Faculty Bibliography

An analysis of alcoholism-related content in the MMPI was undertaken using an alcoholic population, a psychiatric population and two normal populations. The alcoholic and psychiatric groups were drawn from facilities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and the normal populations were the Hathaway Adult Group and the Mayo Clinic nonpsychiatric patient group. A derivation study and a cross-validation resulted in the identification of three item pools: 1) that discriminate alcoholics from both normals and psychiatric patients, 2) items that discriminate alcoholics from normals only, 3) items that discriminate alcoholics from psychiatric patients only. Only seven items discriminate both male and female alcoholics from both normals and psychiatric patients. These items have substantial face validity. As the core of alcoholism-related content in the MMPI, they can serve as a stem for the development of scales with more specialized purposes.

Electrophysiological and histological observations in guinea pig's cochleas after amikacin treatment (14 X 450 mg/kg) confirm the results obtained in a former experiment: clear, short-latency, click-evoked responses were recorded in cochleas with only very few hair cells remaining at the extreme apex. Detailed analysis of these responses strongly indicates a neural origin and confirms their low-frequency sensitivity. Careful histological observations confirm the extensive hair cell loss and the preservation of nerve fibers in the remnants of the organ of Corti and of the vestibular sense organs. These results suggest that the acoustical vibrations either stimulate the vestibular receptors or act directly or through some kind of mechano-electrical transduction on the remaining cochlear nerve fibers.

Hearing impairment and related cochlear histopathologic changes were evaluated in experimental animals after treatment with aminoglycoside antibiotics or exposure to intense sound. In the course of treatment with kanamycin, neomycin, or dihydrostreptomycin, permanent hearing loss in monkeys and guinea pigs occurred first at the high frequencies and progressed toward the lows. Exposure to different octave bands of noise at 120 dB SPL in monkeys and chinchillas produced permanent hearing loss at frequencies related to the spectral characteristics of the octave band. In most instances loss of outer hair cells was substantially greater than that of inner hair cells. In fact, the pattern and location of missing outer hair cells on the basilar membrane were most often correlated with threshold shifts of 50 dB or less. Generally inner hair cell loss was observed when the threshold shift was greater than 50 dB. Our data support the place principle and the inference that the outer hair cells are essential for hearing from threshold to about 50 dB SL. The inner hair cells, if functioning normally, apparently take over above that level. Although there is little doubt that such a generalization will, in the long term, be found to have been greatly oversimplified, there is every reason to believe that a combination of behavioral and morphologic procedures, as used in this study, will play an important part in elucidating the differences in functional significance of the two types of hair cells.

The effects of the antipsychotic/antidepressant drug CI-686 on apomorphine- and amphetamine-induced stereotypies, dopamine metabolism, neuroleptic binding, and serum prolactin levels were determined. CI-686 displayed profiles of activity in each of these systems that differs markedly from those of other antipsychotics. CI-686's unique preclinical profile suggests a mechanism of action other than dopamine antagonism which could have implications regarding current thinking on the pathophysiology of schizophrenia

Fantasy stories were composed by 153 undergraduates (93 females, 60 males) who also responded to the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The fantasy stories were collected by group administration of a Thematic Apperception Test. The stories were content analyzed along 17 imagery categories. Males and females differed significantly in ten of these categories. The results indicate a substantial continuity of sex differences in fantasy content between earlier decades and the mid 1970s. However, women had relatively more imagery of a self-assertive, pleasurable, and careerist nature than had been found in earlier studies. The fantasies of sex-typed persons were more situation-bound and more sexual than those of androgynous persons. Sex-typed persons appear to experience limitations in fantasy production which parallel their limitations in overt behavior.

We discuss aphonia in children, secondary to laryngeal obstruction, with regard to the development of a voice, speech, and language system that can be an effective and efficient means of communication while obstruction persists and a precursor to good voice and speech habits if and when the laryngeal function is reestablished. Several methods were considered. A technique of esophageal voice training for children was developed and implemented, which combined the aspects of normal language learning with the mechanical aspects of esophageal voice production. Results showed rapid learning in a 2 1/2-year-old child with severe juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis and normal speech and language at the age of 4 years when laryngeal function returned. A second technique, a communication board, was used with a 4-year-old child with total subglottic stenosis and brain damage.