Gerry Leisman

Autistic Spectrum Disorders as Functional Disconnection Syndrome

We outline the basis of how functional disconnection with reduced activity and coherence in the right hemisphere would explain all of the symptoms of autistic spectrum disorder as well as the observed increases in sympathetic activation. If the problem of autistic spectrum disorder is primarily one of desynchronization and ineffective interhemispheric communication, then the best way to address the symptoms is to improve coordination between areas of the brain. To do that the best approach would include multimodal therapeusis that would include a combination of somatosensory, cognitive, behavioral, and biochemical interventions all directed at improving overall health, reducing inflammation and increasing right hemisphere activity to the level that it becomes temporally coherent with the left hemisphere. We hypothesize that the unilateral increased hemispheric stimulation has the effect of increasing the temporal oscillations within the thalamocortical pathways bringing it closer to the oscillation rate of the adequately functioning hemisphere. We propose that increasing the baseline oscillation speed of one entire hemisphere will enhance the coordination and coherence between the two hemispheres allowing for enhanced motor and cognitive binding.

Correlation of Applied Kinesiology Muscle Testing Findings with Serum Immunologobulin Levels for Food Allergies

The pilot study attempted to determine whether subjective muscle testing employed by Applied Kinesiology practitioners, prospectively determine those individuals with specific hyperallergenic responses. Seventeen subjects were found positive on Applied Kinesiology (A.K.) muscle testing screening procedures indicating food hypersensitivity (allergy) reactions. Each subject showed muscle weakening (inhibition) reactions to oral provocative testing of one or two foods for a total of 21 positive food reactions. Tests for a hypersensitivity reaction of the serum were performed using both a radio-allergosorbent test (RAST) and immune complex test for IgE and IgG against all 21 of the foods that tested positive with A.K. muscle screening procedures. These serum tests confirmed 19 of the 21 food allergies (90.5%) suspected based on the applied kinesiology screening procedures. This pilot study offers a basis to examine further a means by which to predict the clinical utility of a given substance for a given patient, based on the patterns of neuromuscular response elicited from the patient, representing a conceptual expansion of the standard neurological examination process.

Networks of conscious experience: computational neuroscience in understanding life, death, and consciousness.

We demonstrate brain locations appearing to correlate with consciousness, but not being directly responsible for it. Technology reveals that brain activity is associated with consciousness but is not equivalent to it. We examine how consciousness occurs at critical levels of complexity. Conventional explanations portray consciousness as an emergent property of classical computer-like activities in the brains neural networks. Prevailing views in this camp are that patterns of neural network activities correlate with mental states, that synchronous network oscillations in the thalamus and cerebral cortex temporally bind information, and that consciousness emerges as a novel property of computational complexity among neurons. A hard-wired theory is enigmatic for explaining consciousness because the nature of subjective experience, or qualia- inner life - is a hard problem to understand; binding spatially distributed brain activity into unitary objects, and a coherent sense of self, or oneness is difficult to explain as is the transition from pre- to conscious states. Consciousness is non-computable and involves factors that are neither random nor algorithmic - consciousness cannot be simulated; explanations are also needed for free will and for subjective time flow. Convention argues that neurons and their chemical synapses are the fundamental units of information in the brain, and that conscious experience emerges when a critical level of complexity is reached in the brains neural networks. The basic idea is that the mind is a computer functioning in the brain. In fitting the brain to a computational view, such explanations omit incompatible neurophysiological details, including widespread apparent randomness at all levels of neural processes (is it really noise, or underlying levels of complexity?); glial cells (which account for some 80% of the brain); dendritic-dendritic processing; electrotonic gap junctions; cytoplasmic/cytoskeletal activities; living state (the brain is alive!); and absence of testable hypotheses in emergence theory. There is no threshold or rationale specified; rather, consciousness just happens. Consciousness then involves an awareness of what we are sensing or experiencing and some ability to control or coordinate voluntary actions. These issues of life, death, and consciousness are discussed in the context of Mike, the headless chicken, who survived for 18 months, and in the context of consciousness with high degrees of intellectual and cognitive function in a congenitally anencephalic brain; additionally, in the reanimation work of Soviet scientists in the 1920-30s, and in auditory sentence processing in patients in comatose, vegetative, and minimally conscious states.

The effect of massage on localized lumbar muscle fatigue

BackgroundThere is not enough evidence to support the efficacy of massage for muscle fatigue despite wide utilization of the modality in various clinical settings. This study investigated the influence of massage application on localized back muscle fatigue.MethodsTwenty-nine healthy subjects participated in two experimental sessions (massage and rest conditions). On each test day, subjects were asked to lie in the prone position on a treatment table and perform sustained back extension for 90 seconds. Subjects then either received massage on the lumbar region or rested for a 5 minute duration, then repeated the back extension movement. The median frequency (MDF), mean power frequency (MNF), and root mean square (RMS) amplitude of electromyographic signals during the 90 second sustained lumbar muscle contraction were analyzed. The subjective feeling of fatigue was then evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).ResultsMDF and MNF significantly declined with time under all conditions. There was no significant difference in MDF, MNF or RMS value change between before and after massage, or between rest and massage conditions. There was a significant increase in fatigue VAS at the end of the 2nd back extension with rest condition. There was a significant difference in fatigue VAS change between massage and rest condition.ConclusionsA significant difference was observed between massage and rest condition on VAS for muscle fatigue. On EMG analysis, there were no significant differences to conclude that massage stimulation influenced the myoelectrical muscle fatigue, which is associated with metabolic and electrical changes.

Effects of motor sequence training on attentional performance in ADHD children

Abstract This study examines whether the nervous system can be made more efficient as a cognitive processing instrument and how signal detection theory may be used as an instrument for examining human performance and the effectiveness of clinical treatment. In this paper we will examine how IM affects human cognitive and neuromotor capacities and functioning and how signal detection methods may be used to functionally evaluate treatment efficacy as well as identifying clinical populations and characteristics for rhythmic training is likely to have a positive effect. Rhythm feedback training appears to have a significant effect on clinically observed changes in behavior in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) elementary school-age children. Signal detection studies are ongoing to examine the nature of the observed relationships.

The effect of hemisphere specific remediation strategies on the academic performance outcome of children with ADD/ADHD.

The development and normal function of the cerebrum is largely dependent on sub-cortical structures, such as the cerebellum and basal ganglia. Dysfunction in these areas can affect both the nonspecific arousal system and information transfer in the brain. Dysfunction of this sort often results in motor and sensory symptoms commonly seen in children with ADD/ADHD. These brain regions have been reported to be underactive, with that underactivity restricted to the right or left side of the sub-cortical and cortical regions. An imbalance of activity or arousal of one side of the cortex can result in a functional disconnection similar to that seen in split-brain patients. Since ADD/ADHD children exhibit deficient performance on tests thought to measure perceptual laterality, evidence of weak laterality or failure to develop laterality has been found across various modalities (auditory, visual, tactile) resulting in abnormal cerebral organization and associated dysfunctional specialization needed for lateralized processing of language and non-language function. This study examines groups of ADD/ADHD elementary school children from first through sixth grade. All participants were administered all the subtests of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests, the Brown Parent Questionnaire, and given objective performance measures on tests of motor and sensory coordinative abilities (interactive metronome). Results measured after a 12-week remediation program aimed at increasing the activity of the hypothesized underactive right hemisphere function, yielded significant improvement of greater than two years in grade level in all domains except in mathematical reasoning. Results are discussed in the context of the concept of functional disconnectivity in ADD/ADHD children.

Heart rate variability changes induced by auditory stimulation in persistent vegetative state

Abstract Previous studies, using neuroimaging and electrophysiology, have identified the presence of cerebral responses to auditory stimulation in clinically unresponsive persistent vegetative state (PVS) patients. In normal individuals, it has been shown that stimulation with emotional content has a strong influence on autonomic cardiovascular regulation tested by heart rate variability (HRV). In this paper, we assessed responses to auditory stimulation with emotional content in PVS and minimally conscious (MCS) cases by HRV. We found a pattern of changes induced by auditory stimulation in three of our patients (decreased heart rate, increased HRV, decrease power in the low and increased power in high frequencies) consistent with increased cardiovagal stimulation. Both time and frequency domain changes were more pronounced during affective than during non-affective auditory stimulation, suggesting that PVS patients are able to discriminate between stimuli of different content and are more reactive to emotional than non-emotional stimulation. Our results demonstrate (is a conclusion, should be in present) that auditory stimulation can induce recordable changes in HRV in some PVS cases, providing evidence that these patients retain some preserved cognitive function examined by cardiovascular correlates. The use of HRV to study residual cognitive functions could have practical implications for the management of PVS and MCS.

Synaptic strengthening and continuum activity-wave growth in temporal sequencing during cognitive tasks.

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Effects of contralateral extremity manipulation on brain function

Abstract Background: Manipulation of joints is associated with a variety of claimed outcomes, but without representative controlled studies. Physiological effects of electroacupuncture and manipulation of the cervical spine depend on the side of the body that treatment is applied to. Both treatments can change the size of the visual blind spot associated with the optic disc of the eye. Methods: We randomly allocated 62 healthy adults to either real or sham manipulative therapy, applied to the upper extremity on the side of an enlarged blind spot. Pre- and post-treatment blind spots were measured. Results: There was a highly statistically significant decrease in blind spot size following manipulation to the upper extremity in the intervention group when compared to the sham group. Left-sided manipulation was shown to result in a significantly greater change in the blind spot size than right-sided manipulation. Conclusions: Manipulation of an upper extremity on one side has a similar effect on the size of the blind spot as manipulation of the cervical spine and acupuncture treatment to the same side. The consequences of manipulation are greater than sham and promote questions to many of the currently held theories relating to change in brain function or visual perception following manipulation. It is recommended that further studies of blind spot phenomena specific to a variety of clinical disorders, treatments, and outcomes be contemplated.

Brain Anatomy, Cerebral Blood Flow, and Connectivity in the Transition from PVS to MCS

BACKGROUNDnWe report a 15 year-old girl with sickle cell disease, who developed important cognitive impairment due to multiple strokes, and who had been diagnosed with PVS. Nonetheless, when she was later admitted to our Institute, according to the presence of inconsistent but clearly demonstrable behavioral evidence of consciousness awareness, we changed our diagnosis to MCS.nnnMETHODSnThis patient was studied by T1 MRI images, co-registration of fractional anisotropy (FA), and SPECT with MRI.nnnRESULTSnBrain structures were mainly preserved in posterior areas of both cerebral hemispheres, although small tissue islands were present in both frontal lobes, mainly preserved in the right one. SPECT showed CBF preservation in posterior brain regions and in the cerebellum, and in those frontal small islands of tissue lateralized to the right frontal lobe; meanwhile FA showed preservation of anatomical connectivity among posterior and frontal brain regions. These remaining cortical regions are also connected with the thalami.nnnCONCLUSIONnThese results showing connectivity among posterior and frontal cortical and probably with other subcortical regions, and CBF preservation in these areas, might explain the recovery of minimum awareness despite huge anatomical brain lesions.