Showing papers by "Trevor W. Robbins published in 1988"
TL;DR: The utility of the comparison between DAT and PD in characterizing the nature of the cognitive deficits in these conditions and their relation to those findings from animal neuropsychology which use comparable paradigms are discussed.
Abstract: Groups of patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) and idiopathic Parkinson's disease, together with age and IQ-matched normal controls, were compared on several computerized tests of visuospatial memory and learning. Two different groups of parkinsonian patients were studied: (1) a newly diagnosed group, early in the course of the disease, not receiving medication (NMED PD) and (2) a group later in the course of the disease, receiving medication (MED PD). The DAT and MED PD group were significantly impaired in both spatial and visual pattern recognition memory. The DAT group exhibited a delay-dependent deficit (over 0–16 s) in a delayed matching-to-sample procedure, but were not impaired at simultaneous-matching-to-sample. By contrast, the MED PD group showed delay-independent deficits in the delayed matching-to-sample test and both the MED PD and the NMED PD group were also significantly impaired in simultancous matching. In a form of delayed response test, the subjects were required first to memorize and then to learn the locations of several abstract visual stimuli which varied progressively in number from 1 to 8. The DAT group were severely impaired in this conditional associative learning task. A significant proportion of patients, but none of the controls, in the NMED and MED PD group also failed the test at the levels of 6 or 8 items. There was a significant correlation between the performance on the first trial, memory score in the delayed response task and indices of clinical disability and disease duration in the patients with Parkinson's disease. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of the comparison between DAT and PD in characterizing the nature of the cognitive deficits in these conditions and their relation to those findings from animal neuropsychology which use comparable paradigms.
650 citations
TL;DR: Baseline measurement of the ability to execute a given plan of action, to generate low level strategies required for efficient searching, and spatial working memory capacity, established that the Parkinson's disease group was unimpaired on any of these measures.
Abstract: The higher level cognitive function of planning was studied in a group of medicated Parkinson's disease patients and a group of matched control subjects, using a computerised version of Shallice's Tower of London task. Baseline measurement of the ability to execute a given plan of action, to generate low level strategies required for efficient searching, and spatial working memory capacity, all of which contribute to performance on the planning task, established that the Parkinson's disease group was unimpaired on any of these measures. On the Tower of London task, the Parkinson's disease group was also unimpaired in terms of the average number of moves required to solve a problem. However, a specific planning deficit was evident when "thinking" times were analysed, and this was after the confounding influence of motor initiation and execution times had been carefully extracted from total performance times. This finding is discussed in relation to putative functions of the frontal lobes and basal ganglia, and an attention-switching hypothesis is developed to account for it.
380 citations
01 Nov 1988-Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section B-comparative and Physiological Psychology
TL;DR: In this paper, human subjects and non-human primates (the common marmoset) were trained on a series of reversals of both a simple and compound visual discrimination, using computer-generated stimuli.
Abstract: Human subjects and non-human primates (the common marmoset) were trained on a series of reversals of both a simple (stimuli varying along one dimension) and compound (stimuli varying along two different dimensions) visual discrimination, using computer-generated stimuli. They were then shifted to a third series of reversals using completely novel compound stimuli. Those humans and marmosets for which the previously relevant dimension remained relevant, following the shift (shapes to shapes or lines to lines; intradimensional shift) made fewer errors than those for which the previously irrelevant dimension became relevant (shapes to lines or lines to shapes; extradimensional shift). These findings suggest that both humans and marmosets can learn to attend to the specific attributes or dimensions of a stimulus and use this information in visual discrimination learning.
224 citations
TL;DR: The combination of the retrograde transport of HRP‐WGA with ChAT immunohistochemistry revealed the distribution of neurons in the Ch4 cell group projecting to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which suggests some degree of topographical organization of Ch4 projections to the cortical mantle.
Abstract: The distribution of choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive (ChAT-IR) neurons was studied in the brain of the common marmoset by using immunohistochemistry. ChAT-IR neurons were found in the medial septal nucleus, vertical and horizontal limb nuclei of the diagonal band, the nucleus basalis of Meynert, pedunculopontine nucleus and laterodorsal tegmental nucleus, and also in the striatum, habenula, and brainstem cranial nerve motor nuclei. The organization of ChAT-IR neurons in the basal forebrain, midbrain, and pons is consistent with the Ch1-Ch6 nomenclature introduced by Mesulam et al. ('83). The combination of the retrograde transport of HRP-WGA with ChAT immunohistochemistry revealed the distribution of neurons in the Ch4 cell group projecting to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The activity of ChAT was highest in limbic cortical structures, such as the hippocampus, and lowest in association areas of the neocortex. Lesions at various loci in the basal forebrain resulted in differential patterns of ChAT loss in the cortex, which suggests some degree of topographical organization of Ch4 projections to the cortical mantle.
111 citations
TL;DR: It was found that corticosterone levels were significantly higher following SIP with water available than after SIP without water, and the implications of these results for previous hypotheses of SIP are discussed.
50 citations
TL;DR: DNAB lesions have been shown to have two, apparently contradictory effects in a food preference test: to increase neophobia to a novel environment, and to increase the tendency to eat novel food in a novel environments.
39 citations
TL;DR: The antagonist RO 15-1788, when given in combination with these drugs, only partially restored the reductions in licking produced by diazepam, but was much more effective in reversing the effects of FG 7142 at doses of the antagonist that failed by themselves to affect responding.
Abstract: Although benzodiazepine agonists and inverse agonists have opposite effects on drinking elicited by water deprivation, there is much less information about the effects of these drugs on nonhomeostatic drinking. In this experiment the effects of diazepam (0.3–5.0 mg/kg), a benzodiazepine receptor agonist, and FG 7142 (1.0–9.0 mg/kg), an inverse agonist, were determined on drinking elicited by a FT-60 schedule of food delivery (SIP). Both diazepam and FG 7142 dose-dependently reduced SIP, measured as either licking or volume consumed. In addition, diazepam reduced panel pressing for food, decreased locomotor activity, and changed the time course of each behavior. In contrast, FG 7142 reduced schedule-induced drinking without significantly altering other behaviors. The antagonist RO 15-1788, when given in combination with these drugs, only partially restored the reductions in licking produced by diazepam, but was much more effective in reversing the effects of FG 7142 at doses of the antagonist that failed by themselves to affect responding. The opposite pattern of effects was seen on the volume of water consumed. These effects are discussed in terms of the behavioral and pharmacological specificity of these drugs.
31 citations
TL;DR: In the rat, there is a functional lateralization that is similar to that seen in humans, and it is shown that they used one eye to control responses to both visual fields.
17 citations
15 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: Psychology as a basic science for medicine, S. Monsell et al perception - vision, hearing and pain, B.C. Atkinson limitation of memory and cognitive performance, and the development of social relationships in infancy and childhood.
Abstract: Psychology as a basic science for medicine, S. Monsell et al perception - vision, hearing and pain, B.C.J. Moore & J. Atkinson limitation of memory and cognitive performance, S. Monsell the development of social relationships in infancy and childhood, M.P.M. Richards cognitive development in infancy and childhood, D. Frye intelligence and reasoning, N.J. Mackintosh clinical neurophysiology, R. McCarthy emotion and conditioning, T.W. Robbins psychological models of psychopathology, J.M.G. Williams psychological antecedents and consequences of physical illness, P.J. Cooper psychological contribution to the treatment of medical patients, F.N. Watts.
9 citations