The relationship between psychological test results and EEG patterns in healthy children

222 children (112 girls and 110 boys) aged 5–16 years with different types of EEG pattern, selected according to well defined normal criteria in order to exclude cerebral lesion elements, were investigated by current child-psychiatric diagnostic methods, including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children (WISC), which gave a mean IQ of 116.5. With two so-called tests of organicity (Bender Gestalt Test and Benton's Revised Visual Retention Test) poor performances indicating brain damage were shown in 22% and 24% of the children respectively. Various EEG patterns showed few significant correlations with the test variables. According to clinical judgement "slight symptoms of cerebral dysfunction" was found in some children, but no correlation appeared between such symptoms and poor performance in the psychological tests. The high frequency of defective scores in the Bender and Benton tests in this selected material of healthy children means that these tests cannot be used in clinical work for diagnosing brain injury in individual children. Nor can they be used to throw light on the clinical significance of the different EEG variables studied.     

Circaseptan aspects of self-assessed sleep protocols covering 70 nights on 33 clinically healthy persons

This study aimed to describe quantitatively some changes in sleep behavior. During 70 consecutive nights, 28 women and 3 men, 30 to 40 years of age and presumably clinically healthy, recorded the time of each awakening. Time of falling asleep were estimated from markings at 10-min. intervals from the times of lying down to sleep as an indication that the subject had not yet fallen asleep. Sleep duration and an index of effective sleep derived therefrom were analyzed by rhythmometric methods. On a group basis, anticipated components with periods of 1 and 0.5 wk., synchronized with the social schedule, were detected with statistical significance. Until long-term polysomnographic monitoring can readily cover the week automatically rather than only one or a few daily sleep spans, the self-monitoring of sleep behavior, yielding the circaseptan endpoints derived herein, may serve as a cost-effective tool in sleep research. By virtue of their relative simplicity, they could be part of a protocol designed to assess pharmacologic or nonpharmacologic interventions of sleep disturbance aimed at restoring undisturbed sleep.     

Observation of an absence status in the EEG without clinically detected psychopathology

It is reported that a patient suffering from generalized idiopathic epilepsy accidentally showed continuous epileptic activity as spike-wave pattern during an electroencephalographic lead without observing any clinical changes to whom. This state having been ended by a grand mal, the patient could give unspecific subjective complaints for the period of the "bioelectrical petit mal state", but he was fully able to remember. It is referred to that the phenomenon of the clinical inconspicuous appearance and the missing amnesia are special features.     

Interhemispheric EEG activity in normal and aphasic adults.

EEG recordings were obtained from 10 normal and 10 aphasic adults while they participated in behavioral tasks and a no performance condition. Interhemispheric asymmetry and average activity at 5 to 15 Hz in each hemisphere were compared between groups and among tasks. Asymmetry during behavioral tasks did not differ significantly between groups or among tasks, however, aphasic patients showed a significant decrease in average activity at 5 to 15 Hz on the behavioral tasks compared with the level for a non performance condition. Test-retest reliability was poor for asymmetry but acceptable for average activity at 5 to 15 Hz. Finally, asymmetry was significantly related with severity of aphasia.     

Hemispheric lateralization of the EEG during wakefulness and REM sleep in young healthy adults

EEG recordings confirm hemispheric lateralization of brain activity during cognitive tasks. The aim of the present study was to investigate spontaneous EEG lateralization under two conditions, waking and REM sleep. Bilateral monopolar EEG was recorded in eight participants using a 12-electrode montage, before the night (5 min eyes closed) and during REM sleep. Spectral analysis (0.75-19.75 Hz) revealed left prefrontal lateralization on total spectrum amplitude power and right occipital lateralization in Delta activity during waking. In contrast, during REM sleep, right frontal lateralization in Theta and Beta activities and right lateralization in occipital Delta activity was observed. These results suggest that spontaneous EEG activities generated during waking and REM sleep are supported in part by a common thalamo-cortical neural network (right occipital Delta dominance) while additional, possibly neuro-cognitive factors modulate waking left prefrontal dominance and REM sleep right frontal dominance.     

Variability in the initiation of articulatory movements in the speech of stutterers and normal speakers

This study was designed to investigate the differences between stutterers and normal speakers in phonatory and articulatory timing during the initiation of fluent utterances of monosyllabic words. Electromyographic recordings of four articulatory muscles and recordings of glottal vibrations were made of repetitive utterances of a series of monosyllabic words by 15 stutterers and 17 nonstutterers. These data were analyzed in terms of average interval times between voice onset and onset of EMG activity and between onset of EMG activity in each articulator and in terms of the intrasubject variability of these durational measures. Results showed that there were no significant differences between stutterers and nonstutterers in average interval times and that stutterers, in general, were significantly more variable in their speech onset timing. Findings are discussed in terms of recent hypotheses concerning the role of timing disturbances as the main source of speech disruption in stutterers.     

Variability of olfactory threshold and its role in assessment of aging

Olfactory thresholds of elderly persons (over 65 years) average one to two orders of magnitude higher than those of young adults (under 30 years). Past studies reveal enormous spreads (typically about three orders of magnitude) of individual thresholds within each age group and extensive overlap between the two groups—enough to question how typically decline in sensitivity characterizes the individual aged person. The present study shows that much of the observed overlap is misleading, because the brief threshold tests usually administered tend to exaggerate individual differences. A more representative assessment of an individual’s threshold (for 1-butanol) was achieved by averaging the thresholds from two to eight separate short tests, spread over 4 days. The spread of each group’s thresholds (12 young and 12 elderly subjects) narrowed strikingly as the number of tests averaged increased from one to four; further tests accomplished no additional narrowing of spread. Based on a single test, thresholds of young and elderly overlapped in the usual way; but based on four or more tests, thresholds of young and elderly overlapped little or not at all. The outcome (1) argues that decline in smell sensitivity seems to be, after all, a common feature of aging, and (2) sheds light on the sourcesof variability of sensory thresholds.     

Variability in infant motor behavior: A hallmark of the healthy nervous system

Application of the concepts of the Neuronal Group Selection Theory (NGST) may shed a new light on motor development. According to NGST, normal motor development is characterized by two phases of variability. Variation is not random, but determined by criteria set by genetic information. Development starts with the phase of primary variability, during which variation in motor behavior is not geared to external conditions. At function-specific ages secondary variability starts, during which motor performance can be adapted to specific situations. In both forms of variability selection on the basis of afferent information plays a significant role. From the NGST point of view, children with pre- or perinatally acquired brain damage suffer from stereotyped motor behavior produced by a limited repertoire of primary (sub)cortical neuronal networks. These children also have problems in selecting the most efficient neuronal activity due to deficits in the processing of sensory information.     

An analysis of passive memory in normal and mentally retarded persons

The differential short-term retention of normal and mentally retarded persons is often attributed to differences in strategic functioning. There is, however, evidence for memory differences between these groups on tasks which minimize cognitive strategies. Many of the passive memory studies have been plagued with methodological and interpretative difficulties. The present experiment was an attempt to avoid these problems and clarify the possibility of passive memory differences.It was necessary to equate initial learning and control for rehearsal to compare the passive memory of normal and retarded persons across short, rehearsal-free intevals. The retention intervals were filled with a tonal detection task intended to prevent rehearsal.CA matched normal and retarded adolescents were required to recall sequences of consonants after periods of 0,9, and 27 sec. of tonal detection. These subjects also performed the detection task without the recall requirement over the same intervals. Subjects were classified as rehearsers and nonrehearsers, depending upon variations in their tonal detection accuracy, or response times across the two conditions. The main result was that normal and retarded nonrehearsers showed equal forgetting over the retention intervals.     

Sleep quality in healthy and mood-disordered persons predicts daily life emotional reactivity

Disordered sleep has been linked to impaired emotional functioning in healthy and depressed individuals. Little is known, however, about how chronic sleep problems influence emotional reactivity in everyday life. Participants with major or minor unipolar depressive disorder (n?=?60) and healthy controls (n?=?35) reported on sleep and emotional responses to daily life events using a computerised Experience Sampling Method. We examined whether impaired sleep quality influenced emotional reactivity to daily events, and if this relationship was altered by unipolar mood disorders. Among healthy individuals, sleep difficulties were associated with enhanced negative affect (NA) to unpleasant events and a dulled response to neutral events. However, among mood-disordered persons, sleep difficulties were associated with higher NA across all types of everyday life events. Impaired sleep quality differentially affects daily life emotional reactions as a function of depression.     

The role of neuropsychology in the assessment and treatment of persons with epilepsy.

Several areas of current interest in the neuropsychology of epilepsy are briefly reviewed in this article. These include variables pertaining to seizures, seizure history, antiepileptic drugs, and methods of neuropsychological evaluation. It is apparent that epilepsy is a multifaceted area: Psychologists not only can be of great assistance to patients with this condition, but may also learn a great deal from this complex disorder.     

Evidence for preserved emotional memory in normal older persons

Emotion has been shown to have a modulatory effect on declarative memory. Normal aging is associated with a decline in declarative memory, but whether aging might affect the influence of emotion on memory has not been established. To investigate this, we administered a task that provides a detailed assessment of emotional memory to 80 neurologically normal adults ranging in age from 35 to 85 years. Across ages, memory performance was found to be modulated by the emotional significance of stimuli in a comparable manner (improved memory for gist, compromised memory for visual detail), despite an overall decline in memory performance with increasing age. The results raise the interesting possibility that aging has a differential effect on hippocampal versus amygdala function.     

Test-retest reliability of the functional rotation test in healthy adults

Test-retest reliability and concurrent validity for a Functional Rotation Test, developed as a clinical tool for quantifying the extent of body rotation while sitting or standing, were evaluated with healthy adults in this study. Participants, ages 20 to 72 years (n = 36) donned laser-pointing devices, stood or sat in the center of a room calibrated for the test, and actively turned and pointed to the right (or left) as far as they could comfortably. The locations of the lasers were recorded and subsequently scored. Testing was repeated after a brief rest. Concurrent measurements between a clinical goniometer and the Functional Rotation Test were also compared. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) indicated good to excellent test-retest reliability indices, ranging from .89 to .96 for standing and .87 to .95 for sitting tests. Agreement between the Functional Rotation Test and the goniometer was excellent (ICC = 1.0). The relevance and possible applications of the Functional Rotation Test are discussed.