Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Atkin.
Can consciousness be understood as the ongoing active creation of information (of meaning)? 'Emergence', the central concept in this hypothesis, plays an essentially different role in it than in theories previously proposed.
A dosimetric survey of microwave radiation emitted by electrosurgical units used in operating rooms indicated that surgeons expose themselves to levels that may be hazardous, and that ocular exposures are especially high: 20 cm from the active lead, electric field strength at the eye/forehead position was 9.0 X 10(6) V2/M2 for the monopolar unit; and magnetic field strength at this position reached a magnitude of 3.5 A2/M2. These electric and magnetic fields exceeded the TLVs of the American National Standards Institute. The authors concluded that the high levels of microwave radiation generated by electrosurgery devices should receive immediate attention to assess health effects associated with such exposures.
After radial keratotomy (RK) to correct myopia, some patients complain of 'glare'. Effects of a glare source on contrast sensitivity were measured in fifteen patients after unilateral RK. With each eye, determinations were made of the contrast required for detection of steady gratings (spatial frequencies of 0.7 and 2.9 cycles/deg), and for detection of flicker (unpatterned field flickering at rates of 8, 16, and 32 Hz). Grating or flicker was presented on a centrally fixated 4 deg test target (34 cd/m2 mean luminance), surrounded by a diffuse glare source (1700 cd/m2 mean luminance). For each stimulus, contrast thresholds were determined with glare-source off and with glare-source on. 'Glare loss' was defined as the decrement in contrast sensitivity measured with the glare source on. Significant findings were: (1) Both eyes showed glare losses for detection of gratings and for detection of flicker; (2) Spectacle lenses increased glare losses both for gratings and for flicker; (3) The RK eye showed a larger glare loss for flicker than the unoperated eye, but a smaller glare-loss for gratings; (4) For both flicker and gratings, glare loss tended to be greater in the RK eye, compared to the unoperated eye, in subjects who had larger pupil diameters in the testing situation; (5) The psychophysical measurements obtained in this study were not significantly correlated either with a questionnaire index of glare complaints or with the score obtained with the Miller-Nadler GlareTester.
Latencies of visually evoked potentials (VEPs) tend to be abnormally long in multiple sclerosis (MS). Similar VEP delays are seen in glaucoma. Such delays could result in part from reduced intensities of synaptic inputs at post-retinal synaptic relays, and defects of axoplasmic transport might be one cause for this. The effective rate of synaptic activation of a given postsynaptic neuron can be decreased either by reducing the arrival-rate of presynaptic action potentials (e.g., by complete or partial blockage of conduction in some presynaptic axons), or by reducing the quantity of neurotransmitter released per action potential (e.g., as a consequence of presynaptic neurotransmitter depletion). It is proposed that in both glaucoma and MS, delayed VEPs may result from either or both of these mechanisms. Firstly, loss and functional impairment of optic nerve axons occurs in each disorder. Secondly, in glaucoma the increased intraocular pressure tends to block the rapid anterograde axoplasmic transport (RAAT) which brings neurotransmitter supplies to the axon terminals. This could result in neurotransmitter depletion in the lateral geniculate relay, decreased synaptic effectiveness of remaining normally-conducting optic nerve axons, and thereby increased VEP latencies. RAAT is also blocked by demyelinated lesions that have been produced experimentally by injection of diphtheria toxin. If it is impaired by the demyelinated plaques of multiple sclerosis, then VEP slowing by a similar presynaptic depletion mechanism could ensue.
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Latency of the pattern visual-evoked potential (PVEP) was measured in 24 ocular hypertensive (OHT) patients, eight open-angle glaucoma (OAG) patients, and 37 control subjects. The PVEP stimulus was a 2.3 cycle/degree sinusoidal grating, counterphase-modulated at 1 Hz. Field size was 9 degrees and mean luminance 1.7 log ft-lamberts. For 22 of the 32 patients, a psycholphysical measure of dynamic contrast sensitivity at 8 Hz (DRC) was obtained with a 4 degrees diameter stimulus, by determining the mean value for the contrast sensitivities to a homogeneous flickering field and to a 1.2 cycle/degree counterphase-flickering grating. Patient DRC values were compared with previously published control data from 21 subjects. Mean PVEP latencies of both the OHT and the OAG patients were greater than normal (P less than 0.001), with the OAG value larger than the OHT value (P less than 0.001). Mean DRCs were lower than normal (P less than 0.002) for both patient groups, with the OAG value lower than the OHT value (P less than 0.025). DRC correlated with PVEP latency for these patients (r = -0.66, P less than 0.001).
Thirty employees of an industrial plant involved in the manufacture of silver nitrate and silver oxide underwent ophthalmologic evaluation in an effort to evaluate the frequency and extent of ocular argyrosis. The most frequently noted ocular abnormality was pigmentation of the conjunctiva, present in 20 workers; corneal pigmentation occurred in 15 workers. A direct relationship existed between the levels of pigmentation and duration of employment. Ocular pigmentation was seen more frequently than cutaneous pigmentation. Ten workers noted decreased night vision, but electrophysiologic and psychophysiologic studies of seven of these ten workers demonstrated no functional deficits.
The detectability of foveally presented low-contrast flickering stimuli was determined for glaucoma patients, ocular hypertensives, and normal control subjects. Two types of stimuli, a homogeneous flickering field, and a counterphase flickering grating of low spatial frequency, were presented on a screen subtending 4 degrees of visual angle. The average of the contrast sensitivities to these two simuli (defined as the dynamic response coefficient) was consistently lower in glaucomatous than in normotensive eyes. The dynamic response coefficient was also below normal in half the ocular hypertensive eyes.
In a 6-year-old child who had been blind since the age of 2 years, occipital potentials of normal amplitude and waveform could be evoked not only by diffuse light flashes but also by alternating checkerboard ans sinusoidal grating patterns of low spatial frequency. Computerized tomography demonstrated destruction of the occipital lobes except of the primary visual projection area. Thus, in man, destruction of visual association cortices may result in loss of vision with partial preservation of pattern-evoked occipital potentials.
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When a subject, seated and facing ahead, was asked to look toward one side, the result was a combined movement of the eyes and head. Normal subjects began the eye movement just before the onset of head movement; 4 neurologic patients who showed abnormalities in eye movements (saccades that tended to be smaller in amplitude and lower in velocity than those of the control subjects) regularly began eye movement after the onset of head movement. Thus the initiation of the head rotation was not as much retarded in these patients as that of eye movement. Amplitudes of the movements were reduced in the patients, but this change too was less for the head than for the eyes. Because the amplitude and velocity of the head movement were less affected in the patient group, the relative contribution of the head to the total gaze shift was increased. It appears as if, when the oculomotor system is affected, the head can assume a leading role in the initiation and execution of gaze shifts.
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Results of tests on 4 mammalian, 19 reptilian, and 17 avian species confirmed the prediction that lack of optomotor response to monocular optokinetic stimulation in one of the two horizontal directions would correlate with afoveate retinal organization, whereas consistent optomotor responses to monocular stimulation in either horizontal direction would correlate with foveate organization.