Gastric pathology and feeding deficits induced by hypothalamic damage in rats: effects of lesion type, size, and placement.

Three doses each of cathodal or anodal direct current were delivered to coagulate lateral hypothalamic tissue bilaterally in rats. Increases in hypothalamic tissue damage were associated with more instances of aphagia, greater amounts of glandular, but not rumenal, gastric pathology, and greater weight loss. Both anodal and cathodal lesions produced aphagia and similar amounts of gastric pathology, but anodal lesions also appeared to facilitate weight loss independently of the tissue damage. Extensive chromatolysis surrounding anodal lesion cavities may be importantly related to the postoperative effects. In additional experiments, anodal electrolytic lesions or cortical suction ablations were used to vary the location of neural damage. Fedding deficits and gastric pathology resulted from the destruction of several brain areas. In particular, eating of dry food in the presence of high gastric pathology was observed in rats with lesions ventral and medial to an area in the dorsolateral hypothalamus that was associated with aphagia. When aphagia was accompained by severe gastric pathology, the brain lesions typically encroached extensively on more ventromedial areas. Moreover, aphagia sometimes was observed with only negligible gastric pathology. It is suggested that gastric pathology is not primary to the expression of the aphagia that follows lateral hypothalamic damage.     

Preliminary findings with a new Vietnamese Stroop test.

Stroop performance was compared in primary Vietnamese- vs English-speaking individuals (age range 19-68 years), currently living in the USA. A modified Vietnamese Stroop task mimicked word, color, and interference effects of an English-language Stroop test. Stroop performance (items correctly completed and interference "cost") did not differ significantly between 30 Vietnamese Americans whose first language was Vietnamese (M age 34.3 yr.) vs 30 American-born individuals whose first language was English (M age 31.2 yr.). Expected performance decrements with aging were observed in English-language Stroop performance but not in Vietnamese-language Stroop performance, which instead exhibited a trend towards the opposite pattern. Unexpected group differences associated with age in Stroop performance may reflect subtle differences in task demands, not evident in simple category performance scores, or alternatively, cultural or neuropsychological differences in the study groups.     

Parent and Teen Perceptions Regarding Parental Efforts at Controlling Teen Drunk Driving1

This research examined the potential utility of a parental control technique to prevent adolescent drunk driving by identifying parent and teen sources of resistance to an ignition interlock system. The research also examined the theoretical issue of parental control over adolescents by identifying factors parents consider when deciding to use a control technique. Parent and teen receptivity to the interlock was examined in relation to teen drunk driving. General parental control orientations (controlling vs. permissive) were examined in relation to the factors that influence parental decisions to implement such a control technique. Factors related to sources of reluctance to use the device were also examined. The findings revealed that parents were generally ambivalent toward the interlock. In contrast, teens responses varied, with approximately 20% of the sample reporting favorable attitudes toward having an interlock installed in the their cars. In addition, both parents and teens expressed concern about how the interlock would affect their relationship with each other. Finally, controlling parents tended to place less emphasis on the perceived effectiveness of the control technique when forming their attitudes toward its implementation compared to permissive parents. The findings are discussed in the context of prevention efforts for adolescent drunk driving.     

The Chinese single-child family programme and population psychology

China's population explosions of the early 1950s and late 1960s, followed by the launching of the one-child population policy, can be expected to have an effect on the country's demographic structure that will persist for another 60-80 years. The proportion of the population over 60 years of age should increase from 7.6% in 1982 to a peak of 25.3% by 2040. As a result, by the mid-21st century, a labor force comprised of half the population will be supporting equal numbers of young and aged people. Although political and economic utility factors make it unlikely that China's fertility rate will ever fall below 2.0, the steady aging of society will have long-term social as well as demographic consequences. Increased material and emotional investment in children, brought about by the one-child policy, may compete with investments in the needs of the aged. Recommended is consolidation of a three-generation family system in which grandparents help to maintain family interdependence and provide child care in exchange for support from their adult children. Such a model is consistent with the Confucian emphasis on respect for the wisdom of the elderly and responsibility for their well-being.     

Crossed aphasia in Chinese: a clinical survey.

According to our clinical observations from various aspects of stroke patients, such as the total incidence of aphasia, the incidence of aphasia after left brain damage of the dextrals, the aphasia that occurs in patients without hemiplegia, and the types of aphasia, a much higher incidence of crossed aphasia is seen among the stroke patients of the Han (the largest ethnic group in China) as compared with the Uighur-Kazaks (U-K) in China and the Occidentals documented in the literature. Motor aphasia is most common and pure sensory or posterior aphasia is rarely seen in Han patients. The distinct features of the Chinese language is a possible explanation for this difference. We suspect that language function of the Han is not localized in the left brain but in the right or both hemispheres. There is no definite Wernicke's area in the left brain of the Chinese people and the neural pathway of the language function in the brain of the Chinese people is not similar to people who speak phonetic languages. Consequently the universal applicability of the theories of cerebral laterality of the language function and dominant hemisphere established by Dax and Broca are questioned in this paper.     

Farm-related information use and users: A discussion of some European videotex experiences

Current discussions on the utilization of information technologies for agriculture, place emphasis on the collection and processing of information on the farm, through the introduction and use of computers as management support in process control and database management. However, because of farm management's dependency on outside information support for the production control and market engagement, the communication of information and the improvement of its efficiency is of similar, if not greater, importance. This article, therefore, places its main focus on the communication aspect. It provides a classification for “on-farm” communication patterns and highlights, using this classification, a number of European experiences with videotex applications in agriculture. It argues that new information technologies may open the way for new approaches to farm-related communication, and thus for a major change in farm management practices. For this progression to occur, its development and application should base itself upon the basic communication patterns that have evolved in practice, and reflect the actual use of information in agriculture. Mark Wilkinson is a cereal grower. He is editor of the Irish Farmers Association's closed user group, which was established on Agriline, a Videotex system.     

Attentional focus affects how events are segmented and updated in narrative reading

Readers generate situation models representing described events, but the nature of these representations may differ depending on the reading goals. We assessed whether instructions to pay attention to different situational dimensions affect how individuals structure their situation models (Exp. 1) and how they update these models when situations change (Exp. 2). In Experiment 1, participants read and segmented narrative texts into events. Some readers were oriented to pay specific attention to characters or space. Sentences containing character or spatial-location changes were perceived as event boundaries—particularly if the reader was oriented to characters or space, respectively. In Experiment 2, participants read narratives and responded to recognition probes throughout the texts. Readers who were oriented to the spatial dimension were more likely to update their situation models at spatial changes; all readers tracked the character dimension. The results from both experiments indicated that attention to individual situational dimensions influences how readers segment and update their situation models. More broadly, the results provide evidence for a global situation model updating mechanism that serves to set up new models at important narrative changes.