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Biomedical subjects

P J Watson

Publications and source records attributed to P J Watson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Narcissism and object relations.

Questionnaire measures of the narcissistic personality disorder can predict healthy and unhealthy self-functioning. That this outcome might support Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic psychology of the self was tested in a sample of 354 undergraduates. In canonical correlations, factors from the Narcissistic Personality Inventory were associated more strongly with grandiose than with idealizing immaturities in Kohut's bipolar self, while difficulties in interpersonal relationships (i.e., poor object relations) were associated more strongly with idealizing deficits. Zero-order and partial correlational data were congruent with Kohut's hypothesis that self-grandiosity can include elements of both "pathology" and relative mental health, but canonical correlations did not support Kohut's claim that narcissism can be described in a bidimensional self-structure.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Respiratory and laryngeal function during whispering.

Established procedures for making chest wall kinematic observations (Hoit & Hixon, 1987) and pressure-flow observations (Smitheran & Hixon, 1981) were used to study respiratory and laryngeal function during whispering and speaking in 10 healthy young adults. Results indicate that whispering involves generally lower lung volumes, lower tracheal pressures, higher translaryngeal flows, lower laryngeal airway resistances, and fewer syllables per breath group when compared to speaking. The use of lower lung volumes during whispering than speaking may reflect a means of achieving different tracheal pressure targets. Reductions in the number of syllables produced per breath group may be an adjustment to the high rate of air expenditure accompanying whispering compared to speaking. Performance of the normal subjects studied in this investigation does not resemble that of individuals with speech and voice disorders characterized by low resistive loads.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Responsivity to water regulatory challenges in rats adapted to fluids adulterated with quinine or citric acid.

Ad lib ingestive behavior and reactivity to water regulatory challenges were examined in rats adapted to citric acid- or to quinine-adulterated fluids. Quinine drinkers were unlike citric acid subjects in being unresponsive to fluid deprivation and to the hypovolemia produced by polyethylene glycol (PEG). The effect during hypovolemia was evident when subjects had access to adulterated physiological saline, a solution more responsive to the PEG-induced need state, and quinine group behavior was not easily explained in terms of the tastes of quinine and saline combined together nor in terms of a posttreatment malaise effect. Substances that degrade the taste of water therefore do not exert uniform effects; bitter quinine appears to have some unique property that remains to be specified.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Speech breathing in children and adolescents.

An investigation was conducted to elucidate the nature of speech breathing in children and adolescents and to determine if sex and age influence performance. Eighty healthy boys and girls representing four age groups (7, 10, 13, and 16 years) were studied using helium dilution to obtain measures of subdivisions of the lung volume and using magnetometers to obtain measures of resting tidal breathing and speech breathing. Results for subdivisions of the lung volume and resting tidal breathing revealed sex- and age-related differences, most of which were attributable to differences in breathing apparatus size. Results for speech breathing indicated that sex was not an important variable, but that age was critical in determining speech breathing performance. The most substantial differences were between the 7-year-old group and older groups. These differences were characterized by larger lung volume, rib cage volume, and abdominal volume initiations and terminations for breath groups, larger lung volume excursions per breath group, fewer numbers of syllables per breath group, and larger lung volume expenditures per syllable for the 7-year-old group compared to older groups. In most respects, speech breathing appeared adultlike by the end of the first decade of life. Clinical implications regarding these findings are offered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Patterns of increased and decreased ingestive behavior after injections of lithium chloride and 2-deoxy-D-glucose.

In previous research, 750 mg/kg 2DG yielded a number of effects suggesting a postdrug nausea; and the present experiments revealed that the illness-inducing agent LiCl similarly produced taste aversion learning at 7.5 mg/kg, inhibited drinking in water-deprived animals at 30 mg/kg, depressed feeding in hungry rats at 60 mg/kg, and evoked food intake and pica at 120 mg/kg. The appearance of eating and pica at the same dosage suggested that rats may eat food as well as a nonnutritive substance as a species-specific reaction to illness and that postdrug feeding, including that observed after 2DG, is an insufficient condition for concluding that a treatment produces no internal distress. A liquid diet that reportedly ameliorates the glucoprivic feeding deficits produced by lateral hypothalamic and zona incerta lesions theoretically could produce its effects if lesions made rats more reactive to 2DG-induced malaise and if this diet were more palatable to animals experiencing internal distress. However, this liquid diet failed to facilitate food intake after LiCl, nor did it reduce the inhibited eating produced by LiCl in food-deprived subjects. Liquid diet effects in lesioned animals, therefore, may not be explained by factors related to a 2DG-induced malaise.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Inhibited drinking and pica in rats following 2-deoxy-D-glucose.

A sequence of studies sought to determine if 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) produces malaise as a side effect. Drug treatment at dosages at least as low as 250 mg/kg triggered an immediate inhibition of fluid intake. In nondeprived animals, 750 mg/kg but not lower dosages of 2DG evoked a delayed but statistically significant level of pica as measured by kaolin consumption. Twenty-four hour food deprivation failed to produce pica, and previous claims that kaolin intake is a specific index of gastrointestinal distress therefore received additional support. Thirsty rats injected with 750 mg/kg 2DG displayed a delayed pattern of pica largely similar to that previously observed with undeprived subjects; although, under optimal circumstances, significant increases in kaolin consumption may be evident as soon as one hour post-injection. In general, these data indicated that malaise may be an important influence of 2DG; but dosage and time course parameters associated with post-drug reductions in drinking suggested that a separable consummatory inhibition effect may also occur.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Transmission of a female sex pheromone thwarted by males in the spider Linyphia litigiosa (Linyphiidae).

When a male Sierra dome spider (Linyphia litigiosa) encounters a virgin female that has been sexually mature for 7 to 10 days, he rapidly packs the silk of her web into a tight mass. This behavior hinders evaporation of a male-attractant chemical that such highly receptive females apply to their webs. The male thereby reduces the likelihood that his mating partner will attract rival males.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Water adulteration with citric acid: effects on drinking and responsivity to regulatory challenges.

Rats with permanent access to a water supply adulterated with citric acid (CA) displayed persistent reductions in fluid intake and fluid/food ratios; and at appropriate concentrations of CA, they also exhibited lowered body weights and drinking deficits after fluid deprivation and after hypertonic NaCl injections. Unlike rats in previous investigations that were forced to consume quinine adulterated water, CA drinkers exhibited less disruption in their ingestive behavior following regulatory challenges, diminished short-term but greater long-term abilities in responding to hypovolemia, and an ability to increase fluid intake after fluid deprivation plus hypertonic NaCl. These data reveal that substances which degrade the taste quality of water do not exert a unitary influence on fluid intake, and they further underscore the complexity of ecological factors involved in controlling drinking behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Intake of a liquid diet after 2-deoxy-D-glucose injections in rats.

The effects of a liquid diet after 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) were examined following water deprivation, after food deprivation, and at longer post-injection intervals when animals reportedly are hypophagic as a function of drug treatment. Water deprived rats were unable to increase their post-drug feeding when ingesting the liquid diet; and in food deprived subjects, intake patterns of liquid diet and of lab chow pellets were essentially identical after 2DG. The tendency of a 750 mg/kg dosage to produce a longer-term hypophagic reaction was more evident in animals given pellets instead of the liquid diet. While previous studies have found the liquid diet to promote 2DG-induced feeding in lesioned subjects, the present data demonstrate that such facilitation effects do not invariably occur during post-drug conditions in which animals are inhibited in their intake.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Embryonic development of the mouse mutant pupoid foetus (pf/pf).

The pupoid foetus mutation in the mouse is a recessive lethal mutation causing death of homozygous (pf/pf) embryos immediately after birth. From 11.3 days gestation onwards, these embryos are characterised externally by the development of a tail twist, followed by apparent stunting of the limbs and tail (when compared with the development of these structures in normal embryos), lack of digits, distortion of facial features, and possession of a smooth, mottled skin. Embryos ranging in age from 11.3 days gestation to full term have been examined using light microscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The skeletal structure and internal organs of the embryo are normal, but abnormalities occur in the external epidermis, the dermis, and the peripheral sensory nerves. Development of the palate and the eyes are affected by the behaviour of these tissues. The epidermis undergoes hypertrophy and fails to differentiate, and, on the basis of morphological criteria and theoretical considerations, it is suggested that the pf gene is activated in the epidermis during the keratinization pathway, preventing differentiation and altering the cell surface characteristics of the cells. Other abnormalities are explained in terms of interactions with the epidermis. This mutant is compared with other similar mutants.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Respiratory kinematics in classical (opera) singers.

Anteroposterior diameter changes of the rib cage and abdomen were recorded during respiratory, speaking, and singing activities in six adult male subjects, all baritones with extensive classical singing training and performance experience. Data were charted to solve for lung volume, volume displacements of the rib cage and abdomen, and inferred muscular mechanisms. Separate major roles were inferred for different parts of the respiratory apparatus in the singing process. The abdomen served as a posturing element that mechanically tuned the diaphragm and rib cage to optimal configurations for performance. The rib cage operated as a pressure-flow generating element that regulated expiratory drive. And, the diaphragm functioned as an inspiratory element devoted to reinflating the lungs. Subjects' descriptions of how they thought they breathed during singing bore little correspondence to how they actually breathed. Implications for the training of singers are offered.

Abdominal Muscles↗
PubMed1985

Variables related to body-weight status of mentally retarded adults.

Mentally retarded male and female adult subjects displayed mean body weights in excess of their ideal weights; excessive body weight of females was also apparent in comparison to normative data for the United States. Maintenance of appropriate weight appeared to be more likely in a controlled residential setting than in the natural home environment. These sex and environmental relationships could not be explained by medication and dietary programming differences, and age, race, and level of retardation were unrelated to body weight.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Studying work.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Efficiency↗
PubMed1979

Nystagmus duration changes of learning disabled children during sensory integrative therapy.

Sensory integrative therapy was administered to 43 learning disabled children categorized according to their pretherapeutic duration of postrotary nystagmus. The duration then was recorded after relatively short or long treatments. Children displaying initial subnormal nystagmic functioning responded to therapy with increases in duration while others displayed decreases, and these effects were more apparent after long therapy. These data support the claims that learning disabled children can be meaningfully categorized according to their nystagmic responses and that attention to their interoceptive sensory functioning may be of clinical significance.

Child↗
PubMed1979

Association between nystagmus hyporesponsivity and behavioral problems in learning-disabled children.

This study explored the hypothesis that an association exists between postrotary nystagmus hyporesponsivity and behavioral problems in learning-disabled children. Supporting this conclusion was the finding that the learning-disabled boys rated by teachers as displaying the most socially inappropriate behaviors had significantly lower postrotary nystagmus durations than other learning-disabled boys. In addition, near significant associations were obtained between subnormal nystagmus functioning and socially inappropriate responding for boys and girls combined. Learning-disabled girls were evaluated as responding significantly more appropriately than learning-disabled boys, while having significantly shorter postrotary nystagmus durations; thus, sex of a child may be an important variable in determining relationships between psychological characteristics and hyporesponsive nystagmus. Additional research is needed in this area because of a number of limitations to this study; however, these results present further suggestive evidence that learning-disabled children can be categorized according to characteristics of their postrotary nystagmus.

Child↗
PubMed1979

Nystagmus and ocular fixation difficulties in learning-disabled children.

The visual fixation ability of learning-disabled children was evaluated after sensory integrative therapy had been administered for short or long periods of time. Children with hyporesponsive postrotary nystagmus displayed reduced oculomotor control skills, but the deficit was apparent only in those who had been in therapy for a shorter interval. These results present further support for the hypothesis that the learning disabled can be differentiated according to their nystagmus characteristics. In addition, very tentative evidence suggested that sensory integrative therapy may have been successful in ameliorating the fixation deficiency; however, further research into this possibility is needed. The data also indicate that oculomotor control dysfunction may be a mediating mechanism for at least part of the learning disabilities experienced by some learning-disabled children.

Child↗