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Biomedical subjects

B E Peterson

Publications and source records attributed to B E Peterson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Antecedents and contexts of generativity motivation at midlife.

A semiprojective measure of generativity motivation--the desire to contribute to the welfare of society--was developed and applied to a longitudinal sample of educated women. In support of previous theory that generativity represents a fusion of agency and communion, generativity at midlife was related to a combination of adolescent scores on achievement, affiliation, and power motivation. The measure was also related to independent indexes of generative wishes and Q-sort generativity. The importance of contextualizing generativity motivation is demonstrated: Generative women with careers found gratification through work, whereas generative women not working in careers experienced gratification through parenting. Generativity was also related to political consciousness. Finally, as young adults, generative women expressed gratitude toward mentors. The authors discuss theoretical implications for E. H. Erikson's (1950) concept of psychosocial generativity.

Achievement↗
PubMed1995

EXP: a Macintosh program for automating data acquisition and analysis applied to neurophysiology.

EXP is a Macintosh program for doing quantitative neurophysiology. It supports signal design, simultaneous signal output and data collection, spike sorting, histogram production, and many other analysis features. The hierarchical structure used to design protocols provides a straightforward method for designing complex experiments. The degree of automation supported by the program makes it possible to perform large-scale experiments and to collect and analyze large quantities of data in a reasonable amount of time. It has been used successfully in a large number of experimental paradigms by several different researchers. EXP is one of several cooperative programs designed to help perform neurophysiological experiments. These programs can be used in tandem not only to collect and analyze data but to help interpret and present results as well. The programs contain mechanisms to encourage re-analysis or 'virtual experiments' on data collected previously by oneself or other researchers.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1995

MAP: a Macintosh program for generating categorical maps applied to cortical mapping.

One technique for studying the cortex entails mapping the distribution of neuronal response properties across a cortical zone. In sensory cortex, 'receptive fields' are arranged in an orderly way such that they form a topographical representation, or 'map', of the sensory surface on the cortex. Detailed maps can be constructed by making many microelectrode penetrations across the cortex and measuring the receptive field at each site. A computer program called MAP was designed to aid in the efficient generation of these maps. MAP allows the user to mark penetration sites on digitized images of the cortical surface and to draw receptive fields on digitized images of the skin surface being studied. Penetration sites are then automatically assigned a category based on the location of the receptive field. MAP has significantly increased the speed of this experimental process. MAP contains a number of mechanisms designed to facilitate analysis. For example, it can automatically generate cortical maps based on receptive field locations. It can also show recorded neurophysiological data at each penetration site allowing the experimenter to visualize activity across the cortical zone. These features along with several others make MAP an effective tool for cortical mapping.

Brain Mapping↗
PubMed1995

Exploration and virtual experimentation in a local neuroscience database.

Work is currently being done by a number of groups to investigate the possibility of creating one or more neuroscience databases. These databases could provide: (1) a means for conveying complete descriptions of experiments; (2) a platform for virtual experiments; (3) and an interface where modeling and experimental results could be exchanged. This paper describes work towards creating a local database with these capabilities by creating a set of experimental neurophysiology software tools that are tied to a database of experiment descriptions via external scripting mechanisms. These tools provide a means of exploring results and data that can lead to insights into the data that suggest new avenues of research. Because the scriptability of the tools allows for automation of re-analysis of the data, virtual experiments for testing new hypotheses over large datasets becomes possible. Such virtual experiments are particularly relevant to computational neuroscience, as they allow hypotheses generated by models to be immediately tested without further collection of experimental data.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Realization of generativity in two samples of women at midlife.

On the basis of E. H. Erikson's (1950/1963) theory of midlife development, a measure of generativity realization was constructed with items from J. Block's (1961/1978) California Adult Q-Set (CAQ). Convergent and discriminant validity for the new CAQ measure were established through a survey of 2 samples of educated women at about 43 years of age (N = 208). These 2 samples, 1 from a study of Mills College graduates and the other from a study of Radcliffe College graduates, were also used to examine the personality, attitudinal, and life outcome correlates of generativity at midlife. Results indicated that generative women have prosocial personality characteristics, express generative attitudes through their work, are invested in the parenting process, and exhibit an expanded radius of care. In general, results conceptually replicated in the Mills and Radcliffe samples.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

A new approach to optical imaging applied to rat barrel cortex.

Several groups have described using intrinsic optical imaging to form images of activity patterns in the cortex. Because the signal is small, the general approach has been to use expensive camera equipment with a high dynamic range to make these measurements. However, by using signal averaging to compensate for lower dynamic range, images can be obtained using equipment already available in many laboratories. This modified technique has been used for imaging activity in 'barrel' cortex of the rat. A map of the representation of a single whisker as determined by the imaging technique corresponded well with a similar map made using standard electrophysiology. A map of several whiskers was made by overlaying images of single-whisker representations. The details of the images differ from those previously described. Possible mechanisms for the signal are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Threat and authoritarianism in the United States, 1978-1987.

Studies at both the individual and collective levels have implicated threat as an important factor in authoritarianism. As a follow-up to Sales's (1973) study relating behavioral indicators of authoritarianism to levels of social threat, the present research analyzed archival data from the United States for high-threat (1978-1982) and low-threat (1983-1987) periods. Societal measures of most attitude and behavioral components of the authoritarian syndrome significantly decreased between the high-threat and the low-threat periods. These results support the threat-authoritarianism relationship but also suggest a more complicated theoretical model that links perceived social conditions, arousal of authoritarian sentiments, dispositional authoritarianism, and the nature of political appeals--particularly those that engage authoritarian aggression.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Using personal and fictional documents to assess psychosocial development: a case study of Vera Brittain's generativity.

Adult diaries and novels written by the British feminist and pacifist Vera Brittain (1893-1970) were content analyzed for Eriksonian themes of identity, intimacy, and generativity. Brittain's concerns with identity and intimacy decreased over time, while her generative concerns increased, suggesting that she expressed the issue of generativity vs. stagnation in her mid-life diaries and fiction. The large number of identity themes relative to both intimacy and generativity provokes speculations about Brittain's personality, the characteristics of writers, the influence of gender, the impact of society, and the possibility that the crisis of identity vs. role confusion involves the last major structural change in personality development. This archival case study is consistent with Erikson's notion of a sequence of concerns with psychosocial issues, although directions for theoretical revision and elaboration are discussed.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMed1986

The inferior olivary complex of guinea pig: cytoarchitecture and cellular morphology.

The inferior olivary complex (I.O.C.) of the guinea pig can be divided into three primary subdivisions: the principal olive (PO), the medial accessory olive (MAO), and the dorsal accessory olive (DAO). In Nissl-stained preparations, the PO possessed darker staining cells than did the MAO and DAO and was the most densely populated with cells. All neuronal somata in the I.O.C. were oblique-spheroid in profile (mean size: coronal = 18.3 microns, parasagittal = 15.8 microns). Based on Golgi impregnations, it was apparent that inferior olive cells were of two unique radiate-cell types (I and II). Type I neurons had relatively diffuse, sparsely branched dendritic arbors, whereas type II cells had dendrites which were highly branched and massed about the cell body, at times creating complex spirals. Type II cells were further categorized into types IIa and IIb based on geometric variations of the type II dendritic arbors. Indices of branching and tortuosity, together with estimates of dendritic arbor volume, were quite helpful in distinguishing cell types. The cell types were differentially distributed across the subdivisions with type I neurons being encountered in the MAO while type II cells were found in all three subdivisions. Within the neuropil of the I.O.C., three different afferent axonal arbors were identified, as was the presence of dendrites from surrounding reticular formation cells. Neuronal aggregates creating a possible electrical syncytium within the I.O.C. are consistent with the dendroarchitectonics of the cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

[Combined (surgical and drug) therapy of lung cancer].

The paper deals with an evaluation of the immediate and end results as well as the rates of lung tumor progression in the course of surgical and combined therapy including different schedules of long-term administration of preparation CCNU. Combined therapy was shown to be followed by a longer remission and survival, as compared with cancer patients in control. The said effect was particularly pronounced is cases of squamous-cell carcinoma and in patients treated with levomycetin.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1982

[Early oncological pathology of the stomach].

The paper reports the results of a study of 586 gastrobioptical and cytological preparations obtained in the course of endoscopic examination of 223 patients with gastritis, polyps and gastric ulcers and resected material from 46 patients who had small-size malignant tumors of the stomach (up to 1 cm in dia). Gastrobiopsy revealed dysplasia-like changes in the epithelium in 33% of cases of chronic gastric diseases. Dysplasia in the mucosa surrounding tumor was identified in all cancer patients. Three degrees of dysplasia of gland epithelium--mild, moderate and severe--were distinguished, each allowing further division into two classes. It is suggested that patients with dysplasia of gastric mucosa epithelium, identified by gastrobiopsy, should be referred to a group at high risk and followed up closely.

Biopsy↗
PubMed1981

[Oncological patients in the stage-IV clinical group].

The report deals with basement of development of palliative and psychotherapeutic measures aimed at relieving the condition of patients with tumors at stage IV who cannot be cured by special antitumor procedures. Such measures are of considerable practical importance. They are intended to ensure the biological, psychological and social adaptation of incurable patients to the terminal course of malignant disease. Some approaches to the solution of the problem are outlined.

Humans↗