PURPOSE This study examined the clinical effects of nitrous oxide conscious sedation on children. METHODS Fifty-nine healthy children (ages 4 to 13, mean age=7.7 yrs.) requiring dental restorative treatment with nitrous oxide sedation were studied. The behavior and clinical effects were assessed before and 5 minutes after 50% nitrous oxide sedation. In addition, the children were instructed t...

Selective attention and efficacy are important components of scholastic performance in school children. While attempts are being made to introduce new methods to improve academic performance either as part of curricular or extracurricular activities in schools, the success rates are minimal. Hence, this study assessed the effect of yoga-based intervention on psychomotor performance and self-eff...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Children with specific learning disabilities (SpLD) have an unexplained difficulty in acquiring basic academic skills resulting in a significant discrepancy between their academic potential and achievements. This study was undertaken to compare the performance on a battery of six psychomotor tests of children with SpLD and those without any learning disabilities (control...

BACKGROUND The practice of anesthesia requires good awareness, parallel decision-making and fine motor skills. The duration of working hours of anesthesiology residents is often more than 12 hours. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to measure cognitive and psychomotor functions of anesthesiology residents after 12 working hours. PATIENTS AND METHODS This was an observational study on anesthesiolo...

BACKGROUND The present study was undertaken to determine if psychomotor and visual-spatial abilities improve as a result of surgical training or are enhanced at baseline in those individuals choosing a surgical career. METHODS Medical students entering a surgical field and practicing surgeons performed a series of neuropsychologic tests. Performance was compared between surgeon groups, as wel...

This study was designed to assess the after effects of sarin exposure on the nervous system in victims of the Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack, which occurred on 20 March, 1995. We performed a similar study 3 yr after the disaster. This time, we newly enrolled 36 staff of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (Tokyo Eidan subway) to assess the 7 yr after effects on the nervous system, and merged previous ...

Toxoplasma gondii is known to induce specific behavioural changes in its intermediate hosts. This is usually considered to be an evolutionary adaptation aimed to increase the probability of transmission of the parasite into its definitive host, the cat, by predation. In rodents an increase of reaction time as well as many other specific behavioural patterns have been observed. Here we report th...

OBJECTIVES The study aimed to clarify whether cognitive and psychomotor performance, which are important for occupational and traffic safety, are impaired by working permanent night shifts (NSs) compared with early-late two shifts (TSs) and whether age and chronobiological type influences the relationship between shift and performance. METHODS The study included 44 male automobile workers, 20...

Although intranasal methamphetamine abuse has increased, there are no published data investigating the residual effects of the drug under controlled conditions. Thus, the current study examined the residual effects of single-dose intranasal methamphetamine administration on a broad range of behavioral and physiological measures. Non-treatment seeking methamphetamine abusers (n=11) completed thi...

To further elucidate physiological and cognitive performance differences between African-American (AA) and Caucasian individuals (CAU) before, during or after hypoxic and normoxic exercise. Twelve college aged (18-25) apparently healthy African-American (six volunteers) and Caucasian (six subjects) males took part in two trials consisting of normobaric normoxia and normobaric hypoxia (12% oxyge...