Integrated displays of aligned amino acid sequences and protein structures.

Programs of the Sun-4 workstation permit the combined display of a table of aligned amino acid sequences of a family of proteins, and a corresponding three-dimensional fold. Interactive facilities include the ability, to scroll through the sequences, to rotate the structure and to connect the examination of the sequences and the structure by selecting a portion of the sequences and automatically highlighting the corresponding region in the structure and vice versa. These programs are well suited to support applications such as the investigation of the structural or functional significance of conserved patterns of amino acids in the sequences of a family of proteins.

A genetic and anthropological study of atlanto-occipital fusion.

Families of 20 probands with atlanto-occipital fusion were studied, and the neurological complications in these patients described. In X-ray studies of 115 close relatives, 4 additional cases (3.5%) with the same anomaly were detected. In a comparison of adult patients with closely related age- and sex-matched controls, all anthropological measurements except length and breadth of the head tended to be smaller in the patients; for height, weight, leg and foot length, and the robusticity index, these differences were statistically significant.

No consistent relationships between oscillations and latencies of visually and auditory evoked EEG potentials and measures of mental performance.

In this study, the hypothesis was tested whether there is any relationship between measures of intelligence and working speed on the one hand, and characteristics of visually or auditory evoked EEG potentials, on the other. The study was performed on two samples: 1. In 236 University students selected for presence of four different, inherited EEG variants, product-moment correlations were computed between test scores for various aspects of mental performance on the one hand, and two measures of averaged visual and auditory evoked EEG potentials (VEPs and AEPs), on the other. The two EP measures were the average latency of all identifiable peaks between 70 and 600 ms after stimulation; and the "oscillation", a combined measure of amplitudes, comparable to Hendrickson's "string measure". Moreover, correlations were computed between two selected test scores (IQ and Raven) on the one sides, and the amplitudes and latencies of the components named P1, N1, and P2 by Buchsbaum on the other. 2. Twenty-four adults with mental retardation of unknown origin, inmates of an institution for the mentally retarded, were compared with 19 normal controls matched for age and sex - there were no consistent positive correlations between the characteristics of VEPs and AEPs and any of the performance measures studied. Hence, the hypothesis that there are consistent correlations between oscillation and latency of EPs and measures of mental performance was not confirmed. There is no convincing overall explanation for the discrepancies between various results reported in the literature but some of them may be explained either by individual differences in EEG maturation among children, or by additional sensoric input in some series, or by admixture of subjects with organic brain damage in some of the series, or by the individual characteristics of the resting EEG - a parameter that had been neglected in all previous studies.

Visually and auditory evoked EEG potentials in carriers of four hereditary EEG variants.

Visually and auditory evoked EEG potentials were studied in 248 healthy university students, who were carriers of one of the following hereditary EEG variants: Monomorphic alpha-waves; low-voltage-EEG; EEG in which the alpha-rhythm was mixed diffusely with beta-waves; and EEG with fronto-precentral beta-groups. The study uncovered consistent and statistically significant group differences between the EEG-countertypes, monomorphic alpha-waves and the low-voltage EEG: subjects with monomorphic alpha-waves showed higher amplitudes and longer latencies of most peaks of the visually evoked potential (VEP), and higher amplitudes for most peaks of the auditory evoked potentials (AEP). Similar differences between EEG types were shown for two measures--overall amplitude (oscillation) and average latency--of all peaks for VEPs and AEPs. The results are consistent with a hypothesis discussed in an earlier paper in which differences between these two EEG types in processing of information in the CNS were assumed on the basis of psychological test results and neurophysiological theory. The two EEG types with beta-waves in addition to alpha-waves showed latencies of evoked potentials in-between those found in the EEG types with monomorphic alpha-waves, on the one hand, and the low-voltage EEG on the other. There was no significant difference in the frequency of VEP augmenters and reducers between EEG types.