Search

In a split-litter, cross-fostered design, the numbers of mast cells per 10 micrometer sections within the thalamic boundaries in rats that had been reared by 8 natural or 8 foster mothers were counted 5 days and 10 days after the transfer had occurred on postnatal Day 10. The rats from 4 litters with the highest numbers of thalamic mast cells exhibited marked reductions in these numbers when fostered by mothers of the 4 litters with the fewest numbers of thalamic mast cells. The reverse influence was not observed. These results suggest that adaptation to changing maternal environments for rats with congenitally elevated numbers of mast cells may increase the risk of degranulation and transient anomalies within cerebral vasculature or the blood-brain barrier.

Magnetic field measurements for power frequencies were measured continuously over two 24-hr. periods for a small house in which two adults who exhibited above normal occurrences of complex partial epileptic-like experiences had reported 'waves of fear', tactile sensations, nightmares, apparitions, and a sensed presence. The experiences occurred within an area in which irregular amplitude modulations between 1 microT and 5 microT (50 mG) from 60-Hz sources, with durations of a few seconds to several tens of seconds, were measured. This case suggests that transient, complex temporal patterns of power-frequency magnetic fields generated by less than optimal grounding in dwellings and telluric currents may be sufficient to evoke experiences in the brains of sensitive individuals. Cultural labels, applied by the experients, then affect the explanations and expectancies for these experiences.

If geomagnetic-mediated stimuli trigger many sudden infant deaths, then the days in which they and hospital admissions for cardiac arrhythmias for adults occur should share a similar source of variance. Factor analyses of the days in which a sudden infant death occurred in Ontario or adults were admitted for one of eight categories of cardiac crisis in the Sudbury (Ontario) Region for the year 1984 supported the hypothesis. This factor, with which infant deaths and adult cardiac arrhythmias each shared about 40% of their variance, also shared about 40% of the variance with a factor with which about 35% of the variance in daily occurrence of geomagnetic pulsations (0.2 Hz to 5 Hz) was associated. These results are consistent with the important role of geomagnetic variables in the occurrence of transient electrical anomalies in brain function rather than cardiac blood flow.

We tested the hypothesis that proportionally more people with above average numbers of complex partial epileptic-like experiences before the experiment would report a proximal presence during applications of a weak (1 microTesla), frequency-modulated magnetic field over the right hemisphere. Each of 16 subjects sat in a darkened, quiet room and was exposed for 20 min. to complex fields, applied through a helmet, either along the right hemisphere or across both hemispheres. None of the 8 subjects with below average scores reported a presence during the applications of the magnetic fields while 75% and 60% of the 8 subjects with above average scores reported a presence during right hemispheric and bilateral stimulation, respectively.

A total of 45 litters were exposed during their entire prenatal development to one of two complex patterns of magnetic fields whose strengths varied within one of four intensity ranges between 10 nT and 1000 nT or to sham-field conditions. The litters exposed to the most complex pattern, composed of 50 200-msec. presentations of different pulses for 10 sec. every 50 sec., displayed more ambulation in an open field at 21 days of age than the litters that had been exposed continuously to a repetitive frequency-modulated field or to sham-field conditions. This treatment explained 25% of the variance in the numbers of squares traversed. The results suggest that complexity of the applied magnetic field during prenatal development may be more important than intensity for permanently affecting neuronal organization and behavior.

Chronic, limbic epilepsy was induced in male rats by a single systemic injection of lithium and pilocarpine. In .two separate experiments, each 6 mo. in duration, the proportion of the population that displayed an overt motor seizure (head nodding, rearing, and forelimb clonus) within 10 min. each day after delivery of food pellets (despite food provided ad libitum) was recorded. Cumulative records for the numbers of rats in each population that displayed overt seizure for the first time during the observation period were plotted as a function of time. The occurrence of the saturated (approaching 100%) asymptote at about five months was interpreted to indicate that brief (10 min.) sampling over the 144 successive days that would compose a single 24-hr. period could serve as an estimate of the average probability of an overt seizure during an average 24-hr. period. If this assumption is correct, then these rats would have displayed about one overt seizure per day.

A logical extrapolation from the principle that structure dictates function is that transient or anomalous experiences are consequences of simultaneous stimulations of proximal brain regions not typically co-activated. In this paper the occasional shifts in gustatory threshold during the menstrual cycle, the craving for unusual tastes experienced by some during pregnancies, and, the reports by postmenopausal women of the 'burning mouth syndrome' are hypothesized to be artifacts of the proximity of gustatory and uterine representations within the female insula. Transient (menstrual) or tonic (pregnancy) stimulation within the uterus might shift the locus of neuronal activity within the insula to include adjacent gustatory neurons and consequently alter taste experiences. Specific tests of this hypothesis are suggested.

A left-handed Roman Catholic female adolescent with a history of early brain trauma reported nightly visitations by a sentient being. During one episode she experienced vibrations of the bed, an external presence along the left side that moved into her body, inner vaginal (not clitoral) and uterine sensations, and the sense of being impregnated by a force she attributed to the Holy Spirit. After the latter experience she felt an invisible baby superimposed upon her left shoulder. Analyses of the measurements for magnetic anomalies within her bedroom indicated an electric clock about 20 cm from her head while she slept. The complex form of the 4 microT magnetic pulses generated by the clock was similar to shapes that evoke electrical seizures in epileptic rats and sensitive humans.

The proportions of 3,667 reports classified as unusual or odd events within eight major categories for four contiguous blocks of time between 1770 and 1970 were compared for disconcordance. The major source of the disconcordance (phi= .52) of reports between the major categories and time was due to the decrease in the numbers of reports of falls of ice, rocks, and animals but increased numbers of reports of odd luminosities, labelled as unidentified flying objects, after the mid 1930s. One hypothesis to explain this result is that cultural changes in attributions for causes of natural phenomena may affect their designation as strange rather than mundane.

The concept of the neuromatrix assumes that all behaviours are associated with complex spatiotemporal electromagnetic fields within the brain. The same complex magnetic field can be supported potentially by different mosaics of neuronal associations and result in the same behaviours. In the present study the accuracy of long-term and short-term spatial memory for rats that had been treated with 100 mg/ kg of ketamine immediately after the induction of seizures by lithium and pilocarpine did not differ from normal rats despite the conspicuous multifocal neuronal loss. A 30-min. delay of treatment with ketamine resulted in significant memory impairment. Whereas deficits in short-term memory were significantly correlated with cell loss within the CA field of the hippocampus, deficits in long-term memory were related to cell loss within specific thalamic-amygdaloid structures. Implications for the concept of the neuromatrix, if valid, are discussed.

Summary.--A total of 36 male adolescent delinquents and 19 age-matched students from a male secondary school were administered several different performance-based tests. Although estimates of intelligence did not differ significantly between the groups, the incarcerated delinquents displayed more impulsivity, lower conceptual level, less conceptual flexibility, and poorer critical thinking than the reference group. The linear combination of only three variables, critical thinking, conceptual level, and numbers of errors during a conditioned spatial association task, correctly classified 89% of the 55 subjects. The results were considered consistent with the hypothesis that delayed or different development of complex functions associated with the left and (particularly) the right prefrontal cortices and their limbic inputs may be responsible for antisocial behavior. This variation will always be present due to the statistical variations in ontogeny and less than optimal parental structure within a consistent but small proportion of any generational cohort.

The pH values for volumes (50 ml) of spring water were measured for 12 hours while being exposed to a weak (8±4 μT) decelerating frequency-modulated magnetic field that has been shown to diminish the growth of cancer cells and inhibit the movement of planarian. Compared to sham field-exposed water, the magnetic field-exposed water displayed a greater increase in pH (towards alkalinity) that involved an increase between 0.5 and 1 pH units after about 7 to 8 hr. This shift occurred slowly as successive 0.02 pH transient peaks (about 7 per s) that were between 20 to 40 ms in duration. This pattern was not observed in water exposed to background conditions (0.11 μT). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that properties of water exposed to specific patterns of magnetic fields produced by a patterned series of 3 ms voltage durations generated from computer software can produce transient temporal properties in water that converge with those associated with the cerebral cortical activity coupled to consciousness. Several quantitative solutions for small and very large volumes of water support this possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]