Sadism and other paraphilias in normal controls and aggressive and nonaggressive sex offenders.

Penile circumference responses (PCRs) to a visual age/gender erotic preference battery were analyzed from 60 normal controls and 227 sexual offenders. Sixty offenders were classified as sexual aggressives on the basis of their behavior and damage to their victims. The mean PCR to sadism slides (visual portrayals of nonsexual violence against fully clothed females) was significantly larger for the sexually aggressive group compared to the sexual nonaggressive offender and normal control groups. There were no significant differences in mean victim damage scores between the sexual aggressives who responded significantly to the sadism slides and those who did not. Thus, PCRs were not useful in identifying more from less dangerous sexual aggressives. The incidence of a clinically significant PCR to any of the four paraphilic categories included in the assessment battery was 28, 60, and 65% in the normal controls, sexual nonaggressives, and sexual aggressives, respectively. For sadism, it was 5, 8, and 45% respectively, for these groups. Pedophilia had a low incidence of co-occurrence with other paraphilias whereas sadism, transvestism/fetishism, and the courtship disorder paraphilias had a high incidence of co-occurrence.

Neurophysiological and neuropsychological study of two cases of multiple personality syndrome and comparison with chronic hysteria.

Two cases of multiple personality were studied neurophysiologically and neuropsychologically. Bilateral frontal (Right greater than Left) and left temporal dysfunction was present in both cases, on neuropsychological indicators. Both cases on EEG analysis, were in a state of relative left hemisphere activation, across all cerebral regions and task conditions. The one case who was cured with hypnotherapy, after recovery showed normal left hemisphere functions neuropsychologically but remained in a state of relative left hemisphere activation electrophysiologically. This is in contrast to women with chronic hysteria who exhibit relative right hemisphere activation in all regions and across all conditions. Both patients were unmedicated throughout. A neurophysiological model to account for these findings is presented.

Normative data for the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological tests stratified by age and sex.

Normative data, stratified by age and sex, are presented for the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological tests: Name Writing, Speech-Sounds Perception, Trail Making, Halstead Category, Finger Tapping, Dynamometer, Tactual Performance, Seashore Rhythm, Tactile Form Recognition, Finger-Tip Number Writing Perception, Face-Hand, and Finger Localization. Correlations of the test variables with age, education, and WAIS-R Verbal and Performance IQ are reported. The normative sample consisted of 225 adults (127 males, 98 females) 15 to 40 years of age. The subjects who were included did not report any history of forensic involvement, head injury, neurological insult, prenatal or birth complication, psychiatric problems, or substance abuse.

Stimuli eliciting sexual arousal in genital exhibitionists: a possible clinical application.

The sexually arousing effects of erotic and nonerotic slides were monitored with a penile mercury strain gauge in 14 exhibitionists, 21 normal controls, and 34 nonexhibitionist sex offenders. Responses to 60 slides, constituting 12 distinct categories, were analyzed. The exhibitionists responded sexually to scenes of fully clothed erotically neutral females, whereas the two control groups did not respond to this slide material. No other significant differences were observed between the three groups on the remaining 11 categories. The results support previous reports of sexual arousal in exhibitionists to nonerotic signals from females and are consistent with a hypothesis of exhibitionists displaying culturally unapproved sexual display signals as a consequence of cortical disinhibition.

Normative data for the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological tests.

Normative data from a large neurologically intact, nonpsychiatric adult sample (male = 111, female = 82) are presented. Despite he size limitations in the upper age ranges, these data are consistent with previously published norms. Sex effects are evident, with females appearing weaker and slower than males on motor tests. The higher than average WAIS FSIQ displayed by this normal sample and the previous use of psychiatric patients as control subjects is discussed.

Neuropsychological impairment of persistent delinquency.

In order to examine the possibility of neuropsychological impairment in juvenile delinquency, 99 adolescents (male = 64, female = 35) consecutively admitted to a residential treatment center for delinquents were assessed using the Halstead-Reitan Battery and 12 additional neuropsychological tests. For comparison purposes, a nondelinquent control group comprised of 47 adolescent volunteers (male = 29, female = 18) from regular classrooms were also assessed. No significant differences were found between the two groups in age, sex, or handedness. Clinical interpretation of the neuropsychological test profiles revealed a greater percentage of abnormal profiles within the delinquent than nondelinquent group (84 vs. 11 per cent) and a specific pattern of deficits implicating anterior dysfunction that was greater in the nondominant (right) than dominant hemisphere. Discriminant function analysis based on 12 neuropsychological test factors or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale subtests correctly classified approximately 85 per cent of the delinquents and nondelinquents. The particular pattern of deficits implicating anterior cerebral dysfunction that was predominately localized to the right hemisphere is discussed with regard to a significantly lower than average number of violent adolescents in this sample and the high percentage of delinquents exhibiting characteristics of depression.

Neuropsychological and power spectral EEG investigations of the obsessive-compulsive syndrome.

Eleven consecutive patients with primary obsessive-compulsive syndrome were studied neuropsychologically and the power spectral EEG characteristic of ten of these patients unmedicated, at rest, and during cognitive tasks were analyzed. The finding of predominantly left frontal dysfunction in the obsessional syndrome is discussed in the light of neurophysiological and psychosurgical evidence which suggest that perturbation of the cingulate-orbital frontal connections modulates obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.

Methylphenidate, amygdalectomy, and active avoidance performance in the rat.

Amygdalectomized and control rats were given 400 active avoidance training trials in a shuttle box. Control animals received 0, 4, 8, or 16 mg/kg of methylphenidate throughout acquisition. Amygdalectomized animals were given the first 200 trials without drug, followed by 200 trials with drug. The administration of methylphenidate produced an abrupt and large improvement in performance in the amygdalectomized animals. One month after acquisition under the drug, retraining without drug revealed a significant retention effect for the three amygdaloid-drug groups relative to the nondrug-amygdaloid group. These results indicate that although amygdalectomy impairs the performance of avoidance responses, it does not prevent the learning or retention of such responses. Since methylphenidate appears to act primarily on dopaminergic mechanisms, the possible influence of amygdalectomy on such mechanisms is discussed.

Factor Analytic Studies Of Human Brain Damage: I. First And Second-Order Factors And Their Brain Correlates.

This report is concerned with identifying the first and second-order cognitive factors underlying a battery of 49 measures taken from 22 brain damage tests. The test scores from 176 brain damaged patients between 16 and 65 years of age were intercorrelated and subjected to first-order alpha factoring followed by promax rotation to oblique simple structure. Ten of the 13 first-order factors extracted were interpretable, six of them being perceptual in nature and four being of a more conceptual nature. The perceptual factors include: perceptual organization, perceptual-motor speed, pattern recognition, temporal resolution, spatial orientation, and figure-ground identification. The conceptual factors include verbal comprehension, memory, and two abstraction factors. A second-order alpha factoring was performed on the matrix of correlations among the 13 primaries. Three of the five second-order factors extracted were interpretable. They were identified as perceptual integration (subsuming the first-order factors of perceptual organization, perceptual-motor speed, and temporal resolution), verbal memory (subsuming verbal comprehension and memory), and visualization (subsuming spatial orientation and figure-ground identification). Although factor interpretations were based primarily on the patterns of high loading variables, they were also influenced by lesion effects observed in this and related studies. About half the interpretable factors are relatively localized (i.e., confined to one or two lobes of one hemisphere), with the other half more diffuse (i.e., multi-lobed, combined with laterality or bilaterality). The more localized factors include the right hemisphere factors of perceptual-motor speed, temporal resolution, and spatial orientation, and the left hemisphere factors of verbal comprehension, memory, and verbal memory. The more neurally diffuse factors include the second-order factors and such broad gauged first-order factors as abstraction I and II, and pattern recognition. Furthermore, same lobe, bilaterally hemispheric effects were rare, and only four factors (memory, verbal memory, visualization, and abstraction I) were correlated with sub-cortical lesions.

FACTORS OF EMOTIONALITY RELATED TO ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN LABORATORY MICE.

Fifty mice from four genotypes were tested on a factor analyzed battery of measures of emotionality. This was followed by testing of alcohol consumption. The factors were related to alcohol consumption by a stepwise regression procedure. Among the five best predictors, Factor B, interpreted as a disorganization factor and Factor C, interpreted as an audiogenic reactivity factor, were most consistently related to alcohol consumption.