This study was undertaken to determine the role of feedforward tuning in the organization of a voluntary movement. Right-handed male college students (N = 12) volunteered to participate in the study. A finger flexion/extension choice response task with precueing was used to generate one or two finger response conditions. / It was predicted that the one limb/two choice condition would prohibit pre response biasing of the agonist/antagonist relationship of the response finger because the agonist/antagonist relationship of the muscles involved could not be determined until the response was requested by the stimulis. / A 3 x 3 x 2 x 3 x 4 ANOVA was conducted on the data collected in a complete within-subjects design. The factors were: (a) blocks, (b) movement combinations, (c) movement directions, (d) phases, and (e) fingers. The analysis revealed a block main effect. A subsequent 3 x 2 x 3 x 4 ANOVA was conducted on the block 1 data in order to appropriately test the hypotheses of this investigation. The block factor was excluded from this analysis in order to exclude the block effect. The factors for this analysis were: (a) movement combinations, (b) phases, (c) movement directions and (d) fingers. / This analysis revealed one significant main effect for phases which was indicative of an increased state of readiness during the anticipation phase. In addition, a significant direction x phases interaction indicated a biasing of the finger position toward the response direction during the tuning phase. / A separate 3 x 3 ANOVA was conducted on the reaction time data. The factors in this analysis were: (a) movement combinations, and (b) trial blocks. The analysis revealed a movement combinations main effect. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-11, Section: B, page: 6015. / Major Professor: Tonya Toole. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The auditory P3 response is thought to be related to stimulus evaluation time. It is typically elicited using an "oddball tonal paradigm" in which "rare" acoustic events (tones) are embedded in a stream of "frequent" tonal signals. The P3 is a cognitive response, generated when the subject consciously identifies a difference between the frequent and rare stimuli. Currently, data are available which suggest that P3 latency will vary as a function of the difficulty of the cognitive task. It is believed that the use of a more relevant stimulus (speech) may provide useful information regarding neurological functioning during speech processing. / The purpose of this study was to determine if differences exist in the P3 response (latency and amplitude) elicited by tonal and speech signals during competing and non-competing stimulus conditions. P3 responses were obtained from 61 normal hearing young adult subjects under the following conditions: tones in quiet; tones in noise; words in quiet; words in noise. Although waveform morphology was superior for the tonal conditions, eighty-five percent of the subjects who demonstrated the P3 response to tones also demonstrated the P3 to verbal stimuli. / The addition of competing noise resulted in decreases in certain wavepeak amplitudes and increases in P3 latencies. The choice of stimulus (tones versus words) had no effect on wavepeak amplitude. However, P3 latencies were significantly longer for words than for tones. P3 latency differences to tonal as compared to speech stimuli are believed to be related to longer stimulus evaluation time required for speech processing. The findings of this study demonstrate that the P3 response to speech stimuli can be reliably elicited in a large percentage of subjects who demonstrate the P3 response to tones. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 5793. / Major Professor: Lloyd Price. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The loss of visual function which normally accompanies old age is due to neural as well as optical factors, but the functional nature of the neural changes has never been explained. In dark adaptation, both the recovery rate and absolute sensitivity may decrease with age to a greater extent than can be accounted for by optical changes. Age-related photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) changes suggest the possibility of losses in photopigment density or regenerative ability that may limit the rate and extent of dark adaptation. / Foveal dark adaptation and photopigment regeneration in more than 50 subjects from 10 to 78 years of age exhibit parallel slowing of recovery rate with increasing age, with high correlation of the two functions among individuals. The data are suggestive of an initial slight slowing in rate before age 50, followed by a greater loss occurring sometime later at different ages in different individuals. Longitudinal data for one subject from age 40 to 65 show a slowing in pigment regeneration time constant consistent with this idea. / Foveal sensitivity and pigment density both decrease with increasing age, and are correlated among individuals, although sensitivity declines with age at a greater rate than does pigment density. Decade averages suggest fairly abrupt changes, but with far less variability than that seen in the rate measurements. / Subjects with blue irides have lower sensitivity than do those with non-blue irides, but there were no differences in pigment density or other measurements associated with iris color. No significant effects of subject sex or light history were found for any of the measurements, although there was a tendency for subjects who claimed to frequently wear sunglasses to have lower sensitivity than did non-wearers. / The extent of threshold change after bleaching does not change as a function of age, nor was it associated with any of our other measurements. In contrast to earlier proposals based upon the Rushton-Dowling equation, there was no universal constant of proportionality to relate relative threshold to pigment within our population. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-02, Section: B, page: 1034. / Major Professor: Howard D. Baker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The present study was designed in order to develop a classification system (nosology) for the movement disorders that are associated with psychiatric patients. In order to accomplish this, a rating scale was created which included a very comprehensive inventory of symptoms designed to reflect the typologies of each of the four major movement disorders (i.e., tardive dyskinesia, akathisia, parkinsonism, dystonia) that are traditionally associated with this population. Forty-three markers of motor abnormality were systematically assessed on a total of 150 male psychiatric inpatients at a Veterans Administration Hospital. / The data were subjected to a principal components analysis in order to determine the manner in which the various individual markers of motor abnormality clustered into syndromes. A total of 13 components (syndromes) emerged that jointly accounted for 70.2% of the variance. The nature and composition of these syndromes were systematically compared to the typologies of the four aforementioned syndromes as they are typically described. / In addition, the relationships between these 13 syndromes and a variety of demographic/treatment variables were explored in order to consider the utility of these components. The author concluded that the differential manner in which the demographic/treatment variables were related to the syndromes supports the usefulness of retaining this large number of components. Implications for etiology, pathophysiology, and treatment of these syndromes are discussed. Additionally, directions for future research are offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-02, Section: B, page: 1145. / Major Professor: Mark H. Licht. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

Thirty-four older women (ages 60 to 75 years) were tested under 21% and 80% oxygen conditions, while they performed two tasks which varied in complexity (SRT and CCRT). During SRT the subject lifted her finger as quickly as possible when she saw a light. The CCRT task required the subject to determine which finger to lift based on a directional cue and a starting point in a sequence of three numbers. Based on exercise and aging studies in which exercised adults performed at a significantly better rate than less active adults. A one-mile walking test was administered for each subject in order to determine her estimated VO max. A 2 x 2 x 2 (Active/Less Active x SRT/CCRT x Normal/Enriched Oxygen) ANOVA was performed. This analysis of variance revealed that the less fit subjects (M = 16.60ml/kg/min) reacted slower than the fit subjects (M = 34.40ml/kg/min) for both SRT and CCRT. This difference, however, was significant only for the most complex task. The greatest difference in time to respond when comparing SRT and CCRT was seen with the less active individuals. Additionally, providing the subjects with an enriched oxygen mixture did not compensate for the proposed hypoxic state. Likewise, oxygen saturation levels did not indicate a state of less oxygen. However, for the most complex task there was a trial effect across groups and oxygen. The oxygen saturation level for both groups was significantly higher after 30 and 60 trials in comparison to pre-trial saturation levels. When mean trial blocks (15 trials) were calculated, subjects appeared to improve with each trial block. This improvement was best demonstrated during CCRT for 80% oxygen. Thus it appeared, based on these results, that oxygen may have had some effect on performance. The lack of the oxygen main effect, however, contradicts this notion. According to these data it was concluded that some other / factor(s) besides, or in addition to, oxygen may be influencing the aging CNS. The significant fitness differences between the two groups suggests that one possible mechanism(s) of importance may be related to regular aerobic exercise. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-06, Section: A, page: 1950. / Major Professor: Tonya Toole. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

There is evidence to show that spouses of chronic pain patients have higher rates of emotional and marital disturbance than would be expected on the basis of normative data. Yet, many marriages survive the deleterious effects of the impact of chronic pain upon the marital relationship. / A hermeneutic orientation was used as the basis for this qualitative inquiry. The present study seeks to understand the thoughts, ideas, motivations, perceptions, and feelings of the spouses of chronic pain patients. Through a process of triangulation, a grounded theory regarding the psychosocial factors of perceived supportive responses and chronic pain emerged from the data. / Twenty-one spouses of chronic pain patients participated in individual indepth interviews. They completed the Marital Adjustment Test and the Spouse Version of the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory. They were selected from a sample of married chronic pain patients who had participated in the O'Connell (1993) study. The O'Connell (1993) study yielded data from the Patient Version of the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory and the data were included in the data analysis. / The results of this study suggest that the more the spouse understands about the chronic pain condition, the purpose of the interventions, and the factors that increase and decrease the pain, the less likely they are to engage in supportive responses. Male and female spouses appeared to respond differently to the condition. Female spouses seemed to be effected more globally by the pain condition. Male spouses tended to be more narrowly focused and reported a minimal impact of the condition upon their personal lives. / The results support previous findings that maritally satisfied couples engage in fewer supportive responses and perceive lower pain severity in their chronic pain partners. The field of research has shown that chronic pain patients who rate their spouses as highly supportive tend to have higher pain severity ratings. Suggestions are made for further confirmatory analysis and the inclusion of the spouses in chronic pain treatment programs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: B, page: 4103. / Major Professor: Stephen A. Rollin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

Three studies were conducted to determine the effects of music and the Somatron, a vibro-tactile acoustic couch, on the physiological and speech responses of head injured and comatose subjects. Each study involved a single subject design with the subjects serving as their own controls. / In Study 1 six subjects with head injuries participated in daily relaxation sessions with alternating treatment conditions of music listening, music with the Somatron, and no music. / One comatose male served as a subject for Study 2. The subject participated in daily sensory sessions involving two music tapes and the alternate use of the Somatron over a period of 52 days. / Two female subjects with expressive speech impairments served as subjects for Study 3. The subjects participated in daily speech therapy sessions involving music and speech rehearsal formats. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 28-04, page: 0489. / Thesis (M.M.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Female college freshmen were designated as either Carbohydrate Cravers or Mixed Snackers according to their responses to a survey of snacking patterns. In a between-groups design, their moods and their ratings of the desirability of various foods were assessed immediately before and two hours after the consumption of either a high-protein meal, a high-carbohydrate meal equal in calories to the protein meal, or a mixed carbohydrate-protein-fat meal that was higher in calories than the other two. Compared to Mixed Snackers, Carbohydrate Cravers showed a significant preference for high-carbohydrate foods over high-protein foods pre-meal, but the two groups did not differ significantly on pre-meal mood measures in a multivariate analysis of variance. They also did not differ significantly on pre-meal measures of hunger, dietary disinhibition, or dietary restraint. / On the post-meal measures, Carbohydrate Cravers did not differ significantly from Mixed Snackers on the mood measures nor on the food desirability ratings. Meal composition had no effect upon mood, but it did affect food ratings, albeit in unexpected ways: post-meal ratings of high-carbohydrate foods by subjects who had received the high-carbohydrate meal did not differ significantly from similar ratings of subjects who had received the other two meals, but ratings of protein foods by the high-carbohydrate meal subjects were significantly higher than similar ratings from the other two groups. It was speculated that the mostly liquid composition of the high-carbohydrate meal, and/or its lack of fat, may have made it less satisfying or satiating than the other two meals. / Results of this study are discussed in terms of their implications for two opposing theories of "Carbohydrate Craving". / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: B, page: 1701. / Major Professor: Richard Hagen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

Systemic administration of the ovarian hormone estrogen to castrated female rats improves performance during acquisition on a variety of measures of spatial working memory, including the radial arm maze. Systemic estrogen treatments also prevent performance impairments induced by the systemic administration of scopolamine, a compound that blocks muscarinic receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. In addition, systemic estrogen treatments prevent impairments in spatial working memory caused by the direct infusion of scopolamine into the hippocampal formation Performance enhancements during acquisition, as well as prevention of scopolamine-induced impairments by estrogen treatments were localized to specific brain regions in this series of experiments. Results of the current study indicate that when placed unilaterally into the medial septal area, cannulae containing mixtures of estradiol:cholesterol in concentrations of either 1:125 or 1:250 improved performance during acquisition of an 8-arm baited radial maze task with 1-hour delays interposed between the fourth and fifth arm choices compared to implants containing pure cholesterol. Implants containing estradiol that were placed bilaterally into either the hippocampus, or a cortical region dorsal to the hippocampus were ineffective. These results indicate that the medial septum is a site at which estrogen may act to improve performance during acquisition of spatial working memory tasks. In a second segment of the present study, the site at which estrogen acts to prevent performance impairments induced by systemic administration of scopolamine was investigated. On a standard version of the radial-arm maze task in which delays were not placed between the fourth and fifth arm choices, scopolamine impaired performance of females with implants containing either estrogen or cholesterol in either the medial septum or cerebral cortex. In contrast, animals with hippocampal estradiol implants at concentrations of either 1:1, 1:125, or 1:250 did not display similar impairments following scopolamine injection, indicating that estrogen may act at the hippocampus, but not medial septum or cerebral cortex to prevent the deficits in performance caused by scopolamine. These results indicate that the effects of estrogen on learning and memory are central in nature, and demonstrate that the hippocampus and medial septum are critically involved in these processes / acase@tulane.edu

We examined whether cognitive functioning varies as a function of the severity of hyperglycemia in a group of Black and White children and adolescents with IDDM. Children with diabetes in poor and moderate metabolic control were compared to matched controls on a variety of psychomotor, visual-spatial, memory, and learning tasks. It was hypothesized that those participants in fair to moderate metabolic control would display psychomotor and visual-spatial deficits, but not memory or learning deficits when compared to controls. Those participants in chronically poor control were expected to display more global cognitive deficits, including deficits in psychomotor, visual-spatial, memory, and learning skills. The results indicated that hyperglycemia does not effect cognitive functioning differently in Black and White children. The results also indicated that short-term exposure to hyperglycemia, even at clinically elevated levels, does not result in cognitive impairments / acase@tulane.edu