Health-related quality of life in Parkinson's disease after pallidotomy and deep brain stimulation

This study explored the multidimensional outcome of three neurosurgical interventions for Parkinson's disease (PD): pallidotomy (N = 23), pallidal deep brain stimulation (DBS) (N = 9), and thalamic DBS (N = 7). All patients completed the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) and the Beck Depression Inventory. Pallidotomy patients also completed the Profile of Mood States, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and a disease-specific quality of life (QOL) measure, the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Three months after surgery, all neurosurgical groups showed significant improvements in mood and function, including physical, psychosocial, and overall functioning. Pallidal DBS and pallidotomy patients who completed additional QOL measures reported decreased anxiety and tension, increased vigor, improved mobility and ability to perform activities of daily living, and decreased perceived stigma. Psychosocial dysfunction scores from the SIP were related to depressed mood both at baseline (r = .42) and at followup (r = .45), but the physical dysfunction subscale was not related to mood at either time point, suggesting that disruption of social relationships due to PD may have more impact on affective distress than physical symptoms alone. Results suggest that neurosurgical interventions for PD improve disabling PD motor symptoms and also improve several domains of quality of life.     

Moderator effects of cognitive ability and social support on the relation between race-related stress and quality of life in a community sample of black Americans

The current study examined the combined moderating effects of cognitive ability and social support on the relation between race-related stress and quality of life in a sample of Black Americans. Participants (N = 323) were administered the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT; E. F. Wonderlic Associates, Inc., 1983), the Multidimensional Social Support Scale (MDSS; Winefield, Winefield, & Tiggemann, 1992), the Index of Race-Related Stress-Brief (Utsey, 1999), and the WHOQOL-BREF (The WHO Group, 1998). The findings indicated that cognitive ability and social support, conjointly, moderated the relation between individual and cultural race-related stress and quality of life for Black Americans in the current sample. The paper concludes by discussing the study's findings, limitations, and by offering recommendations for future research related to this area of inquiry.     

The mind-brain relationship: the emergent self

This paper explores the mind-brain relationship, using insights from contemporary neuroscience. It seeks to investigate how our brains become who we are, how subjective experience arises. In order to do this some explanation is given of the basic concepts of how the brain produces our subjective mental life. Current neuropsychological and neurobiological understanding of early brain development, memory, emotion and consciousness are explored. There is also an attempt at mapping the mind-brain-self relationship from a uniquely Jungian perspective. Clinical material is included in order to show the relevance of these insights to our work in the consulting room, arguing the value of the affect-regulating, relational aspects of the analytic dyad that forge new neural pathways through emotional connection. Such experience forms the emotional scaffolding necessary for the emergence of reflective function.     

Undoing dissociation. Affective neuroscience: a contemporary Jungian clinical perspective

In the last ten years both analysts and neuroscientists have begun to challenge the analytic world to explore the analytic view of the mind in relation to knowledge emerging from the field of neuroscience. I find that 'in many ways it is Jung's understanding of the mind, the human condition, and the self, that is most compatible with the insights that are emerging from neuroscience today' (Wilkinson 2004, p. 84). In this paper I consider the insights that neuroscience has to offer us as we seek to work with those patients whose early experience has diminished their capacity to be 'in mind' and with it their capacity for reflective self-function, whose defences are dissociative, whose need has been to keep unbearable experience at bay, out of mind. I look first at dissociationist theory and its development, then focus on the insights to be gained from neuroscience with regard to early trauma and its effect on the encoding and recall of memory. Finally, I turn to the nature of cure and argue that hemispheric integration is the key to undoing dissociation and the prelude to individuation.     

The role of stimulus factors in making categorical and coordinate spatial judgments

We report three experiments which investigate the lateralization of categorical and coordinate processing. In all experiments, participants judged the position of a dot relative to a line. We manipulated display luminance (controlling for contrast), polarity (black-on-white versus white-on-black displays), and exposure duration (100, 150, and 200 ms). The results showed a left visual field-right hemisphere advantage for coordinate judgments, but only under highly prescribed conditions. We argue that stimulus and procedural factors are critical in determining the hemisphere by task interaction.     

Figure Preferences in Two Generations of Men: The Use of Figure Drawings Illustrating Differences in Muscle Mass

Using a new set of male figure drawings which(unlike the Stunkard, Sorensen, & Schulsinger, 1983figures) illustrate differing degrees of muscle massrather than body fat, college men and adult men selected their current figure, ideal figure,figure they thought most attractive to women and figurethat they thought would be the ideal for other men.Adult men's choices indicated satisfaction with their current bodies, but college men's selectionsindicated a desire to be larger (partly because theybelieve that a much larger body is what everybody {menand women} finds most attractive). The male body college women find most attractive is largerthan what college men indicate they currently have butsmaller than what the college men want to look like.Adult women chose an ideal male figure which is the same as that which the adult men indicate theyhave. Thus, selections using the new figure drawingsshow a desire for more muscle mass in college men andsatisfaction in adult men, while selections using the Stunkard et al. (1983) figuredrawings indicated satisfaction in college men and adesire for less body fat in the adult men (Rozin &Fallon, 1988). Both sets of figures provide valuableinformation.     

Measurement of the texture-coherence limit for bandpass arrays

Casual observation suggests that when the elements of a visual array are packed at a sufficiently high density they cohere to generate the percept of a texture. This 'texture-coherence limit' has been quantified by using arrays composed of Gabor functions, sixth Gaussian derivatives, or differences of Gaussians. In all cases the texture-coherence limit was a power-law function of the size of the elements as quantified by their space constants with an exponent averaging 0.7. Furthermore, the texture-coherence limit was independent of both element spatial frequency and contrast over a considerable range. A quantitative fit to the data is provided by a model in which the texture-coherence limit is determined by activation of complex cells, which pool a spatial range of subunit inputs, throughout the stimulus region. Possible extensions to two dimensions are considered.     

Eye movements measured with a solid state photodiode matrix

The apparatus described uses the corneal reflex technique to measure horizontal and vertical eye movements with a metal oxide semiconductor matrix array of 64 by 64 photodiodes. A simple optical system forms a reflex image on the array and also determines the device range, which can vary from ±25 deg to ±3 deg; sensitivity is 50 arc min and 6 arc min, respectively. Mounted on a simple lightweight headband complete with universal mechanical adjusters, the instrument weighs less than 100 g, excluding connecting cable, and samples eye movements every 5 msec.     

Effect of isotocin on shoaling behaviour of the Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Animal Cognition - Pro-social effects of oxytocin and its homologues are well-documented in birds and mammals. However, in fishes, the effect of isotocin, the homologue of oxytocin, on social...     

Further investigation of increasing vocalizations of children with autism with a speech-generating device

We replicated and extended the findings of Gervarter et al. (2016) by using prompting and reinforcement to produce increased vocal speech with 3 young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who used a speech generating device (SGD). We extended Gervarter et al. by adopting a more robust experimental design, conducting session-by-session preference assessments, and measuring the emergence of novel vocalizations. The frequency of vocalizations increased for all 3 participants after the introduction of an echoic prompt. These results suggest that SGD-based interventions may lead to increased vocal output for children with ASD.