Value-sensitive therapy: learning from ultra-orthodox patients

This paper explores the issues that arise when psychotherapists and patients do not share a common value system. Using three case studies of ultra-Orthodox Jewish patients who hold religious values and beliefs, the paper illustrataes and defines a strategy of "value-sensitive therapy." It argues for treating patients without demeaning or discounting their values and beliefs.     

Emotion-Induced Retrograde Amnesia and Trait Anxiety.

Emotional arousal can both enhance and impair memory. Considering that both emotional memory and trait anxiety (TA) have been associated with adrenergic activity, the authors investigated whether there is an association between 2 opposite emotional memory biases and the TA. The authors used a procedure recently put forward by B. A. Strange, R. Hurlemann, and R. J. Dolan (2003) to elicit an emotion-induced retrograde amnesia (ERA) coupled to an emotional memory enhancement (EME). The authors contrasted the association between these emotional memory biases and the TA in several conditions involving different levels of encoding and types of recall. The results presented here indicated a significant interaction of the TA with EME and ERA and the dependency of these biases on the consciously controlled use of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Left hemispheric specialization for learned, skilled, and purposeful action.

Three-dimensional motion analyses were performed on trajectories of repetitive "slicing" gestures by 4 participants with left-hemisphere lesions and limb apraxia, 6 participants with right-hemisphere lesions, and 7 neurologically intact participants. Left hemispheric lesioned participants with apraxia, but not right hemispheric lesioned participants showed impaired coupling of spatial and temporal aspects of wrist trajectories and deficits in interjoint coordination. Both groups of brain-lesioned participants differed from control participants in the 3-D plane of the wrist motion. The deficits of some right hemispheric lesioned participants in controlling the plane of wrist motion may be a consequence of left hemispatial neglect with rightward deviations. In contrast, the deficits of apraxic participants in controlling wrist trajectories and coordinating joint motions seem to reflect a deficit in these participants for the movement plan. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance of maleic anhydride copolymers and their half esters

Infrared and NMR group-type methods for the analysis of the anhydride content of maleic anhydride copolymers such as poly(maleic anhydride-co-α-olefin) and the half ester content of their reaction products with alcohols are described. The infrared analyses are based on the integrated absorptivities of the anhydride carbonyl and the combination of the acid and ester carbonyl. The NMR method is based on the intensities of the various chemically shifted groups in the copolymer. The use of dimethyl sulfoxide as an auxiliary solvent has made the infrared analysis possible.     

Evaluating soil moisture and yield of winter wheat in the Great Plains using Landsat data

Locating areas where soil moisture is limiting to crop growth is important for estimating winter-wheat yields on a regional basis. In the 1975–76 growing season, we evaluated soil-moisture conditions and winter-wheat yields for a five-state region of the Great Plains using satellite (Landsat) estimates of leaf area index (LAI) and an evapotranspiration (ET) model described by Kanemasu et al. (1977). Because LAI was used as an input, the ET model responded to changes in crop growth. Estimated soil-water depletions were high for the Nebraska Panhandle, south-western Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and the Texas Panhandle. Estimated yields in five-state region ranged from 1.0 to 2.9 metric ton/ha.     

Visual selective attention in parkinson's disease: Dissociation of exogenous and endogenous inhibition.

Impairment in the inhibitory mechanism of visual selective attention in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is controversial. The present study sought to understand disparate findings in a manner analogous to the relative preservation of exogenously evoked movement and impairment of endogenously evoked movement. The authors examined inhibition of return (i.e., exogenously evoked inhibition; IOR) and negative priming (i.e., endogenously evoked inhibition; NP) in a group of 14 patients with PD and 14 healthy controls (HC). Unlike the HC, who demonstrated significant inhibition in both tasks, the group with PD demonstrated intact inhibition only in the IOR task. Dopamine replacement therapy did not affect performance. The findings are discussed within the context of a model that differentiates the essential involvement of the basal ganglia for endogenously evoked spatial inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Possible mechanisms of anosognosia: a defect in self-awareness

Anosognosia of hemiplegia is of interest for both pragmatic and theoretical reasons. We discuss several neuropsychological theories that have been proposed to explain this deficit. Although for psychological reasons people might deny deficits, the denial hypothesis cannot account for the hemispheric asymmetries associated with this disorder and cannot explain why some patients might deny one deficit and recognize another equally disabling deficit. There is some evidence that faulty feedback from sensory deficits, spatial neglect and asomatognosia might be responsible for anosognosia in some patients. However, these feedback hypotheses cannot account for anosognosia in all patients. Although the hemispheric disconnection hypothesis is appealing, disconnection is probably only a rare cause of this disorder. The feedforward intentional theory of anosognosia suggests that the discovery of weakness is dependent on attempted action and some patients might have anosognosia because they do not attempt to move. We present evidence that supports this theory. The presence of one mechanism of anosognosia, however, does not preclude the possibility that other mechanisms might also be working to produce this disorder. Although a large population study needs to be performed, we suspect that anosognosia might be caused by several of the mechanisms that we have discussed. On the basis of the studies of impaired corporeal self-awareness that we have reviewed, we can infer that normal self-awareness is dependent on several parallel processes. One must have sensory feedback and the ability to attend to both one's body and the space where parts of the body may be positioned or acting. One must develop a representation of the body, and this representation must be continuously modified by expectations (feedforward) and knowledge of results (feedback).     

Immunochemical analysis of dopamine transporter protein in Parkinson's disease

The plasma membrane dopamine transporter (DAT) is considered to be a reliable marker of presynaptic dopaminergic terminal loss. Previous in vivo imaging and postmortem binding studies have detected a loss in striatal DAT binding in Parkinson's diseased (PD) brain; however, these techniques have poor spatial resolution and may suffer from nonspecific binding of some ligands. In this study, we use novel highly specific monoclonal antibodies to distinct epitopes of human DAT to quantify and localize the protein. Western blot analysis revealed marked reductions in DAT immunoreactivity in putamen, caudate, and nucleus accumbens of PD brain compared with control cases, and the reductions were significantly correlated to disease duration. Immunohistochemistry revealed DAT-immunoreactive fibers and puncta that were dense throughout the striatum of control brains but that were drastically reduced in putamen of PD brains. Caudate from PD brains showed a significant degree of sparing along the border of the ventricle, and the nucleus accumbens was relatively preserved. An unexpected finding was that discrete islands of DAT immunoreactivity were preserved within the matrix of PD putamen. Thus, immunological analysis of DAT protein provides novel and sensitive means for localizing and quantifying DAT protein in PD and other neurological disorders involving dopaminergic systems.     

Ipsilateral neglect: reversal of bias or exaggerated cross-over phenomenon?

We have shown previously that plating primary cultures of rat hepatocytes under low density, which stimulates hepatocytes to shift from the G0 to the G1 phase of the cell cycle, resulted in increased levels of glutathione (GSH) and cysteine, and increased activity of gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (GCS), the rate-limiting enzyme in GSH synthesis (Lu et al., Am. J. Physiol. 1992;263:C1181-C1189). In the current work we examined changes in GSH homeostasis after two-thirds partial hepatectomy (PH). Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent two-thirds PH or sham operation. GSH, oxidized glutathione (GSSG), cysteine, GSH efflux, DNA synthesis, changes in GCS subunit messenger RNA (mRNA), and protein levels were measured 12 and 24 hours after PH. Both liver GSH and cysteine levels were doubled at 12 hours and remained elevated at 24 hours after PH. GSSG levels also increased, but the ratio of GSH to GSSG levels remained unchanged. The increase in GSH and cysteine levels preceded the increase in DNA synthesis. Sinusoidal GSH efflux was unchanged after two-thirds PH, but biliary GSH efflux decreased. However, total GSH efflux was minimally altered after two-thirds PH. The increase in GSH can be largely accounted for by the increase in both cysteine availability and the activity of GCS. The steady-state mRNA and protein levels of the GCS heavy subunit were increased at 12 hours after PH. The mRNA level of the GCS light subunit was unchanged. In summary, early in the course of liver regeneration the steady-state hepatic GSH levels double because of an increase in the biosynthesis of GSH.     

The effects of rotation on spatial attention

OBJECTIVE: To clarify whether out-of-hours health centre visits and referrals to hospital are equally distributed in the three different duty models being used for health care in southwestern Finland. DESIGN: A medical audit of 2926 health centre visits and 223 referrals to hospitals by general practitioners (GPs) on duty. The duty models were formed on the basis of a possibility to utilize a local health centre during nights and weekends. Two-month follow-up period. SETTING: Primary health care. Population 46438. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Out-of-hours visits to health centres and referrals to hospital, and the effect of age and duty model on referrals and visits. RESULTS: Patients over 64 years of age received most of the referrals although they visited the health care centre less frequently than the 0-14 year-olds (p < 0.001). The people who had an opportunity to utilize their local health centres visited more during out-of-hours than those who did not have this opportunity (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The health centre visits were not equally distributed in the three examined duty models. The over 64 year-olds in particular had the least visits and the most referrals.