"Conceptual area" among pathological groups: A failure to replicate.

The ability of the "conceptual-area" scoring system to differentiate between tuberculous, process schizophrenic, reactive schizophrenic, and brain-damaged patients was tested by administering the Object Sorting Test to 125 hospitalized veterans. The diagnostic groups were equivalent in mean education, intelligence, and length of hospitalization, but the tuberculous and brain-damaged patients averaged 8 yr. older than the schizophrenics. None of the scores differentiated the groups at the .05 level. In discussing these results, it was maintained that, contrary to comment in the literature, "conceptual area" has never conclusively differentiated, in a simultaneous comparison, between nonpsychiatric, brain-damaged, and schizophrenic patients, and may not be appropriate for this purpose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overinclusion and concreteness among pathological groups.

To assess relative concreteness vs. overinclusiveness, the Revised Inclusion Test, based on Epstein's measure, was administered to 40 tuberculous, 40 brain-damaged, 30 process schizophrenic, and 15 reactive schizophrenic hospitalized veterans. The groups were equivalent in mean education, intelligence, and length of hospitalization, but the tuberculous and brain-damaged patients averaged 8 yr. older than the schizophrenics. The results indicated that the brain-damaged and process schizophrenics performed more in a concrete manner than did the reactive schizophrenics or tuberculous, but, contrary to hypothesis, the groups were not differentiated on relative overinclusiveness. It was suggested that in studies in which schizophrenics overincluded many options, the concepts to which the overincluded elements were added may have also involved an omitted option and, were such the case, those schizophrenics should have been described as concrete rather than as overinclusive. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impairment in abstract responses of schizophrenics, neurotics, and brain-damaged patients

Attempted to identify a deficit in information input that may be specific to schizophrenia. The Ss were 60 male 19–58 yr old veterans representing 5 groups of 12 each: normals, neurotics, paranoid schizophrenics, nonparanoid schizophrenics, and brain-damaged patients. In the present and previous studies scores on single- and multiple-proverbs tests were analyzed to show effects of stimulus enrichment and practice gain in identifying this deficit. Previous studies differentiate normals and schizophrenics, demonstrate the deficit over a range of schizophrenic severity, and show that the deficit is independent of general loss of competence. Results of the present study indicate that the deficit is present over the paranoid–nonparanoid continuum; that it is absent in normals, neurotics, and brain-damaged patients; and that it is not a function of such intellectual factors as education and vocabulary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The validity of a visual searching task as an indicator of brain damage.

Required 17 brain-damaged patients, 17 non-brain-damaged psychiatric patients, and 17 nonpatient normal controls to perform a visual search. The task discriminated among the Ss at a statistically significant level. Using an optimal cut-off point, the task was 94.1% accurate in differentiating between brain-damaged and normal Ss and 79.4% accurate in differentiating between psychiatric and brain-damaged Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The rotation of drawings by brain-damaged patients.

2 hypotheses were tested with the Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and the Drawing Version of the Block Design Rotation Test: (1) Brain-damaged patients rotate significantly more than non-brain-damaged patients, and (2) The factors influencing rotation in the blocks test would be the same in the drawing version. Ss consisted of 20 brain-damaged patients, 25 non-brain-damaged psychiatric patients, and a control group of 25 normal persons. It was found that rotation effects in a drawing version of a task requiring the copying of designs discriminated between brain-damaged and non-brain-damaged Ss. The relative influence of the factors affecting the appearance of the rotation effect in all Ss was shown to be different in the drawing version than in the blocks version. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reversal shift preferences in process and reactive schizophrenic, brain-damaged, and control group patients.

Compared process and reactive schizophrenic, brain-damaged, and normal control groups (n = 34 each) in frequency of reversal shifts in discrimination learning using the optional-shift paradigm. The main hypothesis that reactive schizophrenics, like normal adults, would show a stronger preference for reversal shifts than would process Ss was supported. Results show that significantly more reactive (68%) than process (44%) Ss made reversal shifts. Significantly more brain-damaged and reactive schizophrenic Ss showed reversal shift preferences when color was learned initially rather than form, while such initial concept preferences were not found in the process schizophrenic or normal control Ss. Previous findings in discrimination learning with pathological groups are discussed in the context of these findings. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rotations of visual designs in psychopathological groups.

Stimuli that systematically varied the figural and spatial orientational information of visual designs were administered under 2 conditions to 4 groups of 15 male Ss each. The groups were composed of normal, process and reactive schizophrenic, and brain-damaged Ss (mean ages-26.3, 42.3, 27.6, and 52.9 yrs, respectively). The stimuli were administered in a recall condition requiring reproduction of stimuli from memory and in a required rotation condition necessitating reproduction in a 90. clockwise rotation. Brain-damaged Ss had a greater tendency than other groups to rotate when a mental rotation was required, but they had a greater tendency to make errors indicating the loss of figural information when reproducing from memory. Process schizophrenics performed much like brain-damaged persons in recall but the same as normals in required rotation, suggesting that discrimination of these groups is possible. Normals produced the most rotations in recall, brain-damaged the least, and schizophrenics an intermediate number. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal pragmatics following unilateral stroke: Emotional content and valence.

Verbal pragmatic aspects of discourse production were examined in 16 right brain-damaged (RBD), 16 left brain-damaged (LBD), and 16 normal control right-handed adults. The facilitation effect of emotional content, valence hypothesis, and relationship between pragmatics and emotion were evaluated. Participants produced monologues while recollecting emotional and nonemotional experiences. Transcribed monologues were rated for appropriateness on 6 pragmatic features: conciseness, lexical selection, quantity, relevancy, specificity, and topic maintenance. Overall, brain-damaged groups were rated as significantly less appropriate than normals. Consistent with the facilitation effect, emotional content enhanced pragmatic performance of LBD aphasic participants yet suppressed performance of RBD participants. Contrary to the valence hypothesis, RBD participants were more impaired for positive emotions and LBD participants for negative emotions. Pragmatic appropriateness was not strongly correlated with a measure of emotional intensity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological significance of lateralized deficits on the Grooved Pegboard Test for older children with learning disabilities.

Distributed 46 10-14 yr old right-handed children (IQ range = 80-120) with learning disabilities into 4 groups on the basis of their performance on the Grooved Pegboard Test. 2 groups exhibited lateralized deficits on the Grooved Pegboard Test: one had normal right-hand and impaired left-hand performance; the other had impaired right-hand and normal left-hand performance. The remaining 2 groups did not exhibit lateralized deficits on the Grooved Pegboard Test: one had normal right-hand and normal left-hand performance; the other had impaired right-hand and impaired left-hand performance. Comparisons were made between the performance of these 4 groups and the performance of groups of brain-damaged adults with lateralized and nonlateralized motor deficits as reported in previous research. The comparisons yielded many striking similarities, thus supporting the view that learning disabilities in such children are due, at least in part, to dysfunction at the level of the cerebral hemispheres. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of cerebral lesions on psychological test performances of older children.

50 brain-damaged children ranging in age from 10 through 14 years were matched in pairs with 50 normally functioning children on the variable of age. Each subject was administered individually a wide variety of psychological tests. The sensitivity of each test to the brain-damage factor was determined by computing the appropriate t ratio and by determining the proportion of cases in which the brain-damaged children performed less adequately than their matched controls. The brain-damaged children performed significantly less well than the control children on all the tests, with differences between the 2 groups occurring more frequently on the tests of language functions than on other testing procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vietnam combat veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Analysis of marital and cohabitating adjustment.

21 help-seeking Vietnam combat veterans (mean age 34.71 yrs) with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were compared with 18 help-seeking combat veterans (mean age 33.44 yrs) without evidence of PTSD and 21 help-seeking veterans (mean age 33.4 yrs) with minimal combat experience on indexes of cohabitating and marital adjustment. Also, premilitary adjustment was assessed and validated by relative's reports. The PTSD group reported significantly more problems than did the other groups with self-disclosure and expressiveness to their partners, physical aggression toward their partners, and global relationship adjustment. The PTSD group did not differ from the other groups on measures of intimacy and affectionate behavior. The findings were not attributable to premilitary adjustment, response style, or demographic factors. Previous reports that combat veterans have special difficulties expressing positive emotions were not supported by present findings. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal problem solving and coping reactions of Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.

In order to assess the relation between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and interpersonal problem solving and coping, 43 Vietnam veterans were assigned to the following four groups: (a) combat veterans with PTSD, (b) combat veterans with severe adjustment problems but not PTSD-diagnosable (AP), (c) combat veterans who were well adjusted (WA), and (d) veterans with little or no combat exposure who served during the Vietnam era (ERA). Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that both the PTSD and AP groups reported less effective coping reactions and poorer problem solving than both the WA and ERA groups. The PTSD subjects also reported less effective problem solving and less problem-focused coping reactions than the AP veterans. Implications of these results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of deficits in relation to severity of cerebral dysfunction in children and adults.

A battery of psychological tests was administered to 4 groups of brain-damaged Ss and 3 groups of controls. The brain-damaged Ss included both groups of adults and groups of children with 2 degrees of severity of cerebral impairment represented at each of the 2 age levels. Each group of brain-damaged Ss was compared with an appropriate control group on the test variables and the patterns of deficits which emerged were then compared. Similar patterns of psychological deficit were found for mildly impaired children, moderately impaired children, and moderately impaired adults. This pattern of deficit consisted of relatively greater impairment on tests of language and symbolic ability as compared with tests of immediate adaptive ability. This pattern did not resemble that obtained for the mildly brain-damaged adults. A tentative explanation for this difference emphasizing the importance of age of onset of cerebral dysfunction was offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Level versus pattern of neuropsychological performance among schizophrenic and diffusely brain-damaged patients.

Differences in both mean level and pattern of neuropsychological test performance were examined among groups of carefully screened schizophrenic and acute and chronic diffusely brain-damaged patients (24 Ss in each group). This was done separately for the WAIS subtests and the 12 average impairment rating (AIR) variables derived from the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery. The schizophrenics performed at a significantly higher level than brain-damaged Ss on both test batteries. Subsequent deficit pattern analyses and coefficients of profile pattern similarity revealed very little difference among the 3 groups in their patterns of performance on the WAIS and AIR batteries. Discriminant function analyses were employed to estimate the diagnostic utility of level vs pattern of performance on the WAIS and AIR in discriminating schizophrenics from brain-damaged Ss. Results suggest that mean level of performance can be used to discriminate clearly defined schizophrenic and diffusely brain-damaged groups, but that pattern analysis offers little additional information. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cerebral mechanisms underlying facial, prosodic, and lexical emotional expression: A review of neuropsychological studies and methodological issues.

Cortical contributions to human emotional expression are examined with a focus on interhemispheric (right vs left) and intrahemispheric (anterior vs posterior) mechanisms. This article reviews behavioral studies of emotional expression in brain-damaged patients with unilateral lesions and in normal adults. Studies involving facial, prosodic, and lexical (verbal) communication channels are reviewed for patients; facial asymmetry studies are reviewed for normal Ss. Data are presented separately for posed and spontaneous conditions and for positive and negative emotions. Findings support right-hemisphere dominance for emotional expression, especially for prosodic and lexical expression in brain-damaged patients and for facial expression in normal Ss. Methodological factors are suggested to account for differences among facial expressions studies in brain-damaged patients. The data are discussed in terms of neuropsychological theories of emotion and directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term memory: A comparison between frontal and nonfrontal right- and left-hemisphere brain-damaged patients.

Tested 2 groups of brain-damaged patients (n = 60 and 17) and 2 groups of controls (n = 28 and 7) on 4 different short-term memory tasks, each designed to measure the amount of information registered (0-sec delay recall) and retained after a delay of 10 sec. in 1 of 3 (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) sensory modalities, using a variety of stimulus materials. Differences between the brain-damaged and control groups were largely due to the reduced capacity of the brain damaged to register information. Ss with anterior cerebral damage did more poorly than Ss with posterior damage on both visual and auditory short-term memory tasks. No significant differences were found between right- and left-hemisphere-damaged Ss. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-validation of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery.

30 brain-damaged males with evidence of unilateral left-hemisphere (mean age 58 yrs), unilateral right-hemisphere (mean age 57 yrs), or bilateral-diffuse brain lesions (mean age 41 yrs), as well as 10 normal control Ss (mean age 54 yrs), were administered the standardized Luria-Nebraska test battery. Data demonstrate that the battery was effective in discriminating brain-damaged from normal control Ss. However, it was relatively ineffective in distinguishing the laterality of brain damage. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sperm auto - antibodies and anti-nuclear antigen antibodies in chronic dioxin - exposed veterans

The authors studied anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) in 25 chronic dioxin - exposed veterans by IIF technics with Hep-2 cell line and sperm autoantibodies by agglutination test of Franklin-Dukes. The site of antibody binding on spermatozoon is detected by IIF test. The control group for ANA detection is 63 healthy persons of the same age as that of dioxin - exposed veterans and the control group for sperm autoantibodies is 36 healthy males of 28-63 years old, having 1-2 children. Obtained results show that the rate of ANA positive in veterans group is normal, and sperm auto-antibodies is also at normal range. The site of antibody binding on spermatozoon is predominantly head - head, rarely head - neck or tail - tail.     

Background interference procedure: A means of assessing neurologic dysfunction in school-age children.

Administered the bender-gestalt test incorporating the background interference procedure (bip) devised by A. Canter to 180 8-12 yr. Olds in (a) a brain-damaged group, (b) an emotionally disturbed group, and (c) a normal control group. The bip yielded significantly higher scores for the brain-damaged, while the scores of the controls and emotionally disturbed did not differ. All of the brain-damaged had higher test scores on the bip than on the standard bender administration, while over 1/2 the emotionally disturbed had lower scores on the bip. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)