Procedural memory stimulation in Alzheimer's disease: impact of a training programme

The study evaluates the efficacy of a procedural memory stimulation programme in mild and mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty basic and instrumental activities of daily living have been selected, and divided into two groups, comparable for difficulty. Ten normal elderly subjects (age 68.0±4.8 years; MMSE score: 28.7±0.9; education: 7.6±3.5 years) were asked to perform the two groups of daily activities and the time required to perform the tasks of each group was recorded and used as a reference. Ten mild and mild-moderate AD patients (age 77.2±5.3 years; MMSE score: 19.8±3.5; education: 7.3±4.7 years) without major behavioural disturbances constituted the experimental group. Patients were evaluated in all 20 daily activities and the time employed was recorded at baseline and after a 3-week training (1 h/d, 5 d/week) period. Five patients were trained during the 3 weeks on half of the 20 daily activities and the other five patients were trained on the remainder. This procedure was adopted in order to detect separately the improvement in "trained" and "not trained" activities, allowing to control better the effects of the intervention. The assessment of the functional impact of the training was directly measured, through the variation of time employed to perform tasks before and after training. After 3 weeks of training a significant improvement was observed for the trained activities, from 3.6 to 1.9 standard deviations below the performance of the normal elderly controls ( P <0.05). AD patients improved also in not-trained activities from 3.5 to 2.7 standard deviations below the controls'performance ( P <0.05). The rehabilitation of activities of daily living through developing procedural memory strategies may be effective in mild and mild-moderate AD patients.     

The efficacy of sports vision practice and its role in clinical optometry*

For years it has been recognised that many sports place demands on vision and particular visual skills. There is much evidence to show that the correction of visual dysfunction such as ametropia and binocular and accommodative anomalies results in improved sporting performance for those sports. More controversial and of special interest is the suggestion that it is possible to train visual abilities of subjects who do not present with traditionally recognised functional disorders of vision. It has been proposed that sporting performance can be improved as a result of this training. However, this review found the evidence to be inconclusive. In addition, there are studies that suggest athletes have better visual abilities than non-athletes and good athletes have better abilities than less skilled athletes. However, it has not been determined whether these superior abilities are innate to the athlete or have developed through practice. A review of the available literature was unable to prove (or disprove) either of these proposals. However, there appears to be enough evidence to warrant further investigation of these questions, in order that the area of sports vision and vision training can be more fully understood. This will enable clinicians to take full advantage of the potential of sports vision practice to assist athletes. (Clin Exp Optom 1995; 78: 3: 98–105)     

The Effect of Acute and Chronic Exercise on Thyroid Hormones in Obesity

Abstract Thyroid hormones were measured before, during and after acute exercise (60 min) or physical training (3 months) in obese women. Thyroid stimulating hormone concentration increased during acute work and decreased immediately after. No changes were seen during the two following days. An increase was seen after ten days as well as after three months of physical training. Thyroxine concentrations showed no changes. 3,5,3′-Triiodothyronine decreased slightly immediately after acute exercise, and after three months of physical training, 3,3′,5′-triiodothyronine (reverse triiodothyronine) increased slowly during and after acute exercise. A negative correlation was found between changes in fasting insulin and thyroxine and a positive correlation between changes in blood pressure and triiodothyronine after training. Lack of agreement in previous reports is probably due to methodological differences such as methods more or less susceptible to fatty acid interference, and thyroid hormones changing differently during acute work and before and after physical training. The duration of the study may also be of importance, even 3 months possibly being too short for attaining equilibrium in thyroid homeostasis.     

Changing helplessness to coping: an exploratory study of social skills training with individuals with long-term mental illness

The primary purpose of this study was to apply an occupational therapy programme for social skills training based on a cognitive-behavioural frame of reference to individuals with long-term mental illness. The goal of the social skills training group was to enable patients to develop verbal and non-verbal communication skills that could be generalised to everyday interpersonal encounters. A case example of the application of social skills training with a 38-year-old single male with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia is described. The Group-Interaction Skills Survey developed by the author served as an outcome measure. Qualitative data confirmed the researcher's hypothesis that individuals with long-term mental illness can benefit from social skills training using a combination of role-playing, sociodrama, videotape recordings and creative media. Copyright © 1996 Whurr Publishers Ltd.     

Short and long term effects of exercise training on the tonic autonomic modulation of heart rate variability after myocardial infarction

We studied the effects of cardiac rehabilitation on the sympathovagalcontrol of heart rate variability in 30 patients after a first,uncomplicated myocardial infarction. Twenty-two patients completed8 weeks of endurance training (trained), while eight decidednot to engage in the rehabilitation programme for logisticalreasons, and were taken as untrained controls. Age, site ofinfarction, ejection fraction, ventricular diameter and stresstest duration were similar in the two groups at baseline. Heartrate variability was evaluated 4 weeks after infarction beforestarting rehabilitation, and repeated 8 weeks and one year laterin both trained and untrained patients. Measures of heart ratevariability, obtained from both time- and frequency- domainanalysis of a 15 min ECG recording in resting conditions, wereas follows: mean RR interval and its standard deviation (RRSD),the mean square successive differences (MSSD), the percent ofRR intervals differing >50 ms from the preceding RR (pNTN50),the low and high frequency components of the autoregressivepower spectrum of the RR intervals and their ratio (LF/HF).At baseline, heart rate variability was similar in trained anduntrained patients. In the short term (8 weeks after infarction),training increased RRSD by 25% (P<0·01), MSSD by 69%(P<0·01), pNN50 by 120% (P<0·01), and reducedLF/HF ratio by 30% (P<0·01). The effects persistedafter one year in trained patients. In untrained patients, theautonomic control of heart rate variability did not change 8weeks after myocardial infarction and was only slightly modifiedby time. Thus, exercise training, performed for 8 weeks aftera myocardial infarction, modifies the sympathovagal controlof heart rate variability toward a persistent increase in parasympathetictone, known to be associated with a better prognosis. This maypartly account for the favourable outcome of patients who undergorehabilitation.     

What Motivates Participation and Dropout Among Low‐Income Urban Families of Color in a Prevention Intervention?*

Low‐income urban parents of color enrolled in a parent training study were interviewed to understand what motivated their participation and what led 30% of them to subsequently drop out. Most enrolled because they wanted to be better parents. Most dropped out because of time and schedule constraints. Retention was higher when parents' motivations for participation matched program goals. Program location and qualities of the recruiter were cited most often as important; financial compensation was cited least often as important.     

Effect of moderate exercise on salivary immunoglobulin A and infection risk in humans

The incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) and salivary immunoglobulin A concentrations [IgA_s] of nine individuals were examined during 12 weeks of moderate exercise training, and compared to ten sedentary controls. Changes in maximal oxygen uptake were assessed at initial, mid-point and final evaluations (T1–3), while changes in [IgA_s] and salivary immunoglobulin concentration-salivary albumin concentration ratio ([IgA_s]:[Alb_s]) were monitored at T1 and T3. During the 12 week period, symptoms of URTI were self-recorded daily. During the period of training the level of fitness significantly increased (P<0.05) in the exercise group. The number of days recording symptoms of influenza, but not of cold, and total light URTI symptoms was significantly reduced in the exercise group during the last weeks of training. A significant increase in [IgA_s] and in [IgA_s]:[Alb_s] was found in the exercise group after training. Both [IgA_s] and [IgA_s]:[Alb_s] were significantly related to the number of days showing symptoms of influenza (P<0.01) and the total number of days of sickness (P<0.05). These data provide quantitative support for the belief that regular, moderate exercise results in an increased [IgA_s] at rest and [IgA_s]:[Alb_s], which may contribute to a decreased risk of infection. Electronic Publication     

Fatigue and fitness modelled from the effects of training on performance

Summary The purpose of this study was to compare two ways of estimating both fatigue and fitness indicators from systems model of the effects of training on performance. The model was applied to data concerning the training of a hammer thrower. The variations in performance were mathematically related to the successive amounts of training. The model equation was composed of negative (NF) and positive (PF) functions. The NF and PF were associated with the fatigue and fitness estimated in previous studies. Using another method, fatigue and fitness indicators were estimated from a combination of NF and PF. The influence of training on performance was negatively associated with fatigue (NI), and positively to fitness (PI). The changes in performance were well described by the model in the present study (r = 0.96,N = 19,P<0.001). Significant correlations were observed between NF and NI (r = 0.93,P < 0.001) on the one hand and between PF and PI (r = 0.90,P < 0.001) on the other. The absolute values and the time variations of PI and NI were closer to the change in performance than NF and PF. The NF and PF were accounted for mainly by the accumulation of amounts of training. On the other hand, NI and PI were accounted for rather by the impact of these amounts of training on performance.     

Adaptive modification of the vestibulo-ocular reflex by mental effort in darkness

Summary The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) can be suppressed in darkness if a subject tries to imagine that he looks at a head fixed target. This mental suppression of VOR was used to induce adaptive changes in VOR gam during 3 h of active head oscillations in complete darkness. VOR gain changes were tested by asking the subject to look at a visual target; then passively or actively the head was turned in darkness while the subject fixated the same target. Corrective saccades occurring at the end of the movement when lights were turned on give an elegant measure of VOR gain. Three hours of training induced in 3 subjects a mean of 10.9% and 11.4% decrease of VOR gain for passive and active conditions, respectively. This demonstrates that reflex adaptation can be obtained without external cues, and probably with only an internal reconstruction of target and eye movement.