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Biomedical subjects

A F Mirsky

Publications and source records attributed to A F Mirsky.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Overview and summary: twenty-five-year followup of high-risk children.

We report a 25-year followup of a group of 50 children at genetic risk for schizophrenia (by virtue of having a parent with the disorder) and 50 matched controls. The children who eventually developed schizophrenia spectrum disorders, including schizophrenia, were identifiable by cognitive-psychophysiological, neurointegrative, and social/personality traits in the preteenage period. The children at risk were also more likely to develop other Axis I disorders, chiefly affective. Moreover, the risk of Axis I disorders was significantly greater among children raised in the group atmosphere of a kibbutz than among those raised in their own nuclear families in cities and towns in Israel. The study is a unique contribution to knowledge of factors underlying the development of psychopathology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

EEG abnormalities, malnutrition, parasitism and goitre: a study of schoolchildren in Ecuador.

We report on data collected in a sample of 194 schoolchildren (9-13 years of age) residing in a mountainous community in Ecuador. This study was part of an ongoing epidemiological inquiry into the prevalence of parasitism, malnutrition, neurocysticercosis, goitre, iodine levels and EEG abnormalities, and the relationships among these factors. Data were obtained by a local medical team supported by specialized personnel. The results showed that 34% of the EEG tracings were abnormal, with higher rates among girls. The best fitted log-linear model to explain the results was the combination of EEG status, parasite infection, goitre and gender. The best predictor of EEG abnormalities was found to be a diagnosis of goitre.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Neurocysticercosis and performance on neuropsychologic tests: a family study in Ecuador.

Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is a common neurologic disorder in developing countries, where it may pose a major public health challenge. Recently, the disorder has become more commonly diagnosed in developed countries as a result of the influx of migrants from countries where the disease is endemic. The clinical syndrome associated with NCC includes neurologic, physical, and functional problems. Since the locus of the infection is mainly the central nervous system, there is a risk of neuropsychologic dysfunction. This study was conducted in Ecuador in a group of 123 subjects (49 males and 74 females, 9-62 years of age) from a community sample that was part of a larger neuroepidemiologic inquiry. A discriminant function procedure was used to select the tests that would be most sensitive at distinguishing between affected and nonaffected individuals. The results suggest that behavioral functions that include aspects of inhibitory control, motor, and visual-motor output are impaired in adolescent and adult subjects with NCC.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Event-related potential abnormalities correlate with structural brain alterations and clinical features in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia appear to have abnormalities in both brain structures and information processing. Several recent reports have suggested that correlations exist between such measures. We examined the volume of several brain regions using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and also assessed both information processing, using brain event-related potentials (ERPs), and clinical symptomatology in sixteen medicated patients with schizophrenia. Subjects were tested using auditory and visual discrimination tasks. From the ERPs elicited by stimuli presented with relative probabilities of 0.1, the N100, N200, and P300 components were identified and measured. All subjects also had MRI scans that included 12 contiguous coronal sections, each 1 cm thick. From these scans, the following structures were identified and the volume or area quantified: third ventricle, lateral ventricles (partial), amygdala and hippocampus (one slice), partial brain volume (in one slice through the parietal lobe), and total prefrontal and temporal lobe gray and white matter in both cortical regions. Significant correlations were found between hippocampal area and the amplitude of the auditory and visual N200, and between the right hippocampus and the visual P300. Lower but significant correlations were seen between auditory P300 and measures of left temporal lobe structures. Auditory P300 amplitude correlated inversely with positive symptoms of schizophrenia. These preliminary results suggest that the ERP abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia are associated with temporal lobe pathology.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Maternal drinking during pregnancy: attention and short-term memory in 14-year-old offspring--a longitudinal prospective study.

A large and compelling experimental literature has documented the adverse impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on the developing brain of the offspring. This is the first report of adolescent attention/memory performance and its relationship with prenatal alcohol exposure in a population-based, longitudinal, prospective study (n = 462) involving substantial covariate control and "blind" examiners. Prenatal alcohol exposure was significantly related to attention/memory deficits in a dose-dependent fashion. A latent variable reflecting 13 measures of maternal drinking was correlated 0.26 with a latent variable representing 52 scores from 6 tests measuring various components of attention and short-term memory performance. The number of drinks/occasion was the strongest alcohol predictor. Fluctuating attentional states, problems with response inhibition, and spatial learning showed the strongest association with prenatal alcohol exposure. A latent variable reflecting the pattern of attention/memory deficits observed at 14 years correlated 0.67 with a composite pattern of deficits previously detected on neurobehavioral tests administered during the first 7 years of life. The 14-year attention/memory deficits observed in the present study appear to be the adolescent sequelae of deficits observed earlier in development. As is usual in such studies, not all exposed offspring showed deficits.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

On familial factors in the attentional deficit in schizophrenia: a review and report of two new subject samples.

We review the literature on attentional impairment in schizophrenics and their first-degree relatives and present new information from ongoing family studies of the disorder in Ireland and Israel. Subjects were administered a neuropsychological test battery (the NIMH Attention Battery) intended to measure four different elements of attention: encode, focus/execute, sustain, and shift. Results from both samples indicated that schizophrenic subjects performed most poorly on the tests, the control subjects performed best, and the scores of the relatives fell somewhere between the other two groups. Separation among subject groups was most significant for those tests comprising the focus/execute and sustain elements. Some of the results indicate, as well, that tests of auditory sustained attention may be the most discriminating of all. Overall comparison of the Irish and Israeli cohorts revealed striking differences. While within cohort differences remained, subjects from the Irish sample performed more poorly on many of the tests than Israeli subjects. This between-cohort difference was not found in the sustain element, as measured by the Continuous Performance Test. The socio-cultural implications of these findings are discussed with respect to future neuropsychological studies of schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Interpersonal behavior of children at risk for schizophrenia.

Investigations of the childhood antecedents of adult schizophrenia may clarify our understanding of the etiology of the disease, provide guidelines for meaningful classification of subtypes of schizophrenic illness, point to strategies for identifying those individuals in need for early intervention, and suggest appropriate techniques for early intervention. Among the more salient characteristics of schizophrenic illness are disturbances in interpersonal relations, especially withdrawal from normal social interaction.

Child↗
PubMed1991

Analysis of the elements of attention: a neuropsychological approach.

A model for conceptualizing the components or elements of attention is presented. The model substitutes for the diffuse and global concept of "attention" a group of four processes and links them to a putative system of cerebral structures. Data in support of the model are presented; they are derived from neuropsychological test scores obtained from two samples, the first consisting of 203 adult neuropsychiatric patients and normal control subjects, and the second, an epidemiologically-based sample of 435 elementary school children. Principal components analyses of test scores from these two populations yielded similar results: a set of independent elements of attention that are assayed by different tests. This work presents a heuristic for clinical research in which the measurement of attention is essential.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The structure of schizotypy: a pilot multitrait twin study.

This report of a pilot study examines 29 pairs of twins from a population-based registry on whom four domains of schizotypy have been measured: personal interview using the Structured Interview for Schizotypy, self-report questionnaire formed from eight published self-report scales, attentional battery of eight individual tests, and root mean square error on smooth pursuit eye tracking. Analyzing the twins as individuals revealed two independent dimensions of clinically rated schizotypy (positive symptom schizotypy and negative symptom schizotypy) and two independent dimensions of self-rated schizotypy (positive trait schizotypy and trait anhedonia). Positive symptom schizotypy was highly correlated with positive trait schizotypy, but not with attentional dysfunction or eye-tracking error. By contrast, negative symptom schizotypy was significantly related to trait anhedonia, attentional dysfunction, and eye-tracking error. Correlations in monozygotic and dizygotic twins suggested that genetic factors were important in all four domains of schizotypy. Except for eye-tracking error, the results are more consistent with a dimensional than a "disease" model of schizotypy. Replication of these results with a larger group of subjects is needed.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Cognition in eating disorders.

Cognitive functions were investigated in four groups of women: 30 underweight anorexics, 38 normal-weight bulimics, 20 long-term weight-restored anorexics, and 39 normal controls. A MANOVA was used to examine performance on five neuropsychological domains derived from prior principal components analyses of a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Underweight anorexics performed more poorly than normal controls in four of five neuropsychological domains (focusing/execution, verbal, memory, and visuospatial), while normal-weight bulimics showed poorer performances only in focusing/execution. The absolute differences in scores between eating disorder groups and normal controls were for the most part small, suggesting subtle rather than frank cognitive difficulties. Poorer neuropsychological test performance was associated with anxiety but not depression as measured by the Tryon, Stein, and Chu Tension scale and scale 2 of the MMPI respectively. The findings support previous reports of attentional difficulties in eating disorders but do not support the hypothesis of differential right-hemisphere dysfunction in eating disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Neuropsychological effects of early HIV-1 infection: assessment and methodology.

Studies of neuropsychological performance early in the course of human immunodeficiency virus-type 1, infection are reviewed. The studies differed on reporting the presence and severity of neuropsychological changes, and comparisons among studies are hampered by variations in the study populations, sample sizes, assessment methods, approaches to data analysis, and definitions of thresholds for abnormality. Recommendations that would facilitate comparisons among future studies include using markers for disease state, applying longitudinal designs, using common instruments for assessing neuropsychological status, selecting appropriate controls, controlling for co-factors, reporting raw scores as well as presumed indices of impairment, and relating impairment on neuropsychological tests to affected individuals' daily activities, if possible.

AIDS Dementia Complex↗
PubMed1988

Research on schizophrenia in the NIMH Laboratory of Psychology and Psychopathology, 1954-1987.

Since its creation in 1954 (as the Laboratory of Psychology) through the present time, the Laboratory of Psychology and Psychopathology has devoted a major effort to the study of schizophrenia. Shakow's studies on impaired reaction time performance led to the development of the concept of segmental set; Rosenthal's work on genetic factors in the etiology of schizophrenia, as well as on the interaction of stress and diathesis, helped to illuminate the nature of transmission of schizophrenia. These investigations set standards of excellence for careful analysis of psychopathological behavior. Our present program of research on schizophrenia emphasizes autonomic, psychophysiological and event-related brain potential investigations of schizophrenic patients and long-term followup of a high-risk population in Israel. In this group, poor attention in children at genetic risk has proved to be a predictor of later development of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Our work also emphasizes a theoretical analysis of the neuropsychological elements that make up attention in relation to psychopathological states.

Humans↗
PubMed1988

The Genain quadruplets.

The Genain quadruplets are a unique set of monozygous women who are concordant for schizophrenia but discordant for the severity of their disorder. They were studied by David Rosenthal and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health in the late 1950's when they were in their twenties and again in 1981 when they were 51. They are faring about as well now as they ever have in their adult lives. The results of psychological tests, some of which were repeated more than 20 years apart, are discussed, as are the effects of medication on attention and memory. The differential response of the Genains to neuroleptic drugs, as well as certain other findings in the 1981 study, leads to a different conclusion about the discordant severity of their disorder from that reached in 1963 by Rosenthal and Quinn. These observations emphasize the value of long-term followup studies in genetically related individuals, with repeated assessments of the same functions.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

An Hebrew language version of the Stroop test.

We present normative data from a Hebrew language version of the Stroop color-word test. In this sample of college-educated Israeli young adults, 18 women and 28 men with a mean age of 28.4 yr. completed a Hebrew language Stroop test. When compared with 1978 English language norms of Golden, Hebrew speakers were slower on color-word reading and color naming, similar on naming the color of incongruently colored names of colors, and showed less interference. Slowed color-word reading and color-naming may reflect the two-syllable length of the Hebrew names for one-syllable length English language colors; reduced interference may reflect the exclusion of vowels in much Hebrew printing and subjects' ability to provide competing, nonconflicting words while naming the color of words in which the hue and the lexical content do not match.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Attention-related unit activity in the frontal association cortex during a go/no-go visual discrimination task.

Unit activity related to a go/no-go visual discrimination task was studied in four rhesus monkeys. We recorded 272 task-related cells from frontal cortex in a region extending from the midprincipal sulcus to the central sulcus, and medially to the cingulate sulcus. Units located in anterior regions (dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex) were typically related to both go and no-go trials (designated type II units) and showed similar ("symmetrical") activity in both kinds of trials; some of them also showed prestimulus ("anticipatory") activity. Such units were present but less common in posterior regions (postarcuate and precentral and posterior cingulate cortex). Units in these posterior regions were active predominantly in go trials (designated type I units). Also found posteriorly were "asymmetrical" type II cells whose activity was greater in go trials and occurred later in the trial, around the behavioral response. The anterior symmetrical and anticipatory type II units in the frontal association cortex were similar to such units described earlier in the brain stem reticular formation and may have similar functions in supporting focused and preparatory attention. On the other hand, asymmetrical type II units in the posterior frontal regions may have a role in the initiation of visually guided motor behavior.

Action Potentials↗