Biomedical subjects

C J Whittington

Publications and source records attributed to C J Whittington.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Recognition memory impairment in Parkinson's disease: power and meta-analyses.

Contrary findings notwithstanding, the prevailing notion is that recognition memory is little affected by Parkinson's disease (PD). Both a power analysis and a meta-analysis were conducted to help clarify the degree of recognition memory deficit associated with PD. The power analysis confirmed that, in general, memory studies of PD participants have been underpowered. This analysis indicated the need to pool study results in a subsequent meta-analysis, the main finding of which was that recognition memory deficits do occur with PD. The largest deficit occurs in PD participants with dementia. Nevertheless, deficits also occur in PD participants without dementia on medication, but nondopaminergic central nervous system abnormalities are more likely to underlie this deficit than PD medication itself. Future development of a theory of cognitive dysfunction in PD should take into account these recognition memory deficits, which may increase with disease progression.

Aged↗

PubMed1996

Acute effects of 50 Hz magnetic field exposure on human visual task and cardiovascular performance.

One hundred subjects, males and females with ages ranging between 18 and 48 years, were studied under both field-exposed and sham-exposed conditions. A 50 Hz, 100 mu T magnetic field (MF) was used. To examine the effect of field exposure on performance, a two-alternative, forced-choice, duration-discrimination task with three levels of difficulty was used. The subject's task was to decide which of two sequentially presented light flashes had the longer duration. The standard duration was 50 ms, and the alternative durations were 65, 100, or 125 ms. Both reaction time and percentage of correct responses were recorded for each subject. MF and sham exposure were for 9 min each. Blood pressure and heart rate were also measured before and following MF exposure and sham-exposure trials. The study was performed double blind, with the exposure order counterbalanced. Compared to sham exposure, MF exposure significantly decreased reaction time on the hardest level of the performance task. MF exposure did not reliably affect percentage correct or cardiovascular performance. It was demonstrated that a relatively high level of statistical power was the basis for the observed MF effect, and the need to pay closer attention to power levels in future research is discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Human performance and physiology: a statistical power analysis of ELF electromagnetic field research.

Research examining the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on human performance and physiology has produced inconsistent results; this might be attributable to low statistical power. Statistical power refers to the probability of obtaining a statistically significant result, given the fact that a real effect exists. The results of a survey of published investigations of the effects of EMFs on human performance and physiology show that statistical power levels are very low, ranging from a mean of .08 for small effect sizes to .46 for large effect sizes. Implications of these findings for the interpretation of results are discussed along with suggestions for increasing statistical power.

Behavior↗

PubMed1995

Do ELF magnetic fields affect human reaction time?

Two double-blind studies were run in an attempt to confirm the finding that a 0.2 Hz magnetic field affects simple reaction time (RT) in humans, whereas a 0.1 Hz field does not. In the first experiment, 12 volunteer subjects were exposed to a continuous 0.2 Hz, 0.1 Hz, or sham field in a fully counterbalanced, within-subjects design. Subjects were run singly for one condition each day over 3 consecutive days with a field strength of 1.1 mT and a daily exposure duration of 5 min. Neither magnetic field had any effect on RT at any time during the exposure. One condition of a second study, using a new group of 24 volunteer subjects, also failed to find any field effects at 0.2 Hz. Additionally, the second study failed to show any effects when the frequency, flux density, and field orientation were set according to parametric resonance theory. It is suggested that, although ELF magnetic field effects on human behaviour may be elusive, future research can improve detection rates by paying greater attention to reducing error variance and increasing statistical power.

Adult↗