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R W Pickford

Publications and source records attributed to R W Pickford.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

Bishnupur achromats and their relatives (an exploratory study with six colour vision tests).

Thirteen subjects from the 'Sankhabaniks' of Bishnupur and two new similar cases were given six colour vision tests. All had photophobia, fixation nystagmus, low visual acuity and marked, though not complete, loss of colour sense. Forty other males and 24 females related to the defectives were also tested with at least five of the tests, for comparison. The tests were Ishihara, HRR test, Sloan's Achromatopsia test, the Dichotomous (D 15) test, Hundred Hue test and the Pickford-Nicolson Anomaloscope. The present research confirmed the provisional conclusion of Bose et al. (1968) that the achromatopsia in Bishnupur is an autosomal recessive character. That women relatives of the achromats showed greater average error scores with the Dichotomous test, the Hundred Hue test and the Sloan's test than male relatives, suggests that the defect is more readily manifested in males, and that the female relatives would include a number of genetic defectives with incomplete manifestation due to sex control. The defectives were clearly distinguished from the relatives as a group.

Adult↗

Colour vision tests and colour naming by thirteen incomplete achromats in Bishnupur.

As an exploratory study six colour vision tests were given to nine male and two female achromats from the Shankhabanik community in Bishnupur, and to two additional similar males. All thirteen subjects had severe photophobia, fixation nystagmus, extreme weakness of vision (4/24 to 3/60) and the red end of the spectrum was much shortened. This research indicates that they had a form of incomplete achromatopsia, varying from an almost complete to a very severe partial loss of colour vision. The condition is inherited as an autosomal recessive. The most likely interpretation of these cases is that they are incomplete rod achromats. Their performance on the colour vision tests is tabulated, and shows complete inability to do the Ishihara test; nearly complete inability on the HRR test, with a possible slight tendency to do better in the yellow-blue than the red-green sub-tests; on Sloan's test they show approximate accordance with her results for achromats; they have severe difficulty with the dichotomous and 100-hue tests, with a possible slight tendency to make fewer errors on the G/B sections. The anomaloscope shows little abnormality of mid-matching points, but great increases in average matching ranges above the normal, although not absolute loss of colour sense, but with extreme darkening or shortening of the red end of the spectrum. Their colour naming was carefully recorded, and was fairly good occasionally, sometimes erroneous without being wildly at fault, and most often completely wrong. The records of colour naming were made, not, of course, as a form of colour vision test, but simply to illustrate the ways in which such defectives make an effort to use colour names in general use among their friends and relatives.

Adult↗

Incomplete achromatopsia in Bishnupur.

Nine males and 2 females from the Shankhabanik Community in Bishnupur, provisionally diagnosed as incomplete rod achromats by Bose, Joardar and Sukul in 1968, with 2 new similar males, were tested more fully with six colour vision tests. All had photophobia, nystagmus of fixation, extremely low visual acuity and extreme loss of colour sense with shortened red spectrum. 40 other males and 24 females, relatives of the defectives, were also tested for comparison. The provisional diagnosis was confirmed, and the hypothesis of autosomal inheritance seemed most probably true. Various details about the relatives emerged.

Color Vision Defects↗

The value of the study of the psychopathology of expression.

The study of the psychopathology of expression deals with abnormal tendencies and themes in paintings and creative products of mental and other patients, and the same kinds of themes in the work of normal artists. Its values are as follows: for diagnosis in revealing patients' problems through observation of deviations from normal tendencies and themes in their art; for treatment in giving insight and understanding to the patient; in relation to modern art because it makes clear what is often confused and bizarre; in relation to classical art because some of the same themes and tendencies are often present and it helps us to understand them; in relation to the study of creativity because sources of inspiration become apparent when underlying themes and tendencies are revealed. It cannot, however, explain fully the real nature of art.

Art↗