Diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis in a patient with ulcerative colitis

PURPOSE: To compare activation of the ipsilateral cerebral hemisphere during tactile sensory and motor tasks involving the right and left hands. METHODS: Eight volunteers had functional MR imaging to measure the extent of cerebral hemisphere activation during a motor task and sensory task involving each hand. Hemispheric indexes (left hemisphere activation minus right hemisphere activation)/(left hemisphere activation plus right hemisphere activation) were computed for each hand and each task. The indexes for two tasks and the two hands were compared. RESULTS: The left-hand motor tasks activated the ipsilateral hemisphere in right handers significantly more than did the right-hand tasks. Motor tasks produced a greater activation of the ipsilateral hemisphere than did the sensory tasks. No significant differences were found between the hemispheric indexes for the right-hand and left-hand sensory tasks. CONCLUSION: This study confirms findings of a previous study, showing that the left hemisphere is active in left-hand motor tasks. Activation of the ipsilateral hemisphere is significantly less pronounced during sensory tasks than during motor tasks.     

Tobacco withdrawal in women and menstrual cycle phase.

Because negative mood is a characteristic of both tobacco withdrawal and menstrual discomfort, withdrawal may vary by menstrual cycle phase. Tobacco withdrawal, mood, and menstrual discomfort were assessed in premenopausal women who quit smoking during either the follicular (Days 1–14 postmenstrual onset; n?=?41) or luteal (Day 15 or longer postmenstrual onset; n?=?37) phase of the menstrual cycle and maintained biochemically verified smoking abstinence during the postquit week. Women quitting during the luteal phase reported significantly greater increases in tobacco withdrawal and self-reported depressive symptoms than women quitting during the follicular phase. These results indicate that selecting a quit-smoking day early in the follicular phase may attenuate withdrawal and negative affect in premenopausal female smokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and menstrual cycle differences in the subjective effects from smoked cocaine in humans.

To investigate sex and menstrual cycle effects in response to cocaine administration, data from existing studies were analyzed. First, responses to a single delivery of 0.4 mg/kg smoked cocaine were investigated. Women reported lower ratings for measures of paranoid/suspicious and heart racing/pounding than did men. In addition, women in the luteal phase reported diminished ratings for a measure of feel high than did both women in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle and men. Second, responses to up to 6 deliveries of 0.4 mg/kg smoked cocaine were investigated. Women, compared with men, had lower ratings on feel high, heart racing/pounding, and feel stimulated. Results suggest that there are significant sex and menstrual phase differences in the subjective effects of cocaine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visuospatial neglect: the ultimate deconstruction?

Unilateral visuospatial neglect is now widely acknowledged to be a highly heterogeneous condition: The overt manifestations of visual neglect can vary as a function of task, spatial domain, and mode of response (at least). Double dissociations (sometimes of the strong form) have already been reported between most of the components of what was originally thought to be a relatively stable construct within the visual modality. Nonetheless, throughout successive fractionations of neglect, reported cases of bidirectional task-specific neglect after unilateral brain damage are rare. We now report two such cases. After right hemisphere stroke, the first patient reliably showed severe left neglect on cancellation but right neglect on line bisection. After left hemisphere stroke, the second case showed right neglect on cancellation but left neglect on line bisection. Extensive investigation of case 1 confirmed our previous conjecture that the crucial distinction between these tasks lies in the presence or the absence of an overt target. In contrast to cancellation, line bisection demands the internal computation of the location of the "target" (the midpoint), followed by executing a motor response toward the precise location of that "imaginary" midpoint. The relative attentional and premotor contributions of the intact and damaged hemispheres to these forms of bidirectional neglect are also assessed.     

Dissociation of mnemonic and perceptual processes during spatial and nonspatial working memory using fMRI

Neuroimaging studies in humans have consistently found robust activation of frontal, parietal, and temporal regions during working memory tasks. Whether these activations represent functional networks segregated by perceptual domain is still at issue. Two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments were conducted, both of which used multiple-cycle, alternating task designs. Experiment 1 compared spatial and object working memory tasks to identify cortical regions differentially activated by these perceptual domains. Experiment 2 compared working memory and perceptual control tasks within each of the spatial and object domains to determine whether the regions identified in experiment 1 were driven primarily by the perceptual or mnemonic demands of the tasks, and to identify common brain regions activated by working memory in both perceptual domains. Domain-specific activation occurred in the inferior parietal cortex for spatial tasks, and in the inferior occipitotemporal cortex for object tasks, particularly in the left hemisphere. However, neither area was strongly influenced by task demands, being nearly equally activated by the working memory and perceptual control tasks. In contrast, activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) was strongly task-related. Spatial working memory primarily activated the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and the IPS. Object working memory activated the MFG bilaterally, the left inferior frontal gyrus, and the IPS, particularly in the left hemisphere. Finally, activation of midline posterior regions, including the cingulate gyrus, occurred at the offset of the working memory tasks, particularly the shape task. These results support a prominent role of the prefrontal and parietal cortices in working memory, and indicate that spatial and object working memory tasks recruit differential hemispheric networks. The results also affirm the distinction between spatial and object perceptual processing in dorsal and ventral visual pathways.     

Distributions of hemispheric asymmetry in left-handers and right-handers: Data from perceptal asymmetry studies.

Although hemispheric asymmetry among individuals is often treated as a categorical variable with 3 values (i.e., left hemisphere dominance, right hemisphere dominance, and bilateral dominance), it is best viewed as a continuously distributed variable ranging from strong asymmetry in favor of the left hemisphere through nearly equal asymmetry to strong asymmetry in favor of the right hemisphere. The present study compared distributions of hemispheric asymmetry in left- and right-handers, based on behavioral indexes of hemispheric asymmetry, such as visual field asymmetry on divided visual field tasks and ear asymmetry on dichotic listening tasks. Meta-analyses of prior studies using these indexes indicate that distributions of hemispheric asymmetry in left- and right-handers differ both in the mean and in the variance. Right-handers have greater mean hemispheric asymmetry than left-, whereas left-handers have greater variance in hemispheric asymmetry than right-handers. Within left-handers, those without sinistral relatives have greater variance in hemispheric asymmetry than those with sinistral relatives, suggesting that sinistral patterns of hemispheric asymmetry determined by environmental factors may be more variable than those determined by genetic factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial processing and hemispheric asymmetry. Contributions of the transient/magnocellular visual system

Right-handed observers were presented with stimuli consisting of a line and two horizontally separated dots. A categorical spatial task required observers to indicate whether the dots were above or below the line, and a coordinate spatial task required observers to indicate whether the line could fit into the space between the two dots. For the coordinate task, reaction time was faster when the stimuli were presented to the left visual field (right hemisphere) than when the stimuli were presented to the right visual field (left hemisphere). The opposite hemispheric asymmetry was obtained for the categorical task. In addition, coordinate spatial processing took longer with stimuli presented on a red background than with stimuli presented on a green background. The opposite hemispheric asymmetry was obtained for the categorical task. In addition, coordinate spatial processing took longer with stimuli presented on a red background than with stimuli presented on a green background. The opposite trend characterized categorical spatial processing. Because the color red attenuates processing in the transient/magnocellular visual pathway, these results suggest that coordinate spatial processing is more dependent on the transient/magnocellular pathway than is categorical spatial processing. However, manipulations of color condition had no effect on visual field (hemispheric) asymmetries, suggesting that the two hemispheres rely on the same visual information and on the same computational mechanisms as each other-although they do not always use that information with equal efficiency.     

Relationship between coping styles and perceptual asymmetry.

This study examined the relationship between coping styles and hemispheric asymmetry, on the basis of prior evidence of reduced posterior right hemisphere (RH) activity in depression, and the relationship between ruminative coping and depression. Two samples of undergraduates (N=170) completed chimeric faces tasks and 2 measures of coping styles, the self-report Responses Styles Questionnaire and a behavioral choice task. In women but not in men, self-reported rumination was associated with a decreased RH bias on the emotion-based chimeric task. In both genders, choosing to engage in an emotional task was associated with increased RH involvement. Results indicate that although brooding and dwelling on the negative may be associated with decreased RH involvement, openness to emotion may be associated with increased RH involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Asymmetric effects of ovarian hormones on hemispheric activity: Evidence from dichotic and tachistoscopic tests.

Previous studies have suggested a role of endogenously cycling ovarian hormones in the modulation of perceptual asymmetries. In the present investigation, participants were given perceptual asymmetry tests including verbal and nonverbal tachistoscopic and dichotic listening tasks during the menstrual and midluteal phases of the menstrual cycle. Salivary levels of estrogen and progesterone were also measured. Analyses of performance on the tachistoscopic tests revealed that left visual field, but not right visual field, accuracy was significantly lower for both verbal and nonverbal tasks at the midluteal phase than at the menstrual phase. Right ear performance on the nonverbal dichotic test was significantly reduced at the midluteal phase. Results suggest suppression of right hemisphere processing areas and possible reduction in callosal transfer efficiency at higher levels of ovarian steroids. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental sex differences in global-local perceptual bias.

Previous developmental studies have indicated that boys tend to perform better than girls on tasks associated with the right hemisphere (e.g., spatial tasks), whereas girls perform better on tasks associated with the left hemisphere (e.g., verbal tasks). Extending this body of literature to what is known about hemispheric specialization of visuospatial processing, we predicted that boys would be more global than girls in their perception of visual hierarchical stimuli. Forty girls and 39 boys between the ages of 4 and 12 years were administered a perceptual judgment task previously used by Kimchi and Palmer (see record 1983-02534-001). Boys were significantly more global in their perceptual judgments than girls at all ages. Younger children of both sexes were less global than older children. Results were consistent with developmental models that suggest an early left-hemisphere advantage for girls and a right-hemisphere advantage for boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biological reaction to debris in relation to joint prostheses

Pain symptoms of many disorders are reported to vary with menstrual stage. This study investigated how pain thresholds to electrical stimulation of the skin, subcutis and muscle tissue varied with menstrual stage in normal women and compared these variations with those in women with dysmenorrhea and in healthy men at matched intervals. Thresholds of the three tissues were measured four times during the course of one menstrual cycle at four sites. Two of the sites were on the abdomen within the uterine viscerotome (abdomen-rectus abdominis, left and right) and two were outside it on the limbs (leg-quadriceps, arm-deltoid). Calculated from the beginning of menstruation (day 0), the menstrual phases studied were menstrual (days 2-6), periovulatory (days 12-16), luteal (days 17-22) and premenstrual (days 25-28). Spontaneous pain associated with menstruation was measured from diary estimates on a VAS scale. Whereas the highest thresholds always occurred in the luteal phase regardless of segmental site or stimulus depth, the lowest thresholds occurred in the periovulatory stage for skin, whereas those for muscle/subcutis occurred perimenstrually. Dysmenorrhea accentuated the impact of menstrual phase. For non-dysmenorrheic women menstrual trends were significant only in abdominal muscle and subcutis, but for dysmenorrheic women the trends were also significant in abdominal skin and in limb muscle and subcutis. Dysmenorrhea also lowered thresholds mainly in muscle and sometimes in subcutis, but never in skin, with the greatest hyperalgesic effects in left abdominis muscle. Abdominal sites were more vulnerable to menstrual influences than limb sites. Muscle thresholds, but not skin or subcutis thresholds, were significantly lower in abdomen than in limbs, particularly in dysmenorrheic women. The amount of abdominal muscle hyperalgesia correlated significantly with the amount of spontaneous menstrual pain. Only minor sex differences were observed for pain thresholds of the arm and leg, but there was a unanimous refusal by men, but not by women, to be tested at abdominal sites. These results indicate that menstrual phase, dysmenorrhea status, segmental site, tissue depth and sex all have unique interacting effects on pain thresholds, thus adding more items to the lengthy and still-growing list of biological factors that enter into an individual's judgment of whether or not a stimulus is painful.     

Gender, alcoholism, and neuropsychological functioning.

35 female and 25 male alcoholics (mean age 45) performed significantly more slowly than similar numbers of age-matched nonalcoholic controls on the Tactual Performance Test (TPT), especially with the left hand. Alcoholism effects were not significant for TPT Memory or Location. Women recalled significantly more shapes but correctly located fewer of those remembered than did men. Results suggest that (a) alcoholism effects on tactual–spatial performance are similar in men and women, (b) right hemisphere functions or less well-practiced skills may be selectively vulnerable to alcoholism, and (c) sex differences exist in tactual memory and spatial location abilities. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of ipsilateral activation between right and left handers: a functional MR imaging study

We used fMRI to compare the ipsilateral activation in the sensorimotor region (SMR) during dominant and non-dominant hand motor tasks between right and left handers. In right handers, the ipsilateral activation was significantly greater during non-dominant (left) hand task than dominant (right) hand task, while in left handers, it showed no significant difference. The ipsilateral activation was most pronounced in the precentral subregion (presumably corresponding to the premotor area) during either hand task in both groups. We conclude that the different patterns of ipsilateral activation might be mainly explained by the hemispheric dominance. The skill of the hand and complexity of tasks may be related to the predominant activation of the premotor area.     

Left hemisphere advantage for classical conditioning to auditory verbal CSs: effects of nonattended extinction

The effects of brain laterality, or hemispheric asymmetry, on electrodermal classical conditioning during both attended and nonattended stimulus conditions were studied. Participants were conditioned to consonant-vowel (CV) syllables during an acquisition, or learning, phase of the experiment. During a subsequent extinction phase, the conditioned stimuli (CS) were presented in a dichotic mode of presentation. Half of the participants attended to the left ear (right hemisphere) during the extinction phase and the other half of the participants attended to the right ear (left hemisphere). The results showed effects of conditioning for all participants during the acquisition phase. During dichotic extinction, the left hemisphere group showed remaining learning effects in both the attended and nonattended conditions, whereas the right hemisphere group demonstrated conditioning only in the attended condition.     

Lateralized use of the mouth in production of vocalizations by marmosets

We have found that the common marmoset, Callithrix jacchus, displays a larger left hemimouth during production of fear expressions, with or without vocalization, and a larger right hemimouth when producing a social contact call. Thus, marmosets have right hemisphere specialization for the production of negative emotional expressions and vocalizations and left hemisphere specialization for the production of social contact communication. These hemispheric specializations for social communication in marmosets are the same as those found in humans for speech production and for the control of emotional expressions. We suggest that hemispheric specializations for communication in humans may well have precursors in primate evolution.     

Sex Differences and Individual Differences in Cognitive Performance and Their Relationship to Endogenous Gonadal Hormones and Gonadotropins.

Sexually dimorphic cognitive performance in men (n=42) and women (n=42) was related to testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and sex hormone binding globulin, measured in 10-ml blood samples collected between 0900 and 1030 and, among women, during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Significant sex differences favored men on spatial tasks (Mental Rotation and Judgment of Line Orientation) and on an inhibition task and favored women on a verbal task (category fluency). However, there were no significant relationships between any of the hormones and cognitive performance, suggesting that there are few, if any, consistent, substantial relationships between endogenous, nonfluctuating levels of gonadal hormones or gonadotropins and these cognitive abilities in men or women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex-sensitive tasks in men and women: A search for performance fluctuations across the menstrual cycle.

This study validated 6 cognitive and motor-skill tasks as sex-sensitive and used them to investigate whether women's performance changed across the menstrual cycle. Three putative female-advantage tasks and 3 putative male-advantage tasks were administered twice, at 6-week intervals, to young college women and men. Counterbalanced for order, women received the tests once during menstruation and once during the midluteal phase. The midluteal phase was determined by projection from day of ovulation, as verified by ovulation detection kits, and by confirmation of subsequent menstruation. Results revealed a significant sex difference for 5 of the 6 tasks. However, there was no evidence that performances differed with menstrual cycle phase. These results from younger women, combined with previous results from older women, may help establish the boundaries for hormonal influences on cognitive and motor-skill behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative: the Kerala experience

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to determine whether color flow pulsed Doppler could predict a luteal phase defect (LDP). METHOD: Twenty-one women with regular menstrual cycles and at risk for luteal phase defect were examined by transvaginal color Doppler during the follicular and luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Progesterone was measured on the day of the Doppler exam. Ovulation was determined from the lutenizing hormone (LH) surge. Endometrial biopsy during the late luteal phase was performed on each patient. RESULT: Six patients (28.5%) were diagnosed with luteal phase defect. Mean resistance index in patients with luteal phase defect was significantly higher only throughout the luteal phases (p = 0.02). Mean progesterone levels were significantly lower for patients with LPD than for normal women (p < 0.001). Mean pulsatility index in luteal phase deficient cycles was significantly higher throughout the follicular and luteal phases (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Color Doppler may aid in assessing luteal phase adequacy. Doppler indices of corpus luteum blood flow in combination to plasma progesterone may be a useful index of luteal function.     

Dividing attention between the hands and the head: Performance trade-offs between rapid finger tapping and verbal memory.

Tested a multiple resources approach to time-sharing performance which assumes that each cerebral hemisphere controls its own set of processing resources that it cannot share with the other hemisphere. Right-handed men performed a verbal memory task while concurrently tapping the index finger of either hand as rapidly as possible. Task priority was manipulated with a payoff scheme. Ss remembered more on the verbal task when concurrently tapping with their left hands than when tapping with their right hands, and their memory performance was much better when the memory task was emphasized than when the tapping task was emphasized, regardless of hand. For the tapping task, decrements from baseline tapping rates and trade-offs between tasks were equal for both hands when Ss were reading the to-be-remembered words aloud. In contrast, during the retention interval, decrements were larger for the right hand than the left, and there were no task trade-offs. On right-hand trials, both tasks required exclusively left-hemisphere resources, whereas on left-hand trials, right-hemisphere resources were required to execute the tapping movements per se, but left-hemisphere resources were necessary to coordinate those movements with the movements required for overt speech. The data underscore the importance of manipulating task priority to obtain an accurate picture of a task's resource requirements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ischemic but not thermal pain sensitivity varies across the menstrual cycle

OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: Findings from both animal and human research suggest that pain sensitivity changes across the menstrual cycle; however, among humans the nature of these menstrual cycle effects remains unclear. The present study used a repeated-measures design to evaluate changes in thermal and ischemic pain responses during three phases of the menstrual cycle, midfollicular (postmenstrual), ovulatory, and mid-to-late luteal (premenstrual), in 11 healthy women. The cycle phase during which subjects began their participation was determined randomly. Plasma levels of estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone, and beta-endorphin were determined at each experimental session. Participants also completed a daily diary of physical and emotional symptoms for two complete menstrual cycles before the experimental sessions. RESULTS: The results indicated that women showed less ischemic pain sensitivity during the midfollicular compared with the ovulatory and mid-to-late luteal phases, but thermal pain responses did not vary significantly across menstrual cycle phases. Physical and emotional symptoms were minimal and did not change significantly across the menstrual cycle. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate greater ischemic but not thermal pain sensitivity among women after the midcycle LH surge. The practical relevance and potential mechanisms of these findings are discussed.