1985 |
Liederman, Jacqueline A |
R03Activity Code Description: To provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Small grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary short-term projects and are non-renewable. |
Hemispheric Cooperation During Dual Cognitive Tasks @ Boston University Medical Campus
This research links neuro- and cognitive psychology by asking whether performance of concurrent cognitive tasks can be facilitated by presentation of each task to a different hemisphere. Two major hypotheses will be tested by means of 3 experiments. I) Performance will be better when each task is presented to a different hemisphere if the two concurrent cognitive tasks require two different and contradictory kinds of processing (e.g. adding and subtracting). II) In contrast, performance will be better when both tasks are presented to the same hemisphere if the two concurrent cognitive tasks require the same kind of processing (e.g. only subtracting). Since each hemisphere receives information from the contralateral visual field, these hypotheses will be tested by comparing performance during Bilateral (i.e., two visual field; bihemispheric) presentation and Unilateral (i.e. single visual field; single hemisphere) presentation. Hypothesis I has been confirmed by preliminary research. The proposed research contains modifications which will enable us to eliminate some competing explanations for the phenomenon. In addition, the initial sample will be expanded by the inclusion of left handers (total number of subjects will = 128). If, as is predicted, the effect of dividing input between the two hemispheres differs in right and left handers, this will provide a first clue as to how "atypical" cerebral organization affects cognitive processing. Such a finding would lay the groundwork for investigation of other populations, such as those with unusual cerebral organization (e.g. dyslexics) or those with a restricted ability to divide attention between simultaneous streams of information (e.g. young grade school children). This research is also significant because of its relevance to several fundamental controversies. For example, why do we have a double hemisphere system instead of a single head ganglion? Is the sole function of the corpus callosum to "transfer" information between the hemispheres, or is it even more important for its role as insulator and inhibitor of cross-talk between the hemispheres? Is the recent discovery that the corpus callosum is larger in left handers than right handers related to the ability of left handers to simultaneously perform contradictory operations in the two hemipsheres? The proposed experiments represent the first leg of a program which would address these issues.
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0.958 |
1987 — 1989 |
Liederman, Jacqueline A |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Development of Hemispheric Cooperation @ Boston University Medical Campus
Hemispheric cooperation is traditionally considered to be the ability to share information between the hemispheres. We propose that in addition to "hemispheric sharing" there is a second kind of hemispheric cooperation "hemispheric shielding". It involves restriction rather than sharing of information and permits the two hemispheres to work on tasks in parallel, with minimal interference. Preliminary data indicate that hemispheric shielding undergoes a maturational spurt around age 10/11. A longitudinal study of children who are initially ages 9, 10, 11 will be conducted. We will test the hypothesis that the development of hemispheric shielding represents a distinct neuropsychologicla milestone dissociable from the age of greatest improvement in: hemispheric sharing, general inhibitory ability, and speed of responding. Adults will be tested to provide a standard. We also postulate that the degree of hemispheric shielding and/or sharing is related to general scholastic aptitude, vocabulary, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and/or arithmetic ability. We also expect superior readers to show precocious hemispheric shielding and/or sharing. Testing will include visual and motor measures of hemispheric shielding and sharing, two tests of general inhibitory ability, and estimates of arithmetic ability and fluency of reading. Scholastic aptitude and reading scores will be available from the school records. These findings will increase our understanding of reading and its dysfunction; provide a new conceptual framework for study of hemispheric cooperation; and identify a neurological correlate of the cognitive shift which occurs between the ages of 10 and 12.
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0.958 |
1987 — 1988 |
Liederman, Jacqueline A |
R03Activity Code Description: To provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Small grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary short-term projects and are non-renewable. S07Activity Code Description: To strengthen, balance, and stabilize Public Health Service supported biomedical and behavioral research programs at qualifying institutions through flexible funds, awarded on a formula basis, that permit grantee institutions to respond quickly and effectively to emerging needs and opportunities, to enhance creativity and innovation, to support pilot studies, and to improve research resources, both physical and human. |
Hemispheric Cooperation in Dyslexic Children and Adults @ Boston University Medical Campus
reading disorder; brain interhemispheric activity; child (0-11); adult human (21+); human subject;
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0.958 |
1991 — 1992 |
Liederman, Jacqueline A |
R03Activity Code Description: To provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Small grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary short-term projects and are non-renewable. |
Male Prevalence For Neurodevelopmental Disorders @ Boston University Medical Campus
DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the Applicant's Abstract): The etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs), such as dyslexia, language and speech disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy, is largely unexplained. Since NDs are generally more prevalent in boys than girls, the current proposal seeks to identify causative agents for this sex difference. Two recent theories, which have received widespread attention, propose that this male vulnerability is due to events antecedent to the time of labor and delivery. One theory proposes maternal immune attack of the fetus; the other, emphasizes intrauterine endocrinological imbalance. The current proposal suggests that these two model are complementary rather than contradictory and that some combination of these gestational factors is most predictive of ND in the child. Prior studies collected data on only one or two relevant variables in a small or narrowly defined sample. No comprehensive large-scale study has been undertaken in which data from ND and non-ND children are compared. However, the National Collaborative Perinatal Project (NCPP) collected medical data during approximately 50,000 pregnancies and followed the children's cognitive and physical development until age eight. Many of the gestational and perinatal variables relevant to the two alternative theories were recorded. The purpose of this proposal is to use this extensive data set to test eight specific hypotheses relevant to these two theories. Then, by using structural equation modeling, the extent to which these two theories are competing versus complementary will be determined.
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0.958 |