Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2008. / Title from title screen (viewed Nov. 26, 2008) Includes questionnaires. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the texture of the test stimulus and the rate of the negative after-effect of motion. An interaction theory based on contour phenomena was proposed to account for the effects of texture. The recent clinical literature has consisted mainly of studies which attempt to use the negative after-effect to diagnose brain damage. These studies have produced equivocal results. Systematic examination of the parameters of the after-effect has been limited by a lack of adequate techniques. Leads furnished by te earlier European literature on the effect have been neglected [TRUNCATED]

This dissertation examined injury-based and emotional adjustment factors that may influence an individual's self-awareness of neurobehavioral deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Two studies were completed to examine these issues in acute and post-acute rehabilitation settings using the reports of TBI patients and their significant-others. In Study 1, the Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS) and Self-Awareness of Deficits Interview were used to assess the patients' awareness of deficit, while the Profile of Mood States and the Grief Experiences Inventory were used to assess emotional adjustment. Six patients and significant-others were followed weekly during the course of inpatient rehabilitation, and were seen approximately one month after their discharge from hospital. While individual variability was observed, most patients reported minor changes in their level of competence and limited emotional distress. The individual perceptions of patients and of significant-others were generally consistent over the course of inpatient care, and variations in patients' emotional adjustment appeared to be reasonable reactions to circumstantial factors. The emotional adjustment of significant-others varied considerably among the individuals assessed, and this variability likely influenced their ratings of the patient. Staff ratings of the patients were also collected, and identified improvements in functional abilities over time. These results suggest that patient awareness is not a prerequisite for rehabilitation success. A lack of applied or practical experiences may also influence patients' ability to accurately rate their self-competence during the acute phase following TBI. Study 2 examined 166 individuals referred for post-acute rehabilitation, using the PCRS and the Katz Adjustment Scale (KAS-R) to assess awareness and emotional adjustment. Patients with a history of moderate and severe TBI showed good awareness of their abilities, based on PCRS Discrepancy Scores, while patients with mild TBI were likely to report greater impairments than observed by significant-others. TBI patients showed significant emotional adjustment difficulties on the KAS-R, regardless of the severity of their injury, and there was a strong positive association between patients' acknowledgement of neurobehavioral problems and ratings of their emotional adjustment. General intellectual ability was also strongly related to patients' report of difficulties, such that low IQ and poor emotional adjustment were associated with low ratings of self-competence. On the other hand, the general location of cerebral trauma was not strongly associated with deficits in awareness. Thus, the nature and severity of TBI appeared to be less important than IQ and emotional adjustment in the post-acute rehabilitation patients, although mildly injured patients are more likely to report neurobehavioral deficits than moderate or severely injured patients. Strengths and weakness of the self-other discrepancy approach to measuring self-awareness were considered, and a robust approach to awareness assessment, based on multiple measures, is recommended. Available options include structured interviews, self-report, clinical observation, or objective testing. Furthermore, the emotional adjustment of the patient appeared to become increasingly salient in the assessment of awareness during the post-acute phase, compared to the acute phase of recovery from TBI, where significant-other adjustment may be quite relevant. / Graduate

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Bibliography: pages 130-139. / The utility of the National Adult Reading Test (NART) as a predictor of premorbid intellectual functioning is dependent on its ability to adequately predict IQ from irregular word reading ability. The primary aim of this study is the replication, on a South African sample, of the findings reported by Nelson (1977 unpub. manuscript) in her standardisation study. A total of 234 subjects are divided into groups according to language usage and availability/type of IQ score and utilised in a correlational study which investigates the psychometric characteristics of the NART and the degree of correspondence between predicted and observed I.Q. values. The research yields regression formulae for the prediction of IQ from performance on the NART. While correlation coefficients obtained for English speaking subjects do not differ significantly from those derived from Nelson's data (1977 unpub. manuscript), it is concluded that the use of the test for Afrikaans subjects is not justified. Satisfactory reliability and validity characteristics reported for the sample utilised in this study suggest that the instrument can be usefully applied under local conditions. An investigation of 24 potential additional items for the test does not yield encouraging results. The lack of an adequate model explaining the mechanisms underlying the functioning of the test is addressed, and a number of areas of interest for further research are identified.

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Among the goals of the neuropsychological assessment are to detect the presence of brain damage, localize which areas of the brain may be dysfunctional and describe subsequent functional impairments. The sensitivity of neuropsychological instruments in carrying out these functions is a question of some debate. The purpose of this study is to determine the utility of lateralizing indicators from the WAIS-III, McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development (MAND) and Haptic Visual Discrimination Test (HVDT), from the McCarron-Dial System Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (MDS), in ascertaining the presence or absence of brain damage as well as location of lesion. The classification accuracies of using performance level indicators from these tests and lateralizing indicators, alone and together, were compared.

The current work explores the therapeutic potential of experiential treatments for enhancing functional recovery and anatomical change after early brain damage. Normal rats and rats with perinatal cortical lesions (P2 or P7) were exposed to one of the following treatments: complex housing as juveniles, complex housing as adults, prenatal tactile stimulation, postnatal tactile stimulation, or postnatal handling (removal from the nest with no additional stimulaion). Behavior was assessed in adulthood the Morris water task and the Whishaw reaching task. There were sex differences in the details of the effect of experience on both behavioral recovery and brain morphology. For both sexes treatments initiated prior to or immediately after brain injury were most effective in improving functional outcome. This was correlated with changes in dendritic arborization and Acetylcholinesterase staining. The results suggest that behavioral treatments can be used to stimulate functional recovery after early brain injury. / v, [14], 208 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

Maximizing recovery of function after brain injury is the goal for many neuroscientists and rehabilitation medicine professional alike. To further elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying compensatory changes in brain injury and to determine the possibility of enhancing these changes, three experiments are described. Experiment 1 looks at the effects of structured (skilled reaching) versus functional (enriched environment) training with and without FGF-2, a pharmacological intervention, as treatment paradigms for rehabilitation-induced recovery of function in cortical lesion adult rats. Experiment 2 examines the treatment effects of tactile stimulation to enhance motor abilities in postnatal day 4 rat pups sustaining cortical damage. Finally, experiment 3 explores changes in the cortical motor representation after cortical damage. Results indicate a marked improvement on behavioral testing combing FGF-2 and functional training. Tactile stimulation significantly enhances recovery of motor functions. Post-lesion cortical mapping reveals changes in the motor representation utilizing the adjacent posterior parietal cortex. / xv, 127 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Hamburg, 1996. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-172).