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Biomedical subjects

T E Ludwig

Publications and source records attributed to T E Ludwig.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Maximizing the bilateral field advantage on verbal and nonverbal matching tasks.

Research has established that response latencies are generally shorter on visual matching tasks when one target is projected to each hemifield (bilateral presentation) than when both targets are projected to the same hemifield (unilateral presentation). This effect, called the bilateral field advantage (BFA), has recently shown promise as a predictor of callosal dysfunction. As a step toward developing a reliable BFA index, the present study examined two factors that appear to influence the extent of BFA in normal subjects. Twenty-seven right-handed college students performed a verbal matching task (using letter pairs drawn from the set AaBb) and a nonverbal matching task (using dot pattern pairs constructed with 4 dots in a 3 x 3 matrix). Order of task varied across subjects (dots followed by letters, or letters followed by dots, or letter trials and dot trials interleaved at random). The targets were presented either unilaterally or bilaterally. Results revealed a robust BFA for the letter-matching task in all three task order conditions, suggesting that the letter task may be suitable for inclusion in a battery of tasks for clinical assessment. The dot-matching task did not yield a significant BFA when administered as the first task. The dot task BFA increased when the letter task preceded it, and became comparable to the letter task BFA in the interleaved condition.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

A proposed role for oxytocin in regulation of endometrial prostaglandin F2 alpha secretion during luteolysis in swine.

Pulsatile secretion of endometrial prostaglandin (PG)F2 alpha is stimulated by oxytocin (OT) during late diestrus in domestic ruminants (i.e., cattle, sheep and goats) and results in corpus luteum (CL) regression leading to the onset of a new estrous cycle. Pulsatile PGF2 alpha release is also responsible for CL regression in swine, but the stimulus for its secretion from the uterine endometrium is not known. We propose that OT binds to specific OT receptors (OTR) on the endometrium to stimulate phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis, thereby activating the inositol trisphosphate (IP3)-diacylglycerol (DAG) second-messenger system to promote pulsatile PGF2 alpha secretion. Exogenous OT administered to cyclic gilts during late diestrus (days 10-16) decreased interestrous interval in three of four experiments. However, OT did not promote CL regression in hysterectomized gilts indicating that the effect of OT was uterine-dependent. Circulating concentrations of 13,14-dihydro-15-keto PGF2 alpha (the major stable metabolite of PGF2 alpha) were increased (p < 0.01) 10 min after i.v. injection of OT on days 14 and 16 in cyclic gilts and on days 10-16 in pregnant gilts, but the magnitude of the response to OT on all days in pregnant gilts was markedly reduced compared to the response in cyclic gilts on days 14 and 16. Mean density and Kd of OTR detected on endometrium of cyclic pigs 15 days post-estrus were 29.2 +/- 5.5 fmol/mg protein and 1.59 +/- 0.23 nM, respectively. Density of OTR was correlated with OT-stimulated PI hydrolysis (r = 0.83, p < 0.05) and PGF2 alpha secretion (r = 0.87, p < 0.10). Endometrial IP3 was increased within 30 seconds after OT treatment and preceded the increase in PGF2 alpha release stimulated by OT. Endometrial PI hydrolysis and PGF2 alpha secretion were similarly increased by AIF4-(phospholipase C activator), but not by cholera toxin (adenylyl cyclase activator). Although OT binding to OTR could be displaced by lysine-vasopressin and lysine-vasopressin stimulated PI hydrolysis, lysine-vasopressin did not stimulate PGF2 alpha release. Distinct receptors for OT and lysine-vasopressin on pig endometrium were confirmed by treatment with 100 nM OT + 100 nM lysine-vasopressin which stimulated PI hydrolysis more than 100-200 nM OT or lysine-vasopressin alone. These results support the hypothesis that OT stimulates phospholipase C to hydrolyze PI, yielding IP3 and DAG second-messengers which promote endometrial PGF2 alpha release during CL regression in pigs.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

The bilateral field advantage on a letter-matching task.

A series of studies have reported that responding is faster when letter pairs to be matched are projected to two hemispheres rather than one. Four experiments described here tested this bilateral field advantage and identified factors that influence its extent. Subjects were shown letter pairs drawn from the ensemble "AaBb", and classified the letter pairs as "Match" if the letters had the same name (regardless of case) and "No Match" if they did not. In the first two experiments the letter pairs were presented unilaterally (both letters in one visual field), bilaterally (one letter in each visual field), or centrally (both letters on the vertical midline, above and below fixation), in order to investigate how the bilateral field advantage is influenced by screen location. The third experiment added a bilateral-diagonal position (to check for artefacts related to horizontal scanning strategies), and the fourth experiment added distractor digits (to equate initial processing demands in the bilateral and unilateral conditions). Results indicate that the bilateral field advantage is a robust phenomenon, although several manipulations reduced its magnitude. Implications of these findings for models of hemispheric collaboration and interhemispheric processing are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Source density analysis of scalp potentials during linguistic and non-linguistic processing of visual stimuli.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 40 locations, covering most of the scalp, during repeated tasks in which the observer (O) had to judge either the tense of a printed verb (V) or the symmetry of a spatial pattern (S). Stimuli were drawn at random from large ensembles. A simplified method of Laplacean analysis (MacKay 1983, 1984) allowed the corresponding source densities to be mapped at up to 28 locations, relatively free of artefacts due to eye movements or tongue movements. O signalled his judgement in each case by pressing one of two buttons on a given cue. The decision time allowed was kept short (about 1 s) but long enough for the task to be handled successfully. When stimuli 'V' and 'S' were drawn from geometrically different ensembles, the source-density distributions for the two tasks differed significantly at a number of locations. When 'V' and 'S' were drawn from a common ensemble, however, and O was instructed on each trial (in random order) to assess each stimulus as a word or as a geometrical pattern, the similarities in the source-density maps were more striking than the differences. It would seem that during sufficiently rapid verbal and spatial judgments, little sign of hemispheric specialization or task-specific differences may appear in the spatiotemporal profile of ERP source densities. More salient differences, some lateralized, appeared during the preparation interval prior to verbal and spatial tasks; but their pattern varied widely from subject to subject.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed1982

Age differences in mental synthesis.

In a series of three experiments, a mental synthesis task was administered to groups of college students and older adults. Simple symmetrical or asymmetrical straightline patterns were divided into two parts; the two parts were presented either sequentially or simultaneously. Participants were instructed to mentally combine the two parts and either reproduce or recognize the complete pattern. The college students made more correct responses than older adults on both the reproduction and recognition measures. Both groups performed better when urged to visualize the complete pattern than when instructed to memorize the individual component parts. Overall, the results suggest that age differences in synthesis performance are related to, but perhaps not limited to, differences in memory ability.

Adolescent↗