhythmicity. This emergent discipline asserts the time-based pattern of dynamic physiologic functioning, and thereby embraces the changing, unique, yet predictable human condition. A chronobiology of cancer is now documented and merits the clinician's attention. The nature of time creates a natural bridge between this leading edge endeavor of science and the arts; this bridge is most notably found in music. Each of these paradigms witnesses to the reality that the experience of time is frequently nonlinear. Expression of form and symbolism characterize art and serve as its vehicle. If we dare to become more aware of our experience and the tools of mind, body, spirit, and senses in ourselves and in others, we will come to view our sensate selves as possessing stature equal to that of such biologic measurements as pressure and white blood count.

Circadian Rhythm↗
PubMed1998

Interview with larry R. squire

Larry R. Squire is Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, and Research Career Scientist at the San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He received a B.A. from Oberlin College, a Ph.D. from MIT, and did postdoctoral work at the Albert Einstein Medical School. His most influential mentors were Hans-Lukas Teuber and Samuel H. Barondes. His work has focused broadly on the problem of how the brain accomplishes learning and memory. Some of this work has involved mice and rats, but most of it has been carried out with monkeys and humans. Although his own studies have been concerned primarily with the function and organization of the brain systems that support memory, he sees the modern science of memory as benefiting from a broad range of approaches that includes the cellular and molecular study of synaptic plasticity as well as the study of normal cognition. In 1993-1994 he served as President of the Society for Neuroscience. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. A book, Memory: From Mind to Molecules, coauthored with Eric Kandel, will be published in late 1998 by W. H. Freeman and Company.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Neuroprotective effects of female sex steroids in humans: current controversies and future directions.

Recent findings from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) have raised considerable concern over prolonged use of opposed and unopposed oral conjugated equine estrogen (CEE), given the increased risk of serious adverse effects, including stroke and venous thromboembolic complications. Furthermore, results from the WHI Memory Study (WHIMS) indicated that over 5 years of therapy with Prempro impaired performance on global cognitive tests and nearly doubled the risk of dementia. These surprising findings were contradictory to cumulative evidence from basic science, epidemiological and some intervention studies suggesting hormone therapy was cardioprotective and could potentially reduce the risk of dementia. This review paper focuses on the neurobiology of estrogen, summarizing the clinical evidence for neuroprotective and cognition-enhancing efficacy of estrogen. Further, the paper briefly discusses variables that may account for the unexpected findings of WHIMS, and offers suggestions for future research.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1993

Space and cognition: the measurement of behavioral functions during a 6-day space mission.

We measured nonspecific (attention, mental flexibility, psychomotor speed) and visuospatial cognitive processing in a single case study during a 6-d visit on the Russian orbital complex MIR, using computer-based psychometric tasks. Reaction times and accuracy scores showed only minor, nonsignificant changes between preflight, flight, and postflight assessments. These results suggest that several behavioral functions, among them complex visuospatial processing skills, remain essentially intact on short space visits, provided that the performing subject experiences no symptoms of space motion sickness or other physical impairments. Computerized psychometric tasks are a sensitive and flexible tool to measure behavioral functions in space life sciences.

Cognition↗
PubMed2006

Cognitive sequelae of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN DBS) is an increasingly common treatment for Parkinson's disease. Qualitative reviews have concluded that diminished verbal fluency is common after STN DBS, but that changes in global cognitive abilities, attention, executive functions, and memory are only inconsistently observed and, when present, often nominal or transient. We did a quantitative meta-analysis to improve understanding of the variability and clinical significance of cognitive dysfunction after STN DBS. METHODS: We searched MedLine, PsycLIT, and ISI Web of Science electronic databases for articles published between 1990 and 2006, and extracted information about number of patients, exclusion criteria, confirmation of target by microelectrode recording, verification of electrode placement via radiographic means, stimulation parameters, assessment time points, assessment measures, whether patients were on levodopa or dopaminomimetics, and summary statistics needed for computation of effect sizes. We used the random-effects meta-analytical model to assess continuous outcomes before and after STN DBS. FINDINGS: Of 40 neuropsychological studies identified, 28 cohort studies (including 612 patients) were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. After adjusting for heterogeneity of variance in study effect sizes, the random effects meta-analysis revealed significant, albeit small, declines in executive functions and verbal learning and memory. Moderate declines were only reported in semantic (Cohen's d 0.73) and phonemic verbal fluency (0.51). Changes in verbal fluency were not related to patient age, disease duration, stimulation parameters, or change in dopaminomimetic dose after surgery. INTERPRETATION: STN DBS, in selected patients, seems relatively safe from a cognitive standpoint. However, difficulty in identification of factors underlying changes in verbal fluency draws attention to the need for uniform and detailed reporting of patient selection, demographic, disease, treatment, surgical, stimulation, and clinical outcome parameters.

Chi-Square Distribution↗
PubMed2005

Effects of ovarian hormones on cognitive function in nonhuman primates.

Several studies have suggested that estrogen benefits verbal memory and lowers the risk of Alzheimer's disease in women, and improves cognitive function in animal models. However, the negative outcome of the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study has challenged the rationale for using estrogen as a protective agent against age-related cognitive decline. In view of the limitations of the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study, it is clear that our understanding of estrogen effects would greatly benefit from further interactions between clinical and basic science. Animal models of menopause can provide crucial information regarding the consequences of estrogen loss and replacement on several systems, including cognition. In this paper, I review the evidence that nonhuman primates, who share numerous cognitive and physiological characteristics with humans, can substantially contribute to our understanding of estrogen influences on the brain and cognition. Studies in young adult females suggest that some aspects of cognition fluctuate with the menstrual cycle, but that ovariectomy and estrogen replacement have only modest effects on cognitive function. In contrast, data in aged, naturally or surgically menopausal monkeys indicate that estrogen modulates a broad range of cognitive domains. Neurobiological data are consistent with the cognitive findings and demonstrate an array of morphological and physiological changes in brain areas important for cognition following ovariectomy and/or estrogen replacement. It is concluded that nonhuman primates, by providing a bridge between rodent and human data, constitute invaluable models to further our understanding of hormonal actions on the brain and cognition and to develop effective hormonal interventions against brain and cognitive aging.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Three decades of psychological research in the journal Cognitive Psychology (1979-1999).

We examined the journal Cognitive Psychology, as representative of the evolution of cognitive psychology during the last three decades (1979-1999). Analysis of changes in the impact factor defined according to the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) is an indication of the ranking of this journal both in the general classification of archival research journals as well as in relation to other periodicals in the area of cognitive psychology. This single quantitative measure of articles published in Cognitive Psychology indicates a change in the topics of interest. An analysis of the research topics and identification of the most productive authors identifies important indicators of the psychological topics of primary interest during this time.

Cognition↗
PubMed1998

[The significance of animals in biomedical research].

The mission of medicine is maintenance of health, elimination of suffering and prolongation of life. These aims can be achieved by medicine based on experimental determination, because only then it becomes a real science. The nature of human mind has led the man since the beginning of humanity on the earth to the cognition of his environment and himself. Being intellectually superior than other living creatures, the man got power over them. In his endless efforts to expand knowledge about living organisms, including his own, he started to use animals. The man has used animals for cognitive purposes for ages and is still doing it, however his motivation has changed and is still changing. Cognition of functions of living organisms on the basis of observation solely, without any interference into the living body gave a lot of important information, yet, generally, this method was of little use for the development of science. Only the use of animals could give information about this what was earlier unknown and impossible. The long-lasting evolution of experimental studies of living functions of higher organisms resulted in achieving a perfect level in biomedical studies. Vivisection, as it was understood years ago, has become history. For a chronic experiment, an animal is surgically prepared according to the researcher's intention. The surgery and the postoperative period follow the principles used in human surgery. After the convalesce period, the animal is used for further experiments. On such prepared animals, the investigations in experimental cardiology, neurophysiology, gastroenterology and other medical disciplines are performed. The animal prepared for longlasting experiments do not suffer from pain during both the experiments and intervals between them. Another important achievement in chronic experiments is considerable reduction of the number of animals used in experimental medicine. Undoubtedly, the greatest achievements in medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries were possible due to the use of animals. There is a strong relationship between a rapid progress in experiments on animals and evident progress in clinical medicine. In the second half of the 20th century the man left the globe for the first time and reached another planet. Tis unusual event in the history of humanity was possible due to space medicine based on biomedical experiments with the use of animals. Also, the man's ability to reach the depths of oceans cost the lives of many experimental animals. Despite advances that have already been made, we are still in the early stages of understanding the complex workings of the body. This makes the replacement of animal experiments a slow process. At the same time, our increasing knowledge is opening up whole new areas of medical research which in turn give rise to a need for further animal use. While it may be difficult to envisage total replacement, the proposition of work that can be done without animals is increasing all the time. Many efforts are being made to find alternatives to animal experiments, to increase the usefulness of those that already exist, and to refine animal research methods. But at present days biomedicine, with its experiments on animals, reveals the laws of nature which the clinical and his patient can use to improve the life quality, prolong the life span and eliminate suffering. We all want to lead a healthy and enjoyable life. Most of us want the benefits of modern medical research-benefits that we would not have without the contribution of animal research. Yet, the health and well being of animals is important too. Clearly, those involved in this research have a moral and legal obligation to ensure that laboratory animals are well housed and cared for, any distress is kept to a minimum and that as few animals as possible are used. In the end, the question of whether animals should be used in medicines research is one everyone must answer for themselves, but the decision is more c

Animal Welfare↗