(click links below to see pictures. use “back” button to get back here… but you knew that, right? )

Cover of the book I wrote chapters for

Table of contents

First page of one chapter

First page of other chapter

Bio blurb

Now, there is proof for friends and family that yes, I’ve been in grad school forever, and no I’m not done yet, but I actually have finished some things.

My chapters, aside, this is a really cool book, and I’m glad to have been part of putting it together. It clearly and practically applies research methods that LIS students often read about “in theory” only. It has lots of examples pulled from the literature of our field, and the chapters aim to make abstract things concrete.

Inhibition was not related to time reproduction or time discrimination. In addition, time reproduction was not related to working memory, ADHD or trait anxiety. However, time discrimination was related to working memory, self-report symptoms of ADHD and trait anxiety. Subsequent analyses showed that visuospatial working memory predicted above and beyond verbal working memory. When tested in a stepwise fashion, self-report measures of ADHD and trait anxiety both predicted significant variance in time discrimination ability above and beyond working memory. Further analyses showed that, although participants were able to solve medium level time discrimination items using working memory, as the level of difficulty increased and exceeded the capacity of working memory, participants were forced to rely more on their sense of time. The results of this study provide evidence that symptoms of ADHD and anxiety are related to “purer” deficits in sense of time as related to an internal clock.

I could have told you that
Caci, Hervé; Bouchez, Jacques & Bayté, Franck J. (22 April 2009) “Inattentive Symptoms of ADHD Are Related to Evening Orientation.” Journal of Attention Disorders : early view.

Dissertation from Stockholm University: Noise improves cognitive performance in children with dysfunctional neurotransmission

Research on children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has shown that they are extremely sensitive to distraction from external stimuli that lead to poor cognitive performance. This thesis shows that cognitive performance can be improved if this external stimulus is smooth and continuous (e.g. auditory white noise). Control children attenuate their performance under such conditions. The first Study proposes the moderate brain arousal model (MBA). This neurocomputational model predicts selective improvement from noise in ADHD children. Noise through a phenomenon called stochastic resonance (SR), can be beneficial in dopamine deprived neural systems. The statistical phenomenon of SR explains how the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved by noise in neural systems where the passing a threshold is required. The second Study provides experimental support for the MBA-model by showing that ADHD children improve performance in a free recall task while exposed to auditive noise. Control children declines in the same condition. The third Study generalizes this finding among low achieving children, which it is argued have low dopamine levels. Noise exposure improves performance in low achievers, but inhibits performance in high achievers. The conclusion is that external auditory noise can restore low dopamine levels and thus improve cognitive performance. It is also proposed that dopamine levels modulate the SR effect; this means that low dopamine persons require more noise to obtain an SR effect. Both excessive and insufficient dopamine is detrimental for cognitive performance. The MBA model can be used to explain several shortcomings where changes in the dopamine system have been identified. The MBA model can also help create appropriate and adaptive environments, especially in schools, for persons with a deficient dopamine function, such as ADHD children.

Jessica Weafer; Mark T. Fillmore & Richard Milich. (2009) “Increased sensitivity to the disinhibiting effects of alcohol in adults with ADHD.” Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 17(2): 113-121.

In conclusion, the present findings demonstrate that adults with ADHD exhibited a deficit in inhibitory control compared with healthy controls as measured by the cued go/no-go task, and that this deficit was exacerbated in response to alcohol. The group differences in impairment of inhibitory control were evident in the valid cue condition when overall levels of disinhibition were low. The current study suggests that adults with ADHD exhibit an increased sensitivity to alcohol impairment of basic acts of inhibitory control, and this may contribute to the high incidence of impulsive behaviors observed in individuals with this disorder, especially in response to alcohol. Additional work is needed to examine the potential behavioral consequences of an increased sensitivity to the acute disinhibiting effects of alcohol in adults with ADHD, including increased alcohol consumption and risky behavior while intoxicated.

Time

Gilden, David L. & Marusich, Laura R.. (2009) “Contraction of time in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.” Neuropsychology 23(2): 265 - 269.

The notion that time perception might be altered by ADHD is supported by neuroimaging evidence of volumetric reductions (Castellanos et al., 2002; Valera, Faraone, Murray, & Seidman, 2007) in areas known to control and regulate timing: prefrontal cortex (Mangels, Ivry, & Shimizu, 1998; Smith, Taylor, Lidzba, & Rubia, 2003) and cerebellum (Ivry & Spencer, 2004; Mangels et al., 1998).

They did a pilot study where ADHD and normal people did a rhythm-keeping task at 60 bpm, 40 bpm (the slowest most metronomes will count), and 30 bpm. At each tempo:

participants slapped the drum with their dominant hand in time with a synchronizing signal for 16 beats and then continued without the signal for another 3 minutes. To prevent counting, participants drummed while reading aloud from a non-technical book review printed in large clear type.

Ok, so I doubt I could read and beat a drum at the same time, period. Anyway, what they found was that at the fastest tempo, ADHD people were actually more consistent and accurate than the normal people. At 40 bpm, the ADHD people totally lost touch with the beat, while normal people performed the same as they did at 60 bpm. At 30 bpm, everyone sucked, but the ADHD people had slightly better sense of timing. This is why metronomes don’t go that slow. Which doesn’t really say anything at this point, but I’m certainly interested in this line of research, given my absolute lack of sense of time most of the time (but uncanny ability in some situations to know exactly when the timer is about to go off…)

dopamine, or why I like bupropion

Swen Hesse; Olaf Ballaschke; Henryk Barthel & Osama Sabri. (2009) “Dopamine transporter imaging in adult patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 171(2): 120-128.

The aim of this study was to provide in vivo evidence for the hypothesis that dopaminergic neurotransmission is altered in adult patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We used high-resolution brain-dedicated single-photon emission computed tomography and the dopamine transporter (DAT) marker [123I]FP-CIT in 17 adult treatment-naïve ADHD patients and 14 age-matched controls. Magnetic resonance imaging-based region of interest analysis was performed to quantify the DAT availability (expressed as a ratio of specific to non-displaceable binding, V3″) in the striatum. Additionally, the specific radiotracer binding was assessed in the thalamus and the midbrain/brainstem regions (reflecting also the availability of the serotonin transporter to which [123I]FP-CIT binds with moderate affinity). In the striatal areas of the ADHD patients, a significantly reduced specific tracer binding was found (V3″: 5.18 ± 0.98; controls 6.36 ± 1.34). In contrast, the specific [123I]FP-CIT binding did not differ from controls in the thalamus and midbrain/brainstem areas. These data indicate a reduced dopaminergic but not serotonergic transmitter reuptake function in adult ADHD. Further studies will have to deal with the question of whether these findings have the potential to influence treatment decisions in this complex disorder.

coaching: apparently effective

Joyce A Kubik. (2009) “Efficacy of ADHD Coaching for Adults With ADHD.” Journal of Attention Disorders (early view)

sleep, or i should be in bed right now

Yuri E. Rybak; Heather E. McNeely; Bronwyn E. Mackenzie; Umesh R. Jain & Robert D. Levitan. (2007) “Seasonality and circadian preference in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: clinical and neuropsychological correlates.” Comprehensive Psychiatry 48(6): 562-571.

Based on the morningness-eveningness questionnaire, which assesses circadian preference 11 (40.7\%, N = 27) subjects were designated as evening types and only 5 (18.5\%) as morning types, a distribution highly discrepant with general population studies. Later circadian preference, independent of seasonality, was strongly correlated with both self-reported symptoms of {ADHD} and neuropsychological deficits, including impulsive responding and poor target discrimination.

S. Kooij. (2009) “S01-01 On rhythms and seasons: Associations between ADHD, eveningtypes, seasonal mood changes, and health.” European Psychiatry 24(Supplement 1): S10.

The majority of the adults with ADHD have chronic difficulty to go to bed on time. This leads to a shorter sleep duration and daytime sleepiness that may aggravate the inattention problems of ADHD. This sleep pattern is also known as a delayed sleepphase, and the patients as ‘eveningtypes’.

You cannot get swine flu from eating pork or pork products.

Nevertheless, in Medical Common Sense (1868), Edward B. Foote, M.D. recommends eating sheep instead.

Foote has a very interesting perspective…

One of the most common causes of blood impurities is the use of pork. It has been said that all things were created for some wise purpose. This is undoubtbly true, but hogs were never made to eat. We read that Christ used them to drown devils; they can never be appropriated to a more beneficient use. As an article of diet, pork exerts a most pernicious influence on the blood, overloading it with carbonic acid gas, and filling it with scrofula. The hog is not a healthy animal. From its birth it is an inveterate gormandizer, and to satisfy its eternal cravings for food, everything in field or gutter, however filthy, finds a lodgment in its capacious stomach. It eats filth, wallows in filth, and is itself but a living mass of filth.

Well, that’s kind of rude. But here’s where it gets really interesting…

Now, when it is remembered that all our limbs and organs have been picked up from our plates—that our bodies are made up of the things we have eaten—what pork-eater will felicitate himself with the reflection that according to physiological teachings, he is physically part hog. “We have been served up at table many times over. Every individual is literally a mass of vivified viands; he is an epitome of innumerable meals; he has dined upon himself, supped upon himself, and in fact—paradoxical as it may appear—has again and again leaped down his own throat.

Reminds me of a scene from Suicide Club… appetizing.

Their description:

Usually nocturnal, this lil’ Dude will claw yer eyes out during the day if disturbed. So, not dissimilar to your Mother without a gin martini.

it appears that J.D. doubled his money in 2008—around $600 worth of fruit and vegetables for $300 worth of supplies and 60 hours of labor.

Screeetch! What?

Now, perhaps the past year has just sensitized me to just how precious time is, but let’s just say you make only $10 an hour.

You spend $300 of cash and $600 of time for a total of $900.
You get $600 worth of fruit and veg and the satisfaction of DIY.

If you really love the act of gardening that’s great.

I’d get more satisfaction out of getting to see friends, cook something nicer than student mush, or making some art.

I no longer feel guilty about not growing my own food.

The new Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization now has a website (cop.senate.gov) and is issuing (or at least planning to issue) reports every 30 days. Here is the intro video from panel chair Elizabeth Warren, who is actually pleasant to listen to:*

If you were willing to dig around on Thomas.gov and various agency websites, trawling through legalese and govermentese, you could usually find most documents. But this move toward making it easy for the everyday American (or at least those with, uh, Internet access…) to keep up with what leaders are doing, and explaining what is going on (in lay but not dumbed-down terms)… This is refreshing. This is smart. This is good.

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* In fact, listening to her gives me teaching withdrawal symptoms. That’s ok. I’ll be back in front of a classroom soon enough. Teaching a very different class, about which I am getting excited.