Glutamate as a transmitter in the CNS and its presumed significance in the pathogenesis of cerebral seizure forms--recent aspects

Glutamate is believed to be quantitatively the most outstanding of the excitatory transmitters in the CNS. Certain conformationally related analogues, e. g. kainate, N-methyl-D-aspartate, ibotenate, and homocysteate, act as glutamate agonists. The local or systemic administration of these "excitotoxic" compounds induces epileptiform activity pointing out new and deeper insights into the epileptic process. Additionally, the glutamate transmitter hypothesis is expected to give a chance of a causal comprehension for choreatic processes as well as for the mode of action of anticonvulsant and antispastic agents.     

The sociodynamogram--a contribution to the objectivization of group process

Two simple sociometric techniques for practical use are described which are derived from the data given in the sociogram. Compared with the conventional sociogram, the group rank score we use everyday therapy has the advantage that it can be published. It permits members of the group to better identify the social situations which cause specific psychic impulses. The sociogram is reserved for the therapist. In our opinion the sociodynamogram has certain advantages over both methods because it provides an insight into spheres which are inaccessible in the sociogram and group rank score.     

Quantitative amino acid determination in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid in endogenous depressions

The levels of 20 amino acids were measured in the plasma and cerbrospinal fluid of 41 patients with endogenic depressions. The plasma levels of 12 amino acids were found to be significantly lower in the patients than in the control group, but cerebrospinal fluid levels were significantly lower only in the case of taurine, glutamine, phenylalanine and aginine. Comparison of the same amino acid levels in treated and non-treated patients showed that serine and alpha-aminobutyric acid serum concentrations were higher in the nontreated patients. The tyrosine and phenylalanine levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of the patients who had received medicamentous treatment were higher than in the other group.     

Parameter estimation in latent trait models

Latent trait models for binary responses to a set of test items are considered from the point of view of estimating latent trait parameters=( ₁, , _n ) and item parameters=( ₁, , _k ), where _j may be vector valued. With considered a random sample from a prior distribution with parameter, the estimation of (, ) is studied under the theory of the EM algorithm. An example and computational details are presented for the Rasch model.This work was supported by Contract No. N00014-81-K-0265, Modification No. P00002, from Personnel and Training Research Programs, Psychological Sciences Division, Office of Naval Research. The authors wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for several valuable suggestions.     

Recognition memoryfor pictorial events

Subjects viewed sequences of slides depicting everyday events, and in later recognition tests, they correctly rejected distractors that were inconsistent with some invariant of the event but falsely accepted consistent distractors. J. J. Jenkins has accounted for the differential recognition of consistent and inconsistent slides of pictorial sequences in terms of fusion, the abstraction of an event from a series of temporally related items. The conditions under which event fusion was likely to occur were manipulated in three experiments: degree of ordering of the action-sequence slides, semantic vs. nonsemantic orienting tasks during acquisition, and duration of retention interval Recognition performance was generally more accurate under conditions of semantic processing, ordered acquisition sequences (for the semantic task), and shorter retention intervals. However, these variables did not affect differential recognition of consistent vs. inconsistent slides. A further experiment showed that the absence of an effect of disordering acquisition sequences on differential recognition could not be attributed to subjects’ reordering the disordered sequences in a way consistent with the original event. The data did not support the hypothesis that recognition performance was based on fusion of events depicted by temporally ordered slide sequences. It was suggested that memory for featural detail is a relevant factor in performance.     

Human figure drawings of gender-problem children: A comparison to sibling,psychiatric, and normal controls

The Draw-a-Person test was used to evaluate a number of questions regarding children referred for potential problems in their gender-identity development (N = 36). Sibling (N = 31), psychiatric (N = 23), and normal (N = 30) children served as comparison groups. The major results included the following: (1) The gender-referred children were more likely to draw an opposite-sex person when requested to "draw a person" than were the other three groups; (2) the gender-referred children who drew an opposite-sex person were more likely to play with opposite-sex toys and dress-up apparel on a free-play task than were the gender-referred children who drew a same-sex person; (3) the gender-referred children drew taller opposite-sex persons than same-sex persons; (4) using Koppitz's (1968) criteria, the normal children had a smaller proportion of emotional disturbance indicators in their same-sex drawings than did the other three groups. These findings were discussed with regard to psychometric and interpretive issues in the assessment of children with atypical gender-role behavior.     

Are introverts still more religious?

The JEPQ and a religious attitude scale, ASC 4B, were completed by 1715 school children aged 11–17 yrs. Attitude to religion was found to decline across the age range, girls were found to be more religious than boys, and introverts more religious than extraverts. The relationship between introversion and religiosity is consistent with previous research and the present study adds substance to this relationship with the use of a more recent E scale on an extended age range.     

Light source position in the perception of object shape

The apparent relief of monocularly viewed surfaces reversed when the order of light and shade was reversed relative to the position of a lamp observed the moment earlier. The pattern of shading was reversed either by illuminating from a direction opposite to that of the apparent direction of illumination or by inverting the illuminating image relative to the light source. The combination of both of these manipulations restores the original juxtaposition of light source and shading and reestablished accurate perception of relief. These results demonstrate that the perception of the relief of physical surfaces depends upon the remembered position of an apparent light source.