[Psychophysiological research of changes of the functional condition of the neuro-psychic sphere of younger schoolchildren during the school day at luminescent and LED lighting in the classroom].

The purpose of the study is to test the hypothesis that the LED lighting (LL) in training class does not have a negative impact on the change in the functional state of the neuro-psychiatric sphere in pupils by the end of the school day, if compared with traditional for schools fluorescent lighting (FL). With the help of specially matched methods for psychophysiological examination there was performed the testing of changes in the functional state of the neuro-psychiatric in pupils during the school day and there was made an analysis of these changes in dependence on the type of lighting the classroom. LL, if compared to FL, was established to lead to a significant weakening of the negative changes of functional lability of the visual analyzer, the power of excitation of the nervous system and cognitive functions, as well as to an increase in positive changes in psychomotorics. The data obtained allow us to recommend the use of LED lighting equipment in modern schools.

[Hygienic aspects of the use of light-emitting diode sources in the communal artificial lighting systems].

To estimate the possibilities of using light-emitting diode energy-saving lighting in the residential and public houses, industrial buildings and structures is one of society's most important tasks. The concept of these researches was to study comparative psychophysiological and functional changes in the volunteers working under general lighting generated by light-emitting diodes and luminescent lamps. The results of the study permit one to recommend the use of light-emitting diodes in general lighting systems in the rooms wherein visual and mental load work is done, i.e. in the industrial, office, and public buildings intended for adult users for different purposes, as well as in rail transport objects.

[Development of sociopsychological adaptation of schoolchildren and vocational school pupils].

The purpose of this study was to comparatively analyze the influence of family factors on social and psychological adaptation and achievement motivation in pupils from general education schools and in their coevals from vocational educational schools (VES). An experimental study was conducted in 10th-form pupils from a number of Moscow schools and persons of the same age who were one-year course pupils from a Moscow VES. A total of 242 pupils, including 130 schoolchildren and 112 one-year course pupils from the VES, were examined. The social and psychological adaptation questionnaire developed by K. Rodgers and R. Diamond was used to estimate achievement motivation by the Mehrabian test. The performed study confirmed the negative impact of poor family relations on pupils' sociological and psychological adaptation independently of the type of a general educational establishment. The high maternal educational level had a good effect on the adaptability of schoolchildren, that of boys in particular, whereas the paternal educational status is of the same value to VES pupils. Family relations and maternal and paternal education levels significantly affect the formation of achievement motive in pupils and their social and psychological adaptation as a whole.

[First-form children's health status and mental development].

The task of the study was to comparatively analyze neuropsychic features in first-form children at the end of the first school year depending on the results of a medical examination and the opinions as to the appropriateness of each child's entering a school. The cognitive functions, psychomotor system, functional visual analyzer lability, that reflected nervous system fatigue in a schoolchild, and psychosocial adaptation measures were studied. The findings indicated that there were no differences between first-form children with debilitated health and their schoolmates in the performance of cognitive functions and schooling achievement. However, they showed decreased functional lability of the visual analyzer, difficulties in taking and carrying out rapid decisions, and lowered psychosocial adaptability. The specific features of mental development of first-form children with poor health set them under special conditions of an educational process, which are not conductive to better health.

[Relationship between age-related development of the neuropsychic sphere in primary schoolchildren and academic activity].

The aim of this work was to study age-related dynamics of the development of higher psychic functions and manifestations of CNS fatigue in 1-4-form schoolchildren in relation to the duration of schooling. Psychophysiological studies in several Moscow schools included evaluation of cognitive and psychomotor functions and nervous fatigue (in the critical flicker fusion frequency test). It is shown that psychophysiological development of junior schoolchildren is a sequel to two major factors, age and schooling duration, that have differential effect on the neuropsychic sphere. Psychomotor activity is largely age-dependent and practically unrelated to educational experience whereas cognitive abilities form in conjunction with adaptive changes in the course of academic activity, regardless of age. Duration of schooling has both positive and negative effect on the child's neuropsychic sphere. The age-specific fall of CFF in young children as they reach a higher educational level is due to the negative influence of schooling duration on the lability of visual analyzer rather than to aging. It reflects cumulative fatigue of the nervous system during previous school years.

[Instrumental means of psychophysiological studies of higher mental functions in children and adolescents--from devices and complexes to medical engineering technologies of diagnosis, rehabilitation and monitoring]. / Instrumental'nye sredstva psikhofiziologicheskikh issledovanii vysshikh psikhicheskikh funktsii detei i podrostkov--ot priborov i kompleksov k mediko-inzhenernym tekhnologiiam diagnostiki, reabilitatsii i monitorirovaniia.

The paper outlines new engineering decisions of provision of medical engineering technologies of the quantitative assessment of the status and rehabilitation of higher mental functions of children and adolescents in health and in diseases. The theoretical and experimental rationales for the development of new technologies, basic principles and examples of their realization are given.

[Patho- and neuropsychological monitoring in disorders of psychoneurological development by using testing and computer programs]. / Pato- i neiropsikhologicheskii monitoring pri narusheniiakh psikhonevrologicheskogo razvitiia s ispol'zovaniem testovykh i komp'iuternykh programm.

The paper outlines the computer-aided testing diagnostic systems used at the Moscow Therapeutical Research Center for Prevention and Treatment of Mental and Nervous Disability. They are based on the complex factorial approach. This approach takes into account the developmental vectors in a child. These include motor, perceptive, intellectual, and communicative vectors. The complex approach makes it possible not only to establish the actual level of development of basic higher mental functions, but to determine treatment-induced developmental changes and prognosis.

[Use of computer test systems in the study of age-specific features of higher brain dysfunctions]. / Ispol'zovanie testovykh komp'iuternykh sistem pri izuchenii vosrastnykh osobennostei narushenii vysshikh mozgovykh funktsii.

The paper covers the results of the study whose aim was to determine the quantitative and structural features of neurological and neuropsychological disorders in elderly patients with normotensive hydrocephalus and dyscirculatory encephalopathy from neuropsychological findings and by means of computer test systems.

[Development of instrumental technologies of assessment of higher mental functions in health and disease]. / Razvitie instrumental'nykh tekhnologii otsenki vysshikh psikhicheskikh funktsii v norme i patologii.

The current increase in the incidence of nervous and mental diseases makes it necessary to use monitoring means for dysfunctions of the central nervous system. The paper analyzes promising ways of development of medical engineering technologies for studies, diagnosis, and rehabilitation in higher mental dysfunctions. Particular emphasis is laid on the instrumental methods for examining the higher nervous performance and relevant technical means.

[Instrumental studies of motor function using "Stabilotest" and "Ataxitest" devices in preschool children]. / Instrumental'noe issledovanie dvigatel'nykh funktsii s pomoshch'iu priborov "Stabilotest" i "Ataksitest" u detei doshkol'nogo vozrasta.

The paper describes devices used to examine motor functions in preschool children, methods of examinations and presents their results. Instrumental indices of the development of large and small motility in preschool children and objective criteria for the efficiency of stimulant therapy are proposed. It is shown that the devices for examination of motor functions may be successfully used to train coordination functions of a child and to correct static motor and ocular motor performance.

[A new approach to assessment of the impairment of higher cortical function in psychoneurological diseases in children and adolescents by instrumental computer-assisted methods]. / Novyi podkhod k otsenke narushenii vysshikh korkovykh funktsii pri psikhonevrologicheskikh zabolevaniiakh detei i podrostkov s pomoshch'iu instrumental'nykh komp'iuternykh metodov.

The authors discuss the possibility and efficacy of instrumental methods of psychophysiological examinations: automated devices Ritmotest, Mnemotest, and Binatest for assessing the disorders of the higher cortical functions in children with psychoneurological diseases. The main protocols and parameters for examination of children aged 7 to 15 years with various diseases are offered, test performance by children of different age shown, and score values fit for practical use of the above devices obtained.

[Computerized instrumental tools for psychophysiological studies of normal higher nervous activity and in pathology]. / Komp'iuternye instrumental'nye sredstva psikhofiziologicheskikh issledovanii vysshei nervnoi deiatel'nosti v norme i patologii.

The paper considers the theoretical bases of design and examples of practical use of specialized computerized instrumental tools for psychophysiological studies of higher nervous activity in man. A number of principles in the design of medical devices and units for psychophysiological examinations have been defined by analysing some P.K. Anokhin's concepts and from the author's own experience in designing and employing psychophysiological equipment, which is reflected in the concept of psycho-engineering. The paper provides the most typical examples of some generations of the proposed scientifically based devices and complexes for psychophysiological examinations, such as a KPFK computerized unit for psychophysiological examinations, a specialized personal computer terminal for determining the characteristics of sensomotor coordination and tremor, a specialized physicomedical terminal of a personal computer for evaluating the steadiness of the gravity center of a person's position, Rhythmo-Mnemo-Binatest automatic microprocessor apparatuses for assessing the characteristics of human higher nervous activity in health and in disease.

[Systematic basis of analysis of action sequences in a "Binatest" device]. / Sistemnye osnovy analiza posledovatelnykh struktur povedencheskikh aktov v pribore "Binatest".

The paper presents a method for analysing and interpreting the results of patients' examination using a Binatest device. The examination was made in the situation of "optional choice" wherein multiple acts of choice from two alternative goal-oriented reactions lead only to positive results. The proposed analysis is based on the evaluation of previous quanta of behavior for further goal formation with limited analysis depth with three sequential events. The paper discusses what information may be derived from the analysis of monads, diads, and triads of step-by-step acts of choice. Four major parameters fit for the analysis and interpretation of the findings have been identified. These include diad asymmetry, runs, left and right stereotypies. Each parameter has its own value that is orthogonal towards the others, equal measurement limits, which are independent of their production, and fully determines the sequence of behavioral quanta at the depth of 3 events. It is shown that basic information on decision-making should be searched in the structure of sequential choice acts made by a patient during his/her examination rather than in the chosen behavioral acts themselves.

[Rhythmotest, Mnemotest, Binatest--a family of microprocessors for studying higher nervous activity in man]. / "Ritmo-, Mnemo-, Binatest"--semeistvo mikroprotsessornykh apparatov dlia issledovaniia vyshei nervnoi deiatel'nosti cheloveka.

The design of outfits for analysis and parametrization of the fundamental mechanisms and functions of the higher nervous activity (HNA) is one of the efficient approaches to solving problems of medicine equipment with technical facilities of deriving objective data on the CNS status of man. With this purpose in view, "Rhythmotest", "Mnemotest" and "Binatest" outfits unified in terms of methodology and engineering have been devised. Each of the outfits is a functional combined system that permits analyzing a definite mechanism of the HNA as a totality of its basic manifestations with the aid of different methods. "Rhythmotest" makes it possible to examine the mechanisms of assimilation and reproduction of rhythmic irritants, "Mnemotest" the mechanisms of memory and visual perception, and "Binatest" the mechanisms of making a decision. The outfits may be widely used in solving research and applied problems.

[The Psychomat computer complex for psychophysiologic studies]. / Komp'iuternyi kompleks dlia psikhofiziologicheskikh issledovanii "Psikhomat".

The authors analyze the principles of the design of a computed psychophysiological system for universal uses. Show the effectiveness of the use of computed technology as a combination of universal computation and control potentialities of a personal computer equipped with problem-oriented specialized facilities of stimuli presentation and detection of the test subject's reactions. Define the hardware and software configuration of the microcomputer psychophysiological system "Psychomat". Describe its functional possibilities and the basic medico-technical characteristics. Review organizational issues of the maintenance of its full-scale production.