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Biomedical subjects

T Patterson

Publications and source records attributed to T Patterson.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Assessing knowledge of cardiovascular health-related diet and exercise behaviors in Anglo- and Mexican-Americans.

This article describes the Adult and Child Behavior Knowledge Scales that were used as part of the San Diego Family Health Project to measure knowledge of health behaviors related to cardiovascular diseases in two ethnic groups: Anglo- and Mexican-Americans. The psychometric characteristics of these scales indicate acceptable reliabilities for assessing knowledge of dietary sodium, dietary fat, and exercise among both adults and children and differ from other health knowledge scales in that they focus on "behavioral capability" rather than on the link between behavior and disease. It is believed that the type of information measured by our scales is more closely related to behavior changes sought in contemporary cardiovascular disease prevention trials. Results of ANOVA used to test differences in knowledge by ethnicity and sex indicate strong main effects for ethnicity among both children and adults. However, sex was not consistently related to knowledge, except for the general tendency of males to be more knowledgeable about exercise. Step-wise and simultaneous-entry multiple regression were used to test a subset of variables, including sex, education, self-efficacy, acculturation (for Mexican-Americans), and parental health knowledge (for children) as determinants of health knowledge. Education was the strongest predictor for Anglo-American adults, and acculturation level was the strongest for Mexican-American adults. Among children, the only statistically significant variable was parental acculturation level for Mexican-Americans. The scales were found to be useful in measuring differences in knowledge across cultural/linguistic groups and to clearly identify marginally acculturated Mexican-Americans as being least aware of health-behavior knowledge. Implications are discussed.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1987

Topographic evoked potentials during backward masking in schizophrenics, patient controls and normal controls.

1. A backward masking task with simultaneous measurement of topographically mapped evoked potentials was performed by normal, schizophrenic, and patient control subjects. 2. Behavioral results replicated previous studies demonstrating schizophrenic deficit and to a lesser extent patient control deficit in this task. 3. Two competing theories of (A) defects in "gating" mechanisms or (B) failure in early stimulus "registration" processes were tested. 4. Topographical evoked response maps indicated a significant absence of a negative going wave in the 70-100 msec epoch in the schizophrenic group relative to both control groups. 5. As the 70-100 msec negativitity attenuation occurred during target presentation, and well before mask onset, it was concluded that schizophrenic deficit in this task consists of a failure in initial stimulus "registration" processes within the time allowed for stimulus availability. 6. Such defective mechanisms may be significant in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Studies toward the subcortical pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

In addition to introducing the six articles joined by our thematic outlook, this article addresses the importance of subcortical structures as they may be related to information processing and the life experience of schizophrenic patients. This is a heuristic exercise aimed at bridging the conceptual gaps between clinical and research approaches to schizophrenia. A brief overview is then provided of current conceptualizations of a number of subcortical structures, each of which may play a part in the subcortical pathogenesis of schizophrenia in specific patients. The central concepts are failures in the "automaticity" with which prior experience may be recreated in parallel with current stimulus input in schizophrenia (with concomitant failures in future orientation or contextually generated expectancy), and the view of subcortical structures as constituting a "system" in which no single type of defect may be common to all schizophrenic patients.

Brain↗
PubMed1986

Thought disorder in schizophrenia: cognitive and neuroscience approaches.

Research with schizophrenics is reviewed in the areas of the startle reflex, subject-initiated evoked potentials, and two-stimulus evoked potentials. A hypothesis of an early (pre-100 ms) information-processing deficit is posited and further refined by results presented from brain evoked potentials during a backward-masking experiment. The implications of these findings for the speech component of schizophrenic thought disorder are speculated upon, with specific reference to failures of temporal sequencing control that may underlie schizophrenic speech dysfunction and may be attributable to defective thalamic control. Recent neuroanatomical findings of abnormalities in the hippocampus and thalamus of schizophrenics are presented, and considered as likely contributors to the early information-processing deficits posited.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

San Diego family health project: reaching families through the schools.

This project tests the effectiveness of a family-based health behavior change intervention in two ethnic groups. The aim is to help family members initiate and maintain dietary and physical activity behaviors believed to be linked to risk factors for cardiovascular disease. This paper describes the project and the baseline results. Twelve San Diego elementary schools were randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Hispanic and Anglo families with a fifth or sixth grade child were recruited to participate in a two-year study. The intervention emphasizes enjoyable experiences designed to transmit knowledge and skills required for long-term changes in diet and physical activity habits. Groups of families met at schools for 12 weekly sessions and six maintenance sessions distributed throughout the following nine months. Outcome behavioral and physiologic measures will be collected at baseline, three months, 12 months, and 24 months. Differences between Anglo and Mexican-American subjects justify targeted activities specific to these groups.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Electron microscopic visualization of trp operon expression in Salmonella typhimurium.

Transcriptional activity of plasmids carrying wild-type and mutant trp operons was visualized in cell lysates of Salmonella typhimurium. Plasmid and transcription-unit sizes varied with the size of the cloned operon. Following 3-(3-indolyl)acrylic acid derepression, all operons of a particular type exhibited the same high level of transcriptional activity. An estimated 11-14 transcripts must be initiated each minute to maintain the 190-base-pair spacing of RNA polymerases observed on the promoter-proximal half of the wild-type trp operon. A decline in RNA polymerase density was observed on promoter-distal portions of cloned trp operons, which may be attributable to premature transcription termination accompanying translation inhibition due to indolylacrylic acid's interference with normal tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase activity.

Chromosome Deletion↗
PubMed1984

A specialized host-vector system for the in vivo cloning of the trp operon of wild-type and mutant strains of Salmonella typhimurium by generalized transduction.

Using in vitro methods, a 14.2-kb EcoRI fragment of the Salmonella typhimurium chromosome containing the trp operon plus associated flanking sequences from deletion mutant delta trpDCB763 was cloned into the EcoRI site of plasmid pBR322 in a S. typhimurium host. An in vivo cloning vector was constructed from the recombinant plasmid by the in vitro excision of a SalI fragment that contains the entire trp operon. The derived plasmid (pSTP21) carries a hybrid insert made up of the 5.4-kb EcoRI-SalI upstream flanking sequence and the 3.2-kb SalI-EcoRI downstream flanking sequence. Plasmid pSTP21 has been used as a receptor plasmid to clone a variety of mutant and wild-type trp operons by RecA-dependent in vivo recombination between the insert DNA of the plasmid and the homologous trp flanking sequences of transducing DNA fragments transferred into the cell by bacteriophage P22. The host-vector system developed for the in vivo cloning permits the differentiation of plasmid transductants from chromosomal transductants on the primary selective medium. Expression of the cloned trp operons is regulated normally by tryptophan. A substantial amplification of trp enzymes is attainable upon derepression. The recombinant plasmids are stably inherited in RecA+ and RecA- S. typhimurium hosts. However, conditions of high expression of the trp operon lead to a rapid loss of cellular viability and of plasmid stability.

Cloning, Molecular↗
PubMed1981

Bilateral skin conductance and the pupillary light-dark reflex: manipulation by chlorpromazine, haloperidol, scopolamine, and placebo.

Cholinergic blocking with scopolamine produces skin conductance orientating response (SCOR) nonresponding in normal subjects. This may be one of a number of causes for nonresponding in schizophrenic subjects. Blockade of dopamine with haloperidol produces an increase in amplitude and shortening of recovery time in the SCOR of normal subjects. This result closely resembles that of Nielsen and Petersen (1976) who found a similar pattern of responding in normal subjects who scored high on a scale of schizophrenism. These results, along with those for chlorpromazine and the pupillographic effects of the three drugs are discussed in terms of biochemical working hypotheses of schizophrenic subclassification.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Auditory vigilance: normals compared to chronic schizophrenic subgroups defined by skin conductance variables.

Three electrodermally distinct subgroups of chronic schizophrenics were identified by Patterson and Venables (1978). The present study investigated the auditory vigilance ability of these subgroups relative to a normal population. In one subgroup of schizophrenics (the fast habituators) no evidence could be found for a deficit in auditory vigilance ability relative to normal. Implications for further electrophysiological and biochemical research in schizophrenia are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Recent studies of psychophysiology in schizophrenia.

A general introduction is given and followed by a review of recent literature under the following subheadings: electrodermal activity, cardiovascular activity, smooth pursuit eye movement, electroencephalogram, and evoked potentials. An attempt is made to assess the clinical significance of the findings reported in each area and to indicate directions for future investigation. The feasibility of defining homogeneous subgroups in schizophrenia using psychophysiological parameters is also considered. The review concludes with the recommendation that peripheral psychophysiological studies entailing (1) comprehensive recording of brain electrical activity and (2) behavioral experimentation on variables thought to be influenced by schizophrenia (e.g., sustained attentional ability) are promising directions for future research. Relationships between behavioral and psychophysiological variables determined by such studies (and possibly subgroupings) may then become the basis for neurophysiological-neurochemical investigations of specific abnormalities underlying such relationships and subgroups.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1976

Skin conductance responding/nonresponding and pupiliometrics in chronic schizophrenia. A confirmation of Gruzelier and Venables.

In a number of reports, Gruzelier and Venables have demonstrated that about 50% of the schizophrenic population do not show the skin conductance orienting response (S.C.O.R.), while those that do respond, do not show normal habituation. Zahn (Orienting response in schizophrenics. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 162: 195-199, 1976) has questioned the bimodality of the S.C.O.R. in schizophrenia and suggests that responding/nonresponding could well be due to differential effects of phenothiazine medication. In two experiments (with equally medicated patients), in two different hospitals, the present report confirms the finding of a large proportion of nonresponding in schizophrenia but also suggests that both normal and nonhabituation are seen within schizophrenics and normals. Differential pupillary dilation and constriction parameters are seen in responders and nonresponders although both of these patient groups show tachycardia (the most usual effect of phenothiazines) in comparison to the normal group. The results do not fit easily into the differential effect of phenothiazines hypothesis proposed by Zahn.

Adult↗