Motor Neuron Disease: The Impact of Decreased Speech Intelligibility on Marital Communication

Background: The onset of motor neuron disease (MND); a neurodegenerative disease; results in physical and communication disabilities that impinge on an individual's ability to remain functionally independent. Multiple aspects of the marital relationship are affected by the continuously changing roles and responsibilities. Communication is one of the most constructive ways of dealing with emotions that are elicited by these changes. decreased speech intelligibility; the relationship between the deteriorating speech and the couples' perception of marital communication was not statistically significant.Conclusion: Overall; the results proved that the supposition that communication between couples will invariably deteriorate as a result of progressively reduced speech intelligibility is not necessarily valid. The fundamental importance of effective communication in marriage is highlighted. It is well established that augmentative and alternative communication strategies can preserve the ability to develop and maintain intimate rewarding relationships; even in the face of profound physical disabilities. Method: This study explored the association between the deteriorating speech of persons with MND and couples' perception of marital communication. Fourteen couples participated in this non-experimental correlational research study. Data were collected over a 12-month period through the administration of objective and subjective measures.Results: Results showed that despite

Lessons from altered states of consciousness

Key research related to consciousness is that which investigates the neural systems that are deactivated or attenuated during altered states of consciousness, as well as during unconsciousness. This paper addresses various states of altered consciousness such as anaesthesia; sleep; vegetative states, seizures, post-LSD hallucinations, the minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome, comatose states and thalamocortical dysrhythmia. Anaesthetics have been shown to act at all levels of integration in the central nervous system, with a wide range of known targets. Various conflicting theories regarding the anaesthetic state exist and a few are examined in this paper. In general, studies into altered states of consciousness emphasize the central role of prefrontal activity, the diffuse brain connectivity and the participation of the thalamocortical system/reticular formation in the maintenance of consciousness