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The purpose of this review of literature is for nurses to understand and utilize sensory stimuli and the impact it has on infant cognition. Emphasis will be placed on the usage of visual, auditory and tactile stimulation on the cognitive development of infants between the ages of O and 6 months based on Piaget's theory of sensorimotor cognition. Introductory passages will focus on the developing brairi from birth until 6 months of age when the peak of myelation occurs. Initiating sensory stimulus during this period of time can ultimately create a positive impact on the growing brain by utilizing the myelation peak. This review will also present possible clinical application for nurses to implement in inpatient hospital settings along with parental education on the possible methods to utilize the findings and implications of this research. Further findings have found that infants respond most effectively to the combination of various stimuli than with one stimulus alone. Utilizing the findings found within the literature may hopefully help provide the evidence needed to support the clinical practice of these results. This research will be conducted through medical and nursing databases with conceptual primary sources that will further expand upon the selected studies on this topic.

Every year 1.4 million people will suffer from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that there are over 5.3 million TBI survivors living in the United States, or about two percent of the population, living with long-term effects or in need of lifelong help. Estimations have been made that with both the direct and indirect costs of medical bills and productivity loss in the United States the total cost for TBI was 60 billion dollars in 2000. Sensory stimulation consists of visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, and-olfactory stimuli that attempt to increase the levels of conscio-µsness in TBI patients by enhancing synaptic reinnervation in the brain. Sensory stimulation has been around since the 1980's and has been found to be beneficial for TBI patients, however, no guidelines have been created for nurses and other health care providers to perform this program. By making guidelines for nurses and other health care providers that outline the proper procedure of this treatment, the cost for care of TBI patients will decrease, therefore positively impacting the health care system.

Perception is the result of more than just the unbiased processing of sensory stimuli. At each moment in time, sensory inputs enter a circuit already impacted by signals of arousal, attention, and memory. This thesis aims to understand the impact of such internal states on the processing of sensory stimuli. To do so, computational models meant to replicate known biological circuitry and activity were built and analyzed. Part one aims to replicate the neural activity changes observed in auditory cortex when an animal is passively versus actively listening. In part two, the impact of selective visual attention on performance is probed in two models: a large-scale abstract model of the visual system and a smaller, more biologically-realistic one. Finally in part three, a simplified model of Hebbian learning is used to explore how task context comes to impact prefrontal cortical activity. While the models used in this thesis range in scale and represent diverse brain areas, they are all designed to capture the physical processes by which internal brain states come to impact sensory processing.

Studies of cerebellum-like circuits in fish have demonstrated that synaptic plasticity shapes the motor corollary discharge responses of granule cells into highly-specific predictions of self- generated sensory input. However, the functional significance of such predictions, known as negative images, has not been directly tested. Here we provide evidence for improvements in neural coding and behavioral detection of prey-like stimuli due to negative images. In addition, we find that manipulating synaptic plasticity leads to specific changes in circuit output that disrupt neural coding and detection of prey-like stimuli. These results link synaptic plasticity, neural coding, and behavior and also provide a circuit-level account of how combining external sensory input with internally-generated predictions enhances sensory processing. In addition, the mammalian dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) integrates auditory nerve input with a diverse array of sensory and motor signals processed within circuity similar to the cerebellum. Yet how the DCN contributes to early auditory processing has been a longstanding puzzle. Using electrophysiological recordings in mice during licking behavior we show that DCN neurons are largely unaffected by self-generated sounds while remaining sensitive to external acoustic stimuli. Recordings in deafened mice, together with neural activity manipulations, indicate that self-generated sounds are cancelled by non-auditory signals conveyed by mossy fibers. In addition, DCN neurons exhibit gradual reductions in their responses to acoustic stimuli that are temporally correlated with licking. Together, these findings suggest that DCN may act as an adaptive filter for cancelling self-generated sounds. Adaptive filtering has been established previously for cerebellum-like sensory structures in fish suggesting a conserved function for such structures across vertebrates.

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There is an absence of nursing studies that explore interventions to enhance psychological well-being for advanced Alzheimer patients. While sensory stimulation has been identified as a nursing intervention for dementia patients. Few studies reporting the effects of such interventions for patients with late stage dementia are available. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sensory stimulation activities on the psychological wellbeing of advanced Alzheimer patients. The conceptual model of “the good life” developed by Lawton (1983) provided the framework for this study. A descriptive design with a single group and pre-test post-test repeated measures analysis of variance was used for this study.A convenience sample of 15 patients from three Midwest long-term care facilities was observed for the effects of music. Touch and smell on psychological well-being as measured by the Discomfort Scale for Dementias of the Alzheimer Type (DS-DAT) (Hurley, Volicer, Hanrahan, Houde & Volicer, 1992). The rights of patients were protected at all times, with legal guardians receiving a written explanation of the study. Actual stimulation activities were conducted by Activity Directors or assistants from each facility.Paired t-test analysis of data revealed that DS-DAT scores for all three stimulation activities were significantly lower at <.05 level of significance than baseline DS-DAT scores. Lower DS-DAT scores included more positive affect behaviors and fewer negative affect behavior. A conclusion was drawn that the three sensory stimulation activities increased psychological well-being in the advanced Alzheimer patient sample. This study was significant because findings will support rationale for education of nursing staff in sensory stimulation procedures and provide information on evaluation of intervention outcomes for advanced Alzheimer patients. / School of Nursing

This study looked at facilitation, or improvement, of behavioral responses, such as quicker reaction times and improved accuracy in participants with subclinical attention deficits and a control group. Studies have looked at auditory and somatosensory (i.e., touch) stimuli and found that when presented simultaneously there were both neuronal benefits (Simon‐Dack & Teder‐Salejarvi, 2008) and behavioral benefits (Sperdin, Cappe,Foxe & Murray, 2009). The ability to attend to the stimulus is necessary for multisensory facilitation and when attention is not paid to both sensory inputs multisensory facilitation may not occur (Talsma & Woldorff, 2007). This study used a sustained-attention target task to compare how people with subclinical attention deficits and controls performing a multisensory integration task. Both populations performed faster in the multisensory condition than in the unisensory condition, but controls also saw an increase twice that of the increase for participants with subclinical attention deficits. This suggests a trend towards true behavioral facilitation in controls that would support the neuronal benefits found by past studies (Simon-Dack and Teder-Salejarvi, 2008). On the other hand, not seeing this trend in participants with subclinical attention deficits would suggest that even small attention deficits can interfere with multisensory facilitation. / Department of Psychological Science

Thesis (M.S.)--Wisconson. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-52).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-71). Also available via the Internet.