Motor skills were compared in two samples of children born biologically at risk: 19 children who had transient neurologic signs in infancy but were considered "normal" at two years, and 42 children who appeared neurologically normal throughout early childhood. At 4:6 years, the groups differed only on the measure of pencil prehension.…

Compares the manipulative exploration of objects of 30 nine-month-old preterm infants with that of 20 nine-month-old full-term infants. Although no difference between the preterms and the full terms was noted, a high-risk preterm subgroup manipulated objects less. A relationship was found between manipulative exploration at nine months and later…

Studied effects of anxiety and sex on neuropsychological test performance. Right-handed subjects responded to the Finger Tapping (FT), Form Board (FB), and State-Trait Anxiety tests. Females performed significantly slower on the FT than males, and for females, trait anxiety was negatively correlated with FT performance and positively correlated…

A multiple single-case study investigated language characteristics of adolescents with Tourette Syndrome (TS). Ten adolescent subjects with diagnosed TS were evaluated on a test battery sensitive to high level language and discourse impairment. Results were compared to established norms or, where no norms have been established, with results…

Despite their purported neuroanatomic and functional isolation, empirical evidence suggests that sometimes conscious explicit processes can influence implicit motor skill learning. Our goal was to determine if the provision of explicit information affected implicit motor-sequence learning after damage to the basal ganglia. Individuals with stroke…

This report summarizes the initial phase of research with neurological patients on timing functions. Parkinsonian, cerebellar, cortical and peripheral neuropathy patients as well as college aged and elderly control subjects were tested on two separate measures of timing functions. The first task involved the production of timed intervals and used…

Results indicated that information about the effect of brain damage may not support conclusions about children for whom the referral problem was socio-educational-psychological rather than neurological in nature. (Author/MB)

Neuropsychological tests taping intellectual, language, perceptual, and motor processing of a learning disabled child are described. The use of the test results to formulate remedial strategies is outlined. The application of ideas presented by other authors in the Summer 1981 issue of "School Psychology Review" is demonstrated. (Author/AL)

Describes advances made in the understanding of how sex hormones may modify various cognitive skills, how normal brain signaling mechanisms may cause nerve cell death, and how many cells appear to hold genetic agents which determine their own destruction. (RT)

General movements (GMs) are part of the spontaneous movement repertoire and are present from early fetal life onwards until the end of the first half a year of life. GMs are complex, occur frequently, and last long enough to be observed properly. They involve the whole body in a variable sequence of arm, leg, neck, and trunk movements. They wax…

We studied the effects of a selective lesion in rats, with 192-IgG-saporin, of the cholinergic neurons located in the medial septum/diagonal band (MSDB) complex on the acquisition of classical and instrumental conditioning paradigms. The MSDB lesion induced a marked deficit in the acquisition, but not in the retrieval, of eyeblink classical…

Selected electromyographic parameters underlying static postural control in 4, 6, and 8 year old normally and slowly developing children during performance of selected arm movements were studied. Developmental delays in balance control were assessed by the Cashin Test of Motor Development (1974) and/or the Williams Gross Motor Coordination Test…

A model and a technique developed by Wing and Kristofferson (1973) decomposes variance of timing into that putatively due to a central timekeeper (a clock) and that due to implementation of movement through the motor system. A patient with unilateral cerebellar damage, when attempting to tap out a regular series of intervals, showed a large…

This paper explores the nature of the aging process by providing an overview of the available evidence relating to the body systems that are most critical to biological function. Each system is treated separately to more clearly describe various aspects of the aging process and then integrated in a discussion of the theories of biological aging.…

Hyperactivity continues to be one of the major symptoms presented to the school psychologist when children are referred for help. This paper discusses the development of a program of sequential motor exercises to train and develop the inhibitory function of the hyperactive child. The inhibitory training program is designed to follow the natural…