The influence of victim characteristics on potential jurors' perceptions of brain damage in mild traumatic brain injury.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of victim/plaintiff sex, occupation and intoxication status at the time of injury on potential jurors' judgement about the presence of brain damage in mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). RESEARCH DESIGN: Survey. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: One of eight scenarios describing a MTBI from a motor vehicle accident was presented to 460 participants at a Department of Motor Vehicles. Victim sex, occupation (accountant or cafeteria worker) and alcohol intoxication status at the time of injury (sober or intoxicated) were manipulated across eight scenarios. Participants rated whether the victim's complaints at 6 months post-injury were the result of brain damage. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Ratings were influenced by victim occupation and intoxication status (chi2>5.3, p<0.03), but not the sex of the victim. CONCLUSIONS: The occupational and intoxication status of MTBI victims may influence potential jurors' decision about the presence of brain damage.

Neuropsychological performance as a function of cardiac status among heart transplant candidates: a replication.

This study examined the relationship between cardiac function and cognitive test performance among candidates for heart transplant. Participants were 26 individuals undergoing heart catheterization within one day of completing a battery of cognitive tests. Partial correlation analyses controlling for age and education were used to examine the relationship between cardiac function and cognitive performance. Results replicate previous findings in that increasing hemodynamic pressure variables, e.g., pulmonary artery systolic pressure, were associated with decreased cognitive performance on a measure of psychomotor speed and attention (Trail Making Test-Part A: r=.53). In contrast, cardiac output and cardiac index appeared to be not significantly related to cognitive performance. Taken together, poor performance on cognitive tests among heart transplant candidates appears to be attentionally mediated.

Neuropsychological functioning in patients with asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has an affinity for the central nervous system and has been implicated in a variety of neurological impairments. Analysis of cognitive functioning in children with asymptomatic congenital CMV infection, however, has revealed no general intellectual deficits. The present study was designed to explore neuropsychological test performance in these children, compared with healthy control subjects, providing data from more sensitive measures of neurocognitive functioning. The sample consisted of 109 children diagnosed with asymptomatic congenital CMV infection and 173 control subjects who were compared on tests measuring various aspects of perceptual and motor functioning, memory, problem solving, and traditional intelligence measures. Young (41NDASH6 yr) control patients performed significantly better on the Full-Scale but not the Verbal or Performance intelligence quotient (IQ) measures than patients with asymptomatic congenital CMV infection, without accompanying consistent neuropsychological performance differences. However, no IQ or neuropsychological differences were found between groups of older children. The present study adds to the existing literature finding no reliable, lasting differences in IQ scores and adds to our knowledge by finding no reliable, lasting differences in neuropsychological test performance.

The Müller-Lyer contrast illusion: a computational approach.

When a temporal delay is interposed between the contextual elements (wings) and the focal element (central axis) of the Müller-Lyer figures, the usual assimilation illusion changes to an illusion of contrast; that is, judged axis length is contrasted away from rather than assimilated toward the context provided by parallel extents between wings. Presentation time for the preceding contextual wings on the order of 1 sec or more was needed to produce contrast effects in judgments of the following focal axis (Experiment 3) and, given sufficient presentation time, these contrast effects were largely unaffected by the length of the temporal delay between contextual and focal elements, appearing equally strong for delays between 0 and 2 sec (Experiments 1 and 2). These results are consistent with a representational basis for these contrast effects that is high-level and long-lived. The Müller-Lyer contrast illusion may reflect the inadvertent error arising from basing judgments about particular objects on information about attribute differences among objects. Such judgmental errors may be the natural consequence of constrained computations that make explicit information required for certain common tasks, but at the expense of obscuring information required for less common tasks.