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Biomedical subjects

I Nachshon

Publications and source records attributed to I Nachshon.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Birth stress and lateral preferences.

Conflicting evidence exists concerning the possible role of birth stress in the etiology of left-sided lateral preferences. In order to clarify this issue, associations among lateral preferences of hand, eye, and foot and eight indices of prenatal and perinatal stress were examined in the present study on a sample of 987 boys and girls who participated in the Philadelphia Collaborative Perinatal Project. Controls were instituted for some of the methodological and measurement problems encountered in past birth stress and laterality research. Results showed that subjects with different lateral preferences did not differ significantly in their distributions of all but one birth stress items. Hence, there was no substantial evidence for a link between birth stress and left-sided preferences. Alternative hypotheses for the etiology of left-sidedness should therefore be explored.

Apgar Score

Effect of lithium carbonate on lateralized cognitive functions.

The effect of lithium carbonate on lateralized cognitive functions was studied by asking a patient suffering from a manic-depressive disorder to repeatedly recognize a given series of digits delivered dichotically while varying the dosage of lithium carbonate intake. The data showed that, whereas digit recognition from the right ear (left hemisphere) was about the same across tests, recognition from the left ear (right hemisphere) varied systematically with dosage variations. Specifically, it was found that an increase in dosage of lithium carbonate was associated with a decrease in recognition from the left ear. These data might indicate unilateral hemispheric effects of lithium carbonate on the dysfunctional right hemisphere of patients suffering from bipolar affective disorders. Clinical implications of the findings of the present case study are also discussed.

Adult

Protease inhibitor activity in human skeletal muscle.

Myofibrillar protease activity and activity of inhibitors toward trypsin, chymotrypsin, elastase, and the myofibrillar protease were determined in human skeletal muscle. The protease activity was found to increase in patients with acute and chronic inflammation as well as in patients with metastatic and nonmetastatic tumors. The inhibitory activity directed against trypsin and chymotrypsin was not affected by acute inflammation, while the inhibition of elastase and the myofibrillar protease was increased. Chronic inflammation did not affect the ability of the muscle cytosol to inhibit trypsin and elastase, but increased the inhibition of chymotrypsin and the myofibrillar protease. Nonmetastatic tumors produced an increase in the activity of inhibitors toward trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase, while patients bearing metastatic tumors had a high level of cytosolic inhibitors of all the tested proteolytic activities. These results indicate that the myofibrillar protease and the cytosolic protease inhibitors in human skeletal muscle are differentially affected by catabolic conditions.

Abdominal Muscles

Functional assay of plasminogen activator by hydrolysis of 14C-globin.

A functional method for estimation of plasminogen activator (PA) activity is described. The end-point method follows the PA-dependent conversion of the inactive plasminogen to the potent protease plasmin. The formation of plasmin is monitored by its activity on 14C-globin to form acid-soluble radioactive products. The globinolytic assay of PA shows sensitivity similar to that of the 125I-fibrinolytic assay, and is superior in sensitivity to both the chromogenic (Pyro-Glu-Gly-Arg-pNA, S-2444) and the fluorimetric (Glu-Gly-Arg-methylcoumarin amide) methods. The assay is applicable for estimation of tissue type and urokinaselike PA activity in biologic samples, including viable cells in suspension and conditioned medium.

Cell Line

Handedness and dichotic listening to nonverbal features of speech.

The assumption that pitch and loudness are processed in the right hemisphere was tested by comparing left-handers' with right-handers' performance on pitch and loudness discrimination tasks. Four groups of left-handers (20 subjects in each group) were dichotically presented either with digits varying in pitch or loudness or with pure tones varying in pitch. The subjects identified the digits, or the pitch and loudness variations, from both ears. Confirming the assumption, the data showed that the left-handers, who had no ear preference on any of these tasks, differed significantly from the right-handers, who, preferring the right ear for digit identification, preferred the left ear for the discrimination of the nonverbal features (pitch and loudness) of these digits.

Functional Laterality

Responses of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics in a dichotic listening task.

Differences in attentional processes between normals, paranoid schizophrenics, and nonparanoid schizophrenics were studied by delivering dichotically presented digits for identification. Thirty paranoid schizophrenics (20 acute and 10 chronic), 30 nonparanoid schizophrenics (20 acute and 10 chronic), and 20 normal controls were tested. The data were analyzed in terms of the overall level of correct identification of stimuli presented to the two ears, the number of shifts in report from one ear to the other, and the magnitude of ear differences in recall. The results showed that overall level of performance was higher for the normals than for the schizophrenics; the number of ear shifts was greater for normals and nonparanoid than for paranoid schizophrenics; and ear differences were biggest for the paranoid schizophrenics and smallest for the normals. The results were interpreted in terms of differences in attentional style and rate of information processing.

Adolescent

Hand preference in sequential and spatial discrimination tasks.

Hand preference in sensorimotor discrimination tasks was tested on 80 right handed subjects in four experiments. One set of experiments compared the abilities of the two hands to perform sequential tasks. The other set compared spatial abilities of the two hands. Within each set one experiment involved unimanual performance, and the other bimanual performance. The results showed that subjects performed better with their right hand on the bimanual sequential task, and better with their left hand on the bimanual spatial task. No hand preference was found in the unimanual tasks. The results are interpreted as reflecting the differential sensorimotor dominance of the left and right hemispheres for sequential and spatial tasks respectively.

Discrimination Learning