Motion aftereffects and retinal motion

Two experiments are described in which it was investigated whether the adaptation on which motion aftereffects (MAEs) are based is a response to retinal image motion alone or to the motion signal derived from the process which combines the image motion signal with information about eye movement (corollary discharge). In both experiments observers either fixated a stationary point or tracked a vertically moving point while a pattern (in experiment 1, a grating; in experiment 2, a random-dot pattern) drifted horizontally across the field. In the tracking condition the adapting retinal motion was oblique. In the fixation condition it was horizontal. In every case in both conditions the MAE was horizontal, in the direction opposite to that of pattern motion. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the adaptation is a response to the motion signal derived from the comparison of eye and image motion rather than to retinal motion per se. An alternative explanation is discussed.     

The effects of nicotine on Parkinson's disease

Post-mortem studies have demonstrated a substantial loss of nicotinic receptors in Parkinson's disease (PD), which may be at least partially responsible for some of the cognitive, motoric, and behavioral deficits seen in this disorder. Epidemiologic studies have suggested that cigarette smoking is a strong negative risk factor for the development of PD. We have previously shown that blockade of central nicotinic receptors produces cognitive impairment in areas of new learning, short-term memory, and psychomotor slowing with increasing dose sensitivity with age and disease. Studies of acute stimulation of nicotinic receptors in Alzheimer's disease with nicotine and the novel agonist ABT-418 in our laboratory and others have shown improvements in several measures of cognitive function. Prior studies of the effects of nicotine in PD have suggested some improvements in clinical symptomatology. We have begun quantitative studies of both acute and chronic nicotine in PD to assess both cognitive and motor effects. Fifteen (15) nondemented subjects (age 66 +/- 5.3; M/F = 11/4) with early to moderate PD (mean Hoehn-Yahr stage = 1.77; MMSE = 28.6) received a dose-ranging study of intravenous nicotine up to 1.25 microg/kg/min, followed by chronic administration of nicotine by transdermal patch with doses ranging up to 14 mg per day for 2 weeks. Testing occurred both during drug administration and up to 2 months after drug cessation to look for prolonged effects. Preliminary analysis shows improvements after acute nicotine in several areas of cognitive performance, particularly measures such as reaction time, central processing speed, and decreased tracking error. Improvements in attention and semantic retrieval were not seen. After chronic nicotine, improvements were seen in several motor measures suggesting improved extrapyramidal functioning. This appeared to be sustained for up to 1 month after drug. The treatment was well tolerated. Nicotinic stimulation may have promise for improving both cognitive and motor aspects of Parkinson's disease.     

Race, pharmacogenomics, and marketing: putting BiDil in context

This article endeavors to place into context recent developments surrounding the United States Food and Drug Administration recent approval of BiDil (isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine hydrochloride) (NitroMed, Inc., Lexington, MA) as the first ever race-specific drug--in this case to treat heart failure in African Americans. It focuses in particular on both commercial incentives and statistical manipulation of medical data as framing the drive to bring BiDil to market as a race-specific drug. In current discourse about pharmacogenomics, targeting a racial audience is perceived as necessary because at this point the technology and resources do not exist to scan efficiently every individual's genetic profile. The article argues that medical researchers may say they are using race as a surrogate to target biology in drug development, but corporations are using biology as a surrogate to target race in drug marketing. Pharmacogenomics may hold great promise, but on our way to that Promised Land, it is imperative to review such short cuts with a critical eye.     

State-dependent thinking: a comparison of waking and dreaming thought

Thinking is known to be state dependent but a systematic study of how thinking in dreams differs from thinking while awake has not been done. The study consisted of analyzing the dream reports of 26 subjects who, in addition to providing dream reports also provided answers to questions about their thinking within the dream. Our hypothesis was that thinking in dreams is not monolithic but has two distinct components, one that is similar to wake-state cognition, and another that is fundamentally different. We found that cognition within a dream scenario was similar to that of wake-state cognition, but that thinking about the scenario itself was deficient and very different than wake-state thinking.     

In the aftermath of September 11: group interventions with traumatized children revisited

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, affected thousands of children psychologically, necessitating the mobilization of multifaceted mental health interventions in an ecological context. This paper reviews the major role of large and small group modalities in this challenging effort, with many of them based on earlier group work with child-victims of trauma.     

The neural reality of syntactic transformations: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging

The functional anatomy of syntactic transformations, a major computational operation invoked in sentence processing, was identified through a functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation. A grammaticality judgment task was used, presented through a novel hidden-blocks design. Subjects listened to transformational and nontransformational sentences in which a host of other complexity generators (number of words, prepositions, embeddings, etc.) were kept constant. A series of analyses revealed that the neural processing of transformations is localizable, evoking a highly lateralized and localized activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's region) and bilateral activation in the posterior superior temporal sulcus. The pattern of activation associated with transformational analysis was distinct from the one observed in neighboring regions, and anatomically separable from the effects of verb complexity, which yielded significant activation in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus. Taken together with neuropsychological evidence, these results uncover the neural reality of syntactic transformations.     

Factors associated with number of treatment interviews of patients from a barrio neighborhood mental health service: A cross-validation

Demographic and treatment variables were, for a second time, found associated with number of treatment interviews completed by lower socioeconomic patients of a barrio area neighborhood mental health service. Of the eight variables that originally differentiated patients with respect to number of interviews, six remained significant on cross-validation. The longer staying patients were characterized by: young adult age range; disrupted marital status; self-referral; using psychotropic medication; major and secondary problems of anxiety and depression.     

Reactions of profeminist and antifeminist men to an expert woman

Thirty-two profeminist and 32 antifeminist men interacted with a woman who assertively maintained a position different from the subject. The woman was either an expert in the topic being discussed or an expert in an irrelevant area, and the topic of discussion was either traditionally masculine or feminine. The men's behavior was unaffected by their feminist beliefs, even when three distinct behaviors were combined to form a composite measure. As predicted, however, profeminist and antifeminist men did differ in their ratings of the women and the situation, with profeminists preferring a woman who was assertive on a masculine topic, and antifeminists preferring an assertive woman on a feminine topic. The data suggest that men who agree with profeminist beliefs are not merely responding in a socially desirable manner, although their beliefs are probably not sufficiently strong to result in distinctive overt behavior.The author wishes to thank Jeannie Cook and Diana Demong for serving as confederates, Krista Fuller and Jean Eucher for serving as experimenters, William Gaeddert and Mary Beth Howe for doing the content analyses, and Judy Krulewitz for her comments on earlier versions of this article.     

Acalculia: An historical review of localization

This article reviews the brain localization of calculation disorders (acalculia) beginning with Gall's claim in the early 19th century for a "center" of calculation. A renewed interest in the subject arose around the time of Henschen during the first quarter of the 20th century. A summary of the cases of acalculia since Henschen leads to the conclusion that regardless of the functional modular nature of calculation ability, there is neither a localized region nor a specific hemisphere uniquely underlying the disorder.