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Biomedical subjects

J Rodin

Publications and source records attributed to J Rodin.

69 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Externality in the nonobese: effects of environmental responsiveness on weight.

The study considered whether external responsiveness in normal weight people would predict changes in eating behavior and weight following major alteration of environmetnal food cues. Normal weight children were tested for externality on measures of eating, slide recall, and extremity of affective responsiveness during the first week of a summer camp, and were weighed biweekly thereafter. There was a significant correlation between externality and weight change, indicating that the more externally responsive the children were, the more weight they gained. The implications of this finding for theories about the development of obesity were considered.

Adolescent

Menstruation, reattribution, and competence.

Experiment 1 tested whether performance is influenced by the reattribution of task-relevant emotional arousal. Arousal was manipulated by level of anticipated shock and test anxiety. Tasks included the digit symbol substitution test, the Stroop Color-Word Interference Test, anagram solution, and unsolvable puzzles. Aroused subjects who were either given a pill attribution for their arousal or correctly warned that shock and test anxiety might upset them performed significantly better than aroused subjects who were given no manipulated attribution. Experiment 2 compared the performance of menstruating women complaining of moderate or severe symptoms with others not currently menstruating. It was expected that the latter two groups would not have a salient alternative attribution for task-relevant arousal and that women with stronger symptoms would. Experimentally aroused, high-symptom menstruating women performed significantly better than the other two aroused groups. The results suggest the beneficial effects of predictability and perceived normative standards upon performance, and the reattribution phenomenon was reconsidered within that context. The implications of these findings for competence during menstruction were also also discussed.

Arousal

The effects of choice and enhanced personal responsibility for the aged: a field experiment in an institutional setting.

A field experiment was conducted to assess the effects of enhanced personal responsibility and choice on a group of nursing home residents. It was expected that the debilitated condition of many of the aged residing in institutional settings is, at least in part, a result of living in a virtually decision-free environment and consequently is potentially reversible. Residents who were in the experimental group were given a communication emphasizing their responsibility for themselves, whereas the communication given to a second group stressed the staff's responsibility for them. In addition, to bolster the communication, the former group was given the freedom to make choices and the responsibility of caring for a plant rather than having decisions made and the plant taken care of for them by the staff, as was the case for the latter group. Questionnaire ratings and behavioral measures showed a significant improvement for the experimental group over the comparison group on alertness, active participation, and a general sense of well-being.

Activities of Daily Living

Intestinal bypass surgery for obesity decreases food intake and taste preferences.

Food intake was measured in 22 obese patients before and after jejunioleostomy for obesity. Most of the weight loss could be accounted for by the observed reduction of caloric intake. Malabsorption was also present as indicated by increased loss of fat in the stools, and decreased absorption of D-xylose and vitamin B12. A dislike for sweet tastes developed after surgery in most patients. Preferences for concentrated solutions of sucrose and glucose were reduced after patients showed a depression of food intake by a 440-calorie preload which had not been detected before surgery. These studies show a decrease in food intake after intestinal bypass surgery and suggest a role for taste or other gastrointestinal factors in regulating food intake.

Adult

Causes and consequences of time perception differences in overweight and normal weight people.

Three experiments considered whether there are differences between overweight and normal weight subjects in time perception which represent the obese subjects' lack of internal responsiveness as well as heightened external reactivity in a noneating setting. In the first study, no time-relevant cues were provided, and overweight subjects were inaccurate in their temporal judgments and showed significantly higher group variability than did normals. In the second study, the effects of differential temporal information generated by interesting and boring cues was considered. The presentation of these time-relevant external cues reduced the judgment variability of the overweight subjects and influenced their perceived passage of time significantly more than normals. The third study examined the influence, on eating behavior, of differences in perceived passage of time as a consequence of manipulating cues for interest or boredom. When bored, overweight subjects perceived time to pass more slowly than did normals and thus ate sooner. Similarly, they delayed eating, judging time to have passed more quickly than it actually had, when they were attending to interesting cues. The implications of a generalized lack of internal sensitivity for a theory about the development and consequences of obesity are discussed.

Attention

Effects of obesity and set point on taste responsiveness and ingestion in humans.

Two experiments investigated the relationships among degree of obesity, nearness to set point for adipose tissue mass, and responsiveness to taste. In Experiment 1, subjects rated milkshakes varying in sweetness intensity. Overweight and normal weight subjects did not have significantly different detection thresholds or preference ratings. However, overweight subjects worked longer than normals to obtain their most preferred substance. Experiment 2 varied the ease of tasting the milkshake. Preference and food intake of moderately overweight subjects were significantly more influenced by tastes that they found positive and negative than was the preference of normal weight or obese subjects. The ease of ingesting the taste substance also significantly influenced preference and food intake of the moderately obese only. Nearness to set point, operationally defined as weight stability for 2 years, had no significant effects.

Adipose Tissue

Metabolism and endocrine secretion in response to a test meal in normal-weight bulimic women.

This study assessed metabolism and endocrine secretion in normal-weight bulimic women by monitoring several digestion-related measures in the fasting state and in response to two test meals that were isocaloric but varied in degree of forbiddenness. No consistent physiological disturbances were apparent in bulimics. Their fasting electrolytes, plasma glucose, insulin, and free fatty acids were normal. Furthermore, while the two test meals resulted in different profiles of postabsorptive glucose and postprandial secretion, the two groups did not differ in their profiles. The results suggest that physiological disturbances such as disturbed glucose homeostasis or insulin secretion generally attributed to populations with eating disorders may not be apparent in normal-weight bulimics. The relevance of these findings to the etiology and treatment of normal-weight bulimia is discussed.

Adult

Psychologic and physiologic reactivity to stressors in eating disordered individuals.

The present study explored a potential mechanism for the relationship between stressors and binge eating: specifically, whether subjects with behaviors and attitudes reflecting disordered eating show distinctive psychologic or physiologic reactivity to stressors. Female undergraduates participated in a laboratory study involving four psychologically stressful tasks. Blood pressure and pulse rate were monitored, and several psychologic questionnaires were administered. Analyses revealed that the tasks provoked significant cardiovascular and affective responses in both high- and low-disordered eaters. There were no differences between groups in cardiovascular responsivity or mood state in response to diverse stressors. However, those with more disordered eating reported an increased desire to binge in response to the stressors, along with more global stress, lower self-esteem, and lower mastery than the comparison group. The results suggest that the increased desire to binge in response to stressors reported by subjects higher in disordered eating cannot be accounted for by differences in cardiovascular reactivity or negative hedonic state, relative to what subjects low in disordered eating showed in response to the same stressors.

Adult

Men and their bodies: a comparison of homosexual and heterosexual men.

The study examined influences on body satisfaction, disordered eating, and exercise behavior of a male subculture that places a heightened emphasis on appearance: the homosexual male subculture. Subjects were 71 homosexual and 71 heterosexual men. Relative to heterosexual men, homosexual men showed more body dissatisfaction and considered appearance more central to their sense of self. Also, their exercise was more motivated by a desire to improve attractiveness. Among the homosexual but not the heterosexual group, men who desired to be thinner showed more attitudes and behaviors associated with disordered eating than men who were thinner than their desired size. In contrast, heterosexual but not homosexual men who wished to be heavier had lower self-esteem scores than men who were heavier than or equal to their desired size. The findings support a view that a male subculture that emphasizes appearance may heighten the vulnerability of its members to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating.

Adult

Effects of exercise training on cardiovascular function and plasma lipid, lipoprotein, and apolipoprotein concentrations in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

This study examined the effects of aerobic exercise on lipid levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Fifty healthy middle-aged women (mean age, 50 years) were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of either aerobic exercise (walking and jogging) or nonaerobic strength exercise (circuit Nautilus training). Concentrations of total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol were assessed, along with apolipoprotein (apo) A-I, apo A-II, apo B, and triglycerides. To document changes in aerobic capacity, maximum treadmill testing was performed with expired-gas analysis before and after the exercise program. Aerobic exercise was associated with an 18% improvement in peak VO2. Women in the aerobic group had an increased VO2, from 26.7 to 31.4 ml/kg/min (p less than 0.0001), while the VO2 of the women in the strength training group did not change (25.8 ml/kg/min before and after). There were no differential changes in lipid levels because all subjects experienced slight reductions in high density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol and increases in apo A-I and the apo A-I to apo B ratio. There was a tendency for the aerobic group to exhibit lower levels of apo A-II and a greater apo A-I to apo A-II ratio, however. We conclude that premenopausal and postmenopausal women experience similar changes in aerobic capacity and lipid levels with exercise and that the short-term effects of aerobic and nonaerobic exercise on lipid profiles are generally comparable.

Analysis of Variance