Intraoperative conversion to open technique: is informed consent implied?

This case raises issues regarding the anesthesia and surgical components of preoperative informed consent and the differing views of anesthesiologists and surgeons with regards to informed consent, in the context of conversion to open surgery from a minimally invasive approach.     

Stimulus-dependent flexibility in non-human auditory pitch processing

Songbirds and humans share many parallels in vocal learning and auditory sequence processing. However, the two groups differ notably in their abilities to recognize acoustic sequences shifted in absolute pitch (pitch height). Whereas humans maintain accurate recognition of words or melodies over large pitch height changes, songbirds are comparatively much poorer at recognizing pitch-shifted tone sequences. This apparent disparity may reflect fundamental differences in the neural mechanisms underlying the representation of sound in songbirds. Alternatively, because non-human studies have used sine-tone stimuli almost exclusively, tolerance to pitch height changes in the context of natural signals may be underestimated. Here, we show that European starlings, a species of songbird, can maintain accurate recognition of the songs of other starlings when the pitch of those songs is shifted by as much as ±40%. We observed accurate recognition even for songs pitch-shifted well outside the range of frequencies used during training, and even though much smaller pitch shifts in conspecific songs are easily detected. With similar training using human piano melodies, recognition of the pitch-shifted melodies is very limited. These results demonstrate that non-human pitch processing is more flexible than previously thought and that the flexibility in pitch processing strategy is stimulus dependent.     

A Review of: “Couple Power Therapy”

Abstract

Events of parental divorce: Stressfulness ratings by children, parents, and clinicians, by S. A. Wolchik, I. N. Sandler, S. L. Braver,&;B. S. Fogas, 1986, 14, 59-74     

Ageing affects conceptual but not perceptual memory processes

Whereas age effects commonly occur in tests of explicit memory, tests of implicit memory often show age invariance. In two experiments, the traditional confound between test type (implicit vs explicit) and retrieval process (conceptually driven vs perceptually driven) was removed by using conceptually driven and perceptually driven tests of both implicit and explicit memory. Experiment 1 revealed a significant age effect for conceptually driven retrieval and no age effect for perceptually driven retrieval, regardless of the type of memory being measured. Experiment 2 highlighted a difference between the two age groups in their ability to utilise semantic encoding in a nominally perceptually driven explicit memory test. The paper concludes that although perceptually driven processing is stable over age, particular care must be taken to minimise contamination from conceptually driven retrieval processes in such investigations.     

Increasing variety of foods consumed by blending nonpreferred foods into preferred foods

A treatment with differential or noncontingent reinforcement and nonremoval of the spoon increased the acceptance of one or two of 16 foods for 2 participants with severe food refusal. These differential levels of acceptance were demonstrated empirically in an ABAB design in which A was the presentation of the accepted (preferred) foods and B was the presentation of foods the participants refused (nonpreferred foods). Subsequently, we implemented a blending treatment that consisted of mixing (blending) nonpreferred foods into preferred foods in various ratios (e.g., 10% nonpreferred/90% preferred, 20% nonpreferred/80% preferred). We then presented nonpreferred foods that had been exposed to blending to determine if consumption of nonpreferred foods would increase following the blending treatment. We also conducted periodic reversals in which we presented nonpreferred foods that had not been exposed to the blending treatment. Following initial implementation of the blending treatment, consumption was high for nonpreferred foods that had been blended and low for nonpreferred foods that had not been blended. Consumption increased for all foods (i.e., foods that had been exposed to blending and foods that had not been exposed to blending) after seven or eight foods had been exposed to the blending treatment. Thus, the variety of foods consumed by the participants increased from one or two to 16. These results are discussed in terms of stimulus fading, conditioned food preferences, and escape extinction. DESCRIPTORS: conditioned food preferences, food refusal, negative reinforcement, stimulus fading     

Competition, inhibition, and semantic judgment errors in Parkinson's disease

Semantic processing errors are symptoms of an up-regulation (schizophrenia) or degradation (Parkinsonism) of dopaminergic pathways. A recent connectionist model attributed errors in the schizophrenic processing of context to increased gain in competitive neural processes. This study extends this "gain hypothesis" by comparing the sensitivity to reduced gain of a simulation of semantic route activation to characteristic semantic judgment errors made by Parkinson's patients in an open search task. Under normal gain conditions, the dominant sense of polysemous words "wins" through competition and lateral inhibition at the word sense level (beta(inh)). For words with very different sense frequencies, decreasing gain by increasing beta(inh) resulted in the dominant word sense winning; however, for words with similar sense frequencies, increasing beta(inh) resulted in the dominant word sense winning only for low to moderate values. At high levels, no clear winner emerged after 200 epochs, with the least dominant sense reaching the maximum activation value. These results are discussed in the context of the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which may provide a theoretical basis for understanding normal and impaired semantic performance in catecholaminergic disorders.     

A systematic evaluation of food textures to decrease packing and increase oral intake in children with pediatric feeding disorders

This study examined packing (pocketing or holding accepted food in the mouth) in 3 children who were failing to thrive or had inadequate weight gain due to insufficient caloric intake. The results of an analysis of texture indicated that total grams consumed were higher when lower textured foods were presented than when higher textured foods were presented. The gram intake was related directly to levels of packing. That is, high levels of packing were associated with higher textured foods and low gram intake, and low levels of packing were associated with lower textured foods and high gram intake. All participants gained weight when texture of foods was decreased. Packing remained low during follow-up for 2 participants even when the texture of food was increased gradually over time. These data are discussed in relation to avoidance, response effort, and skill deficit.     

An empirical comparison of rhythm in language and music

Musicologists and linguists have often suggested that the prosody of a culture's spoken language can influence the structure of its instrumental music. However, empirical data supporting this idea have been lacking. This has been partly due to the difficulty of developing and applying comparable quantitative measures to melody and rhythm in speech and music. This study uses a recently-developed measure for the study of speech rhythm to compare rhythmic patterns in English and French language and classical music. We find that English and French musical themes are significantly different in this measure of rhythm, which also differentiates the rhythm of spoken English and French. Thus, there is an empirical basis for the claim that spoken prosody leaves an imprint on the music of a culture.     

Itemmetric and scale analysis of a new computer-assisted competency assessment instrument (CADCOMP)

Male defendants (n = 99) who had been court ordered to a forensic treatment facility as incompetent to stand trial were tested using the Computer-Assisted Determination of Competency to Proceed (CADCOMP) instrument soon after admission (median days = 15). Shortly thereafter, competency was assessed by a forensic psychiatrist and by a majority decision of three mental health professionals who viewed a videotape of the forensic psychiatrist's interview. From the CADCOMP item pool, 18 scales were constructed on conceptual grounds. Internal consistency analyses revealed that most scales had reasonable item homogeneity and scale reliability. In addition, item and scale analyses, with few exceptions, followed predicted patterns of intercorrelation and association with competency as determined by both criteria. Scales and items measuring serious psychopathology, psycholegal ability, and criminal history demonstrated the strongest associations with competency. These findings suggest that additional research on CADCOMP is warranted. The instrument shows promise for use in forensic research and assessment.